My SEVENTH Half Marathon Recap and Meal Plan Week 56

Last Sunday I ran… my SEVENTH half marathon. I know, I am crazy and I have no idea when I am going to stop running these things… or, when I’ll just go and sign up for a marathon already. But, I did it… I didn’t PR, but I did finish at 2:08:07, which is my second best time. I didn’t sulk about not PR’ing, because honestly… my PR’s are getting really hard to top! BUT, I am still dreaming about a 2:00 or sub 2:00 PR someday… I’ve knocked a half hour off of my time since I’ve been running these half marathons, so I really think it MIGHT happen… keep your fingers crossed for me. 🙂 



On Friday I went to the running expo to get my packet and to sample all of the goodies. The best sample this year was a wine slushy! OH yes!



My daughter even got to go to the running expo with me and she LOVES these things. They are always kid friendly! She even won TWO free tickets to Wehrenberg theater by spinning a wheel! Yay! She also got to color some cheer banners!



The night before I laid all of my stuff out… that really helps when you have to get up at 4:30 a.m. to make a 7:00 a.m. race! I tried the salted watermelon gel and it was really good! However, I have been having a harder and harder time downing these gels lately… I think I may switch to just regular jelly beans or gummy bears. I got a chocolate one on mile 7 and I couldn’t even do it, it just gummed up in my mouth. Anyone have any suggestions?! I have tried the running jelly beans and hate those, too. Altho, at mile 11 they were giving out dark chocolate from Crown Candy (a favorite local chocolate shop) and I couldn’t even eat that… I wanted to, tho!! At mile 11… I just wanted to be DONE.



Brian even got this amazing picture of me finishing! I was running so dang hard at the end, I wanted to get a 2:07~ time, but nope… it rolled into the 2:08. Only a runner understands how a minute means so much. lol. 🙂

So, how did I do? Here are my stats:

Finished: 2:08:07 (my best half time is 2:06:51 from the Go! Half last Spring)
Overall: 2,532 out of 6,253
Female: 1,104 out of 3,788
Age Group: 164 out of 563


Map of the Race

My Medal

How did I feel about the race?
I felt pretty good about this race… I actually did REALLY good on my pace until about mile 9-10. They changed the course of this race, so it wasn’t the same as the course I was used to from the last few years. They had a ‘race within a race’ called the bridge race… we ran over the Eads bridge and then came back and ran over the Martin Luther King bridge. It was funny, while we were running over the Eads bridge, I looked up and saw a drone in the sky! It was the first time I had ever seen one and it was kind of neat. What made the bridges hard was the fact that no fans were able to come and cheer us on… we were alone! Once we got over the Eads bridge we crossed from Missouri into Illinois and there was a huge church group that cheered us on.

I thought the course had a lot of hills… but, I also felt like I was running downhill a lot, too (what goes up must come down). The old course had a really steep hill called Holy hill by SLU and that used to be the old ‘race within a race’. I hated that hill. 😉 I don’t think I would say the new course is easier, I would say they were about equal… What I love about the Go! races is that they have pacers in the race and the entire race I was wondering why I hadn’t passed the 2:05 pacer! Well, around mile 9 or 10 he passed ME! I don’t remember ever passing him, but once he passed me I just couldn’t get caught back up to him again. 

So, now I must brag about the bridge race, since I didn’t PR on the half marathon race. 🙂 The bridge race (the race within this bigger race) was 3.5 miles and I ran it in 30:56, that is keeping a 8:49 pace! That was awesome for me 🙂 

What’s Next?
I am thinking about when I want to do a marathon. I am ready and I want to get it over with, because I plan to do it ONCE and only ONCE. I am thinking I may run either the Rock N Roll half (I love that race) or the Go! Halloween half (I have never done the half, but have done the 10k) this fall and then do the Go! marathon this Spring. We’ll see… Go! takes care of you, so I know I would have a good marathon experience. However, I also saw that the Chicago lottery is still open for their full for the fall and the weekend would work out perfect with my schedule… however, I’m just not sure how much training I need for a full and I sort of want to just wait until next Spring. I really need to prepare myself mentally for it. I also need to research what sort of special diet I need to do leading up to the race as I don’t follow a special diet for the half marathons… and, what I’ll need to feed my body DURING the marathon. There is also a pumpkin run in Chesterfield that is a 10k that I LOVE that I plan to do… and I need to figure out a 5k for this early summer, too.

Now… are you ready for this weeks Meal Plan? 

Meal Plan Week 56

Sunday – Dinner To Go