Race Recap: Hershey Half Marathon


On Sunday I ran my 6th half marathon, the Hershey Half Marathon! The Hershey Half was my first half back in 2014 so it was exciting to return. My sister, who had her second baby 4 months ago, decided she wanted to train for and run this race, so I decided I'd join her. I knew running the Philly Marathon was out of the question for me this year considering I missed a big chunk of training time with my wedding. I knew a half was completely doable for me so once I knew I'd be good, I signed up. I am so glad I did because I had really missed running half marathons! Before I share too many details, I'm going to jump right into my race recap! In my head, I split the race up by the first 5 miles, the next 5 miles, and the final 3.1 so that is how I'll arrange my recap. I'll also throw in the pre-race details because why not?

Packet Pick Up/Pre-Race

John and I drove up to Hershey early on Saturday to meet up with my sister, her husband, and kids and also my parents. As part of your registration, each runner receives 2 complimentary Hershey Park tickets which we decided to use that day. Once we arrived, we quickly went through packet pick up which was easy-peasy. I resisted looking at too much because I knew I didn't need to buy anything. We headed straight to the park and spent most of the evening there going on rides and hanging out.

Pre-race rainbow :)

The race started at 7:30 am on Sunday morning and roads would be closing by 7, so Ashley and I planned to leave our hotel by 6 am to be safe. Thank goodness we did because traffic was even crazy that early! I woke up around 5:30 after a surprisingly super restful sleep, got ready, and grabbed a bagel from the continental breakfast area before leaving for the start. The forecast showed rain for most of the morning but luckily it wasn't raining when we arrived at the start, which was right outside the Hershey Stadium. I made the decision to not wear my running rain jacket for the race. I thought it would be too hot over top of my tank top and long sleeve top, which would've probably been true. We jumped right in the port-a-potty lines when we got to the start area but still managed to wait awhile. We literally left the port-o-potties and got right in the big mob of people that was moving towards the starting line since they already had started. For once I was thankful the start was slow because otherwise we might've missed it or crossed it by ourselves.

Miles 1-5

The race start is right outside the Hershey Stadium. As luck would have it, the rain did not really start until the middle of the first mile but it was steady from there on out. The first few miles wrap around the whole parking lot for both the park, Hershey Stadium, and Giant Stadium. John cheered us on right before we crossed the starting line and again when we were in part of the parking lot because it was easy to walk to that area. Once we left the parking lot and went up a main road, we circled back in to go through the park! For those of you familiar with Hershey Park, we come in around the area of the park that is near the Boardwalk, run by a bunch of rides such as Fahrenheit, Lightning Racer, the ferris wheel, a big portion of the Boardwalk. Somehow it loops us back out near Storm Runner and then brings out an exit near there.

We started out at a decent pace. {I should probably add it in now that we were NOT running this half for time. My sister just had her second child 4 months ago and my training was broken up a lot with my busy schedule. We knew we wanted to just run it for fun and to spend time together.} The parking lot portion didn't have too many hills so we just cruised along. My ankle was a little sore for the first few miles, as per usual, but settled down after awhile. Once we exited Hershey Park, we ran around a residential area and also back near the factory. I love seeing the Hershey smokestacks up close! That area was pretty hilly, which slowed us both down.The rain wasn't too heavy at this point so we were able to actually enjoy the views which included the Hershey Country Club. It was still pretty even in the dreary weather!

I love this "temptation station" a spectator had set up with beach chairs and snacks!

Miles 6-10

This is where the rain started to pick up. I distinctly remember it being heavy around the halfway point because that is where we passed the relay start/finish area. Those who ran the first portion of the relay were finishing and getting the medals and recovery bags. I was cold and had soaking wet socks by this point so I was jealous of those who were finished and heading off to their warm cars. We kept pushing, though! 

Our favorite part of the race was during this portion: The Milton Hershey School! A good chunk of the race goes through the Milton Hershey School campus and it's always the best because of the spectator support. A lot of the students come out and cheer on the runners which is the cutest thing. We were nervous the crowd would be small this year but there were actually a good amount of kids out! This portion also has the worst hills so the signs and spectators were a great distraction.

Miles 11-13.1

Around mile 11ish we were running up Chocolate Avenue with the cute little Hershey kiss street lights. I love that part! It is also where they hand out mini Hershey bars, which I stuck mine in my pocket for later!

Then this was where we started to lose steam. The rain was picking up, my shoes and socks were soaked, and it seemed like we were running uphill the whole time. The final portion of the race cuts back through the Hershey Park parking lots and then makes its way towards the stadium. Add the way we felt with this boring part of the course and you can just imagine how this part was. Luckily, we were close to the finish so we attempted to use whatever steam we had left in us to push to the end. We actually hit 13.1 on our watches outside of the stadium so pushing that last bit into the stadium seemed to drag. Once we were in the stadium, we saw our family cheering us on which gave us that last power boost to send us over the finish line! It felt so good to get that medal and pick up our recovery bag full of goodies... but it felt even better to change out of my wet socks once we got in the car!

Well that pretty much wraps up my Hershey Half recap :) I’m sure I left out some details. Writing about it a day or so later is tough. I tried so hard to remember details during it but 13.1 miles is a lot to remember!