Over the past few posts, I’ve discussed the races that I’ve done over the recent months. My overall goal race was the Garmin Marathon in April, but I had looked forward to tackling the Hospital Hill Run Half Marathon which occurred on June 1, 2019. I was a bit worried doing back-to-back half marathons, but this was a race that I’ve always wanted to run because of the numerous hills. So, I put down my money and accepted the challenge.

The race begins and ends at Crown Center in the downtown area of Kansas City. The route goes north up to Truman Road (just south of I-670) and cuts over to turn south down to the Country Club Plaza and then back north to Crown Center. For anyone not familiar with this area of Kansas City, this includes a lot of hills, for which this race has a reputation.

The weather was beautiful and only a little humid. There were thousands lined up with me, making for a fantastic running experience. 5K and 10K runners also ran along with us, peeling off at different parts of the race. It was fun to be able to cheer them on as they turned to finish, but even more encouraging were their cheers for us as we continued farther on down the road.

This is the largest race I’ve been in, but it was well organized. There were frequent water & Gatorade stops with tables and volunteers on both sides of the road. I’m used to having one or two table-lengths of cups and volunteers from my experience at previous races; however, there were like six to eight lengths of tables on both sides of the road with people passing out water and Gatorade. I was never left lacking for water along this route. As noted in my pictures, I did wear my water belt, but was never in need of using my own water except when I chose to have a Gu Gel earlier than the first Gu stop. 

I ran with the 2:20 pacer the whole race, but he encouraged me to pick up my speed when we reached mile 12. We had steadily gained time with each mile, which was amazing considering the number of hills encountered on this route. With the gained time and the much faster last mile (which is almost all downhill), I was able to finish the race at 2:15:27.

In addition to the massive medal that was placed around my neck upon crossing the finish line, a cold, wet towel was placed over the back of my neck and was absolutely fantastic. This will come in handy on future runs and bike rides. 

Boulevard Brewing Co was at the finish line festivities, handing out full pours of Easy Sport, their tasty “sports drink”; it was quite refreshing and made for a great end to a great morning.

I ran a couple half marathons over the past 2 weeks – one of them being my favorite race and the other being one I’ve feared, but have always wanted to do. This is a recap of my favorite race, the 2019 Bill Snyder Highway Half Marathon. 

BILL SYNDER HIGHWAY HALF MARATHON

The first running of this race was my very first race, the 2015 Bill Snyder Highway Half Marathon. Therefore, I’m a little sentimental when it comes to this race. Excitingly, it was announced that we end on the 50-yard-line of the Bill Snyder Family Stadium (normally ends in the parking lot outside the stadium). This was going to be very exciting. When I talked to one of my best friends from the KC Symphony Chorus, Craig, he decided that he wanted to do the race this year – his first every half marathon. 

Craig quickly noted that he would not be able to run the same pace as I’d been running, but I wasn’t worried about my time at all – I wanted him to have a fun experience and have someone to run along the whole way. I’d already run this race twice, so this was going to be HIS race, not mine. 

We arrived outside the Bill Snyder Family Stadium at 5:20 am to get our bus ride out to the start line which is nearly at I-70 on KS Highway 177 (the Bill Snyder Highway). 

We waited in the tent, staying out of the cool wind and waited for everyone else to be shuttled out for the start at 7:00 am.

Another Chorus friend, Mark, joined us at the beginning.This was also Mark’s 3rd year running this race. 

We did a combination of running and walking, first along the 8 miles on the highway into town. Then we went down Poyntz, around City Park, through Aggieville, through the KSU campus, and eventually ending at the football stadium.

We finished in 3:10:45. It was very fun seeing ourselves on the large Jumbotron as we were running in and hearing our names and hometowns announced overhead. 

Four of us from the KC Symphony Chorus ran this race. In fact, it was also the first half marathon for Dave, seen here in red. 

The most cool part, however, was having Bill Snyder there to take pictures and sign autographs. He signed the back of our medals. So very, very cool. 

Over the past few months, I’ve run a marathon and a couple half marathons. I had every intent of discussing them after each race, but life happens and time moves on – and then I get to write a post well after everything happened. So, here’s the recap of the 2019 Garmin Marathon.  

GARMIN MARATHON

The 2019 Garmin Marathon occurred on April 13 in Olathe. It started out at 35 degrees at race time. I had recently been running in 50 degree weather and was prepared to finally run in shorts and short sleeve t-shirt, but wasn’t going to happen on this day. 

Linda was there to cheer me on in the beginning and every few miles along the race route. It is awesome to have someone out there ringing a cowbell to cheer you on as you’re chugging away mile after mile. It brought a smile to my face and everyone around me always commented on having my own cheering section. It was also great having Linda there to hand off my gloves when I no longer needed them as it warmed up into the upper 40s; if only I could’ve switched into shorts by that time. 

I was looking for an improved time over my results over the last two years. I’d made some rookie mistakes in the first race and wasn’t quite trained as well as I’d hoped last year. My plan this was was to run with the pacer the whole way and not get dropped. 

I lined up with the 4:45 pacer and stayed with him all the way to the end. Running with Todd, my pacer, was the best choice I made all day. We had great conversations and learned of our shared interest in craft beer. Whenever we talked about beer, our pace would pick up and we’d have to back off the next mile. In fact, we gained so much time as we went along that I was able to finish in 4:43:19, almost 5 minutes faster than my best time achieved last year (was 4:48:41 last year and 4:52:54 two years ago). 

The best part of the day was having my sister-in-law, Elaine, join me on the public trail portion of the race at about mile 17. Thank you, Elaine, for keeping me engaged and encouraged all the way to the end.