St. Louis RnR Half Recap - The Big Sub-2!

At 7 am on Sunday, October 27, the stars aligned. It was in the mid-30s at the start and I was thrilled about it because I prefer to run in colder weather. I'd had a breakout training week in terms of feeling good, not having calf pain, and killing my track workout. My mental game was the best it's ever been; I felt like it was my day to PR, if not to finally hit my sub-2 hour half goal. And it was.

Kevin and I stayed near the start line, so it was an easy 15 minute walk in the morning. We kept our sweatshirts as long as possible because it was cold, then finally gave them to gear check and headed to the corrals. I wore my heat sheet from the SF half until the start time which kept me much, much warmer. One thing I don't like about RnR races is how they draw out the start with so many corrals and time in between, but luckily I was in corral 4 and didn't have to wait more than a few minutes. As we started running, we had gorgeous views of the arch with the sunrise.

Jill and I by the arch. Not race day, but pretty none the less.

I went out around a 9:10 minute per mile pace to see how I felt. I've always had a fear of going for the PR or time goal and then just falling apart in the back half and not finishing at all. That's what always keeps me from letting go and pushing in races, but in the past few months I've gone for it in the 5K and 10K and knew it was time to really RACE the half. To see what I can do when I lay it all on the line. Between the cool weather and my good mental state, I finally felt ready. And no matter what, I knew I'd be glad I took the chance.

It didn't take me long to realize that I felt great and didn't need to back off at all. I crossed the 5K split at 27:48, definitely the fastest 5K I've ever run during a half. The 10K split came at 56:23, faster than my current 10K PR. My brain freaked out a little then, wondering how on earth that happened and how I could possibly keep doing it, but I stayed strong and pushed the bad thoughts out of the way. In Eugene this past April, my friend and Oiselle teammate Lauren told me that one day everything would just work and the sub-2 would come even when I didn't expect it; I kept repeating this to myself for the rest of the race anytime my brain told me to play it safer. A big thank you to Lauren for my mental boost and race day mantra!

Not sure where this was on the course, but I love the trees in the back.

From the 10K 'PR' on, I just felt really happy and excited. I didn't let my head tell me to slow down, I didn't feel stressed, and I had fun pushing myself. Somehow (weather?) this race didn't feel as tough as my last PR in SF even though I was running a faster pace. I was working hard but I could manage it and be happy doing it. I had a slight 'crap I slowed way down!' scare when my Garmin flipped over the mile going up a hill and showed me a slower pace, but that was easily remedied when we went down the other side.

My 10 mile split was 1:30:57, and around that time I really knew I could do it. All I had to do was hold pace, not even get faster, and I'd be in under 2 hours. Miles 10 to 13 are a total blur. I think I started celebrating in my head a little too early, although that probably helped me to keep pushing to the end. When we topped the last hill right around mile marker 13, the guy running to my right threw up on himself multiple times. I've seen people do that on the side of the road, but I can't say I've ever seen this scenario. Thank goodness I was a few feet away.

The rest of the finish chute being downhill and my friend, Jill, cheering on the side gave me a nice finish kick for a final time of 1:57: 50. Honestly, I'm still kind of shocked! Breaking the 2 hour barrier was one of my big goals for the year, not to mention something I've wanted to do for quite some time, and I'm thrilled.

Thumbs up to meeting a race goal!

Race details time. 

Expo. RnR tends to have big expos, and this one was as expected. There are many vendors and stores selling running gear, plus companies giving out free samples. This expo also had the 'Brooks Run Happy Island' area where you could do activities and win prizes. The highlight was riding the mechanical shoe. Yep, shoe.

I had to ride it on slow. I'm not that talented.

Also at the expo, I had the pleasure of meeting Oiselle teammate Farron. She was volunteering in a slow spot so we enjoyed chatting for a while. Farron came out in the cold to cheer around mile 4.5 and made a sign for us too. Thank you girl, that made me so happy!

Meeting Farron.

Swag. The shirts and medals are cute, and I specifically like the Cardinal detail on the medal. Shirts are women's or men's specific Brooks tech shirts with print on both the front and back. One thing that irritates me with RnR is that they don't do separate shirts for the full vs. half marathon. It seems like they should, especially for the cost of the race. I've done many smaller, cheaper races that make specific shirts for each race.

Course. I'm a big fan of this course. It's not flat, but it doesn't have any steep hills either. It has a few longer grades but I always felt rewarded with downhill after. I love races with variation, so I found this perfect. We ran through downtown St. Louis with views of the Arch and saw a few pretty neighborhoods along the way. 

Support. Aid stations were often and well-stocked with both water and Gatorade. The length of each aid station was awesome, making it easy to get water without it being as crowded if you went past the first people. They handed out Gu although I didn't take it, and I'm not sure what mile that was. I found there to be plenty of porta-potties at the start area right by the corrals and it looked like a lot on the course too. Gear check was organized and super easy; they had a big, fenced in area where volunteers lined up bags by first letter of the last name and then race number. 

Finish Line. They gave out the normal RnR food at the finish: fruit, Power Bars, Jamba Juice smoothies, chocolate milk, Gatorade, water, pretzels. I find it to be sufficient, but I also don't take a lot of it so I could be a bad person to ask. I'm never ready to eat solid food that soon. The smoothies on the other hand, yes please! We didn't stay for the concert and instead headed back to cheer with Jill until our friend Rob finished his race. After that, we celebrated Rob's first half marathon ever with, as Kev says, 'obligatory terrible but free beer.' Yay!

Rob, me, and Kev. Cheers!

So what's next? I'm running the half marathon events in Malibu and Berkeley for fun, but my real focus right now is California International Marathon on December 7. I'm feeling good about CIM after St. Louis!

And one last awesome photo just because - fountain dyed red for the World Series.