Real David H.

There have been so many times over the past 13 years that I’ve struggled to come up with the right words to describe the Blue Ridge race weekend in Roanoke, Virginia.

This year that experience with the half marathon is definitely no exception.

And the word “experience” is precisely the word that I’ve used since about 9 a.m. while still on the course.

The fact that it was going to rain today was well known. We all knew it was going to rain and possibly rain hard. When I woke up and did a 5 a.m. radar check, I knew that sometime after 8:30 we were going to get slammed. Lightning, however, looked to be staying to the north of Roanoke.

Today’s half marathon started off quite well – the trek up and down Mill Mountain with my friend Travis was several minutes faster than a year ago when I raced purely for fun my sister Heather. A couple of miles or so after that were a bit of a struggle, but nothing that I wasn’t expecting from this course.

Then, a few sprinkles and then, in the words of Imagine Dragons, “Thunder, feel the thunder … Lightning, then the thunder.”

Sometime around mile 7, there were a few rumbles of thunder. Nothing major, but still … thunder. Shortly after, we rounded a corner to a water stop and a few people were shouting that the race was closing down and the course was closing.

There wasn’t much clear direction on what to actually do, so everyone continued on. That said, I had actually looked up the Inclement Weather Policy this week just in case the weather turned bad to know that everything changed to a “run at your own risk” race.

Then there was more lightning (that you could actually see) and some immediate thunder … all while climbing into the Peakwood neighbhorhood.

Total side note … I’m not even really sure where Peakwood really starts anymore…

As there were streams of water rolling down the road, lightning continued. There were a few heavy gusts of wind too, but nothing overly concerning. At the top of a hill around mile 8.5, someone was shouting that we could wait for a bus to go back downtown or run at your own risk.

Knowing there was a risk to continue, while also being a big enough weather nerd watching the radar ahead of time, I knew the initial push of the storms was close to being done with the lightning threat.

I called my sister Heather as I didn’t know where she was and to check on her, and she was deciding to go ahead and stop.

Travis and I – who have encountered quite a few wild things in runs together over the past 15 or so year – kept going.

While the heavy rain continued for a couple of more miles, the lightning eased up and was done by the time we got to the top of Peakwood.

Thankfully many runners had kept going. There was this feeling of all of us being there together knowing this was a strange experience. Course workers were cleaning up, but leaving water out that was already poured. The residents of Peakwood were thinned out, but the ones there were awesome as they always are handing out champagne at the top.

Despite having gained several minutes of time compared to last year, I was emotionally and physically drained for a chunk of the second half of the race. What was shaping up to be a race about 15 minutes faster turned into a long run/power hike with my good friend.

Making that decision saved my legs from getting torn up, perhaps saving myself for something else soon. I can’t really think about that though.

Those last couple of miles were all about getting to the finish line and hoping we’d get a medal.

To add to all the strangeness of the day, in the final quarter of a mile, we hear someone (who was on a smartphone) shout at police officers still helping out, “HEY! WHERE’S THE LIBRARY?!?“

The library was literally right behind him. And for no reason at all, THAT somehow was the funniest thing of the day and helped turn my attitude around.

Being mad at the weather, slogging through the race in drenched clothes and missing some of the crowd support after Peakwood were all things that could have ruined so many things about running this spring and summer.

I don’t know what the future will hold, but library dude may be the key to some new things. And I don’t really know why.

And YES, I still got my medal and we made our own finish line photos, going back through the final shoot a few steps after unofficially finishing …