Half Marathon

After 10 weeks of training, a few blisters and muscles cramps, it was finally time to run my half marathon.  The race was the inaugural Bill Snyder Highway Half Marathon.  What could be better than running through the Flint Hills, the town of Manhattan, K-State's beautiful campus, and finishing at Bill Snyder Family Stadium-- it didn't take much to talk me into this race.  It also turned out to be a family and friends affair as my older brother and my best friend with whom I ran hundreds of miles over the years through track and cross country were joining me in running the half marathon.  My cousin and another friend from college were signed up for the 5K.  The best thing about the weekend was even if running was miserable at least there would be some great company.

One Friday evening my friend Hillary and cousin Eleanor came over for a pre-race pasta dinner. We enjoyed the carbo loading as well as eating Hillary's caramel brownies.  Frankly, the only reason Hillary talks me into doing some of these races is because she promises brownies.  They are delicious-- even worth running 13 miles for.  Saturday morning Arthur willingly woke up at 5am to drop off my brother and I at the shuttle bus.  We met Hillary there and the bus took us out the the starting line which was 8 miles out of town.  We got to the starting line about an hour before the race started so we milled around in a field with all the other runners trying to stay warm.  We did come across several other people that we knew so the time passed quickly between catching up with old friends, standing in line for the porta potty, and stretching or warming up.  Earlier in the week one of my co-workers was asking about the race and we were discussing the weather forecast which was calling for rain during the entire race.  He made the comment that if it was any other event there wouldn't be a great turn out if the weather was bad but runners on the other hand seem to flock to unpleasant circumstances-- getting up before dawn on a Saturday, standing in the cold, undaunted by rain, wind, or other weather phenomenon, just to inflict a few hours of pain on one's self for the fun of it.

The course started out on Bill Snyder Highway, the 8 miles of highway leading into Manhattan from I-70 through the heart of the Flint Hills.  They blocked off one lane of the highway for the race.  Once we started running the morning couldn't have been more perfect.  It was cool and overcast, with a light tailwind-- couldn't ask for more with distance running and it didn't rain at all during the race.  The Flint Hills were so

green with all the wet weather.  Looking down the road there was just a snaking line of runners that disappeared over the crest of one hill and up another as far as you could see.  It was also strangely quiet-- there were over a thousand runners but no sound besides footstep, heavy breathing, and the birds.  The nice thing about the course out on the highway was that the majority of it headed down hill into the river valley.  Hillary and I were running together so we made a few comments back and forth, mostly me asking her to slow down since our pace was quite a bit faster that we planned and you don't want to burn out with 8 or 9 miles left.  As we cross the river into town we had 5 miles to go.  There were many more spectators and more to look at as we ran through the business district, around City Park, and through Aggieville (I was hoping it wasn't too early to stop at ColdStone but Hillary made me continue running).  During this part of the race we caught our second wind and were feeling pretty good.  We then turned the corner into campus and encountered a decent hill just after mile 10.  I didn't even take in the splendor of the iconic Anderson Hall as we were running by--I was more concerned about why my legs had suddenly turned to jelly and the second wind had vanished from my sails.  At this point the rest of the race wasn't necessarily fun but more about getting it over with.  This may sound terrible, but when running it is a blessing to really enjoy the first 10 miles-- it's much worse if this feeling hits at mile 7 when you are barely half way home. There were a few more inclines scattered throughout the next few miles and some unexpected detours to make the course long enough that I wasn't expecting, such as running a lap around the parking lot of the football stadium before the finish line-- this was another soul crushing moment.  Hillary and I turned the last corner and even found another gear before crossing the finish line.  We beat our goal time by 8 minutes which was exciting and we weren't completely miserable, just unable to walk properly-- so the race was a complete success.  My brother also ran a PR (personal record) so he was very excited about that but found out that he finished 5th in his age group.  The top three finishers in each group were presented medals from Bill Snyder himself.

 Hillary and I have ran 2 half marathons before-- both in Lincoln, NE that finished at the University of Nebraska's football stadium.  Each year we got our picture taken in front of the statue outside their stadium (which I just found out is a depiction of 6 huskers tackling a K-State player-- oh well).  We decided to recreate this picture with the bronze statue in front of K-State's stadium of Bill Snyder.

After the race and a nice shower, our group of running fools, headed out for lunch at IHOP.  My raspberry and white chocolate chip pancakes were just what I needed followed up with a nice long nap.  Of course, running a race like this takes a support crew.  My cousin Eleanor and friend Delores ran the 5K but then cam and cheered us on at different points along the route.  Delores and her mom were going to town with their cowbell and noise maker cheering us on the last mile and a half. My sister-in-law was near the finish to encourage the last big push.  Eleanor and Arthur cheered and took pictures for us.  Arthur even ran a few blocks to get several shots of us running at one point.  He's also had to deal with me training a few days a week which means I'm not in the mood to cook real dinners and he has pitched in to cook a few times or eaten whatever I scrounged up.  I thanked him for being so supportive and his comment was, "I'm am more than happy to as long as it means I don't have to run it with you."  Omni Vincit Amor.

I have no idea why this picture is sideways--Blogger will not accept that I have rotated it properly but I didn't have the energy to mess with it any more so please just turn your head sideways since technology has stumped me.