Not confident the Tuscaloosa Tourism & Sports Half Marathon, scheduled for March 27, 2021, in the titular city of Alabama, would actually take place due to a thunderstorm warning, I had trouble pulling the trigger on registering until the event’s official Facebook page informed me its intent on not canceling. Familiar territory, I signed up, booked a motel, and drove nearly four hours to the vicinity all the afternoon before.

My body does not react to the heat as efficiently as the cold; thus, I was concerned my having become accustomed to racing in the 20s, 30s, and 40s would make my half marathon #40 extra challenging. As I predicted, the feels-like temperature of the mid to upper 70s and intense humidity that had me desperately longing for the supposedly projected rain overwhelmed me from the start, and with a couple of steep climbs early on and consistent rolling hills throughout, by 4 or 5 miles in I already accepted this inevitably less-than-ideal performance no matter how much harder I pushed and decided to carry on at a casual pace with the only goal of running the entire way without a walking break, which I managed. My 2:05:30 finish ranks among my worst finish times in recent memory, but I remained grateful I could squeeze in a race before March passed, as I try to participate in at least one every month and had not done so yet this month.

I told them no one has ever come to support me in any of my past 68 races, and they took a picture with me!

Speaking to and befriending countless runners, spectators, families, and volunteers marks the highlight of my experience here. I finally felt a sense of normalcy that has been frustratingly elusive since the COVID-19 outbreak. An uncontrollable extrovert, I need to be in the presence of people, so this alone made this spontaneous trip worth it.