Running With Hart: Race Review: Longview Half Marathon 11.14.2015

Saturday morning began my double half marathon weekend, my 6th half of the Fall season, and my 38th lifetime half marathon. The race was Longview Half Marathon at Longview Lake in Grandview, MO. With a start time of 8am, and a 30 minute drive plus I still needed to snag my packet, I left the house about 5:45am. (Or as some call it, O-Dark-Thirty.) After some construction on the highway, I finally arrived about 6:30am. I grabbed my packet and headed back to the car to stay warm for a while. It was pretty cold outside, think upper 40s, and I didn't want to just stand around and get cold and stiff.

My last race to suit up as a racer pacer for 2015.

Some of the racer pacers at the start line.

About 15 minutes before the start of the race, I lined up at the 2:55 spot and started to say hello to those around me that would be making the race. I didn't have a huge group with me, but my pacing partner, Layne, and I were ready to have a good time no matter what.

The race started out well. We were supposed to run along Longview Lake, but mostly it was on the roadways by the lake. We could see the lake at times, but it wasn't all that great of a view. If I'm going to run along a lake, I'd rather be on a trail actually close to it, than a road kinda close with just ok views. Just after mile 2 is the race-within-a-race, the King/Queen of the hill event. And an event it is. The hill is pretty darn steep, and long. The race sets up timing mats at the beginning of the hill and at the end, and even if you don't win the race overall, you can still win the King/Queen of the hill. To give you an idea about how fun? this hill is, the winner was 4:35. I did it in 12:07 with the 2:55 pacing group. It is a giant of a hill. But at the top they take your picture. And it goes a little something like this when you photobomb people.

Jump-photobombing some people!

After the big hill you turn around and go back down it. From there it is a series of little out and backs until mile 6 when you again run a stretch of highway with no lake in site for several miles. Being a cold, windy, and gray day, running on gray highway wasn't that exciting. It also didn't help that I ran by myself quite a bit as the people at my pace were either slower or faster.

Around the 10 mile the course ended up going out over a bridge and we saw lots of the lake then. Lots of the lake wind could also be felt then, but the view was nice. It was short lived though, as back to the gray highway we went for the final two mile stretch into home.

Jumping on the bridge

Finally we made it home. I was able to pull in a few people in the last mile of the race, and had a finish time of 2:54:57. Right on target for the 2:55 pace time.

This race was well supported, organized, had great volunteers, medical support, water stops, and start/finish line. However, it was just boring. A long, cold, windy, gray run. Longview Lake is beautiful, and I love the idea of the location. I even like the King of the Hill game. But this race is just a lot of highway miles. I'm not sure there are trails to run on to try and improve the views.