Bass Pro First Half

Since Casey and I had a couple of different race plans, I had my eyes on the women around us from the gun.  The woman I'd identified as "fast-looking" in the marathon took off faster than us, which meant operation-start-at-6:30 pace was underway, and we settled in together with our eyes ahead.  About a half mile in I told Sean and Abby that we weren't going to be running 6:45 pace so not to go with us.  We fell in with a couple of men we know, Ben (relay) and Doug (marathon), and met another man named Lucasz, who would end up running most of the marathon with us.

Start

Guess it's pretty clear I was eyeing my competition, hah!

I was pretty sure Casey and I were in 2-3 female positions, but with the half marathoners with us it was hard to know for sure.  Around the first mile, a lead cyclist dropped in with the woman in front of us, confirming our position.  When we passed Jon at mile 2.5 he told us that we were 2-3, with the leader just ahead.  Casey and I did some debriefing and planning, and my strategy was to run 6:30ish pace and see if we could reel in the leader, then sit just behind her once we did.  Casey and I would soon realize that we did not plan very well for the scenario of us not leading; most of our pre-race strategizing consisted of "Surely no one else is going to run sub-3; we can run 6:45 pace then finish holding hands, split the money, and our picture will be in Runners World", haha!  Our fantasies did not have this other woman ahead of us from the gun.

Casey and I had run the half marathon course for our long run the week before the race, and I kept thinking how race day really just felt like an uptempo long run with Casey!  The weather was beautiful, 6:30ish felt good, and we were optimistic.  We chatted with each other and the men around us, being positive and probably funny/dumb.

We slowly pulled the leading woman in, and when we caught her we fell in stride with her.  I thought it was too early to pass when we didn't have a time goal, though Casey was pushing/surging and I wasn't sure what was happening (we later learned that we had different strategies and we probably should have discussed things beforehand instead of taking for granted that no one else would run sub-3!).  I tried to send Casey some psychic messages and at one time tried to get her to read my lips, but we weren't on the same page, and we ended up just all 3 running pretty much side by side.  We met the other woman, Jacqui, and she probably thought we were a little much - if you've been around us together you'll understand (especially if you have road tripped with us, haha!).  We think we are hilarious anyway!

Power of the pack

We had a nice little group, including the lead female cyclist and several men.  We bantered and enjoyed the miles.  One of the guys asked the lead cyclist to turn on some music and he put on slow instrumental stuff and all I could think was that I hoped he wasn't playing that during the final 10k because it seemed like good music to die to!  

I was monitoring my splits after my poor pacing in Milwaukee, and I was interested in keeping it as easy as the others would let me...until around mile 11 Casey mentioned that she felt good and she might want to go for a PR.  Then I was really torn; should I push to try to help her to a PR or sit back and let the others set the pace?  I mentioned waiting until after Southern Hills, the hilliest part of the course from about miles 12-17, to crank it down, but I wasn't really sure what any of us were doing!

We got to know Jacqui, including learning that she normally does marathons after swimming 2.4 miles and biking 116 (i.e., she is an Ironman Triathlete), her sister ran in the 2016 and 2020 marathon trials, and she has known my friend Julie - who I met by running most of Bass Pro 2010 with her - since childhood.  Such a small world!  Whenever I meet my competitors I almost always really like them.

We hit mile 13 in about 1:26 - there wasn't a half mark or mat, and our lead cyclist said "about 1:27 for the half" and I proceeded to argue with him that it was a high 1:26, haha!  It seemed like everyone felt great at that point, and we were all in good spirits.  Casey and I were enjoying seeing familiar faces along the route and feeling like we were just on a workout or long run together.  Our cyclist told us we were by far the most interesting female race that Bass Pro has had - usually there is a clear and dominant leader, not a pack of 3 through halfway.

The story continues here.