This weekend wife and I went down to the home of the Jayhawks so I could run the Kansas Half Marathon with my youngest sister and her husband. For me, this was a long slow training run. Overall I felt great, and although parts of me wanted to go faster, I knew why I came and really enjoyed the day.
The actual race on the other hand needs a little tweaking before I decide to run it again. Anyway, I'll fill you in along the way. This was a 13.1 mile training run for me. The weather was perfect. A light breeze, crisp air at the start. Less than a mile into the race was the first mess. There was a big sign pointing 1/2 marathon straight, 10k'ers turn right. No volunteer in sight. Well, it's still a pretty big mass of humanity at this point so there are people cutting across traffic trying to make the turn. A couple hundred yards down the road there were still people running backwards trying to make that turn. Messy.
We continued on down the road. I guess I'll tell you know, this route did not take us through the most scenic parts of Lawrence. I guess this race used to be run through the campus of KU, but people complained about the hills so they changed the course. It is now run through more of an industrial part of town. There was a short stretch where we ran through part of downtown. This was probably the best stretch except for the extreme lack of crowd support. It was almost like a ghost town.
Another thing that kinda bugged me. About mile 5.5 or so there was a volunteer handing out Gu packs. That would be great except he was standing right after a water spot. I had just dumped my cup and was then handed a Gu. That's not the right order for me. Miles 4 through 10 (ish) where an out and back so we made our way back through the industrial area...then we passed the finish line on our way to the last 3 mile loop. Ugh. For a training run, not a big deal. If I were racing, big deal. The few volunteers they had out there didn't seem to know what was going on. We were told by consecutive volunteers to run on opposite sides of the road. It was almost comical at that point.
My last gripe (sorry, I'm not usually like this) is the lack of water stops at the end of the course. By the time we got to the last few miles the sun was out and it was warming up (it got up to 75 on Sunday). It would have been nice to have the water stops a little closer together towards the end of the race for some of those runners that were struggling. They seemed a little too spaced out.
To end on a positive note...at the finish line there were plenty of drinks and snacks (although no bananas, but that's personal preference). My sister and her husband finished there first 1/2 marathon in about 2:35. I thought they did great. I enjoyed the time with them, and the weather. The race...ehhh.
I'm now 4 weeks out from my goal half marathon. I'm still feeling fairly confident, but as always there are those worries creeping into the back of my head. For the time being I'm just concentrating on the training left to do. More crappy weather in the forecast for this week, so I guess the winter running gear gets to stay out for a bit. I'm pretty sick of using it.
How was your weekend?
No comments:
Post a Comment