Rock the Parkway 1/2

About 6 months ago, a few members of the group suggested running in the Heartland 39.3 Series. Essentially, it is three 1/2 marathons (Rock the Parkway, Garmin, Running with the Cows) within a 5 week period. Yikes, that's a lot of running mileage for this gal! Since IM KS 70.3 has been my main focus for this season, taking on the 39.3 series is not something I could do this year. What's really exciting is that five members of the group decided to take on the 39.3 series! I'm so proud of them! I know that all their hard work and dedication will allow them to successfully complete the 39.3 series.

Back to Rock the Parkway Race (RtP), the 1st in the Heartland 39.3 Series, Weekend events:

Friday -  Packet pickup and lunch with Jackie, Jane, Mary and me. The participant guide for Rock the

Overland Park Convention Center
(last year's packet pickup location)

Parkway stated that the pick up location and expo for this year was in a new, bigger location--The Overland Park International Trade Center. Whenever I see the word "expo" I get all giddy. I love going to race expos and seeing all the new, cool running gear available. Plus, I love freebies.I picked up the ladies and we drove to Overland Park Convention which is about 45 minutes from where we live. Did you notice that I just wrote the name of two different places? Ooops--we were in the wrong place (1st bad sign)! The nice usher inside the OP Convention Center said that this was the location for packet pickup last year, not this year. Back in the car we went and after a quick drive, we were in the correct location.

Overland Park International Trade Center
(This year's packet pickup location)

Wow--What a great expo--lots of info on upcoming races and great shopping! First stop was the Heartland 39.3 Series booth so that Mary could get her 39.3 stuff. Then we made our way over to RtP booth to pick up our t-shirts, bibs and timing chips and then we visited each of the booths at the expo.

Meeting Karli Ritter, local meteorologist
and 1/2 marathoner.
http://karliritter.blog.com/2014/02/10/heroes-for-hospice-5k/

Meeting Stephanie, the official pacer for
the 2:20 group. 

Saturday - Race morning
The plan was to meet at 5:45am and carpool to the race site. When I walked outside to meet everyone I remember noticing how warm it was outside so early in the morning. It was 56 degrees before sunrise and the high was going to be in the 70's and humid (2nd bad sign). The temperatures for all of my outside runs before the race were between 30's to 50's. So, I should have realized that this run was probably going to be difficult in terms of temperature and humidity. In the car, we discussed pacing again. The group was going to run with the official 2:20 pace group which meant that they would all PR for this race (my PR is a 1:59 from a previous race).

Start line selfies

We arrived at the race in plenty of time to take a potty break, find the rest of our group that was meeting us at the race and, most importantly, take pictures. Mary also discovered that she did not get her timing chip in her packet--that's bad! So, she had to go back to the Solutions table to get new chip and bib. Once she got everything she needed, we walked over to the start line with the 2:20 pace group. Because I was feeling pretty good, I decided that I was going to start with everyone and then I would run ahead and try to break the 2:00hr mark (3rd bad sign/decision). Ultimately, this was a very, very bad decision on my part--I should have stayed back since this should have been a training run for IM KS not a race that I needed to try for a PR.

Miles 1-3 went well. By mile 4, I was dying from leg & calf cramps and the heat--it was almost to the point that I wanted to take off my shirt and run in just a sports bra (lucky for everyone I didn't). By mile 9, Tacha had caught up to me and she was looking very strong. I told her to keep going and finish strong. By mile 10, the 2:20 pace group came up behind me and ran out in front of me. It took every ounce of strength in me to just keep up with the 2nd pacer of the 2:20 group. Eventually, they left me before mile 11. By mile 12, one of the spectators yelled out that we were coming up on the last hill (this course had more hills than I had anticipated) and that "it's all downhill from here". Yeah, right, dude..I've heard that one before. Eventually, I could see the finish line ahead of me and I ran as fast as my legs could take me and just like that, it was finally over.

My finish time was 2:23 not, the sub 2:00 I was hoping. I definitely made a lot of mistakes on this race but in a way making these mistakes has taught some valuable lessons--so it's really a good thing for me! The most important lesson I learned from this race is to not make last minute changes and to stick to my original plan. Before this race, I considered running Running with the Cows 1/2 (the 3rd in the Heartland 39.3 series) but after this race, I think I'll stick to my IM KS 70.3 training plan and just go cheer my friends on at Running with the Cows and watch them complete their 39.3 series!

Next up: CSGC Sprint Triathlon on May 3.

Huge finishers' medals

We did it!

Rock the Parkway Finishers