Half #50

Neuse River Bridge Run Post-RaceI, almost out of desperation, participated in the Neuse River Bridge Run Half Marathon on April 9, 2022, in New Bern, North Carolina, refusing to sit on my calamitous “half marathon” in Greenville from two weeks prior. As the name suggests, the event took the runners through the Neuse River Bridge for the first several miles, which offered both a breathtaking sight and lengthy moderate hills. Perhaps with the course commencing with hills to which I started oblivious, the constant powerful headwind, or my body not having fully recovered from the recent inadvertent 16-miler, I moved surprisingly slowly and could not find my ideal pace, although I felt as strong as I normally do. Furthermore, not knowing whether to stay to the right or to the left of these never-ending cones, I, thanks to my OCD and unlike pretty much every other runner, in most cases chose to go the lengthier route for turns, even when no cone was present, which certainly cost me some seconds and likely perplexed those behind me. Albeit a few minutes off my target pace, I find satisfaction in another comfortable sub-2:00:00, with the official time of 1:59:00.62, especially considering my COROS read 13.30 miles, which understandably made me miscalculate my pace slightly. More importantly, I have just completed my 50th half marathon, so I would be an ungrateful fool to be upset, as I acknowledge I cannot do any of this without God’s grace and help.

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