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Saturday, July 4, 2015

HUee, it's HOT on the fourth

Greetings and Happy Independence Day to my fellow United States of  'mericans!  And happy Saturday to you others, despotic Brits  included!

I went and ran the Half on the Fourth half marathon again this year.  It was a lovely morning for it,
although a little hot towards the end.

I got this t-shirt.  Aha, something to wear now for the fourth.  The race was sponsored by HuHot Mongolian Grill, so the full name was the "HuHot Half on the 4th", which is kinda fun to say.

Anyway, it was a fun way to start the holiday.  Last I checked, there were 406 finishers, so not a mega-race, but enough to make it feel like an event.

And it's a fundraiser for The Home Front Cares, so a good cause.

Anyhoo, here's the quick race recap:

The first coupla miles were reeeaaaallly slow as we were pretty bunched up and the trail was narrow for that many of us.  As expected, things eventually opened up and I continued to gain more elbow room as we plodded along.

As I was about 2 miles or so from the turnaround point, the first place guy passed us going the other way.  He was doing what is technically known as "hauling ass".  There was quite a lag between him and second place guy, and it was nice to see the third place "guy" was actually a girl.  Way to represent!

So yeah, it was a foot race so not a whole lotta play by play.  Just left-foot-right-foot-left-foot-right-foot and so on until the finish line.  I did manage to not get lost this time like I briefly did last year.

About 100 yards from the finish, there was one woman ahead of me, giving me motivation to catch her.  I was gaining on her, then she somewhat surprisingly stopped running and slowed to a walk.  I was all thinking, "but... the finish is right up there, you can walk after", but she did look a bit wobbly.


Anyway, the stats:
Finish time:  1:49:47
55th place overall
12th overall for the ladies
1st for the old ladies



My ensemble included my Pedal Perks freebie top and my new not black hat.  They did their jobs nicely.  All finishers got lovely HuHot medals.

I entered the finish chute to hear my name over the PA, cheerfully mispronounced.  Figures.

Yay for a Mongolian Fourth!


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10 comments:

LL Cool Joe said...

Well done! Love the red t-shirt.

You know I'm a Brit but I did celebrate the 4th of July as it's our eldest daughter's Special day. The day she arrived with us. We celebrate every year.

terri said...

That's a great shirt! Nice that they offer the women's cut. Last year when I did the color run, I had to preorder my t-shirt online. Didn't know they were unisex and I should have ordered a smaller size. Oh well. I got a nice sleep shirt out of the deal anyway!

Way to go on your awesome finish! I do have to question the decision of the woman ahead of you to slow to a walk so close to the finish. You would think the adrenaline would have kicked in, but then again, I've never run a half marathon, so who am I to question her?

But seriously ... How did they manage to mispronounce your name???

Guano said...

Awesome finish -- YuHot! Bet you smoked those other "little old ladee-hoo's (wonder how old that lady you passed at the 100yd-to-go mark was?)

So I was actually in Mongolia once; where else to eat but a Mongolian BBQ, right? Would you believe that there's apparently only ONE Mongolian BBQ restaurant in all of Mongolia's capitol? And it's a franchise! Out of Michigan!

Went for a morning run there, too. Locals looked at me like I was crazy, expending calories when their populace was trying to acquire them. They didn't have shirts for that....

Abby said...

Adoption Day! That is special. Hope you all had fun, did you get a shirt??

Abby said...

I preordered the shirt too. Last year they warned that the women's shirts ran small, so I ordered a medium and it was like a muumuu. Really, the only time I wore it was when I got stung in the chest by that fricking bee. This year, I ordered the small and it's a bit snug but will do. Different shirt company - pffft.

I think finish-line lady just ran out of steam and at that point figured, "Okay, I'm gonna make it. To heck with this running business"

"Baker", announcer pronounced my last name "Baker". It happens annoyingly often! We're Barkers, just ask China.

Abby said...

WHAAT!? Only Michigan Mongolian BBQ in the capitol of Mongolia?? What would Genghis Khan say?!

Home-stretch lady was a whipper-snapping 28 :)

ShadowRun300 said...

Congrats on another great finish! But I can't believe they messed up your name! 'Course that ONE letter is kinda tricky...
What were your shoes of choice this time around?

Riot Kitty said...

Wow, great job!

Abby said...

I'm usually surprised when they DON'T mess up my name!

I wore my trusty PureFlow 4's. I contemplated the fast 'n' friendly Kinvara's, but the PureFlows have better cushioning, so they got the job.

Abby said...

Thanks, RK :)