Race Review - The Lee's Summit Half Marathon 9.20.2015

On Sunday I ran my 35th half marathon, the inaugural Lee's Summit Half Marathon, which started and finished in Downtown Lee's Summit, MO. The weather lately has been just perfect for running, and Sunday was no exception. Clear and crisp, yet warm enough to start in a t-shirt and sleeves. It warmed up a bit as the race went on, but never got too hot.

As I was walking around, I saw a flicker of the INKnBURN Chameleon capris on someone, and had to stop and say hello. Turns out it was none other than RunningForPieAndCoffee, a woman on instagram that I've been following for a while. We both love pie, coffee, and InB, and it just gets crazier from there. It was really great to put a name to a face though, and connect.

Wearing our INKnBURN best!

There was an 8am start time, which seemed a little late, but it was fine. This gave me time to connect at the start line with other runners since I was pacing the 2:55 group with my SmartPacing team, and my partner was Sharon. We've paced several races together, and always have fun. She takes the lead position, so she is always on time, keeping steady at the 2:55 pace. If you want to finish at that time, you stick with her. I take the tail position, and get to have a bit more leniency with my time as I am there to be the cheer leader, and help those in the back of the time group. I'm allowed to finish up to 2:30 minutes later than my prescribed time.

Sharon and I at the start of the race.

The race was on the smaller side, with just 375 runners, so our group was small to begin with. Sharon and I started out together and for the first 2.5 miles or so we kept in fairly close distance. I pulled out my Trivia Pursuit cards and engaged the group in some fun, light questions to keep those first miles going. After the first aid station Sharon pulled ahead and I worked with some runner to leap frog up the current hill we were on.

The race kept going, and so did we. I kept my group motivated and going with more trivia, singing (badly), telling stories about past races and costumes worn, stories about my kids and family, and whatever else I could come up with in the moment to keep the focus off their feet and to just keep moving forward.

The 2:5FUN group about mile 5 had to stop for a selfie!

About mile 8 I'd lost the majority of my group to them speeding up or slowing way down, but one woman stayed with me. She was getting tired, but I was not going to let her give up or give in. She tried to get me to go on several times, but I knew I couldn't leave her. So we ran and walked and walked some more. I let the 3:00 pacer pass me. I connected with Sharon when we passed each other to let her know I'd blown the pace time, but I wasn't going to leave this woman out on the course. Sharon agreed with me, and off she want to keep the pace and finish on time. For 5 miles I kept at it, encouraging and never letting her mentally check out of the race. We even picked up the pace just a bit on the final mile. We finished. The time was 3:00:36, and it certainly wasn't pretty, but a finish is a finish is a finish. You still get the same medal as the first guy.  Together we shaved a full 15 minutes off her PR record. We CRUSHED it! Talk about a huge moment. I gave her a hug at the end, and told her I was so proud that she never gave up or gave in. She stuck with it, and gave it all she had. And then she said thank you.

After we'd finished.

And that is why I run.

The finishers medal