I had a wonderful time running the El Paso Half Marathon this year. Since I ran the full El Paso Marathon last year, this year was a completely different experience for me. While both races were memorable, I think this year’s race was much more enjoyable.
The weather was perfect. El Paso typically has good weather anyway—but this was a different kind of nice. The weather for the race every year, is somewhat of a toss-up. A couple of years ago, I understand that it was freezing. Last year was warm and sunny. This year was 50-60 degrees, cloudy with occasional light rain—just enough to keep me cool. Another benefit was that the sun was never in my eyes. To me, it was perfect weather for running.
The course was challenging. Sometimes, long races tend to err on the same of flat—so everyone will be happy and have good times. This race included some varying terrain from flat to hills. Around mile 6 there was a large hill to climb, but luckily on mile eight I was able to run back down it. The course also included wide streets and plenty of water stations. In fact, while I had planned to stop at every water station, I found that there were enough stations that later in the race I didn’t feel as if I needed them. The race began and ended at the newly built baseball stadium, which provided my family a nice place to watch me finish.
I finished the race at roughly 2 hours and 8 minutes. It was a good solid time for me, so that was an extra good feeling at the end of the day!
(Photo: I met this Minion out on the course about mile ten!)