Started out pretty smooth. Lined up in the 7:00/mile area. Thought I was going a bit fast in the first few miles in terms of the numbers I was seeing but I felt fine and was willing to blow up. Mile 3 and 4 was interesting as you run down past the Budweiser brewery and they crank out 1900 bottles per minute. Anyway, they have a ventilation system that pumps out tons of hop/beer smelling air onto the street that you run by, and I wasn't sure for a few seconds if I should just stop right there and grab a beer. I felt great until about mile 9.5 where there was the final turnaround, made the turnaround and then start getting some angry quads. Just kept on doing my thing trying to push that aside as I knew they were just getting tired. Last 2 miles were a struggle after a decent hill on mile 11 that took me a while to recover from, and my pace showed it, too. But all in all I felt like I ran a pretty smart race and left it all out on there on the course.
Mile1 - 6:56
Mile2 - 6:58
Mile3 - 7:00
Mile4 - 6:48
Mile5 - 6:58
Mile6 - 6:57
Mile7 - 6:49
Mile8 - 7:02
Mile9 - 6:55
Mile10- 7:04
Mile11- 7:01
Mile12- 7:27
Mile13- 7:25
.1 - :41

Nothing much. Maybe if I went out just a touch easier I could have better legs the last few miles, but I don't like to run like that, I'd rather hit my pace and go with it. The hills at the end caught up to me more than anything else. I exceeded my expectation in terms of time and am looking forward to applying this race experience to my tri season.

Drank a beer. They had a beer truck in the finishers area, and I immediately went there. Walked around, ate some food, met up with family, watched my sister finish (2:02 in her first half and she is a fast swimmer, uh, maybe she should get a bike), and got a short massage.


Tri training? It was a B race and I prepared pretty well for my first half mary given that I have other goals this season. With what I brought to the table fitness-wise and my relatively limited running experience I am very happy with my results.


Nice race shirts, hats, and finishers medals. Course was pretty nice. St. Louis has a few highlights worth seeing and this course hit most of them.