Platte River Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

I started out running with Stacie and Mel. We chatted for the first several miles, and I would periodically check my pace, but I figured as long as I was able to chat, the pace had to be pretty good. A couple miles in, I figured out that my watch wasn't picking up my HR info. I kind of felt like I was flying blind. Around mile 9-10, my right leg started to feel tight.

They only had aid stations every 2 miles, and I am used to drinking every mile, with a gel every 30 minutes. My gels were a bit more spread out than usual, and I was working on 1/2 as much water as I'm accustomed to. This might have had something to do with my leg issue.

Somewhere around mile 10, I realized that I had some good blisters going on my left foot. This meant that on any downhill, I really had to change my run to a heel-strike technique to keep from wanting to cry. Not ideal, but the change might actually have helped give my muscles a bit of a break.

Mile 12.5 was a big-ole hill--NOT NICE! My legs would have liked to have walked up that hill, but I knew the faster I got over, the faster I would get to the end and be able to take my shoes off! I came down off the hill, turned left, and could see that I was nearly there. Tried to pick up the pace towards the end, but a couple that was running together was in front of me, and I couldn't get around them. Finally, I saw a break, made a quick move, and "sprinted" to the finish line. Grabbed some water, found Stacie, and tried not to throw up.

Bring my own fluids--water every 2 miles is just not enough for me. Also, this was pretty much just a training run for me, so I didn't really taper or do much preparation nutrition-wise.

Walked around a very little, found the BT crew, cheered in Cathy, talked to the BT crew for awhile, then went and grabed my gear bag to put on my sandles and drink my endurox. Stacie and I went for food. I knew they would have brats and burgers, so I fixed a burger. Took one bite, and realized it was raw. Ate the chips, then tried to find something else to eat--only thing I could find was the Naked Juice stand, and they were passing out dixie-cup servings of their smoothies. Took the lightrail back to the start, and headed home for an ice-bath and some food.


No taper, no real nutrition prep, limited aid stations.


This is a good early-season race/training event. I would definitely like to see more aid stations on the course, and better post-race food. With a little more prep on my part, this could be a very nice race.