About two weeks ago I participated in my third GO! St. Louis Half Marathon! It has been a few years since my last endeavor with this race (2012 to be exact) and let's just say that year was a NIGHT BEFORE entry. I wasn't prepared at all, hadn't ran in months and it showed in my time, which I don't remember to the minute but I know it was around 4 hours! I really don't know what I was thinking!
This year was an entirely different story! While my entry was about two to three weeks prior to the race (thanks to one of my best friends that I have been running with for about a year now, Kellie, we were going to run this one together!), I had been running longer runs on the regular, making up my own sort of schedule. I had been wanting to register for a while but as many of you know, races can be expensive.
So, anyway, I was all signed up and ready to go that Sunday morning! I felt really good about where I was at and knew I wasn't going to make the same mistakes that I made at the MO' Cowbell (Start was a little off, I wasn't able to go to the bathroom beforehand... Making me stand in line around mile 3 for quite a long time, which in turn threw off my entire racing groove).
The new starting line was right at the Riverfront Downtown which was absolutely gorgeous, a bit chilly being right off the river but absolutely gorgeous! I hadn't ran in the race since the course changed, now taking us over into Illinois and running OVER the Mississippi River. The sites were incredible and I only wish I had my phone accessible DURING the actual race to take pictures of the scenery we were able to run through.
I felt great, was running great all the way until about mile 10, I finished strong but I know I can do better. My legs started to ache a bit at this point and I was just counting down the last 3 miles until the finish. My original goal was the hit a 2:30:00 half, I ended up at 2:35:49... So I was a off a bit but I was still thrilled with shaving off a LOT of time from MO' Cowbell's race!
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| Before & After |
After the race I met back up with Kellie and we made our way over to the after-party, grabbed our free Michelob Ultra's and took it all in. The weather had gotten quite hot throughout the morning so it was the perfect way to unwind after running 13.1 miles!
All in all this race was SUCH an enjoyable experience and I'm always a fan of adding medals to my collection :)
Here is the breakdown of my race brought to you by the Workout Snap App!
I look forward to participating in the *FULL* next year!!
XOXO
Melissa
