Pittsburgh Half Marathon

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Sunday, May 7, 2017

On Sunday, May 7, 2017 I race walked the Pittsburgh Half Marathon in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.  The morning started off with a drizzle but stopped just before I arrived in my start corral as one of the 16000 half marathoners and 38000 participants in the two day event. After the gun sounded to begin the race, it took me about 35 minutes to reach the start line which is quite normal for an event this large and by using chip timing makes the event fair for everybody.  The course utilized roads in downtown Pittsburg and nearby communities that were completely closed to traffic and crossed over all three rivers for which Pittsburgh is famous.  There were numerous friendly efficient police and volunteers to control the course.  Even though downtown Pittsburgh has plenty of parking, parking was still a big problem because most of the downtown streets were closed to traffic 1.5 hours before the start.  I knew this was going to be the case and I arrived for the event 2.25 hours early and remained in my car until 30 minutes before the start as it was drizzling.  Porta-potties were spread throughout the downtown area and one set was near where I was parked.  After going through the line I reached my start corral 10 minutes before the gun start.  Many of the participants had to park on the other side of the nearest river and make a more than a mile walk from their parking to their start corral.  There were 4 start corrals and mine was nearly 0.4 miles from the start line.  Water/Gatorade stations were located about every two miles with tables on both sides of the road and spread out quite far apart helping solve the crowding problem somewhat that naturally occurs at the stations as a result of the very large amount of participants.   There were plenty of hard-working friendly efficient volunteers that did as good of job taking care of the needs of the participants as could be expected in such a large event.  Even though the course was several lanes wide the field remained somewhat crowded the whole time.  The event is very well organized and I enjoyed myself.  This is my second time doing the Pittsburgh Half Marathon.  The other time was 2011.  I do not sign up for many of these giant events anymore as I am less enthused by the experience as I get older and am becoming more enthused about smaller events.

The Exposition

Before the Race

After the Race

Me and Andrea Adams