Go! St. Louis Marathon Weekend

It is Go! St. Louis Marathon weekend this weekend.  All the training, or lack of training, has paid off and it's finally over.  Zipf and I decided a while ago that we were going to walk the 5K in Forest Park and Scott had planned to run the half marathon.  Zipf and I did no training or planning what so ever and our time wasn't as bad as it could have been.  We crossed the line under 50 minutes but we didn't exactly start right at the beginning since we were walking.  Overall we were proud of our timing and our pace throughout the 5K.

[caption id="attachment_1136" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Waiting for the race to start"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1137" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="The Action Shot"][/caption]

[caption id="attachment_1138" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="And done!"][/caption]

After the 5K we went down to Soulard and did some shopping and then had a great breakfast at Soulard Coffee Garden.   Then I dropped off Scott and Zipf and went to Mathew's birthday party and hung out with the Birch's for a while.  I even was able to catch some of Catherine's baseball game.  Then I went home and relaxed until Scott got home and made some pasta so he could carb load for the upcoming race.

For the half marathon traffic was horrible.  For some reason, MoDOT didn't think that the 18,000 people trying to get downtown on Sunday morning would need to use exits around Scottrade Center.  But smart of them to do construction when the Cardinals were out of town.  We managed to find a parking spot and walk a ways to the start, plenty of time for me to get a front row spot and see the start of the entire race.  I love seeing that!

[caption id="attachment_1139" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="Start of the marathon!"][/caption]

I did somehow manage to see Scott actually run past me during the start of the race, I never am able to find anyone during a race but I did see him.  Even though he was on the other side of the street.  After all the runners started I walked over to mile marker 8.  I was able to beat the pace cars and I hung out there till the the 10:45 pace people race past and then walked back over to get a decent spot at the finish line.  I was able to see my friend Tom finish and Scott finish the race and not get push around like last year.

Since it was so hot this year there were a few more injuries.  I saw a few people passing out calapsing with the finish line just in site.  Scott and Ellen both said the heat was a bit much this year and that the hills just seemed to go on forever.  I'm happy I went to cheer on the runners, it really it worth getting up early to watch.

This came in the mail about a week later for me.

[caption id="attachment_1193" align="aligncenter" width="225" caption="5K Medal"][/caption]