Boston Trail Half Marathon Recap

BOSTON TRAIL HALF MARATHON

WHEN: April 18th 2015

WHERE: Elizabeth township, Pa. (Boston Trail)

Swag: Long sleeve Tech shirt, and hat (You only received a shirt if you registered before a certain date. I did not so I did not get one therefore I have no pic to show, sorry.

Distances: 5K and Half Marathon

Course: This is a great course if you are looking to go for a PR. It is on a limestone trail that is all flat. The course is an out and back course with aid stations every 2 miles. Bathrooms are almost nonexistence on the trail (I saw one, maybe two at most) so you will want to use the restrooms before you line up. The trail is only about 7 feet wide so passing at times can be a problem if you get caught in with a group of people. The scenery is a river to your left on the way out and on your right on the way back, with trees on the other side.

Finishers Medal: The medal is nothing to write home about, but for the price of the race you really can’t expect a blinged out medal. They also give medals for top 3 finishers in each age group.

My Experience: Packet pick up was from 7-8am. I arrived a little after 7 and had no problem finding a parking spot. There were people directing traffic which made it very easy. After I picked up my bib number I did some stretching and went for a short run. I recently had injured my calf muscle and neededto see if I would even be able to run. My calf wasn’t 100%, but I felt I could give it a go. After joining some Steel City Road Runners for a photo opt. I headed to the start. NUGO had their pace teams there so I was able to find a spot around the 2 hour time. As I started I felt pretty good and soon was ahead of the 1:55 pace group. (Huge shout out to the pacer for the 1:55 group. He interacted with his group the whole time and really was trying to motivate not only his group but runners that were behind them at the turn around) Around 4 miles is where I noticed my calf muscle just wasn’t getting looser and running fast just wasn’t something that could be done. I slowed down to a comfortable pace behind the 2 hour group and ended up finishing in 2:04.


Overall this is a great race to go for a PR. It’s flat with hardly an elevation change. Most of the course has shade so you never found yourself dealing with the sun too much. They cap the race at 900 runners to make sure the trail doesn’t get too crowded. It’s a cheap race and can be really beneficial to any of the runners using it as a test run before the Pittsburgh Marathon. If you are the type of person that looks forthe big bling and the expo’s with tons of people this race is not for you. I would describe this race as your basic local race that gets a fairly decent crowd and attracts a lot of runners looking to get a PR. For the price this is one race you may want to consider.