Brad, Lana and I all started out together. Brad and Lana had a wager on who was going to win. I was pretty sure it wasn't going to be me. :) We ran about the first 2 or 3 miles together, keeping a pretty good pace of about 9:30 per mile. It was mostly down hill for that part, so it was a nice way to start the race.

Brad took off at about mile 2 or 3. Lana and I stayed together. Around mile 3 we changed directions and suddenly we felt warm because houses and trees were blocking the wind. It was lovely, but short-lived.

I felt like I was just going to fast, and around mile 6 there were some pretty steep hills. I told her I needed to walk up the steep parts, so we parted company. I kept her in my sights for a while but then she was gone.

Shortly after she left I started eating a granola bar. I had thought that by keeping it in my inner jacket pocket my body heat would keep it warm, but apparently I wasn't putting out enough heat. So it was basically frozen and kind of disgusting, I'm not gonna lie. I ate one bite and put it back in my pocket.

About mile 10 and 11 I started to feel really bad. I mean really, really bad. My legs were exhausted, my face was frozen in a grimace. I couldn't get warm. The dirt road parts were high elevation so the wind was fierce and there was nothing to block it. I was feeling hungry so I ate the rest of my frozen granola bar. I knew I was right on the edge of getting a PR so I just kept hammering through it. Mile 11 was my worst mile by far, my time was 11:45. All my other miles were in the 9's and 10's.

By the finish I was just going on sheer willpower. I did have to walk up some of the hills, but I was trying to walk only the steep parts and then run the rest. I was hurting pretty bad. This was probably the hardest race I've ever run...even harder than a marathon (at least, harder than the ones I've done).

I felt like I could not have run any faster or gone any further. I gave it pretty much all I had, which is saying something!

I got a 1/2 marathon PR on this race. The official results haven't been released, but according to my Garmin I beat my previous half-marathon time by over 1 minute...which is pretty awesome since the last half I ran was flat and on a beautiful sunny day!

Probably just train on more hills. I had some hilly training but I should have done better about running them consistently and for entire runs (rather than just a few miles of hills for each run).

Got some water, walked around in a daze until I spotted Brian and Lana, and then I sat on the ground. Yeah. I was tired. Brad finished in 2:05 and change, and Lana finished in 2:08 and change. They were both pretty proud of their times too.


Nothing! I don't think I could have done anything else on this day.


There were not enough bathrooms at the start or finish. I have never spent more time waiting in bathrooms than I did for this race. Other than that it was OK. At the end of the race they didn't have any food, you had to walk 3 blocks or so to the elementary school to get it. And nobody was telling the finishers where to go or anything. When you just gave an all-out effort to finish something like that, it's hard to use the brain power and it is nice to just have someone tell you "OK, now you need to go here and get some food." Also it would have been nice to have something hot to drink at the finish, like hot chocolate or coffee or anything, really. Even hot water! Other than that everyone was nice, there were plenty of volunteers, the course was well-marked. Plus for swag we got socks and a purple hoody with the Topeka to Auburn logo on it, which was pretty cool. The fee was reasonable too, at $40.