Riley's Rumble Half Marathon

From the MCRRC website: "Riley's Rumble is the evil half that your mother warned you about. Don't be seduced by the lush bucolic countryside of rural Montgomery County. This race will challenge the best runners. If you want the 3 H's (hills, heat, and humidity), this is the race for you. It is a good workout if you're preparing for a fall marathon but Riley's may not be advisable for your first half marathon. "
As they promised we had the 3H's.
Yes I finished, but it was not pretty. We have been having incredible heat and humidity here. Saturday's heat index was something like 108 degrees. The dew points have been in the high 70's which just makes the air feel like soup. I made sure to hide in the AC and keep hydrating on Saturday as much as possible.
Sunday morning the temp was in the low 80's around 6 am when I got to the start. The race organizer actually decided not to chip time the event due to the poor air quality and heat. The race started at 7 am. The whole time while people were getting their numbers and such, the announcer kept talking about the brutal conditions, etc. I was ready for him to stop! No chip time, but they did have clock for the overall start and so you could see an end time when you finished. My time was something like 3:04. I'll take it in all its crappiness. This was, after all, just a training day for me. I needed the miles. This event is free for club members. So it all worked out and I had nice, smiling volunteers handing out water, ice, Gatorade, GU, candy and POPSICLES during the race and I got my miles done. Actually Popsicles were only at mile 8.42. I got 2!! I found a nice group of three people to run with a the beginning and we stuck together through the whole event. Thankfully, we had a decent amount of shade for the run, there was one out a back leg that was all sun and then in the last three miles you have not shade and some HILLS to go back up to the finish. I would have liked to have stayed on my LSD pace of 12:30/mile - but that didn't happen. There was some (more than I would have liked) walking going on during the second half of the race and even during the last mile. My knees were talking and then my innards were talking a bit. I am glad it is done. I am glad that I did it even if it didn't come with a t-shirt or bling. My first 13.1 since 2008 is in the bad. On my way to the Marine Corp Marathon.