This past Sunday I competed in the Heart Mini Half Marathon. This was my second half marathon after finishing the Cincinnati Half last October. One of my brother-in-laws signed up for the race and convinced me to join him in the fun. My dad is a frequent competitor in this race, so he joined us as well.

According to the official results I completed the 13.1 miles in 1:50:14, which barely beat my time at the Cincinnati Half of 1:50:39.  This was good enough for 483 overall out of 1593. I was also 66 of 143 in my division (male 30-34). I was very happy with the results and the run felt pretty good overall.

Finish Line

There were more than 23,300 registered participants in all the races throughout the day. And they raised nearly $2.3 million! The team I participated with from my wife’s employer raised over $23,000 with 288 members. We were the highest ranked fund-raising team.

As far as the race itself goes, I did not like the course as much as the Cincinnati Half, which was really flat. This course was filled with hills and running out and back on Columbia Parkway leaves a lot to be desired. Sure it is wide but there is very little to look at and you can see for miles and miles. I would much rather run on Riverside Drive, which runs parallel to Columbia Parkway and offers plenty more sights along the way. But at least we ran the right course, which cannot be said for the majority of the 5K runners who ended up running nearly 4 miles instead.

My complaints on the course aside, the race was fun and it definitely benefits a worthy cause. I will likely run it again in the future. Plus my son enjoyed running the kids fun run the day before. Maybe next time he won’t have to hold grandma’s hand.

Run Trey!