My plan was to go out easy then try to hold a 7:45 ish pace and see what I had left with 3 or so miles to go. The start was a little slow, had to weed through a lot of traffic but I started near the back so I was O.K. with it. I checked the Garmin at mile 1 and it was 7:35 ish so I tried slowing it down a little. Got to aid station #1 where my kids were, spotted my daughter, yelled "hey squirrel", her nickname and she handed my my first cup of water for the day. Didn't see my son but water station 1 is the busiest and most congested. Mile two I was at around 15:13 and feeling good so I tried to hold it at that pace for a while. A little bit later we hit some descents so I picked up the pace a little, not too crazy then on the ascents I tried to return to my original pace in the 7:30-7:40 range. I checked the Garmin at mile 4 and it was around 30 minutes and change so I knew I was well below 8:00 pace. I checked again at mile 6 and it was 45 and change so I knew I was close to mid 7's and I still had energy left in the tank. That's the last time I looked at the Garmin. The rest of the way I just tried to run solid, motoring up the inclines and running strong on the straights. I took a cup of water or gatorade at each aid station during this run, I don't remember how many there were, maybe 6 or 7. I got to mile 8 and that's where I started to pick up the pace a bit. Not too much at first but I probably ran the second half mile of that 8th mile faster than the first. Then the last 1/3 mile I kicked it in.

Garmin Splits
Mile 1: 7:35
Mile 2: 7:38
Mile 3: 7:38
Mile 4: 7:28
Mile 5: 7:33
Mile 6: 7:34
Mile 7: 7:26
Mile 8: 7:32
Mile 9: 7:12
Last .38 6:36 Pace

I was surprised how steady my pace was.

The finish line was inside of the stadium so PLENTY of room for spectators, especially when your finish is shown on the big screen. After the finish you have to walk from the field level up the stairs to get your finishers glass, an engraved 16 oz. beer glass pretty cool. My kids were right there and saw my finish on the big screen, they got there just 5 minutes before after walking back from the aid station. That's the advantage of working aid station #1, you're done before everyone else.

Came back from the car with camera and spotted BT'er Jon (joncolbybohnsack) and also Mark (m.a.burghart).

Not much. Coming into this race I was hoping for something in the 7:40 per mile range so 7:30's was a pleasant surprise.

After drinking some water, talking to Jon and Mark, we went to Bob Evans for breakfast. Yes, big fat veggie filled omelette and lots of coffee. Thought about going to Burger in Paradise but wasn't feeling the burger at that time, it was still 10 in the morning.


Training, duh, I didn't train for this race, just a throw-in after tri season.


Overall I think the race was O.K. But I only paid $36, after $5 FB discount. Got a pretty nice tech. T-shirt and engraved beer glass. My two kids got free game passes to Sporting KC soccer games for volunteering, can't complain too much. I think they ran out of food, although when I was over there there was bagels, cookies and oranges, I don't remember seeing anything else. I wish they would have chocolate milk and/or yogurt after races of this distance, I like a little protein after this amount of exertion.

I didn't stay for awards so I don't know how that went. I think they went 4 deep in the AG awards.

Photo taken by joncolbybohnsack, thanks Jon!