TL;DR – I loved the course for the Hot Cider Hustle Half Marathon and ended up defying my own expectations of what I was capable of!
The unabridged version: After I decided to sell my marathon bib for the Detroit Marathon this year, I looked for half marathons to run instead. I had already made it to my 11 mile long run training for the marathon, so I knew I could manage a half. I considered the Capital City River Run, a half marathon I’ve participated in three times running the entire distance myself and three times as part of a relay team. It fell on our wedding anniversary, and my husband actually had that day off, so I decided to make the most of our day together and not run the race. I also considered the Sleeping Bear Dunes half marathon since we had been trying to get away to that side of the state, but my husband had to work and I didn’t want to do that race without him.
I had mentioned trying to decide on a half marathon to my friend Raechel, and she suggested a third option that wasn’t even on my radar: the Hot Cider Hustle in Lansing. She said she liked the course better than Cap City, and when I looked up the swag and post race treats (hot cider and caramel apples) I was sold! It was also the closest date to the Detroit Marathon, so I would have plenty of time to keep training for it.
My friend Kirsten had planned to run Detroit with me, it would have been her first marathon. After less than ideal training she also decided to sell her bib and said she’d probably run a half with me. She signed up for the Hot Cider Half too, and next thing we knew we were on the road to Lansing at 5:30am on October 12th.
The weather was pretty perfect on race day. It was sunny and cool, without much wind. I felt confident that I could manage my goal of a 14:30 min/mile pace, and maybe even do better. As we took off, I quickly realized that the back of the pack was pretty much me. In fact, I was dead last when I stopped to tie my shoe less than a quarter mile into the race, but not for too long. I picked up my pace and got ahead of a three person group that was running together.
With my girl power running playlist in my earphones, I kept up a pretty consistent pace the whole race. Many of the 10k and 5k runners caught up and passed me, then eventually turned around when I continued straight for the half marathon. The course was flat, and as I told Kirsten, the closest “road race” to a trail race as you’d probably get. The paved trail winded through wooded areas and along the Grand River. I saw beautiful murals and even had a cat sighting. The fall colors were popping through in some places.
As I closed in Hawk Island Park, the site of the start/finish, I thought, “this course is going to be super short!” I entered the path around the park thinking I’d go back the way I had come in, but the course turned a different way to get the extra distance in. It reminded me of the Shamrock 8k when the course ran right towards the finish line and I thought the same thing, that the course would be short. Just before we got to the finish the course turned left and we approached the finish from the opposite direction.
That last half mile in the park was the toughest part of the course. The course was super flat, so the slight hill we climbed right near the end felt much more drastic. Why do so many races have that final hill right near the finish that you swear is actually a mountain? When I could see the finish line again, and could see the clock, I realized I was going to beat my goal and was in fact going to finish the race in under 3 hours! I pushed myself to run faster towards the finish line and crossed at 2:59:02, my best half marathon since 2021 (I crossed the 13.1 mark at the Detroit Marathon at 2:53:55 and finished the full marathon at a 13:17 min/mile pace).
Deciding not to run the Crim and the Detroit Marathon this year was tough, even though I knew it was better for my mental and physical health not to run those races. I still feel some kinda way about missing those two races that I’ve run every year since 2016 with the exception of 2020 when races weren’t happening. While the Hot Cider Hustle half marathon certainly wasn’t the same excitement of either of those races, it was the perfect race for me to do this fall. It renewed some of my running confidence and reminded me that I do actually love half marathons (I just don’t really love the Woodstock half marathon). It is a race that I would definitely do again, and has inspired me to keep running half marathons for a while. Maybe someday I’ll want to run a full again, maybe even a 50k. For now, the half is definitely my jam, and I’m really grateful for the confidence the Hot Cider Hustle gave me!
RD on the Run 