Month: December 2017

This was my first road race in a December.  The weather wasn’t too cold, but, it was too cold for someone who was fighting a cold.  Running hard and breathing in cold air is not an ideal situation when you are sick.  Another problem for this otherwise fairly easy run, it was on a Sunday morning.  I had convinced myself I would have plenty of time to run this 9:00 AM 5K, get home, shower, and make it to church for 11:00 AM services.  I didn’t.  I didn’t calculate the time it would take me to get out of the parking lot, with runners still finishing, and get home. Plus, being sick anyway, the race made me more tired than usual I think.  In the future, I will not schedule any Sunday races if I don’t have plenty of time for church.

It was Thanksgiving Day, and I was running a 10K.  Something a few days earlier must of told me this would be a good ideal. All in all, it was, though at the start, it seemed very cold.  I had not run a 10K since 2011, thought I had signed up the Lenexa Freedom Run 10K last July, but weather turned that into a 5K.  The ‘turkey run” was fun, but my time was disappointing to me, from the last time I ran a 10K in 2011.  There were a lot of people for this race, maybe a couple of thousand with the 5 and 10K combined.  The logistics for this race weren’t top notch, and the photography was a lot to be desired.  I probably won’t run this one next year.

I decided in April to once again, finally, run another half marathon.  I wasn’t anywhere near in the kind of shape I was the last time I ran this race in October 2011.  As I had before, I tried to follow the work out plan laid out in an issue of Runner’s World magazine.  This years race was a slightly different route than before, though very similar, but running in the opposite direction.  The start line seemed the same, but the finish was at a different location.  I tried something novel this year, by staying at the Westin Crown Center hotel in downtown Kansas City, almost literally at the start line. I did this to avoid getting up too early, and finding a place to park. Plus, I didn’t trust my car.  I took a taxi to the hotel, and back home the next day.  It was nice, but probably not worth all the added expense.  This race was equally as exciting before, and a nice adrenaline rush, but was somewhat more difficult, and my time was slower.  This was simply because I was heavier this time, and hadn’t been training as long before I began the 10 week training course.  I did however skipped any potty breaks, which helped my time some.  Long races like this are fun with so many people running, and so many people cheering you on.  The weather was great, I plan to run it again in 2018, hopefully this time, the full 26.2 miles.

This was a race at the Legends in Kansas City KS.  Primarily run on the streets around Children’s Mercy Stadium (Kansas City Sports), The Legends shopping center, Nebraska Furniture Mart, Cabela’s, Schlitterbahn and other attractions.   Nothing too spectacular, I did record one of my better 5K times in a while, but still not near enough what I was hoping for.

This was the second Kansas City Zoo Run I have run in, the first was in 2013. This is a 4 mile run, so, being heavier, and more out of shape than last time, my finish time was a bit disappointing for me. The weather wasn’t bad, and the race did not seem too difficult. The finishers medal was nice.  Though, finishers medals are close to being a participation award, something I am against.  I view these as something to remind me of the race, and not an award I won.  I didn’t notice too many animals out while running, maybe the elephants were, but I don’t remember.

First run in over a year, in route to running more and trying to train for another half marathon. The Lenexa Freedom Run was to be a 5K or a 10K(I chose the 10), but due to a downpour, it was shortened to a 5K.  Race was run in old town Lenexa KS, on the 4th of July.  I had also considered the 4 on the 4th race on Ward Parkway, that I had run several years ago.  Race started out overcast, then about a half mile into race, the rain came, and it came hard. I was drenched by the end. All in all, a fun race to get back into something I love.