Garden Spot Village Marathon, New Holland, PA

JustSayGo

Barefooters
Nov 30, 2011
53
44
18
Pittsburgh, PA
Review Type: Race
Barefoot Friendliness: 1 Excellent

I ran the 5th annual Garden Spot Village Marathon on Saturday 4/6/13 and it was awesome. Garden Spot Village is a retirement community in the small town of New Holland, PA. Nestled in northeastern Lancaster county, New Holland is surrounded by Amish farm country and not much else. There was ample parking and race day bib pickup was a breeze. This was the most well supported start/finish area I've ever seen as just about every resident of Garden Spot Village was out volunteering.

Training in Pittsburgh, I'd barely gotten in two barefoot runs prior so I wasn't ready to take it on barefoot (also a bit cold for me at the start at about 35F and breezy). I wore my huaraches, but if your feet are ready that early in the Spring, this is a perfect course for bare feet: mostly old, smooth, paved back roads. Just try to avoid the road apples... The first couple of miles were closed to traffic, and while the rest of the course was open, traffic was mostly of the buggy variety. The heaviest traffic was for a horse auction along the route.

I fell into 8:00 miles at the start and held that pace through mile 18. It was a little faster than I'd planned so I backed off a bit. Then I really slowed down for a steady climb from mile 21-23. I was kind of in the doldrums (not sure if I had a final push in me) when the 3:40 pacer caught up to me at mile 24. I pulled myself together and kept up with him, passing quite a few folks in the final 2 miles. Pacer was right on target and a little kick got me a 3:39:48. That's about a 34 minute PR!

In all: Everything pre- post- and during the race was very well organized and I can't recommend this event enough.

http://www.gardenspotvillagemarathon.org