Herbie's Hometown Loop

Date: 8/20/11

Location: Bellefonte, PA

Weather: Foggy, breaking sun, no wind, 70-75 degrees

Race Results: 2011 Results

198 people came out to Centre County for the 5th Annual Herbie's Hometown Loop- 4 mile run.

The memorial race honored Jeremy Herbstritt, who was a victim in the Virginia Tech shootings in 2007. Jeremy attended Bellefonte high school and later Penn State. The proceeds of the race go to funding a community track in Bellefonte.

Pre-Race: We actually arrived earlier than normal! There was no rushing around this time, which was nice. The registration table gave us our goodie bag and 4 raffle tickets that we could place in any buckets on the table, which included the raffle prizes (e.g. gift certificates to various restaurants, stores, local items). More on the results of this later!

We ran into Dave Lloyd, fellow running group member. He was all decked out in the Herbie's bright-red race shirt. :)

Race (Liz): I decided to wear the ol' iPod and I'm glad I made a new running playlist because it made the run less boring. First couple songs on the list: Hall and Oates. Great choice. There's nothing like starting out your first mile listening to the smooth sounds of Hall and Oates. It helps with 1) not going out too fast, 2) relieving anxiety, and 3) adding a few personal laughs to the run.

I ran this race last year, but it didn't make the course any easier. There were a few minor hills, but one very challenging hill. I had to walk up most of it but finished strong. There were little notes on the road that said things like "Almost there!", "Don't look up", "You can look up now", and "You did it!" Then as you reach the top of the hill and go around the corner, it still goes uphill!! And so there was a new message written that said, "Psyche!"

There was one point in the race where the traffic policeman stopped us. We had to stop for traffic for about 20 seconds. About 7-8 people caught up to me, and everyone was mad that we lost time.

I was pretty happy with the fact that I ran 6 minutes faster this year than last year. I'm satisfied with that improvement.

Race (David): I haven't been running for the last month because of an ankle injury but didn't want to miss this race for two reasons. First, in 2010 I hadn't run for nearly 10 years but decided, on sort of a challenge, to run HHL. Having trained nearly all of 2011, I was eager to see how I improved. Despite coming back from an injury, I was happy to have improved roughly 4 minutes (27.20 to 23.32). Second, HHL is a great race because of a monstrous hill at around 1.5miles. The hill puts even some seasoned runners to a standstill.

Overall, great course, great post-race food and festivities (see below), and neat array of prizes. My only complaint is that this race (much like the Herbstritt 5k in April at PSU) was not timed correctly. I give the race a 8/10.

Post-race: TONS of great food. Subway subs, pizza, yummy homemade cupcakes, apple slices (I had one to feel a little healthier), bagels, Gatorade, iced tea, water, and maybe a couple other small things. They had live music, karaoke (I think only one person sang, and she sang "Heartbreaker" by Pat Benetar), door prizes, and awards. I won a $25 gift certificate to the Hofbrau in Bellefonte (awesome pizza!), and David won a Herbie's Hometown Loop bag for coming in 1st in his age group.

Overall, I give this race a 9/10. The course was tough, but everything else was great.