Hospital Hill Half Marathon

Well, Saturday morning was the Hospital Hill Run in Kansas City. Got up about 5am, got dressed, had a Clif Bar for breakfast and some water and headed to Crown Plaza where the start was. Went to the bathroom at the Mall there and then made it to the starting line. Nice morning, in the 60s, overcast, not much wind and a chance of rain - but didn't look like if it did rain it would be much.

Race started at 7am, and went well. There were several pretty good sized hills, but the biking must be helping with leg strength because they didn't slow me down too much. Ran the first half mile or so with Judy and then picked up the pace. In the first mile the Garmin flaked out around the buildings and added about .6 miles to my run real fast. I hit the new lap button at the mile one marker and after that it had the usual 1% addition to miles that is seems to have, so the 12.1 miles registered as 12.18 on the Garmin, not too bad. It took me a while to get in a groove, but once I did, I was making good time. I passed the 2:15 pace setter and thought that if I could have a few good miles, I could stay ahead of him even if I slowed at th end. At an aid station around mile 11 I heard someone say 'go 2:15ers!' and when I looked over my shoulder, there the guy was. I walked for a bit to drink my water, then got going again, passing him and staying ahead of him to the finish. Official time was 2:12:35, pace was 10:08. Splits were as follows, approx 11:13 (garmin issues), 10:41, 9:35, 9:25, 10:10, 10:15, 10:07, 9:55, 9:43, 9:35, 10:48, 10:15, 9:22 and 1:25 for the final .18 miles (8:04 pace, finishing strong). I walked while drinking water and gatorade and I think I walked up one or possibly two hills for a bit, but only for a bit. My average heart rate was 168 for the half marathon, quite high, but I never felt winded or that I couldn't continue, in fact at the finish I felt I could run several more miles. The last 4 miles my AHR was 171, 171, 172 and 173, with a AHR of 177 over the last .18 miles.

I then went and got our bag from the car, went to the bathroom, had a banana and some recovery drink, then went back to the finish line and waited for Judy. She came in at 2:47:22, pace of 12:47, which was better than she expected. We then got some snacks. We asked a few of the volunteers where the pancakes were, and they didn't know ... so we asked one of the non-volunteers and he pointed us to a big tent. Mmmmmmm, pancakes! They were smalish ones (about 6" diameter) but the guy cookin' them was entertaining and flippin' them all over the place, heh. I ended up having 7 of them, they were very good.

Headed back to our friends house that we were staying at (Thanks Patro!), showered, relaxed for a bit, then got going. We hit Gates' BBQ on the way out of town, very tasty, and I managed not to overeat too much, heh. Drive back was fairly easy, relaxed and went to bed.

Overall, fun run - well organized for the most part, expo was more or less non-existant though. Great pancakes - too bad there was no cold or even cool water at the finish. Since it's nearby, I expect on running it again sometime.