Kansas City Half-Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

4, 3, 2, 1 we were off! My goal was to keep up with the 1:40 pace group and if I had anything left I would kick it in the last 3 miles or so. The first couple of miles are the slowest, as there's a lot of elevation gain. The hills weren't all that steep, just long. All I had to do was keep pace with our pace girl in pink, Lettie!

The atmosphere was great. There were at least 5 bands along the course, the first one was 1/2 mile after the start, maybe not even that far. Looked like a small High School ensamble but very nice. The first 4 miles we were at around 8:00 minute mile pace so it was very manageable. The next 4 miles, however, were at 7:15 pace. There was downhill of course, but I would definitely feel the difference as we got into mile 7. Garmin shows mile 7 at 7:01 pace.

Then we motored through mile 8 and at mile 9, there was some slight hill work. This is where the pacers started to pull away. I was about 25 yards or so back and was thinking, O.K. I'll catch back up later. Then as time went by, they kept distancing themselves from me. So I thought, O.K. I'll now run my race, conserve a little bit, then punch it when I'm a mile or so out.

Well that didn't happen. Ultimately I got to a point where finishing in under 1:42 sounded good which would still be a PR. The legs just felt heavy but I was still enjoying the race. I got passed by a few people in the last few miles which reminded me of my first HM two years before, on this very course. I had so much energy at the 10 mile mark I was able to just take off. This day however, there wasn't enough left in the tank.

Garmin Splits:
Mile 1: 8:05
Mile 2: 7:52
Mile 3: 7:59
Mile 4: 7:52
Mile 5: 7:14
Mile 6: 7:24
Mile 7: 7:01
Mile 8: 7:18
Mile 9: 7:35
Mile 10: 7:59
Mile 11: 7:27
Mile 12: 7:25
Mile 13: 7:45
Last 0.1: 7:25 pace Garmin had total distance at 13.24 miles.

My last run before this Saturday race was Monday. So that was 4 days straight without running. I was busy with work and home stuff and just didn't get a run in. Also, I got about 4 hours sleep Thursday night and somewhere between 3-4 hours sleep Friday night. Maybe those two items attested for me not being able to go sub 1:40, who knows.

After receiving my finishers medal and a bottle of water I went straight for the chocolate milk. Also grabbed a banana, then went a grabbed another chocolate milk. Did a very small amount of stretching, then just walked around looking for people I knew. I saw BT'ers Mark, Patrick, Jon and Pete. Had a beer with Pete and his friends then after changing my shirt I met Patrick near the finish so we could see Jon finish the Marathon. After that I waited for another 10 minutes or so and met the family after their adventures of course monitoring. My 12 year old daughter and 15 year old son had to lay down the law to drivers that wanted to pull out in front of runners, listened to stories of rude people etc. My daughter loves Chic-fil-A (Sp?) so she was happy to see that was the lunch of choice at the volunteers tent.


I think the 4 days of non-running activity and lack of sleep. I might have been able to did deeper and run a little faster so I give myself a C+ for mental toughness. It's not like I was going to podium or anything.


A very well organized and supported race, that's all I have to say aobut that...