I tackled my second half marathon of the summer over the past weekend in Brainerd, Minnesota. My good friend Tony and I had been looking for an early June half marathon to run and thought that this race would be perfect.
Little did we know what we were in store for. The race description claimed that the race was an off-road race on surfaces of dirt and sand with "subtle and challenging hills." We also recieved an email from the race director before the race telling us that you will not get your PR (personal record) on this course. That would be prove to be more than true.
The first mile included some of the steepest hills I have ever run up and d
own. They were steep enough that you were unable to run down the hills, you were forced to step down them to avoid tumbling head over heels. It was at this point that I wondered aloud if these were considered "subtle" hills. A runner next to us confirmed it by saying "the whole 13 miles is like this". While he wasn't entirely accurate, the rest of the course did prove to be just about as challenging. The highlight or lowlight depending on how you look at it was a 200 yard section uphill in deep sand. I now know what running uphill on a beach would feel like. Overall a very pretty and scenic course with a lot of shade which was nice but just a brutal course for running 13 miles. I think I need to run it again next year knowing what I am in store for!
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