Lincoln Half Marathon Race Report, a month late.

I didn’t register for the Lincoln Half Marathon mostly because I felt guilty about the cost and dragging my husband to Lincoln again to stand around for 2 hours in the relative cold. When it sold out in early February, I was secretly super bummed. That was my first half marathon and the course holds a special place in my heart because of it. Fast forward to Saturday April 30th, the night before the race, I get a text from a co-worker “Wanna run Lincoln tomorrow for FREE?? Jenna and her boyfriend can’t run. They’ll give us their bibs!” OH HOLLA!! Any reservations I may have harbored about bandit-ing a race mysteriously disappeared. We made plans and the co-worker picked me up around 4:45am. We met his friend and her boyfriend at her apartment (she was still driving down to go cheer, what a trooper!) and followed them down to the Coliseum so we could snag their numbers. The drive seemed exceptionally brief at that early hour and we chatted, sang, drank a lot of water, and ate breakfast.

Once we got to the starting area, I was so amped!!! There were not enough bathrooms and while waiting in line inside the football stadium, another awesome girl and I dodged into the men’s room! And surprise! They don’t put doors on the stalls in the men’s room! The dudes thought it was funny overall and gave us kudos for not waiting in line for the ridiculous ladies room line.

I wandered back over to the start area and found my co-worker. I stood in his pace group and we chatted about our race plan. I decided to do 8:45s for the first few miles and pick it up from there. His plan was to start around 8:00s and pick it up at the 10k mark. Gun goes and slowly we make our way across the start (Lincoln decided to stagger the start every 2 minutes or so to alleviate crowding on the Highway 2 bike path). Finally, I’m running and enjoying the scenery of the Capitol building and that awesome neighborhood around the 5k mark. Pass a soldier running in full BDUs and a 40-pound pack, some of the faster marathon pace groups swallow me up. I’m running my own race and overall it’s feeling effortless.

Around mile 5, I have to stop for a bathroom break. Drat. I had hoped to avoid this all together, but I definitely did not allow adequate stand in the bathroom line 6 different times time prior to the start. I fly out of that port-a-potty and glance at my watch, I’m running sub-8:00s to make up time. It feels great. I hit the 10k mark and again have to dodge people on the bike path. Staggering the start really didn’t seem to help THAT much. Into the neighborhoods again. This section seemed to take forever this year. By mile 10 I was ready to be done done done.

We come out onto 10th street and I am trying to fight the fatigue. We run past a guy receiving CPR chest compressions. That scared the shit out of me and I did not know what to do. I told myself he was receiving the help he needed and there were plenty of other people there to help with chest compressions. Less than 4 blocks later I hear the ambulance and I feel better. Nearing mile 12 now and I am pushing. I cannot slow down, this is where the distance got me last year and I gave in to walk. I am not the same runner. I am stronger and wiser. I push and push, right turn toward the stadium and I am running as hard as I can. 1:51:11 !! New PR! I snatch my medal and being the search for my co-worker. I miss him but find my mom!! My parents drove down to cheer. Too stinkin cute and wonderful. I find the co-worker, get my stuff and ride back with my parents. I relished the rest of the day and recovered a million times better and faster than last year. What a difference a year makes!

5k: 26:42
10k: 53:36
15k: 1:19:31

Last mile: 7:58
Last .24 miles (still haven’t mastered running the tangents!): 7:24/pace.
Excited to crush my Omaha half this fall and potentially seek revenge on Kansas City!