This past weekend I ran the half marathon in The Great GO! St Louis Halloween Race. This was my 4th half marathon of 2017 and 16th of all time. The Great GO! St Louis Halloween Race consisted of 4 different events – the half marathon, 10K, 5K and 1-mile fun run. Costumes are encouraged, with awards given to the top adult and child costumes and groups. This is a small race, with a cap of 5,000 participants, but only 795 runners completed the half marathon. A couple of factors likely let to this number. First, there are 3 major half marathons within the St Louis area within the month of October – Mo’ Cowbell, Rock ‘n Roll, then GO! Halloween. I was also supposed to run Mo’ Cowbell the first weekend of the month, but got sick the day before. The second contributing factor to the low turnout was the threat of rain. Meteorologists predicted that we would have storms all morning, including lightening, but we ended up with a downpour just before starting, then a light mist for a couple of miles before clear skies.
Packet Pick-Up
Packet Pick-Up occurred at the GO! St Louis offices in Clayton. I arrived in the last hour of pick-up on Saturday, having just driven back to St Louis from Juice Plus+ Live in Indianapolis. There were no lines and I was able to pick up my bib, shirt, and swag quickly. I had signed up for the Bridges & Broomsticks Challenge last October, which required me to run both the GO! St Louis half marathon in April and the GO! Halloween. At packet pick-up, I was able to pick-up my extra hooded sweatshirt for the challenge.
I do love the GO! St Louis challenges! You get an extra shirt and medal, and usually save a little on registration fees. Last year, I completed the Triple 5K Challenge. Having just had a baby in February 2016, I thought starting back with 5ks would be a good idea. The three 5ks were the GO! St Louis in April, All American in June, and GO! Halloween in October. Other Challenges include the GO! Short GO! Long which includes the 5k and either half or full marathon in April on back to back days and the 17K Challenge. The 17K Challenge includes a 7K at the GO! St Louis event in April and the GO! Halloween 10K.
Race Morning
To start the morning off, my alarm did not go off!! Every runner’s worst nightmare! The half marathon started at 7:30, but with the 5k starting at 7, I wanted to be downtown by 6:30. Well…I woke up at 6:00! I had partially laid out my clothes, but not my water belt or anything else that I would need. Running around like a chicken with its head cut off, my husband was warning me not to wake the kids. I was able to get out the door and downtown by 6:45. Luckily for the rain and low attendance, I was able to find parking in my normal spot and meet my friends at the Big River Running tent. A group of us had spent the season training together with Big River and started out the race together. The 10K runners split off about mile 4.5 and then there were just 4 of us together for the half marathon.
Mile 5 was tough for me. I haven’t been training as much as I should, and while I know that I can run a half marathon, my legs like to get very heavy. I fell back from my friends, but continued with my 30:30 intervals. At Mile 8, I had a resurgence and passed two of my friends, but it was short lived and my legs felt heavy again by Mile 10. Under good training conditions, I typically start extending my runs at the 10 Mile mark, but held out until closer to Mile 11. I also start finding people that I can pick off, especially if they look like they could be in the same age group as me. And although I’ll never win my age group, it’s just a sense of pride when I can pick those runners off in the last couple of miles. My last 2 miles ended up being over a minute faster than any of my other miles. So finished strong!
My friends that had completed the 10K were all near the finish line and tempting me with doughnuts. Going through the finish line, they handed me my medal for this event, along with water, chocolate, a pretzel bun, banana, and fruit cup. I had to go to another tent to collect my Challenge medal. I eventually reconnected with all of my friends where we enjoyed the doughnut holes and took photos of each other with our medals.
Conclusion
GO! St Louis events are always very well run, with good signage on the course and plenty of volunteers. They also provide a nice variety of finish food, with a little something for everyone.
