So Sunday I ran the Mo’ Cowbell Half Marathon. This by far was my worst ever performance at a half-marathon. I will type my Race Review tomorrow.

Saturday I went and picked up my bib and shirt. They did virtual race bags so all my other stuff was online. I came home and set out the outfit I was going to wear. I chose my lululemon Inspire Crops, a lululemon tank top, and a Run Swiftly long sleeve shirt.

Saturday night to Sunday morning I got very little sleep. A certain four-legged someone got into the trash and was waking me up every couple of hours to go outside. Couple that with my nervousness about the race and it made for a very sleepless night.

Sunday my alarm went off at 5:30. I chilled for a bit, then started getting ready and was out the door a little after 6. Without my headphones, house keys, or wallet. Nothing like an epic fail like that to start off your morning! I figured I’d be fine and headed off towards St. Charles.

Once I got to St. Charles and found some parking on Main Street, I put on some Body Glide and headed to the start line. I of course forgot my sunglasses in the car, and was simply too lazy to go back and get them. Plus by the time I remembered I was worried about missing the start of the race.

Finally, it was time for the race to start. It took me about 6 minutes to get across the starting mat, and on my way. I had create a pace calculate based on a 3:40 finish (I’m slow remember?) and knew what pace I needed to be at for the first mile. However, it seemed that my Garmin and Frenchtown did not want to play nicely together, and for whatever reason, I lost satellite connection. So I spent a while trying to figure out what was wrong, and stopped and started my Garmin several times. So I have no mile splits or anything like that to share with you.

Everything went along pretty well, and I managed to maintain a fairly steady pace through the first half of the race. The course was kind of boring for the first half, mostly just being corn and bean fields. I managed the entire first half with no walk breaks. Once we got into New Town, that all changed.

It felt like we were changing directions every 10 feet and that was a little hard on me. I took my first few walk breaks in miles 7 & 8. Once out of New Town, things continued to deteriorate pretty quickly. My Garmin was off, and I couldn’t quite get my head into the race. The sun was out and I didn’t have my sunglasses so I was squinting quite a bit and my feet starting to feel it. Especially the small rocks that were apparently in my shoe. Mile 9 was spent running and walking and 10-12 were strictly walking. I took a salted caramel Gu gel, but didn’t eat much of it and tried some pretty sweet Gatorade (not sweet in a good sense). I finally reached the 13 mile marker and was able to run in to the finish, but that was about it.

I got my medal, a bottle of water, and managed to make my way back to my car.

My official stats are:

• Finish time 4:10:45
• Average pace 19:08/mile (16:50 prior to the half way mark)
• Overall Place 2863/2872
• Female 1889/1896
• Females 30-34 356/358

This was definitely my worst race performance by far I think. A fact my worst half-marathon performance. And it was simply a combination of being not quite as prepared as I would have liked to be and let my head get out of the race.

I honestly would have gotten in my car and ditched the race if I would have passed it. I also thought about dropping out a few times. But I stuck through and finished and while I’ve been sore it’s already starting to fade and I am already looking at other races and looking forward to coming back to this course next year!