Shipyard Old Port Half Marathon
Portland, Maine
Sunday, July 14, 2013

Sunday, July 14, 2013 was a hot day to do the Shipyard Old Port Half Marathon in Portland, Maine as the temperature was in the 70’s, the sky was sunny, there was no breeze, and the humidity was high. There were 5 steep hills to climb and descend, one was fairly long, two were of medium length, and two were relatively short. The course was two loops consisting of 8 miles of roads and 5 miles of gravel-sand paths. Water/Gatorade stations were located approximately every 1.5 miles and were manned by plenty of enthusiastic volunteers; however, a few of the stations ran out of Gatorade before I reached them. All stations had plenty of water and cups. Volunteers and/or police were located at every intersection and turn and did an excellent job of keeping vehicles and participants separated. The event was capped at 3000 participants in May and was well organized. I was hoping for a cool New England day where I could really go after a good time. The challenge of the course and the heat made my time much slower than I had hoped. The race had a 3 hour time limit, but the organizers bent the limit to have finishers as slow as 3.5 hours because of the heat. I did not have any trouble meeting the time limit, but the ones who did appreciated the flexibility of the time limit. I enjoyed the event. I got a surprise before the race as I saw two of my friends, Jamie Moger and Lori Richards, from Key West, Florida which is where I live. We were not aware that we would all be at the race together. It was a pleasant surprise.