This was the 2nd annual Rock the Parkway 1/2 in Kansas City. The course was beautiful – up and down Ward Parkway among all the mansion-esque homes on an absolutely gorgeous Saturday spring morning! We couldn’t have asked for better weather. Overcast and low 40s at the start. 50s by the end, and the sun came out. Just awesome.

 And…… both Carl and I got PRs! Carl came in at an awesome 2:13:29, beating his previous best by about 4 minutes. I came in at 2:30:30. Let me say that again…. 2:30:30!!!! I took 13 minutes off my previous best. Needless to say, I was VERY happy with this time!! All my work over the winter really paid off!

The best thing I heard on the course (from another runner) was at about mile 12. A guy just behind me yelled “There’s a party at the end of this race, and we GOT to get to it. So BRING IT, girl!!!” It was great!

I stuck with my program (that I had tweaked a bit in order to run a little more than I did in Denver so that I might beat that time) until about mile 6, when I had to use a damn porta potty. Damn my bladder! Resolving at that point to just do it and lose the 2-3 minutes, in I went. When I came out, I noticed that I was right with the 2:30 pace group. I had never hung with a pace group before, so I though, why not? I had no idea going into the potty that I had actually been AHEAD of the 2:30 pace group up to that point.

So…I abandoned my program and just started running with the 2:30 pace group, telling myself to just try to hang with them and see how far I got. No matter, I was ahead of my last time, and I was going to be happy with that. Well, I just kept running! We stopped for a water break at mile 9 for about 10 seconds, then off we went again. At mile 10, we stopped again for another water break and I was tired. Really tired. So I told myself I could do one of my scheduled walk breaks (1 minute, 35 seconds). After that break, I started running again. Soon I caught back up with the 2:30 pace group. I didn’t stop from then on, and in fact, passed the 2:30 pace group. In the end, they came in a little more than 2:30. I was right on the mark. I was so happy, I couldn’t believe it!

Carl snapped this picture of me about 10 feet from the finish line. Although I don’t look very happy, I was!!

Love the finishers medal… serious BLING!