I enjoyed this race so much. It was a crisp fall day (36°), there was gorgeous foliage, the course went up and down over various terrain, and best of all, I got to run with Thunderstruck, my hobby horse.

Well, with Thunderstruck, (from L to R) Khaleesi, Starbuck, Apollo, and Data!

The Gear Western Country Half Marathon was in Long Lake (west of Minneapolis), Minnesota on Saturday the 13th. It started and finished at the Gear West Ski and Run store. This race was not on my radar, but Mom suggested I run it before my cousin’s wedding (somewhat nearby) that night. When we looked in to the race more, and saw they had a hobby horse division, we could NOT stop laughing about how funny that was. And we immediately signed me up and started designing my horse.

An early sketch

Mom and Dad, and I drove up to Minneapolis separately on Friday and stayed nearby in Plymouth. The race was easy to get to, and parking was easy to find. We waited in the store before the race started, which was great, since it was chilly and windy.

I was excited on race morning to see all the other hobby horses. But when I got there, I was the only one. A few more showed up, but THERE WERE ONLY THREE OTHER HOBBY HORSES IN THE HALF. THREE. A total of four. There were a few others doing the 5K.

I thought it was so funny that there were so few of us. They had two hobby horse runners in the half last year, so this was a 200% increase, which they were excited about. Here I thought there would be at least twenty of us! (No idea where I came up with that number! It looks like 213 people ran the half, overall.)

They had the hobby horse runners start in the front (8:30 am start), over to the side (I wanted to make sure I was NOT in people’s way with my dowel!). There was one man, with a BoJack Horseman, horse, a lady with a colorful cardboard horse, a lady with a “sock monkey” style horse, and me. The ladies and I chatted that while we were supposed to run with it between our legs, we thought side saddle would be better. Although the one with the sock monkey horse had a “cheater strap” (that is what she called it) hanging down her back for hers to rest on. She ended up running the whole race with it there (and said it felt awkward).

I did gallop with it between my legs like I was supposed to at the start. But after that, I moved it to my side and kept it out of people’s way. The wind immediately made Thunderstruck’s neck bend in half. Poor guy, his neck is STILL sore!

The course went through a lot of quiet residential country roads, and on some paved and crushed limestone trail. And it went up and down and up and down. The hills kept it interesting! The long stretch (3.6 miles) on crushed limestone felt odd because it was flat for so long. (That part had the one tiny out and back of the course and I got lots of comments on Thunderstruck then. And many others throughout the race. Also, I wish I had my gaiters for that part – I ended up with lots of rocks in my shoes!)

I thought about not bringing a water bottle since I was going to be holding Thunderstruck in my other hand, but I’m glad I did. I drank it all and filled it up twice on the course. I would have loved to take photos of the pretty route and trees, but the one photo I took was tricky enough. Taking gels was tricky too. I somehow finished the race with gel remnants on my face – I think from holding the gel packet in my mouth to eat it, instead of my hand. Other than that, holding Thunderstruck was fine (except for when the wind picked him up.)

Mom and Dad saw me twice on the course which was an awesome surprise! The course map wasn’t very clear (for non-locals) and they couldn’t track me (Glympse wasn’t working, or maybe their phones weren’t), so it was awesome they saw me the two times they tried to!

I wanted to run easy and average 10:00 minute miles. The downhills helped with that – I finished in 2:10:40, with an average pace of 9:59. My miles were consistent, except for the last water stop. I put Thunderstruck between my legs for the last tenth of a mile but forgot to gallop! Oops!

The post race party had pancakes, hot dogs, and corn on the cob! And a few cookies and bars. I was cold and just wanted something hot to drink. My post race hunger didn’t kick in until later.

Awards started right when I finished. I would have been second in the hobby horse division, ha (but obviously no where near that in my age group!). There were also spirit awards, where everyone who “dressed up” got a prize, but I missed those because I was still running. But they gave me that pink cowgirl hat when I finished!

I was smiling the whole time I did this race. The weather was beautiful, the course was challenging in a good way, and it felt great to run. The race was well organized, I love the medal and race “shirt,” and the post race party was fun. I would love to do this race again, especially with friends.

And I loved having Mom and Dad there, cheering me on! I’m glad Mom found this race and signed me up!