Running with the Cows

Got up early for the long drive to Bucyrus, Ks., and the Running with the Cows half marathon. Just for the record, I did not see a single cow all morning long, although I did see two real horses and someone in a cow costume. Several female runners applied cow spots to their skin and/or wore cow-spotted attire, but they, personally, did not resemble cows at all. No.

The race was delayed 15 minutes because of traffic along the route. That meant we all stood around in the chute for a good 25 or 30 minutes, which is not a particularly good warm-up for a race.

After that it felt real good to get going. I positioned myself right behind the 2:00 pace group leaders, figuring I would stick with them for 5 or 6 miles, then, hopefully, move on. I dumped them at mile 2, mostly because they walked at the first aid station, and I didn't want to do that. I took 10 seconds to get a drink and then was on my way. I never saw them again until after the turnaround. They did help me start out slowly: my first two splits were 9:27 and 9:20, which I thought was just about perfect.

My legs felt pretty energetic, since I hadn't run for two days. After abandoning the 2-hour group, I immediately increased my pace by at least a minute a mile. Here they are: 8:20, 8:46, 8:36, 8:22, 8:21, 8:13, 8:18, 8:20, 8:29, 8:37 and 8:14. I walked twice, once in the first half of the race for 20 seconds, and once in the second half for about 30 seconds. While my last split was pretty good, I was worn out at the end. My watch recorded a time of 1:52: 46, which is an 8:34 pace.

I have to admit I thought of Amy's 1:47 several times during the run, and toyed with the idea of trying to beat it. But who was I kidding? I'm no 25-year-old super athlete like SOME people. I'm almost 62. I bow to the Queen of the MRC.

As of now I have no idea where I might have placed, or if I did. Last year's winner in my age group just managed to break 2 hours, and there were only 5 men in my age group. If the same ones came back again this year, I might have a chance at my first age group award ever. They were posting results, but there were so many heads in the way I couldn't get a good look at them. After trying to find myself from a distance for a few minutes, I just gave up and left. I can look it up later.

This is a very nice event with a super feed afterward. It's a fund raiser for Queen of the Holy Rosary Catholic school, and it looked like all the school kids and parents, and the church membership, were out there volunteering and cheering. Besides food from such places as Jack Stack Barbecue, there was a ton of home baked goodies. It all looked delicious, but I'm usually not very hungry immediately after a long race, so I didn't eat much. -- Rob