Kansas City Missouri….. Run on October 15, 2011
It was time to quit playing and get serious about a road race. This… was when I jumped into the deep end of the pool… Yes, I ran in my first half marathon. I began training for this race in July. I followed a guide I found in Runner’s World magazine, where I run a certain amount of miles each week. I wasn’t sure how I would perform, as 13.1 miles is a long ways for someone who just began running on a regular basis this year. And.. I really didn’t know what to expect at this event, especially since there were around 11,000 runners, that is many times more than any race I had run previously. This race had full marathon runners( 26.2 miles), the half marathon runners like myself(13.1 miles), a 5K(3.1 miles), and a marathon relay, where teams would have relay runners running different legs of the full marathon. I believe there were around 6,000 runners for the half, with 4,500- 5,200 or so finishing. I DID finish, around 3,400th place, not great, but not terrible. That was somewhere near the middle. My goal I set was to #1 just finish the race, then, if I finish, to #2, finish in under 2 hours and 30 minutes. Well, I did finish, with a time of 2 hours 22 minutes and some change. So, I was pleased with the results. To be honest, I don’t remember seeing a lot of the Kansas City sites and landmarks that I passed, as I was truly focused on the race. I only stopped once for a bathroom break. My bladder was going with, or without me stopping. So, I figured it was best to listen to it. That did slow me down a bit, probably 5 minutes off my time, most of it I was waiting for an open porta potty. This was easily the most exciting race I have run, and the coldest.. At least it was cold at start time. I didn’t notice the cold temps once we started. Maybe it was the adrenaline, or the mass crowd of people. Probably some of both. I plan many more long races in the future. Hopefully, in April, I will run the Oz Marathon in Olathe Kansas. If I consider the half marathon as jumping into the deep in of the pool, I suppose the full marathon would be diving off the high dive. Happy diving!
Time On The Road..........by Donnie 