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Beat the Blerch Half Marathon Recap

29. September 2015 · Write a comment · Categories: running, Uncategorized · Tags: beat the blerch, cake, half marathon, trail running

This sure was a busy weekend of hiking, biking and trail running…..oh and eating….lots of eating!

Saturday I ran the Beat the Blerch Half Marathon in Morristown, New Jersey. I was so off my game I forgot to eat breakfast or drink water before leaving the house and I didn’t bring a water bottle for the car. OOPS!

The good the bad and the ugly

I had been following some posts on the Blerch Facebook event page that the course was a legit and seriously challenging trail run and to be prepared so I initially thought I’d drop back to the 10k. But the night before I made up my mind to just ride it out and stick with the half. I was scheduled to run 10-12 miles anyway. Truth be told the only 2 reasons I got out of bed were to see my friend Jane (and her hubby, mom, sis and friend who were also running) who I hadn’t seen since the NJ Marathon back in April and to eat cake along the course. Part of the Blerch caché is that they have couches and cake along the course.

sweet cake! or cake, SWEET! and the first thing I ate all day (at mile 2)

one of the couches along the course

So there you have the good!

There was a full, half, and a 10k and with limited parking at the location of the race they had shuttle buses to take us to the start. I got there super early and I’m glad because my bus driver got lost. I also noticed that after our bus pulled out the traffic getting into the lot for runners just a few minutes later to arrive was insane! The lines to get your race bib, shirt and check your gear bag were also pretty bad. In general it seems they were pretty short on volunteers. Poor communication and lack of volunteers = bad.

Luckily since Jane had such a big group we divided up to hold spots for each other in the various lines. All the logistics aside the vibe of this event was pretty cool. If you’re not familiar with the creator of the Blerch, Matthew Inman, and his comic called the Oatmeal you should check this out. It’s some funny sh-it!