It’s fair to say this race sucked. LOL! But I had a good time anyway! I had been sick since the previous Thursday but decided I would go and just see how I felt race day morning. We drove to Overland Park, KS on Saturday and checked into our hotel. Then I took a nap. Met up with Carl, Bev, Diana (Bev’s sister) and her charge, 11-year-old Maria, as well as David Holmen, our new race buddy we met in Denver, for dinner in the hotel restaurant. Early to bed for me. Carl and Bev said they heard me coughing through the very thin walls that night! (Sorry about that.)

Race day morning I felt OK, so I decided to go ahead and run the race. About 5 times during the race I got cheered on by a MIZZOU fan who noticed my hat. I felt obliged…. We were, after all, in Kansas. He and his daughter were cheering for his wife, who was always a minute or two behind me. They’d cheer me on, then her, then move on to the next spot to cheer us on again. I’d come around a corner and hear “MIZZOU! Go MIZZOU! You got this MIZZOU!” What fun! Thanks, MIZZOU fan! That helped a lot!

Diana took this picture of Carl and me at the start line.

Carl with Diana Burton. She’s done a billion marathons.

The race course was not bad. A lot of the run was spent on this paved trail (below) through a woodsy area. A small amount of time was spent on roads. I felt really good until about mile 8. At that point my shoes started hurting my feet and my legs started to crap out. By mile 10 I was doing a lot of talking to myself. “Only 3 miles to go. You can do anything for 3 miles.” I ended up doing only slightly worse than my best time (Denver), coming in at 2:45:48. Not bad for a sicky running in the crazy wind that day!

Carl took this pic of me coming toward the finish line.

Beautiful weather for running, just windy. Carl ran the half also and did great, coming in at 2:19:43. Our super fast friend Dave ran the full marathon and came in at a blistering 3:21:45. Next half, as of now, isn’t until the Illinois half on April 30, 2011.