Kansas City Half Marathon

For the last few weeks I have been prepping to run the Kansas City Half Marathon. Kyle and I made a deal that I would run this race solo and he would run a half in a few weeks solo. With such an early start time we didn't feel comfortable getting E up so early. So they stayed home and had a daddy/daughter morning. I was really looking forward to this event because a lot of my friends (mostly from SLAM) would be running it. 

On Friday, Lauren and I headed to KC to pick up our packets. I have to say that for an event of this size they made the process so easy! 

On Saturday morning, I was up at 4:15am! I don't think I got more than 2 hours of sleep. I was pumped and ready to get the day going. I was picking up Lauren and our fearless SLAM leader, Meghan. 

We arrived in KC at around 6am and waited for the rest of our ladies to show up. We had some that were running the half and some that were running the 10k. We, of course, made sure that we took a pre-race photo.

We lined up at the start and I was in awe of how many people there were. I found out later that in the half alone there were 3,585 people (6,978 people total).

(photo credit to Lauren)

The race started right on time at 7:05am, with fireworks! It was impressive and really neat. With all of the people it took about 5 minutes to cross the start line. I knew from the start the I couldn't bolt out, I had to pace myself and really be cognizant of my time otherwise I would burn out too quickly. The wind was also a factor, I think at one point there were 15mph gusts and it was hard to get through.

I ran with Lauren for the first mile until the 10k split off and she went her own way. I caught up with our friend Sara and ran with her for a few miles. The course was really nice, a little hilly, but not terrible. The half we did a few weeks ago was worse haha. I did my best to keep a steady pace and at the half way point, I realized I was keeping an average of a 9:30 pace. I was thrilled with that.

In all honesty it felt like the time went by really fast and before I knew I was at the 12 mile mark. I couldn't believe that I was almost finished. I turned the last corner and realized that the last .5 mile was all downhill! Whoever designed this course was brilliant! 

I could see the finish line and I felt instant relief and I saw friends at the finish line. I crossed and stopped my watch, I was shocked when I saw 2:07! I PR'd my half time by over 10 minutes. I was blown away. My gun time was 2:13:14 but my chip time was 2:07:47! 

 Lauren was awesome and snapped these photos for me!

It was such an amazing event! It was so fun running with friends.

I really hope that we are here for another year because I would love to run this again!