Hey look, I ran a non-Disney race.\u00a0 Local, even.\u00a0 And I love this race.\u00a0 Let me say it again.\u00a0 I love this race.<\/p>\n
First off, the name “trail” is a misnomer – the race is on a trail, but it’s a paved trail.\u00a0 No rocks and roots and things to jump over.<\/p>\n
This is a small race, held on the B&A Trail.\u00a0 It’s a half and a full that start together.\u00a0 For those who remember the crowds during the Annapolis Half, specifically during the part on the B&A Trail, that isn’t a concern here.\u00a0\u00a0 This race has a cap of 1000 runners (for the half and full combined).\u00a0 I believe the Annapolis Half had over 5000 runners.<\/p>\n
This race has the feel of a small town race, but the organization of a big race.\u00a0 The half fee was $50, and for that you get a great premium (this year it was track pants!), a well organized chip-timed race with great water stops, and more post-race food than you can imagine, including hot pizza that just keeps coming.<\/p>\n
The race is a tune-up for the Navy Marathon team, so if you’re young, this might not be an award winning course for you.\u00a0 This year, the Korean Marathon team also showed up (and I loved the sign at the split between the half and the full written in Korean).\u00a0 The race also has a lot of 50 Staters (people who want to run a full or half in every state) because it’s such a friendly race.\u00a0 So there were quite a few Marathon Maniacs out on the course.<\/p>\n
But don’t let that fool you – this race is also very slow runner friendly.\u00a0 The full has a 6 hour time limit, but if you’re worried about that, there’s an official start an hour early – you just can’t win any awards with an early start.\u00a0 Because the half and full finish together, that means the half also has a 6 hour time limit.\u00a0 Definitely friendly for the slower runners.\u00a0 And the race organizer is always sure that there is plenty of food left for the slow runners.<\/p>\n
We took this race nice and easy, since three of us had run Princess the week before.\u00a0 We just set out to run a casual 1:1 walk\/run pattern and chat the whole way.\u00a0 The course is flat save for one hill at the turnaround – but the benefit of an out and back means that what goes up must come down.\u00a0 Even with a stop to chat with some friends who came out to cheer, we finished almost 11 minutes faster than last week – and finished feeling strong.\u00a0 Not a bad way to race at all!<\/p>\n
I highly recommend this race.\u00a0 The volunteers are amazing, and the water\/food stops are always so cheerful.\u00a0 There are friendly faces all along the course, and the crazy teenagers making up dances always make me laugh.\u00a0\u00a0 It can be a chilly time of year, but before the race, you can wait inside the high school cafeteria, so no worries about freezing in a corral.\u00a0 And there is a medal and hot pizza waiting for you at the finish.\u00a0 What more could you want?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hey look, I ran a non-Disney race.\u00a0 Local, even.\u00a0 And I love this race.\u00a0 Let me say it again.\u00a0 I love this race. First off, the name “trail” is a misnomer – the race is on a trail, but it’s a paved trail.\u00a0 No rocks and roots and things to jump over. This is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[63,42],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\n