San Marcos — This past weekend the Country Roads Half Marathon was held out at the Tanger Outlet Center. The course was the familiar ARA-Moe’s Half Marathon run in reverse direction.

The main difference is that the ARA-Moe’s has major hills at the start of the course where the Country Roads has them at the end of the course.

There is a big hill that has always been a very imposing sight for runners as they came over the first hill and saw that long hill before them. With the Country Roads race this long hill was all downhill.

Evidently this was not enough of a downhill for most of the runners.

After talking with some of the runners that have run both races their opinion is that running in reverse is much harder. There were not many that thought the nice down hills at the start of the race made up for the up hills that met them at the last few miles.

We had a good turnout of volunteers to help out and many of the runners commented on the availability of water every two miles on the course.

I talked with some of the volunteers at one of the water stations and when the first-place runner came by and they were ready to hand him a cup of water they said he went by so fast that there was not much time to hand him the water. They mentioned that he looked like he didn’t need any water going that fast.

There was a relatively small turnout of runners with 78 entrants in the race. I have not been able to find all of the results, but local runners that did well included Britt Van Dine in first place in the 45-49 age group with a 1:50:30 time.

Gina Moore Eben took first place in the Senior Masters Female with a 2:08:15 time and Elma Minor managed a first place finish in the 50-54 age group with a 2:31:01.

Laura Mason had a second place finish in the 45-49 age group with a 2:29:31 and Teresa Medina finished second in the 55-59 age with a time of 2:33:04. Greg Pannell had a first place finish in the 50-54 age group with a time of 2:15.

I am sure there were other local runners in the race but results have not been posted by RunFar Timing.

One unique thing about the race was the number of runners that wanted extra shirts after the race.

The design on the shirt was originated with David Alexander and had a yellow road sign in the shape of the state of Texas with a runner and a deer on the road sign with a few well placed bullet holes situated on the sign.

Along the side of the sign was a mile marker with 13.1 on it to signify the distance the race covered. This is the same design as the Country Roads 10K shirt except for the length of the distance on the side.

It is a real country road looking sign.

I have had several requests from runners after the race wondering if we had any shirts left that they could purchase. It really helps runners forget those hills if they receive a nice looking race shirt.

Hopefully the nice shirt design will be seen by other runners at other races so that next year the race will have a larger turnout.

The day before the race, Austin had a Frankenthon Monster Marathon race. Elizabeth Wills ran the race and placed first in the 40-44 age category with a time of 4:17:34.

One other runner in that race was an instructor at Texas State in the Exercise and Sport Science department by the name of Reenie Smith. She not only ran the 26.2 miles on Saturday but came down and ran the Country Roads Half Marathon on Sunday.

She mentioned that her legs were a little tired at the end of the day. Even with that she still managed a first place finish in the 55-59 year age group in the half marathon.

A real practice what you preach in the fitness industry example.

Next up for local runners is the Turkey Trot 5K on Nov. 14, where the awards are a nice turkey, a ham or a pie for finishing as one of the top three. If you are looking for a way to get a meal for Thanksgiving this is the race to enter.



Dr. Maurice Johnson is a professor at Texas State University in the Department of Health and Exercise Science. His column appears every Sunday in the Daily Record.