Well, I have hit a half marathon MILESTONE! I finished my 20th half marathon last month. This race was the St. Louis GO! Half Marathon, which is the major Spring half marathon in St. Louis. I don’t know why I keep running these races, because it isn’t easy… but, I’m still enjoying them and the benefits running gives me overall. I have been running since Autumn was born in 2008! I never ran before that… hated running, but here I am at 46 years old and I’ve completed 20 half marathons (and 1 full marathon!). Yeahhh! So, this race was a tough one with the temperature getting up to 70 degrees when I finished, it was HUMID and the new course was HILLY. But, I felt REALLY strong throughout the entire race and I actually think I could have even pushed myself a little more and gotten a PR by a few seconds (ha!), but I was afraid to do that at the end, because sometimes it can backfire. I finished at 2:07:40 at a 9:45 pace and this is my 4th best half marathon time. I was REALLY proud of that time and felt good about it when I finished.
My training this time around was NOT good, so I was really surprised by how well I did… I was expecting much worse. I had a vacation near the end of training, I had a couple of weeks of poor eating choices (and some weight gain) annnd I was fatigued with lots going on at home (nothing bad, just senior year stuff, catching up from vacation, etc.). But, SURPRISE, surprise I held in there and felt pretty strong! That’s how running is… sometimes you just get a really good day even after a couple of bad weeks! You just can’t predict ANY of your runs.
This race was in downtown St. Louis and we ran over the Mississippi into East St. Louis (in Illinois) and then came back into downtown St. Louis. We were running towards the St. Louis Arch at sunrise and that was really pretty! The bridge I thought I’d like more, but it was a lot of running uphill to get up to it and then I felt like it didn’t feel like there was a lot of downhill to get down off it. Go figure! We ran over to the brewery and then around Lafayette Park, which is the park where Brian and I had our wedding photos. Lots of fun sites to see throughout the course. I wish I could run and snap photos, but there is just NO way.
Here is a photo from off of the website from one of their professional photographers. I really like this photo because (1) I don’t look like I’m about to die, like I do in most of these photos and (2) I’m at the FINISH line and I’m smiling!
The medal that I earned. I added it to my huge rack of other medals. I’m getting to the point where I need another storage rack!
Well, here are my splits. You can tell that mile 12 was a major downhill mile, because my pace went down even though it was near the end of the race where I was pretty fatigued.
Here are my race stats for the 2023 MO’ Cowbell:
Time: 2:07:40
Pace: 9:45
For some reason I always seem to do better at my Spring half marathons versus my Fall half. I have no idea why, because I feel I always train better in the Summer leading up to the Fall half marathon. I’ve decided to try a different Fall half marathon for this year and I’ll be doing the GO! Eureka Half. I have never ran it before, but the hills are at the beginning of the race versus the end like they are in MO’ Cowbell. Wish me luck!
And, I love to share a photo of the after race snacks. They had some good snacks this year, such as the Chocolate Chocolate chocolates and the gooey butter cake (all local STL treats). They also gave out running blankets that you can wrap up and carry, so cool!
After I went home, showered and rested for a bit we went out for a POST RACE feast! Hushpuppies and a lobster roll with fries at Peacemaker Lobster & Crab. OH, it really was SO, so good!
Check out my other race recaps and running posts HERE on Pinterest.
