Rock and Roll St Louis

This weekend was the Rock and Roll weekend in St Louis.   I wrote about my plans to run (walk) a 5K on Saturday and run a half marathon on Sunday.  It's now Sunday and thankfully the weekend is over! lol 

Yesterday the 5K started at 8:00 am.  I live about 30-40 mins from St Louis so we left fairly early, but not as early as today.  My husband ran the 5K with me.  I told him he could just go on ahead of me, as I wanted to walk.  He wanted to stay with and I found out I have no patience for walking a 5K.  We did run a few times.  I tried to keep the running to 1 mile or less mixed throughout (like when we were going downhill!) to save my legs for the half.  

I was really just doing the 5K for the medal and the extra remix medal for running both days.  I say the 5K medal because this is my first 5K to receive a medal. :)  I thought they were pretty cool!

The race this morning started at 7 am. I was so worried about how early we had to get up (4:15) that I was afraid I wouldn't sleep so I took a nap in the afternoon after the 5K.  I never nap! 

So we got up early. . . we wanted to be parked before 6 as the packet said road closures would start at 6.  I actually told the guy at the parking lot on Saturday that we would be back on Sunday.  LIE! The roads were closed when we got there at 5:45.  Ugh.  There was literally no where to go.  Everywhere I ran into a closure.  I parked in the Ballpark Village parking lot as it said it was $5.  LIE!  It was $9 when we left.  

It was in the 40's this morning.  Fantastic running weather! And yes, I wore a tank top.  I'm hate hot running!  It was much more crowded than the day before.  I did manage to run into an ex-coworker which was fabulous and a total chance given the crowd size.  There were a *lot* of porta-potties but the lines were still long. I'm paranoid about having to pee on course.  So I managed to go twice.  The race started in waves, which was much better than my previous half and helped space out the crowd.  It took me about 15 mins after the first wave to get to the start.  I felt really good at the beginning and was trying to control my pace. I knew there would be hills, but I didn't think there would be so many or that they would be so long (if not steep).  I had my own water this time just in case the stations were a hot mess.  But they were well run and I was able to get water and gatorade easily throughout the course.  They said there would be Gu at mile 7.5 and the official flavor was salted watermelon.  Mile 7.5 comes and what do you know?  LIE!  No Gu.  No table.  No nothing.  Other runners (that were in the front of the race) also said there wasn't Gu.  I was disappointed.   I started to drag at mile 8 unfortunately.  But I was making good time and was really trying to make my goals.  I did meet up with the 2:30 pacer but couldn't hang long :(  In my previous half, my calves hurt SO bad during the last 2 miles.  I mean I thought they would explode.  I did not have that problem this time and I felt stronger.  Maybe that was due to training 4 days a week (instead of 3) and doing some hill work on some of my shorter runs.  Hindsight is that I should have done longer runs with hills, but the town I live in is super flat. 

I had 3 goals in this race.   The first goal was to not walk.  I ran the whole thing minus a few seconds in a few water stops which is expected.  Goal 2 was to beat the time of my first half marathon.  I accomplished that (by just over 6 minutes!).  Goal 3 was to have a finish time of 2:30 or less.  I just missed that as my official finish time was 2:32:05.   Dang it!  I told you I couldn't keep up with that pacer.  I was somewhat disappointed, but I know if the course was flat I'd have totally done it.  

Speaking of going to the bathroom. . .how does anyone do this during a race?  The lines always have a min of 5 people. . . if I stopped to pee (I felt like I had to at mile 9) I'd have probably not PR'd.  

Here I am right after the finish.  I'm still in the secure finish area. 

Here are my splits.  A bit more varied than I had hoped.  My Garmin said I ran 13.23 miles and during the run people were talking about how off their watches were.  Some more so than mine.  Initially the mile markers were 0.05 miles off. . . as the race went one they were a consistent 0.1 miles off.  It's so tough to know you really have to run 0.1 more than you were planning!  I was really really dragging it at the finish line.  I felt like I was running in place.  The final part of the run was uphill. . . my guess is for a half mile. . . till we turned a corner for the finish and that part was just 0.1 or so. . . I was never so happy to be on a flat road than at that point. 

Here is a combined photo of my Garmin results and the official results on the bottom. 

The finish time is super close and I think I started my Garmin just before I crossed the start. There were two of those rubber strips to cross and I started min on the first, which wasn't correct I think. 

The official avg pace is 11:36 and I like the Garmin pace of 11:30 better :)  I've really been trying to keep my longer runs at or below 11:30 min/mile. 

Here is the half medal.  I love it!  So St Louis-ish! :) 

Part of what I was looking forward to with the Rock and Roll half was the bands about every mile on the race.  I didn't find that as motivating as I expected.  I often just let my own music play. . .when I turned off my music I wasn't that impressed with the bands.  We had received an email that they had to relocate the bands between miles 6-9 due to neighborhood issues.  I didn't pay close enough attention but it seems there was a lot of time without any bands. 

The crowd support also wasn't nearly as strong as my first half in KY.  I found that disappointing.  Those of you that know runners - if you can get out and cheer them on, please consider it.  I was thrilled to have my husband waiting for me at the finish.  But I don't think people realize what an accomplishment this is.  And how much this means to the person running the race.  I know my parents don't.  I had mentioned to my mom, when I signed up, about coming along.  I would have loved to have my mom, or both her and my dad, waiting at the finish - or cheering me on somewhere on course.  They also don't really care much when I show off my medals.  I do get FB comments from my mom. . . but . . . well support your running friends and family when you can. This is hard work. For me this was a cumulation of 12 weeks of training. 

So remember I said if I ran both days I got a 3rd medal.  Here is the remix medal.  The middle part turns!  It's a fabulous medal and I'm so glad that I did decide to run both days (I was worried that was the wrong decision)

And just cause I want to show off - here are all three medals. 

When I stopped my Garmin I got the notice that I had three new records!  I knew one of them would be the fastest half (duh) but I didn't know the other two.  I beat my fastest 10K record and then I got longest distance.  I should have realized the longest distance, but wasn't expecting it. 

Michelob Ultra gave every runner a free beer.  I so *love* beer after I run.  As the day goes on, I'm getting more and more sore.  I went to get a pedicure and the lady really massaged my calves. . . unfortunately she didn't massage my feet at all.  I was so disappointed!  I've taken some meds to help with soreness.  I was going to ride Eli today, or I was hoping to, but I gave up that idea.   

I'm wondering if I should consider trying to meet my goal of a 2:30 half somewhere flat?  :)  I tend to forget the pain of running when it's over :) 

I'll leave you with this random photo of some head we ran into on the way back to our car.  Thanks for reading!