Hershey Half Marathon 2013

Hershey Half Marathon

October 20, 2013

Course time: 3:10:04 PR!

I have to say this is the best race I have ever ran. And it is definitely one you should run atleast once in your lifetime. 

Going into this race I knew it was going to be hilly and I was ready for it and sorta looking forward to it. Maybe because I knew during the course I would be awarded chocolate. I have thus far picked my races solely based on swag. I have no shame in this,but I must say I love Hershey, I have been to the park and the attractions twice and I love everything Milton  Hershey represents. I have been on the Hershey tour and saw the Hershey school and really love the cause the money t th is race was going to. 

So the race in one word. ...AMAZING! I laughed I cried I sang I hugged and I high-fived my way through the beautiful rolling Pennsylvania fields and on to a half marathon PR.

The course starts in the parking lot of Hershey park and loops through the Hershey arena and then through the Hershey amusement park. After that the course goes around the backside of the park and past the Hershey zoo and up a short steep hill past a beautiful golf course. At the half way Mark is the huge 1.5 mile hill past a few hotels which was also the relay teams switch off area. I had mostly power walked this hill as planned so make up time going downhill which worked great for me. Then the course goes downhill for a while and then another steep hill for half a mile which landed us on the beautiful campus of the Milton Hershey school. Let me tell you these kids are extremely fortunate this campus is amazing, I'm not sure of the acarage but it's vast. Now about a half mile onto the campus here is where the magic happens. ..the students form human tunnels so the runners can run through and other students are making the water stations and everyone is hiding out their hands for high-fives! I must have high-fives a hundred people that day.lol.

After we leave the campus  it's downhill for about 1.5 miles then we head downtown Hershey and down main st where it's gets even magical. Here comes the chocolate! In two lines across from each other are kids from the children network and they are handing out mini Hershey bar and Resee's peanut butter cups.I almost cried, so cute. At this point I think it was 2-3 miles left and I was pretty tired,I think I lost my running buzz. Then we headed back to Hershey park,the finish line was through the parking lot and into the Hershey arena. The finish line was great I was able to easily find my mom and get some refreshments. As we was leaving I saw a merchandise line and checked out the table and Bam! I found the Hershey kiss 13.1 car magnet and had to get it. So this race was amazing I might not have gotten sub 3 half marathon but I'm definitely glad I got a PR.