Walt Disney World Marathon Dopey Challenge 2015 Week 7 Training: Hottest Half Race Recap and Thoughts

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398889-R1-018-7A_007I had a solid week of training this week!  My long run for the week was supposed to be 9 miles, but I had already signed up for a 1/2 marathon in Dallas prior to knowing my training schedule.  The race is called was the hottest half.  

Overall I was happy with my performance, I felt good despite the time and temperature.  While the time was slow (2:49) race start was 81 degree with 66% temperature and finish was in the mid 90’s.  So the race lived up to its name.  Before I go any further let me set the stage a bit here.  I ran this race a few years ago and I had vowed to never run this race again.  It was not because of the heat, it was because of the course.  The original course did not have an easy way to keep bikers off the out and back course and some of the trail spots got really crowded with runners going in both directions and bikers trying to ride down the middle.

I know what your thinking, so Matt why did you run again, well this year as a part of my training I am doing the 4 seasons challenge (running a 1/2 in each of the seasons), this run happened to be the “summer” portion of the challenge so I was stuck per se.  Initially when I signed up I saw the new course and was designed to avoid the biking trails.  That was the last positive thought I had about this run. So here are some of my thoughts on the race:

  • Start the race at 6:30 not 7:30 it will still be hot but will be safer for the runners.
  • New Course was bad, the run was mostly not in the shade and the race had close to 2.5 miles on rocky trails.  With all the runners on the course you could not avoid stepping on loose rocks or pebbles very unstable ground.  I walked this portion not wanting to get hurt, this portion of the course needs to be removed.
  • Warm water, first off the volunteers at the water stops were FANTASTIC, but there was no ice in the water and it was air temperature water.  To not have ice in the water especially by the time I came through the water stations is just unacceptable.
  • Course length, apparently this was a certified course, but in reality my run was closer to 13.5 miles, I verified with other runners and their gps watches all recorded about the same distance.

WP_20140825_13_33_50_ProSo while I ranted a bit there, the medal is pretty cool and the free micro brew beer at the end really did hit the spot on a hot day!  However, the best part of my day was the extra medal I got from my good friend Michelle after the race.  Unbeknownst to me, she  signed up for a virtual race the Top Gun Run and I got a really cool medal.  Michelle, thank you so much you truly made my day!

While I normally do not like to deal in absolutes, I will never run this race again. and I am debating on writing an email to the race director.  So my question is this:

Have you ever run a race where you wanted to send a not so polite email off to the race directors? If so did you get any reply to your email?

Here is my schedule for this week: