Last year in February I did a series, and little did I know these would be the last races for over a year. This was my first race since the Covid-19 restrictions. I was able to get one of my vaccine shots three weeks ago - so I was comfortable traveling. I stayed in the Radisson Hotel near the Nashville airport and drive up to Bowling Green Kentucky for the race. Left the hotel, and arrived a good hour early. Turned in my wavier and had my temperature checked. At the starting line, I met a couple people. One girl from Texas - which was only trying to complete the half marathon and the other was a gentleman around my age, which had a similar story of weighing 260 lbs when he was 48 year old when he started running a half marathon and been doing it ever since. The race was to begin at 8 AM - but because of lighting, they delayed the race 30 minutes. I was all ready for a downpour having an emergency poncho in my pocket, but I never had to use it. The temperature was chilly (52 degrees) before we started, but after a mile, I was quite warm. We were supposed to be grouped in Pods, which would be sent out one by one, but because of the concern of the storm - they did not do this. The first half of the race was relatively flat, and I was running close to a 2-hour half-marathon pace - and then the second half hit, and the hills were tough - and I had to slow down and ended up with a 2 hour, 14 minute time. I was surprised that I ranked third place for my age group - which was cool (but the main reason was not my speed - but the size of the race).
