Race Recap - Harrisburg Marathon - Nov. 10, 2024
I ran the Harrisburg Marathon yesterday. It was my sixth marathon and my first non-Disney marathon. I've done Dopey four times (2018, 2020, 2022, 2024) and "just" the marathon once (2023).
I can see why people who do other races before their first RunDisney experience could get discouraged by the corrals at Disney. We parked about 75 feet from the start line and I got into the starting chute less than 10 minutes before the start of the race. Just a little bit easier than getting to my corral at 3:16 a.m. for a 5 a.m. race last January!
The organizers of the race did a good job in the last few weeks communicating all the details. They had course maps on a PDF (with water stops), in Google Maps, in Garmin Connect and on a few other platforms. They also resent the same email with details three or four times leading up to the race. No one could have said they missed it.
I live about 1 hour and 20 minutes from the start line and drove in that morning. After a 4 a.m. wakeup, I arrived to pick up my bib around 6 a.m. The race had just over 550 finishers and started at 7:30 a.m. It was two loops of a half marathon course. The half marathon began at 8:15 a.m.
My last two marathons were 3:28 and 3:27, so I was just hoping to go under 3:30 again. After a possibility of rain showing on the forecast often in the week leading up to the race, there was no precipitation until after I finished. It was just under 40 degrees at race start and around 50 degrees when I finished. It was cloudy throughout.
I started out a bit fast and settled into running about a 7:30 pace, which is closer to a 3:16 marathon than a 3:30. I kept going at that pace through about mile 21 (even doing a 7:19 and 7:16 in miles 12 and 13!). Luckily I had built up enough of a cushion for my PR, and even with the last three miles being a struggle at ~8:15 pace, I crossed the finish line in 3:20:04 for a PR by 7 minutes, 37 seconds!
Some people I talked with during the race didn't like the two loops of the course, but I think they had run it before or live in the area and run it during training. For me, it was nice to know what to expect on the second lap. Even if a short, steep incline just after mile 20 was looming in the back of my mind after my first lap! (overall, the course was flat with an elevation gain of 258 feet according to Strava and 476 feet according to Garmin Connect).
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