I decided to try a new half marathon this fall and I landed up with my first PR in years! Yay! I signed up for The Great GO! Halloween Half Marathon, which was in Eureka, MO. I landed up with a 2+ minute PR!! I finished at a 9:32 pace and my time was 2:04:48. I had set a goal of 9:35 for myself, but I beat my goal by a bit. I have been in a rut for a long time with my runs and I decided to hire a coach this time around. WOW! I was training all wrong and with her guidance, she taught me a lot about how to train correctly and efficiently. I plan to do another blog post just about my coaching experience sometime before my Spring half marathon. So stay tuned for that! A couple things that I did differently this time was doing 100% of my training runs outside (no treadmill runs, I used to do 2 out of 3 of my weekly runs on the treadmill) and she added speed workouts (which I hate, but they help SO much!). I loved training with her SO much that I’m going to continue to train with her during the off season and for my next half marathon.
This race wasn’t as scenic as some of my other races I’ve done. There was a 10K race going on with the half marathon and I felt that portion of the race was the most scenic with the sun rising over the corn fields with a soft haze, some neighborhoods with really fun Halloween decor and then we ran through old town Eureka and there were some really cute shops. The half marathon portion we did a lot of out and backs and it was mainly running along side highway 44 (we couldn’t see the highway, but I could hear some traffic noise) and then we ran along the Meramec River (again, couldn’t see due to lots off trees, etc.). This race was a lot smaller than previous half marathons I’ve done. There was about 600 people doing the half marathon (and then we had the 10K people for part of it), but some of the other St. Louis races have 2,500+ people. As a result, we had a lot of very narrow parts to run on and it felt slightly crowded at times. We also had some short parts where we had to run on gravel, which isn’t my favorite during races. I do prefer the big, open and wide streets at the bigger half marathons. However, I do think I would do this race again! The first 4 miles of the race has 2 really big hills and some other rolling hills, but once you get through that it is really flat and fast… which I loved!! Plus, if I’m going to have some big hills, give them to me at the start of the race and not at the end… I feel I can handle them better at the start of a race!
The race started at 7:00 a.m. and the sun didn’t rise until 7:15 a.m. It was my first time using a porta potty in the dark! Ha, ha! Thank goodness for my Apple Watch flashlight! It was about 42 degrees at start, but I ran with my tank top and shorts, because I knew after a mile or two I would heat up and not want my jacket. The worst thing to me is carrying a jacket around my waist for more than 2/3’s of the race, so I just suffered and was cold till my body warmed up.
My shiny new medal!
Well, here are my splits. I ran the first four miles slower to warm up/ease into the race and that was where the significant hills were. Then I went into a tempo pace for about 6 miles. Then I dug deep and tried to keep going as fast as I could, because I really wanted that PR!!
Here are my race stats for the 2024 Great GO! Halloween Race.
Time: 2:04:48
Pace: 9:32
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, a Pasta House roll and I always crave something salty after a race such as Lay’s Potato Chips!
My post race meal was the 5 Cheese Ziti at Olive Garden. I went with the teens and my mom, because Brian had to leave for a work trip. (He’s back now, because I’m posting this a week later.) It was SO good!
Check out my other race recaps and running posts HERE on Pinterest.
