Garmin Kansas City Half Marathon: Hills & Thrills & What Could Go Wrong?

The short:

I continued my year of running races I've avoided because they aren't fast courses [or weather, or fields] at the Kansas City Half Marathon on October 16.  If I'd have known how hard the new course was, I probably wouldn't have run it, but I'm glad I was unaware because it was a fun experience!  I was 2nd overall female to my fast 26-year-old friend Jessi, and I missed the age 40 state record that I wanted by 21 seconds, but I really don't think I could have done anything differently to get those seconds on that course 13 days post-marathon.  My time was 1:24:06 on the hilliest half course I've ever run (over 800 ft of gain), which is probably equivalent to a high-1:21 on a flat course.  I was also reminded how very lucky I am to have running friend connections in the Kansas City area.

Race results are here.

My Strava activity is here.

Fast friends

The long:

Why not race a hilly half 13 days after a marathon?  I've run the Kansas City Half Marathon multiple times before - 8, I think - although not frequently in recent years (2015 and 2017 details).  After I narrowly missed the age 40 state half record of 1:23:45 in 80-90 degrees at Rock the Parkway in August, I started thinking about running this race to try for it - several times I have broken the single age record for my age at Rock the Parkway, but usually that race is in April.  I go to Kansas City monthly for work, so I scheduled my work trip for the 2 days prior to this race, and planned to race it if I recovered well from Milwaukee, or to pace the 1:35 group with my friend Andrew if I didn't.  I started getting excited about racing it about 5 days before, which was my cue that I was recovered enough to give it a go.

I met my friend Jessi, who lives in Kansas City, for a run a couple of days before the race and she mentioned that she was also running the half.  Jessi is a 1:15 half marathoner, so I knew I was racing for 2nd, even though she insisted she was not in top shape and was going to try to run with me.  I looked forward to her company for however many miles we could share.  I met my friend Andrew on Friday morning for a run on part of the course, including the monster hill that was mile 6.  Andrew, who lives in the area, told me that the course was the hilliest it's ever been, and "the perfect weather we are getting is wasted on this course", hah!

I was going to race in this but Jessi
talked me into a sports bra (which was
the correct choice, with gloves)

On race morning we did have perfect running weather: about 40 degrees and light wind.  I parked about a half mile from the start by Jessi, Andrew, and Josh.  We all warmed up together, and lamented about why we couldn't have had that weather for our recent marathons (Andrew and Josh ran Chicago the previous weekend).  We lined up in partial darkness for the 7:00 a.m. start, and I felt relaxed and ready to just see what happened.  I planned to run by effort and to go out conservatively, unsure what the course elevation would do to my splits, but knowing that it would not make them even.

Jessi and I went out together, and were out front for the women right away.  We had two cyclists near us, who told us they were there to help us through the course.  We talked a little bit, and the first 3 miles went by fairly quickly.  They were mostly light incline, with one steep hill that was about 150 m long.  My legs didn't love that but it was over quickly.  Overall I felt okay; not wonderful but not bad.  I didn't look at my splits, but Jessi was checking with each watch beep so I knew she knew where we were at, and I'd told her I hoped to average about 6:15 if the course was similar to in the past.  Miles 1-3 were 6:31, 6:25, 6:17 (grade-adjusted about 6:23, 6:13, 6:08). Mile 4 was pretty flat, and our split was 6:07 (grade-adjusted 6:05).  Mile 5 had a ton of drop, and before the race I'd told Jessi that we'd probably run it in 5:50 but that mile 6 would be 6:50 so it would even out.  We ended up running mile 5 in 5:45 (grade-adjusted 6:03, but it felt much easier), then we started up the 140+ ft climb that was mile 6.

I could tell Jessi felt better than me on that long hill, and I tried to stay with her but she gapped me a bit.  I ran mile 6 in 6:47 (grade-adjusted 6:09).  That was the first point in the race that I felt residual fatigue from my marathon.  I generally recover quickly from marathons, and this one was no different, but hills hit me in a different way!  I was able to pull back up with Jessi briefly after the long hill, but when the flat/decline stretch ended, she pulled ahead again on the next uphill as my legs protested the hill.  I aimed to keep an even effort, reminding myself that she had gone out very conservatively for her and would likely run a huge negative split.  Miles 7 and 8 were 6:15 and 6:04 for me.

At mile 8, we began a climb that would last until 10.5.  I felt fine on the flats and declines, but my legs were done with the uphills.  At this point, I could no longer be blissfully unaware, because we were running the old (~2007-2015) course backwards.  The final 2.5 miles of that course were always so fast because they were all downhill, though of course you'd earned it with the early climbs.  I never wanted to run up that business, but I found myself in that position this year and even worse I knew exactly what was happening!  The cyclist with me was super encouraging, which helped because I was in no man's land.  I could see men ahead of me, but until I crested the climb at 10.5, I didn't have the strength to think about pulling them in.  I lost a lot of time during this section, with splits of 6:25, 6:52, and 6:39.  Grade-adjusted they were pretty consistent at 6:15ish, but the 2.5 mile climb took a lot out of me.

Miles 12 and 13 flattened out, with some decline.  I felt much better and began chasing down the man in front of me.  At the mile 12 sign I took a look at the total time on my watch, and according to my (apparently incorrect) math, I thought I was going to break the record if I ran the last mile in 6:15 or under.  I'd hoped to have more wiggle room than that, but I knew I could run the final mile faster than that if it didn't have hills.  I was gaining on a man, and kept telling myself that if I caught him I'd get the record.  The encouraging cyclist was telling me it was time to start my kick, and I pushed with all I had left.  I caught the man just before the final turn on the course.  I had a split second of being proud of myself for catching him before he turned left with the marathoners and I turned right with the half...therefore I was kicking and he was nearing his halfway point, hah.  My legs were done, and of course there was yet another hill to get to the finish.  I passed the mile 26 sign for the marathon, willing my legs up the final 0.2.  My mile 12 and 13 splits were 6:07 and 6:12.  The final stretch seemed to take forever, my kick didn't seem very good, and the finishing clocks were on the 5k and 10k, so I couldn't see my time.  I tried to smile as I came through and the announcer said my name, but it might have been more of a grimace.  I stopped my watch a few seconds after I finished, and saw that I'd missed the record.

Finishing grimace/smile

Post-race, I found Jessi, the half female champ, and Chandler, who won the 10k.  We reunited with Josh before too long, and jogged back to our cars, me holding a bag full of water, bananas, chips, and my finishers medal.  After changing our shoes, putting on more clothes, and reconnecting with Andrew, we set off on a cool down.  The combination of the race's hills and standing around in the cold for a little longer than I should have before starting to run again made my legs very unhappy, but I got in 4+ more slow miles for the morning to round out 20 for the day...because this season isn't quite over yet!  Then it was onto brunch with Jessi.  We joked that we wanted one of everything on the menu, billed to the Kansas City Marathon for the top 2 female half finishers - wouldn't that be a great race award?

Preparing to cool down

This course slowed everyone down, but I think it hurt me more, relatively, since I was 13 days off a marathon.  I think I faired alright, but that I'd have done better, again relatively, on a flat course.  It's a lot easier to run fatigued on flatness than on elevation, a concept I'll remember the next time I schedule a race under similar circumstances.  I wouldn't have finished ahead of Jessi no matter what (she ran 1:21:37, including powering up that long hill and several sub-6:00 miles in her second half), so I placed as well as I could have.  I knew I wouldn't run super fast, but I know I could've gotten the state record on the old course that had about 520 ft of elevation gain - that extra 300 ft was a lot to add to an already hilly course!  It's disappointing when your best on the day isn't enough, but at the end of the day, it was big training day at about marathon pace on a route I'd never choose for a marathon pace workout.  The current age 40 record is going to stand, but I'm coming after the age 41 record after October 26!