Rock The Parkway Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Kansas City, Missouri
United States
KC Running Company
37F / 3C
Sunny
 		Total Time = 1h 30m 12s
Overall Rank = 80/3620
Age Group = 35-39M
Age Group Rank = 11/219
Pre-race routine:

Up at about 5am with the wife. Drank my calories for breakfast as well as some coffee. All these fluids would turn out to hurt me later. Drove to the race site and got worried about parking for a bit as we were stuck in a full parking lot and not moving. Eventually they opened up a parking garage and ended up with a good parking situation.

A quick pee break and then a hug/good luck to my wife who was running in the wave behind me.

Run
  • 1h 30m 12s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 06m 53s  min/mile
Comments:

Kinda nervous about this run. Maybe anxious might be better. I'm not sure. It's whatever word describes how you feel when you're not sure you can run a certain pace anymore because you haven't ran that particular pace in a long while. This was especially in doubt after Brew2Brew last weekend and despite trying I couldn't break 7 min pace.

Anyway, I settled in at mile 1, nothing crazy but I had developed some bladder pressure already and kinda had the urge to use the restroom. . . again. Ugh. I just went 20 minutes before the start. Miles 2 and 3 I knew were at a slow uphill climb so I didn't go crazy trying to hold a pace while going up them. For the first 6 miles I was very happy with my pace and effort. I held sub 7 min pace but did so without my heart jumping out of my chest or breathing too hard. But the bathroom was still on my mind. At some moments I thought I'd be ok to push through until the end of the race and other times the pressure was too uncomfortable. Ultimately, after rounding Loose park, I hopped in a port potty and even
though I lost a whole minute it was worth it.

After emerging I saw that the 1:30 pace group had passed me. I slowly crept back towards them and eventually caught up to them, but I lost again as my pace slipped at the hill in the middle of mile 10. I took a gel shot, got back on my horse and kept at. I charged down the hill at mile 12 hoping just maybe I could squeak under the 90 minute mark.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2286679255
What would you do differently?:

This isn't triathlon, I can't do my normal breakfast routine and expect to pee in the lake right before the race gun goes off. I'll take a more solid food approach next time, even if I do have to choke it down.
Post race
Warm down:

Waited for the wife to finish.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I'm pretty pleased with what happened today. Third time running the HM course here and I handled it a bit better than before, especially in miles 10 and 11. Without the bathroom break my time would've been right on top of my other time on this course.

Event comments:

Always a great race and well put on event. This was year #10 for RTP.




Last updated: 2019-01-07 12:00 AM
Running
01:30:12 | 13.1 miles | 06m 53s  min/mile
Age Group: 11/219
Overall: 219/3620
Performance: Good
Course: Up and Down Ward Parkway with a lap around Loose Park in between. Slightly uphill to on the first half, slightly downhill coming home.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5] 4
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5