Salem Half Marathon 10/14/2023
When one of my athletes said she was thinking about running Salem for her second half marathon, I looked up the date and decided I might like to do it as well. I had been wanting to give it a try, but couldn’t justify traveling for a race when there is a local race near the same date to do instead. One of my athletes running in this race though? That’s a good excuse! I had a discount code to use for Salem because I ran the Blue Ridge 1/2 in April, so I took advantage of that and signed up. A few weeks later, I talked another client into signing up to run Salem as his first half marathon. When race weekend finally arrived, I had 3 clients out there on the course - Seth running the 8k as a training run, Annie running her 2nd half marathon, and Lawrence running his 1st half marathon. And then there was me, running my 52nd half marathon! We had the added bonus of Lawrence’s wife Patricia out there spectating and cheering us on when we passed her at various points on the course.
I put my Cricut to use and made shirts for all of us. Logo on the front and name on the back, or logo on the back and phrase of choice on the front. (What better backdrop for a pre-race photo than the bathrooms?)
None of us had the perfect buildup to race day, but we all persevered, rolled with the punches (injuries), and showed up on race day ready to do our best. Since none of us had ever run the course before, we weren’t quite sure what to expect. I had heard it was “hilly",” but I can’t always trust that description because I have learned that “hilly” is a very subjective term. Anything is hilly to someone who lives in a very flat place. We live in a hilly place, so most races that are considered “hilly” feel more like “gently rolling” to me. I knew the Roanoke area was hilly though, so I did expect it to be at least a bit challenging. We all did our due diligence and trained on hills, with some of us doing hill sprint speed workouts most weeks.
I ended up really liking the course! It was indeed hilly, but definitely not on the difficulty level of the Blue Ridge Half Marathon, and it wasn’t hilly enough to really disrupt my breathing and aggravate my asthma. I think it had just the right amount of hill for me - enough to be a challenge but not enough to slow me down.
It was a chilly rainy morning, but once we all got moving I don’t think any of us ended up minding the rain. It just helped to keep us cool and helped prevent dehydration.
The course measured around 13.2 for all of us, but despite a bit of extra distance and all the hills, it was a PR for Annie coming in at 2:20:54 (16 seconds faster per mile than her first race), a fantastic first finish of 2:10:49 for Lawrence, and a 1:41:42 for me (3 seconds faster per mile than my last race). Annie and Lawrence were each 8th in their age groups, and I finished 5th female overall, 2nd in my age group. I love running half marathons, but getting to run one and then celebrate not only my own finish, but also the finishes of my athletes who I helped prepare for the day? That was priceless. I even got to high-five Lawrence in the middle of the race when we passed each other on a brief out & back section!
While I know some people really enjoyed the free beer ticket at Olde Salem Brewery, my favorite “perk” of this race was the free Chick-Fil-A sandwich at the finish! The perfect way to replenish some carbs and protein at the same time!
