Iron Horse Half Marathon

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The Iron Horse Half Marathon

Article and photos by Steve & Patty Husko

My morning started at 2:05 AM even though our alarm was set for 2:30 AM. I hate it when I can’t sleep, knowing I have to get up early. I loaded up the car with all the necessary gear. Laced up my old vapor flies as I knew the gravel would destroy the soles of my new pair.  As I drove the two hours, I could not help but think about the new modified course, due to a flood. What used to be a true downhill course, was now an uphill start, downhill middle, and a flat finish. How would I fare? Trying to guess my finish time. I had visions of a 2:20 time. Getting there early we arrived before the parking attendants. I picked up my bib and waited for the buses to start arriving. There were nine buses making two trips each. Before getting on the bus, I only saw one familiar face in the crowd, Robert Dees, who told me he ran The Tacoma Narrows Half the day before. I found a seat on one of the first buses leaving to take us to the start line. Gear check seemed to go smoothly. At 7:00 AM wave 1 was ready to leave. I had signed up for wave 2 but being the impatient type I took off on the tail end of wave 1.

At first the uphill didn’t seem too bad. Then gradually it seemed steeper or at least that’s what I blamed my slowing pace on. At 3.75 miles I saw the leader returning. I thought that something wasn’t right. I’m not that fast. I was right, the 4 miles uphill turned into a 4.81 mile uphill before turning around, and starting the downhill. The downhill was a welcome change. Checking my pace, I saw that it had improved by 1:25 per mile. I was feeling good until mile nine. The final grueling four miles of flat terrain, with some loose gravel, was exhausting with the hot sun beating down on me. I couldn’t wait to get to the finish where Patty was waiting for me. I finished second in my age group [70-74]. I was pleased I had finished better than I had predicted. My hat is off to David Parsons. Congratulations on your stellar finish.

The finish line perks included a great looking finisher medal, an Iron Horse tee, water, and snacks including a dill pickle. Does it get any better than that?

There were 728 runners who participated in the Iron Horse Half Marathon. Of those running 127 were Silverstriders, 66 females and 61 males, for a 17.45% of the total runners. The first male Silverstrider was Souphai Chanthaphone [54] finishing in 1:39:30. The first female Silverstrider was Vicki Suehiro [52] finishing in 1:54:12.