Running With Hart: Race Review: Pilgrim Pacer 11.15.2015

This past Sunday I ran the second race of my double half marathon weekend - Pilgrim Pacer on the paved trails of Shawnee Mission Park in Shawnee, KS. It was a beautiful day for race, and the park was just gorgeous with the fall colors. Pilgrim Pacer is put on by the club Trail Nerds, and is pretty well organized. They did have an influx of last minute race entries this year, so not everyone got a medal at the finish line, but Trail Nerds will mail the medals when they arrive. I'm happy to hear the race is growing though as it really is a nice, well supported, out and back race.

Me at the start of the race rocking my INKnBURN Wildflower longsleeve tech and Liberty Capris.

The race starts off with a fairly long downhill - think over a mile. It makes ya feel pretty good to have such a nice, sweet start. I'd decided that I was going to use the 3-1 method for this race since I wasn't pacing! (Run 3 minutes, walk 1 minute.) I set my GymBoss MiniMAX for the intervals and was off. About 5 minutes into the race, I hear a, "Hey Melissa!" over my shoulder and turn to see my friend Lisa (who sells fabulous LuLaRoe clothing) running the race as well. Lisa and I are in a running club together, KC Express, so it was super fun to see a friend out there when I wasn't expecting anyone. Lisa is a solid runner, and can go much faster than I can. When I told her I was running intervals she hummed at the idea a bit, but when my walk time beeped at me, she joined me. And when the run time beeped at my a quick minute later, she thought it wasn't so bad after all.

After the nice downhill start the race levels off and is pretty flat for several miles. There is decent crowd support, and well placed water stops. The race was using HEED and water, and did have some food for fuel as well. I wasn't a big fan of the HEED. It tasted like liquid cotton candy, and smelled just as sweet. It didn't upset my tummy though, so I guess that is a good thing.

See, I can run without jumping.

Ok, jumping is fun too!

The turn-around for this race is at the end of about a half mile uphill climb. It isn't too steep, but it certainly is an up. The race is almost bowl shaped, a down, flat, up, turnaround, and then a down, flat, and an up.

I'm trying to improve my jumps. I've got the side jump, feet back down solid. The 'X' pose is a little hard to nail.

Lisa and I on the trails

Lisa and I ended up running the race together up until mile 12 when she was still feeling it, and I was getting tired and told her to go on and finish. That last mile of up was getting to me, but I didn't give up. I kept her in my sites the entire time and finished about 30 seconds behind her. It was her slowest half, but I had such a great time with her, and am so glad we could run together.