Recap of my 23rd Half Marathon – MO’ Cowbell Half Marathon

Well, I have half marathon number 23 completed!! Do you think I’ll ever make it to 50 half marathons before my body gives out on me? Ha, ha! I’m 48, so it is a valid question. Ha! Ok, so this one was a TOUGHIE, but I knew that going into it. I’ve ran this course 3 other times and it is known for being hot and it has a 2 mile killer hill at the end… and then this year, due to road construction, it had an ADDITIONAL killer hill at mile 12 that was so steep that running up it was easier than running down it on fatigued legs!!!

My goal for this half marathon was to earn a COURSE PR and I succeeded! Yay!!! This was also my THIRD best half marathon time, all 3 have been since I started using my running coach Jacq! She is WONDERFUL! If you’re ever looking for someone, I can pass on her info. She works remotely, so it doesn’t matter where you are located.

This race felt a little wonky for me from the start… I started to get a weird ache/muscle soreness in my upper thigh in my taper week of ALL things. I had a weird one day stomach thing (and usually my stomach is solid) and it seemed to crop up after that. I’m not sure if somehow my muscles were fatigued and I ran on them and that caused it, but who really knows. I really tried to kind of just brush it off, because I was tapering… but, race day came and that annoying little sore muscle was still bothering me. It wasn’t horrible, but it was there and it made the race a little more challenging overall for me. I really think mentally, it affected me, but even the sore muscle aside I just felt a little off the entire race. Coming off of two really great past half marathons, I’m giving myself grace and I know not every race is going to be a dream. Even with the course PR, I was still a little disappointed in myself, which really is just me being stupid. Thankfully, I have time to rest up and heal myself before my 15K in December and then I’m planning on an out of town half marathon in the Spring at Lincoln’s hometown!! 

Ok, so let’s hop back to before the race. I don’t usually write much (or anything) about the running expo for race packet pick up, but it was kind of fun this time around!! They had a State Farm booth and you could make your own bobblehead. I picked a super woman!! We already have State Farm insurance, so they weren’t going to bother me to get insurance with them, so it worked out. Ha!

There were also some full size products to try. I grabbed a Throne Sport Coffee in Sea Salt Caramel and a Jalapeño Cheddar Meatstick, which sadly… I’m not sure what brand it is! It was good!

Sometimes at these Race Expos I’ll see something I want to buy… I’ve been seeing these Race Dots for a while now and I decided to take the plunge. Apparently I was in the super hero mood that day, so these are the ones I came home with. They worked really well on my race bib for the race!

MO’ Cowbell is the BIG half marathon for St. Louis in the fall. It has a really neat part where you run through Newtown and there are all these cute houses, a DJ and everyone in the community comes out and cheers you on. There are also a lot of really cool Halloween decorations.

I was excited to learn that Go Girl Run is doing a half marathon in St. Louis next fall, but it isn’t till November. I ran their Springfield, MO race last Spring and that was where I ran a sub 2:00 half (see my blog post HERE)! I’m not sure if I want to schedule a half marathon THAT late. I feel like I’ll be training through Halloween! Ha, ha! In any case, it is kind of exciting to get some new options for fall half marathons in the area. 

Here are my race stats for the 2025 Go Girl Run Half Marathon in Springfield.
Time: 2:06:13
Pace: 9:38

Here is a close up of my medal. The megaphone moves up and down, which is cute!

Check out my other race recaps and running posts HERE on Pinterest.