Rock'N'Roll St. Louis Race Report

Two straight weekends that I have raced and I have loved every minute of it.  Sure I had to travel a bit but it was worth it.  It just so happened that our race overlapped with the World Series which was awesome.  I was able to support my favorite MLB team in the World Series while in St. Louis, what could be better.  Maybe if I had tickets, sure, but I don't have that kind of money haha.

Anyways, ever since Competitor's decision to drop elite athlete support, I decided that I wasn't going to do any of their events.  Well, I had signed up for this race back in June on "National Running Day" since it was deeply discounted and Casey wanted to do a 1/2 marathon where we would both compete.  And it also gave us an opportunity to visit her parents.  So, no more Competitor races for me, but I did go ahead and run this one since I was already signed up.

My week going into the race wasn't the best training wise.  I felt a little sluggish and sore from the 10k the previous weekend and my "tune up" workout a few days before the race didn't feel very good.  We left for St. Louis on Friday, watched a lot of football and baseball on Saturday, and woke up super early on Sunday for the race.  Since there were no "elites" I wasn't sure how close I would be to the front.  Maybe a few fast locals show up, maybe no fast guys show up, maybe something I didn't even think about happens???  I knew that I was capable of running right around 1:12-1:15 depending on the day/course/etc.

Pre Race Pic about 10 minutes before the start.

Pre race, my In-laws really helped out with our warm up clothes, parking, getting up to the start line without any hassle what so ever.  They were a huge help.  Brad and Kim took our warmer clothes and wished us luck.  I stood on the start line for 5 minutes before the gun went off.  I made sure to be there on time, ha.  At 7 am, we were off.

I settled into my pace which is always hard to judge for the first 1/2 mile or so.  I ran with the 2 leaders until we hit the mile mark at 5:25.  I knew it was a little fast, but it felt good so I stuck with them.  After 2-3 minutes, one guy dropped back a little and the other started to put a small gap on myself.  We all kind of settled into our own paces and that is about how the rest of the race went.  2 miles was right around 10:55 and about 5 seconds behind the leader.

Cruising through the 5 mile mark.

I went through the 5 mile mark right around 27:55.  The leader had a larger gap now and it was only growing.  I held onto my pace and kept it smooth.  I went through 8 miles just under 45 minutes and 10 miles at 56:15.  My next mile was a little uphill but nothing killer.  I ran a 5:50 mile and got a little worried.  I thought the wheels were falling off and I still had 2 miles to go.  Luckily, the next mile was mostly downhill and I ran a 5:15 mile.  I settled back into my pace of between 5:30-5:40 miles and crossed the finish line in 1:13:28.  The winner ended up running under 1:11 so I was no where near him and third place crossed the line about 1 minute or so behind me.  Considering there was 13,000 people in the race, I didn't expect to finish in the top 3 but was happy regardless.

Coming Down the Home Stretch.

I was very happy with the effort and glad it was over.  Brad and Kim were right there to get these amazing pictures and hand me my warmer clothes.  I jogged back to cheer for Casey as my cooldown.  She ran a huge PR and then we had a HUGE Panera breakfast afterwards.  We laid around and watched the Lions and Cowboys go back and forth while cheering for our Fantasy football players and napping.

Sunday evening after attending the World Series Pep Rally.

Just a little Superman pose while at a Rest Stop in Illinois on the way home.

That evening we went downtown to enjoy some World Series festivities and then watched the game at a bar for the first few innings before heading home to get some much needed sleep.