Finally !!! What? Yes, finally…

I originally signed up for this race in 2016 and finally I got to run this race. Only took a few years to make it to the start line.

My wife had run this race back in 2015 and enjoyed the event and recommended that I do it. Also, she had a really cool medal with a squirrel on it…I was in!!! So I signed up for the race in 2016 and was all set to run when my wife was accepted into the 2016 New York City Marathon which happened to be on the same day. I decided to forgo the half marathon and race chase her around the Big Apple. However, I was now on the Princeton Half Marathon mailing list and was always being sent emails to register. In 2017 I had planned to run the race and then I got accepted into the New York City Marathon too. However, we had a family event and I had to defer New York until 2018. Not sure why I didn’t register in 2019 but that was the year I ran two marathons and completed a half marathon among other events so I may have wanted to rest a bit. Then came 2020… In 2021 I completed an ultra marathon, a marathon and two half Ironmans so I think it was an idea to rest again. In 2022 I was in Athens, Greece running the marathon. I finally registered to run in 2023 and then I had my ‘incident‘. Luckily I was able to defer and finally this year I got to run the event. Phew!!!

The event itself was fairly low key. The race packet pickup was at a local running store on Nassau Street opposite the Princeton University campus. In addition to the race t-shirt I received a running hat. Bright orange. Most things in Princeton it seems are orange (Princeton Tigers) so that seemed to be the theme. No squirrels on the race merch as far as I could see. Oh well. My wife and I had planned to head up late on Friday evening and we made plans for dinner in the area and then walked around the Princeton campus. It was a nice relaxing evening and I was looking forward to Sunday’s race.

We had a family event on Saturday which led to a late night getting home, however I still had to be early as I wanted to arrive before the roads closed at 6am so I could park close to the start/finish line area. Let’s just say I didn’t max out on sleep the night before the race. The race was scheduled to start at 7am. I left home around 5am and made it to Princeton and parking around 5:45am. I was not the first one there…plenty of people had the same plan and there were a number of cars already in the parking lot.

It was a cold morning, probably the coldest morning in a while, and I headed over to the athletes village at the local YMCA. I was able to check my bag easily as there were plenty of volunteers and they were very helpful. I felt bad as they would be out in the cold for a few hours while everyone was still on the course. I had brought a large plastic bag to wear and keep myself warm so I just put it on and walked around the area until everyone headed out to the start line.

We all headed out of the athletes village and self seeded in the starting corral and waited to head out for our 13.1 mile journey.

The race itself was a really pleasant run. There was nice scenery to run through. We started off running through some neighborhoods before running out into some open areas. There was a turnaround at Princeton Battlefield State Park and then back up towards the university campus. The first few miles were pretty much downhill. Once you did the turnaround and headed up towards the university you rediscovered the hill you had just run down. We crossed Nassau Street around mile 6 and then headed into North Princeton and through Herrontown Woods and the Autumn Hill Reserve. There was about a mile where we ran on a gravel surface but it was not too bad or uneven underfoot. The back half of the course was definitely more hilly than the front half but it was really beautiful to run through.

Finally we made it back up to the neighborhoods near where we had begun the day. I was not in my best shape…it’s been a while since I can say I really was, but I held my own and even beat my expected pace. I’ve definitely run faster half marathons but I was happy with my time on the day. I didn’t want to push too hard with the Philadelphia Marathon just a couple of weeks away and I was technically in my taper to race day.

There were plenty of water stops and all well managed by the volunteers. There were more than I had actually anticipated and I think I only skipped one. They were all very well located on the course. While the crowds were not plentiful along the course, there seemed always to be people out to cheer us and there were definitely bigger crowds around the university grounds and Nassau Street and towards the finish line. I really enjoyed my run out there.

After grabbing my bag from the finish line area it was still early morning so I decided to go find a cup of coffee in town before I had to drive home. There was a Starbucks up on Nassau Street so I headed there….apparently so did everyone else. Wow, never had to wait that long for a cup of coffee at Starbucks. But seeing as I had been up early with little sleep I ordered a double espresso on the side. That helped.

I really enjoyed this race and I would happily do this again. I’ll see if I can coax my other half in joining me as, after all, she was the reason I signed up way back in 2016. It was worth it.

Thank you for reading.