May 17, 2008, 7:30am start time
What a nice event! This was the first Maple Grove Half Marathon and I am so glad I was part of it. Andrea Johnson (MSRC member since spring 2007), myself, and Andrea’s friend Celeste all ran the race together. This was both of their first half marathons and my second one of this year. I have never counted up how many I have done (I suppose I could count my race numbers since I keep them all).
Andrea was looking to run 1 more race before she moves home to Portland, OR with her husband Mark at the end of May. She has another half marathon in 4 weeks! I am so impressed with her dedication to train while moving across the country! She said having the goal of the half marathon in Portland will keep her on track while her life gets really hectic with the move. Smart! It was also Andrea’s birthday on the 16th so this race was a bit of a celebration for that milestone as well!
Celeste had been training for the Chicago Marathon either last year or the year before and overtrained and ended up with a stress fracture so this we her first attempt at a longer distance. She cruised right through!
We made a pack early on to stay together and our goal was to finish standing upright and smiling. We definitely did that! The course was so nice. It had a mixture of roads and paved trails. There were some beautiful parks we ran through as well. There were a few hills but not bad! The hills made it interesting but they really were doable and I believe we ran every single one of them. I can remember 2 good hills and there were more rolling hills. I loved the course because there was rarely a straight line. We twisted all around Maple Grove. They took us along the big lake that borders I-94 going north which is called Rice Lake. Beautiful! We ran under a bridge under 94 in some nice neighborhoods areas. It was also a perfect day, even a little hot so some of the spectators set up water stands in front of their houses and one had a sprinkler for us which we all ran under! They had a water stop competition and only 1 stop really seemed to want to compete, the stop between mile 8-9. They called themselves the Crazy 8’s and they had a skeleton hanging from a tree with a sign that said “Water Dead Ahead.” They were fun! The only problem was that they had run out of cups so we were all drinking from big water jugs. Believe me, when it is hot and you are thirsty, you will take water any way you can get it! You could tell they felt so bad. Those are the little things you have to be prepared for on the annual event.
The race is capped at 1,000 I believe and it sold out before race day. It starts and ends on the Maple Grove HS track thus the reason needing to cap the race. I really will consider this event a team event for 2009. I love the low key atmosphere, the friendly runners and spectators, and the variety of the course. We received our wicking shirt at the finish line and I like that is says on the back, Half Marathon Finisher. Nice touch! There was Caribou coffee, bananas, oranges, those bread rolls with raisins, and bottles of water for us after the race, small but nice. They also had a company do photos at the finish line. Parking was ample and bathrooms were too. Highly recommend the Maple Grove Half for next year! For future reference the website is www.maplegrovehalfmarathon.com.
