Rock n Roll St. Louis Half Marathon Race Recap

Before the race

Sign I've seen many times and always love

Before the race, as my corral approached the starting line

Taken during the race- LOVE THIS!!!

Race morning started with a 5:30am wake up. I had my usual pre-race meal of Diet Dr. Pepper and a Honey Stinger Waffle on my way to the race. We were there in plenty of time to hit porta potties. Twice. One of which I got really lucky because the door was stuck in the locked position so nobody had used it. A guy standing in line yanked it open so only the dude before me used it before it was my turn. Score! Hate stinky porta potties but it's a necessary evil at races. I walked all the way up to corral 5, where I should have started if I was going for my planned sub-2. It was so close to the front. Scary! But instead, I decided to start in corral 21, with an estimated finish time of 2:50-3:00. With my bib I could have started pretty much anywhere, but I decided that it might kill my morale to be passed the entire race. I was really happy with my corral selection. They did a really good job of letting the corrals go every couple of minutes. It was warmer than I'd expected it to be- about 58 degrees at the race start- which made it not too miserable waiting to get started. I didn't take any throw away clothes, but I used some hand warmers and tucked my hands inside my long sleeves for a few miles since my hands get cold so easily. It was tough to not run across the starting line and I almost teared up. At that moment I promised myself I could run across the finish line if I wasn't in terrible pain after the next 13 miles. There were a few other walkers who I saw at the beginning, including one lady carrying a cane. Lots of people were using a run-walk-run strategy, so it didn't take long for me to start passing people and I kept that up the entire race. There were some beautiful areas on the course. I carried my camera, but the photos just don't do it justice. I was also hoping they'd capture the elevation, but they don't. I wouldn't say it was a hilly course as in lots of ups and downs. It was more of a long slow (sometimes several miles) uphill and not much downhill. St. Louis had some great spectators. There were tons of people watching throughout the course. Jake ran from the starting line and met me around mile 5 (he ran a more direct route- not the winding race course). I was ahead of my schedule at that point. He jogged alongside me (I really was walking fast!) for a little while before turning back so he could be at the finish line for me. Half and full marathoners shared the course until about mile 8 when the course split. At our mile 9, the marathoners re-joined, but running on the other side of the median. It was neat to see the really fast marathoners pass. I saw a couple women, including the female winner, I just didn't realize it at the time. My hip really didn't hurt during the race. Everything hurt by the last mile. I'd been doing the math all along to figure out what time I might be able to finish at. I knew I was ahead of my goal pace and I hadn't done any math below that sub-3 mark. I knew I was close to being under 2:45 but I just couldn't keep my pace up for the last 2 miles. I ran the last 20 or so yards to and across the finish line. It felt *SO* good! I thought I stopped my watch but apparently I didn't, so I had to wait until they posted official results to find out my time. I got my medal, picked up some water and snacks in the finisher's area, and went to get my beer. It was kind of nice to not feel like hell after a race. I enjoyed my beer and was starving- I usually don't feel like eating for hours after a race!

My official time was 2:46:02, making my average pace 12:40 (which is 4.73 mph if we're talking treadmill). That's actually my 2nd fastest half marathon (not huge given the fact that my last 2 were so awful), but my 2nd fastest nonetheless. And with a fracture in my pelvis... can't forget that.