Historic Half 2013

As I write this, the 2013 Historic Half is 35 minutes away from starting. I'm in my kitchen in Charlottesville, getting ready to go for my own run... 16 miles with Graham Kearney near Zion's Crossroads. I'm a bit envious of the runners in Fredericksburg running the race. My Facebook newsfeed is full of posts from people heading to the course or already there, and a lot of well-wishes. I extend those to all running.


I've enjoyed going online this week to get coverage of the race from the Free Lance-Star and Fredericksburg.com. I regret that I won't be able to follow their race updates to find out who wins, since I'll be running too. But that'll be the first thing I check when I'm finished this morning, for sure.
There is an article in today's paper about runners in the Half who also ran Boston, including some comments from Joey Hess.
Yesterday's paper featured a column that I was asked to write with advice to runners as they got ready for the race. It was printed with a nice color photo from last year's race.
They've also paid a lot of attention to the hills in the last couple miles of the race, making a YouTube video (embedded below) and getting advice from the experts. One expert was Greg Greven, who apparently fancies himself a bit like a drum major.

I went into Fredericksburg yesterday to pick up a new Garmin Forerunner 310xt to replace my destroyed Forerunner 305. I also picked up a new pair of shoes for my baby boy due in September.

They're about the cutest thing I've ever seen! They're so small and the box that they came in is so small too, it's like you could put buttons in it or something. I don't know why I keep saying that but I do. Anyway, I rode by the Expo to pick up Greg, and the scene was bustling. Even in a light rain dropping him back off, there was a steady stream of folks heading in to get their stuff. The start and finish lines were already set up, and there were even massive starting line poles down on Rt. 1 at the 10 mile mark, to signify the starting line for the Semper Fred 5K's new location. The Marines have decided to make everyone run the last 3 miles of the half-marathon course this year, which in my opinion is far better than having to run around a cone. I look forward to seeing the times from the 5k and 10k races.

Well good luck everyone, and please let me know how you do. You could write a guest-post with your race report!