This weekend we went to NH for the Applcrest Halfmarathon and we had a blast!

Saturday morning our flight left at 7:30am and we arrived in Boston at 9am. Usually I am a morning person, but we had a party the night before and I had way too much wine! Oopss! Once in Boston we picked up our rental and made our way north to NH. It usually is a 1 hour drive, but we took the more scenic route 1A and made a few stops.

Lighhthouse @ Newburyport, MA

next stop: Portsmouth, NH

Hampton Beach, NH

After a little nap in the afternoon we went to the boardwalk to Hampton Beach for dinner. We had crab and lobster rolls and it was yummy!! Then we went back to the hotel to get enough sleep, because the next day was race day!!

The race started and ended at the Applecrest farm in Hampton Falls, NH. It was their inaugural race, but it was really well organized! Race packet pick up was at the start and we got really nice shirts!

Packet pick up

We hang around the farm for a little bit and then the race started. We had perfect weather, it was overcast and low 60s’ at the start. Maybe a little humid, but much better than what we had over the summer.

And off we went! The first quarter mile was a gravel road but other than we ran on rural back roads in the towns of Hampton Falls and Kensington. The course is a large loop that passes by historic homes, open fields and of course apple orchards.

My goal was to run a sub 9 minute/mile pace. The first 2 miles were 8:30 min/mile each and I decided to slow down a little, to make sure I have enough in the tank for the hills. Since I had 1 minute in the bank, I tried to run closer to a 9 min/mile from now on. I took it one mile at a time and decided to see how I feel at the half way point.

At the half way point I was still running sub 9 min/miles ( 8:50ish) and my overall average was around 8:40 min/mile. I started to feel the up- and downhills, but tried to keep running sub 9 min/miles until mile 10 and see how I feel then. I knew a big hill is around the 11 mile mark.

The hill was at 10.5 and it was bad… I walked a little, but still ran a 9:31 min/mile pace that mile. The last 3 miles I tried to run as close as possible to a 9 min/mile but just thought: bring it home!

At mile 12 we had a nice long downhill but I could see the finish line on the other side, problem: there was a long hill going up to it. The last 0.5 mile was all uphill and I was so glad to be done!

Ahhhh done…

My finish time was 1:57:58 and I was VERY happy with that. It wasn’t a PR but I felt a ran a strong consistent race at a tough course. Who knew NH is soo hilly? I didn’t

I can not emphasize enough how awesome this race was. Everything was perfect, except the hills! There was a nice after race party, with tons of food and applecider and life music! And they had a cute medal!