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Rock the Parkway - RunHalf Marathon


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Kansas City, Missouri
United States
34F / 1C
Sunny
Total Time = 1h 28m 34s
Overall Rank = 85/4218
Age Group = 35-39M
Age Group Rank = 15/272
Pre-race routine:

Up around 5:15 am and I tried to eat some food, which didn't go so well despite telling my body that it will regret not eating anything when I'm on mile 11 of the race. The wife and I were both racing again this year and we were determined to get to the race site earlier this year to avoid a long walk from our parking spot. However, since neither of us can manage to have a normal bathroom breaks before running/races it took about 4 tries before we could both confidently leave the house. Despite this we still managed to get parked with about 30 minutes to spare. We hit the port-a-pottie lines (which I coincidentally stood next to pro triathlete Lauren Barnett - both here and the start line), said hi to a few friends, and then made my way over to corral A.
Event warmup:

Since it was 30 something degrees cold I mostly just jumped up and down, pretended to stretch, look important, and make the other runners around me think I was super serious about the race when really I was just thinking about food and whether I ate enough of it. I brought I long-sleeve throwaway shirt and I tossed that to the side before getting positioned.
Run
  • 1h 28m 34s
  • 13.1 miles
  • 06m 46s  min/mile
Comments:

So, let me just cut to the chase, because giving a mile by mile synopsis doesn't sound fun or appealing to write. I missed a PR by 45 seconds and I'm pretty damn please with that because 1) I felt good for a total of 8 minutes running out of 89 2) 1:28:xx is a fast time given my personal expectations.

I love racing, but often I love it more in hindsight than I do in the moment. For instance, I constantly think that running another marathon would be a fun and great idea, but today, while running around, oh let's say. . . mile 9, I'm thinking "WHY WOULD I EVER WANT TO RUN A HM EVER AGAIN, LET ALONE A MARATHON?!!" As early as mile four I was mentally calculating what kind of time I would get based on 4 miles of running and 9 miles of walking. But of course I didn't do that because I don't give in that easy.

My pace and splits were (mostly) good today, but nothing came easy, particularly for the "hills" following mile markers 2,3,7&10, were I couldn't match the pace of those running around me. After the mile 10 mark I walked a short bit to make sure I could squirt a GU into my mouth and not smear it all over my face. Unfortunately this allowed a decent size group of guys (6-8?) to pass me. That was my motivation to keep running harder; some I managed to pass back, some I didn't.

On a random note, if you use a GPS watch, I highly recommend Strava and the Flyby feature. I know this isn't anything terribly brand new, but I had no idea that there were 3 other guys that I knew running near me the whole time - sometimes passing each other back and forth. Usually I just identify everyone as "Yellow-shirt guy" or "Calf-sleeve guy" or "Guy who can't stop spitting" etc.

1 6:30.5
2 6:51.8
3 7:00.4
4 6:29.6
5 6:43.1
6 6:50.9
7 6:42.3
8 7:10.1
9 6:46.4
10 6:47.2
11 7:12.8
12 6:41.7
13 6:11.5
14 0:39.5
Post race
Warm down:

Oh, the usual - fight off the urge to collapse onto the concrete.
They didn't not collect any of the throw away clothing (at least not yet) I so I went and retrieved my shirt. Since it was still in the 30s I shivered for almost half an hour waiting for my wife to finish. I then staggered around like a zombie, while seeing lots of people I knew and asking how their races went.

Event comments:

Great race.
Well organized.




Last updated: 2016-01-04 12:00 AM
Running
01:28:34 | 13.1 miles | 06m 46s  min/mile
Age Group: 15/272
Overall: 85/4218
Performance: Good
Avg HR: 173 Max HR: 183
Course: Out and back on Ward Parkway with a loop around Loose Park around the halfway mark.
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: Average
Race evaluation [1-5] 5

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2016-04-11 11:41 AM

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Extreme Veteran
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500
Olathe, KS
Subject: Rock the Parkway


2016-04-11 3:03 PM
in reply to: #5176515

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New user
147
10025
Overland Park, KS
Subject: RE: Rock the Parkway
Nice job Mike. I totally label everyone the same way, I was green shorts guy with compression socks and long sleeves, you obviously were guy who stopped for a GU with 3 miles left.
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