2009 Sedalia Half Marathon

2009 Sedalia Half Marathon Select Columbia Runners Pictures taken courtesy of Dick Ross

All Sedalia Half Marathon Pictures taken courtesy of Dick Ross

2009 Sedalia Half Marathon Results

Today Hugh and I headed to the Sedalia Half Marathon. We have run this half marathon more than any other half. It is close, cheap, and a well-run fun small event. I wasn’t sure if I would be racing it this year since I ran 3 Days of Syllamo last weekend. I felt pretty good after Syllamo and even better after taking 3 days off running. I ran on Thursday and felt good so on Friday I was thinking I would attempt to break my 3 year old half marathon PR.

I ran this half last year after Syllamo and although it went okay, I was not recovered enough to attempt a PR. I wasn’t even sure I would try racing it at all last year since the warm up felt awful. This year, one week later, I felt ready to race again. We arrived about 8:30 am, picked up packets, and then I headed out for a 1 mile warm up. Warm up felt good, headed to the car to get rid of some clothes before heading to the start line. Temperature was about 50F and skies were cloudy.

My plan was to try to run just under 6:30s, and take the first couple miles a little easier at 6:40. There were fewer than 100 people at the start line this year, where normally this race attracts over 100 runners. We started a few minutes after 9 am. I started in the front and there were 3 guys that took off very fast that were clearly not in the same league as the rest of us.

Dan S. hung with me for the first mile which ended up being 6:31. This was a little faster than both of us thought we wanted to run. He let up a little on the pace and I decided to keep it steady. I found myself running with a young kid (have no idea how old he was) and kept pace with him. Then he pulled ahead a bit and I decided to hang back. On the first slight hill, I caught him.

We continued to run together and I am not quite sure who was doing the pacing but he did not act like he wanted to pass me so we ran side by side. I didn’t take water until the second water station. From this point, the run is pretty boring but I am feeling good and focused. The miles just keep clicking by one by one at a very consistent pace. Before we reach the turn around we get to see the 3 guys in the lead. We were in 4th and 5th place at this point. These 3 guys in the lead were so far ahead of us that we did not see them until they were coming back from the turn around. I took a gel at about 6.5 miles.

Right before the turn around we took water although they only had 1 water and 1 Gatorade ready so he took water after we turned around. It was nice to see everyone for about a mile on the way back. We are both still running strong side by side and I am getting a lot of encouragement as I see everyone. Then we are back to running alone. He seemed to be breathing harder than me and although I felt like I could talk I presumed that he didn’t want to or he would have said something by now. At the next water station, I let him go first and he got water. They had Gatorade in the other hand so I said I would get at the next station. My racing partner asked if I wanted the rest of his water so I took it. I am just thinking, what a nice guy.

At this point we were about 3 miles from the end. I am still feeling good but now we are running into some wind. I push to keep our pace steady and he stays right with me. I figure at some point since I am feeling so good I should probably pick up the pace and am hoping he will stay with me and we’ll finish together unless he feels like passing me. I was not planning to attempt to pass him right at the end after pacing that far with him. I just don’t want to pick it up too soon.

With 1.1 miles to go, I decide to pick it up and see what I have left. He does not stay with me. I picked up to about 6:15 pace pushing to the finish. Overall time was 1:25:04 for 13.16 miles at a 6:28 pace. I have a new PR by 1:44 and on the same course as my previous PR. I placed 4th overall and my race partner came in right behind me about 19 seconds behind me. He thanked me for pacing him although I think we paced each other at times. Dan S. finished 6th behind him setting a half PR.

Our Columbia group seemed to run well and most of us received bricks for placing in our age groups. I was first in my age group and Hugh placed second.

The event was hosted by the Sedalia Runners Club for the benefit of the Max Lewis Special Needs Trust and is sponsored by Pepsi, Bothwell Regional Health Center and County Distributing.

There is a raffle in between awards for a lot of different prizes. Dan S. had purchased 5 tickets and gave to Hugh before he left. I purchased 5 more tickets. Dan said to get him the beer clock or the Michelobe Ultra Beer mirror if they drew his name and those were left. They drew one of my tickets fairly early and I picked out the UltraMarathon Man – Dean Karnazes book since I didn’t see anything else I really wanted and had wanted to get this book at some point. The clock was the first thing to go. With about 6 items left, they still had not drawn any of Dan’s numbers, but the mirror was left. They drew another of my numbers. Nothing left that I really wanted so I picked up the mirror for Dan to add to his collection.

We had a large group that went to Country Kitchen for lunch before heading home.

Here are my splits:

Mile Time Overall Time Pace
1 Mi 6:30.61 6:30.61 6:31
2 Mi 6:30.46 13:01.07 6:31
3 Mi 6:27.79 19:28.86 6:28
4 Mi 6:27.75 25:56.61 6:28
5 Mi 6:30.76 32:27.37 6:31
6 Mi 6:30.92 38:58.29 6:31
7 Mi 6:30.43 45:28.72 6:31
8 Mi 6:28.03 51:56.75 6:29
9 Mi 6:24.89 58:21.64 6:25
10 Mi 6:26.12 1:04:47.76 6:27
11 Mi 6:29.53 1:11:17.29 6:30
12 Mi 6:31.28 1:17:48.57 6:32
13 Mi 6:16.58 1:24:05.15 6:17
13.16Mi 0:59.19 1:25:04.34 6:10