Heartland Series 39.3 Wrap up

It's Tuesday and I am still riding pretty high from this weekend's PR.  I have opened the Wicked marathon sign up i don't know how many times now debating.  I think i am ready to take that leap.  The only thing that is stopping me is of course the fees associated and the fact that it is two weeks before the first half of the Heartland Series for next year.  I do want to do better on my time for all of them but especially Rock the Parkway.  I am hoping the fact that it was super hot and I was coming off of being sick caused my poor time.  Also tony and andrew were at the first one and I didn't get great sleep the night before because of my hubby being sick.  I also want to improve my time for the Garmin half as well and I think barring any storms, that is doable as well.  I would like to enjoy the second half of the course as much as I enjoyed the first half.  It seemed to be very pretty but I had my head ducked and was praying to not get struck by lightening or drown!!!!  My coach asked me about a brief synopsis of the courses so here it is:

Rock the Parkway:  Great pre-race including tons of porta potties with short lines, live entertainment, and a nice big area for all of the runners to gather in.  The parking was good for both us and tony who came later.  The crowd support was great throughout the course and the course was nice.  Probably the flatest of the three races but at the time felt hilly.  There really was only one long hill that I can remember but races are kind of like labor, you forget the hills and pain after its done LOL.  The crowd of runners was big but the whole road was shut down so i never felt too crowded, although I was put in a slower corral because i was basing my time off of my first half and I have slowly become faster.  I spent quite a bit of time weaving in and out and trying to catch up with the 2:10 pacer that wave started 2 minutes before us.  The weather was a little hotter than what I had been training in so I am sure that played a big part in being slower, but spring weather in KS is so unpredictable.  The crowd support at the finish was nice and they had free pics taken that were downloadable which was really nice.  The finisher's village was huge but it was super crowded and we had to be somewhere right after so didn't really get to fully enjoy it but I was ready to get the heck out of dodge anyway.  I did like that they were doing medal engraving and wished I had done that with my medal.  I really like the medal, probably the biggest of the three we received and I like the technical shirt we got for running as well.  Kicking myself for not getting a t-shirt at the expo to wear to work.

Garmin: This was a much smaller race than RTPW so not as great crowd support or potties.  I had some digestive issues going into this race but I think the weather was what got me down and of course, we can't control that.  I was with the 2:10 pacer till mile 8 and then lost her but the weather defeated me.  No corrals this time so you could line up with the pacers but there was no organization at the start so hard to even get to the pacers.  I have learned to be pushy.  The roads were not totally closed so sometimes we were compressed down by cones and that got a little tricky.  When we went into the forest, it was beautiful but again I was dealing with the storm at that time.  There were quite a few streams, tunnels and bridges but I just couldn't enjoy it due to weather and trying not to drown in the quickly flooding streets.  Afterwards there was beer and sandwiches but I didn't get any because I was too cold and wet.  We basically took pics with our medals and left.  The crowd support at the end was nice but they ran out of many essential items like chocolate milk and the blankets for us cold drowned rats.  I wonder because I finished before all of the marathon runners so did they not get any of the essentials either?  Overall, it was a nice race minus the weather.  The course was a little bit hilly, maybe more than RTPW but less than RWTC.

Running with the Cows: This was about the same size of the Garmin marathon but the atmosphere was the best of the three.  The FB page was constantly updated which kept me excited.  They made a cute music video that they released about a week before that got me super duper excited.  The swag and merch alone was enough to get me ready to go and spend some money.  The course was probably the hardest of the three with some massive hills.  They did have a 5K but it started later so no conflict there.  No corrals but it was organized by pace and it was very easy to stay with the pacer due to the fact that we had the whole road to run in.  The scenery was nice the whole time and the crowd on the course and volunteers were amazing.  The snack stations were super fun and if I could eat mid run, I would have.  The weather was perfect with a cool morning start and then a gradual warm up.  Didn't get hot till the end and then the last few miles were into a pretty nice headwind yet it cooled us down.  It would be a perfect first half for someone if it weren't for the hills.  After the race was amazing!!!!  The food spread took up a whole cafeteria and I wished that I could eat post race because the food looked delicious.  They had merch to buy at packet pick up and after the race.  Believe me, If I had run with my debit card, I would have spent some moolah post race.  The medals were the best with the cows and the cow bells were cute.  I had heard that they ran out of medals and cow bells which is unfortunate and some of the comments on their FB and website have been pretty harsh about that.  The heartland series booth was there as well so we got our medal and there were tons of pic opportunities.  My favorite of the three hands down.

I will do this series again and encourage others to do the same.  It was fun, my body tolerated it well (thanks coach sydney:) and I will cherish all four of the medals I recieved.  I am officially part of the half marathon fanatics club thanks to this series!!!!