Like my tights? INKnBURN made them!
The SmartPacing team for the 2015 Kansas City Marathon
I serve as an on-the-spot cheerleader, someone who encourages, distracts, assists, and doesn't let you fail. I really love that role, and love it at this race even more. This is the big race for Kansas City; the one with all the cards. The whole city comes out to support the 10,000 runners to flood the city on a Saturday each October for one morning. It is a special day in the city, and for the past couple of years has been even more special because our Boys In Blue (aka The Royals) have been in the post-season, so you see a lot of blue on the streets. #GoRoyals #TakeTheCrown
This year I was placed at the 2:55 group (I mean 2:50-FUN!), and I ended up in the lead pacer position. I haven't ever been the lead pacer, but I jumped to the challenge, and gave it my best go. At the start of the race I tried to connect and say hello to as many runners in my group as possible. We played our 'air band' instruments (I did guitar and drums), danced a bit, and took a selfie (duh).
At 7:00am the gun was shot, and the race was off. It was 8+ minutes before we crossed the start line, but the party was on. We were rockin'!
A couple of miles in the sun finally came out, so I had to dig out my sunglasses, and it warmed up a bit. Not enough to take off the hat and gloves, but it wasn't quite so cold. As a group, we worked the hills, climbing them light pole by light pole. We were grooving! So much so, that we had to stop and take another selfie about mile 3.
About Mile 8 I started to realize that my watch was off on the mile markers laid out by the race. When the mile marker said 8, others around me had a reading of 8.15, and my watch was reading 8.25. This really threw me off, and I knew that I was going to have a hard time reaching my pace time of 2:55. I encouraged those around me that wanted to reach an official time of 2:55 or less to try and speed up their pace. I received a lot of 'I just want to finish' from the crowd around me. I totally understand that. The newness of the race has worn off, and about that time you are thinking things like "Why the hell did I sign up for this?" and "OMG, it is over yet?" Racing can be tough on the brain, and having a pacer along for the ride really helps. Being a pacer, you need to stay calm, cool, and collected. I didn't want to show too much about being off time, but I wanted to make those around me aware of my error.
Mile 12 rolled up, and I really started to encourage all those around me to start to think about only having a mile left in the race, and if they were reaching for a certain time to keep that in mind. The last half mile is a tough stretch, with a pretty big, long hill at the end. At that point I really wanted those around me to give it all they had, and empty their tank. I always want people to finish strong and confident, and I saw a lot of that happening. Awesome!
I ended up finishing the race at 2:57:00. Not the goal time I was reaching for, but I learned some things from this race. First - I like being the tailer pacer. I like having that little bit of leeway and flexibility. I like being the cheerleader. As a lead pacer, I think I need to lose a bit of the cheering and focus more on my watch. So I'll have to work on that for the next race. I also learned that I need to be able to adjust my pace to what the mile markers are saying. I think that goes hand in hand with being a lead pacer, and again, I'll work on that. I want to be able to deliver the time I've been asked to keep. Live and learn on this one.
Over all, another great race hosted by Kansas City. Love it!
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