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Rock 'n' Roll Series' "Midwest Best"
Medal |
It was at the expo for the
Rock ‘n’ Roll Chicago Half Marathon back in July that the distance running
cognoscenti (hah, I’ve always
wanted to use that word in my writing!) was informed that finishers of any of
the races they offered at Chicago plus either St. Louis or Cleveland would be eligible
to receive a new limited edition medal they were dubbing “
Midwest Best.” It would be a massive medal in the shape of an
eagle wearing black sunglasses and a pair of red running shoes around its neck,
joined by a ribbon connected to its wings. As with most of the Rock ‘n’ Roll series medals, it doubled as a bottle opener, but this one could
also be
mounted to the wall! Cleveland was out of the question, because it was the day before the
Chicago Marathon (and it would end up being cancelled in September anyway, due to low registration) and I was highly doubting that St. Louis could even be considered (the week afterward) because I predicted I’d still be sore from my efforts at the marathon.
Even so, my cousin Kristine and my new friend Donna, were quick to coerce me into signing up for St. Louis. After my Ragnar race, when I was in the midst of marathon training, I decided, “why the heck not… yeah, I’ll probably be
sore, but I’ll walk it when I need to, and take it easy. It’ll be a shake out run, despite the
distance.
It’s gonna be all about that
medal.”
So I found a cheap ticket there
and back (thank goodness for Amex rewards points), and added it to my plans for
“Rock ‘n’ Roll [series] domination,” as a Tourpass holder for as many of the
remaining races I could get into.
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Boy, that arch really makes a good
photo op... |
I flew into St. Louis early Saturday morning, the day after
the Front Runners New York variety show.
Luckily, my bags were already packed from Chicago the week before, so I
just replaced a few items here and there.
I took the
MetroLink train from the airport to the Convention Center station
downtown to go directly to the expo at
America’s Center to pick up my bib.
It was a nice expo – not too big, not too
small – medium sized is the best way to describe it; with your RnR booth
mainstays, plus some local running companies and organizations looking to
promote their services.
Still a better
expo than what was at RnR Montréal.
A local
physical therapists office was providing stretching for runners, so I took
advantage, having one of their PT’s work on my calves.
I also went to the Rock ‘n’ Roll Series booth
to wax poetic on the multiple RnR races I’ve run and the several I’m still
slated to run for the remainder of the year. I made friends with one of the
staff, Amy, who let me in on the exciting (secret?) news that Brooklyn was
slated to return to the schedule in 2015!
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It's like PeeWee's playhouse. But so
much metal, make sure you get
your tetanus shots... |
After the expo, I got some pasta (to start some carb
loading) at a nearby restaurant,
Stefano’s, and had my first taste
Schlafly’s
Pumpkin Ale, a local brew.
I took a cab
to my
Airbnb in Lafayette Square and got settled before I decided to go on a
little walk along the last mile of the race route back downtown.
I headed to the
City Museum, a St. Louis
landmark consisting
largely of
repurposed architectural and industrial objects, housed in the former
International Shoe building, as well as an "eclectic mixture of children's
playground, funhouse, surrealistic pavilion, and architectural marvel," as
the museum bills itself as. The building
is basically like an adult and children’s Discovery
Zone (remember those entertainment facilities back in the 90’s?), but on
steroids. There are a number of tunnels
that run across the floor and across the ceiling, some even hiding under
fiberglass insulation cut to give the impression of icicles, old refrigerating
coils that can be climbed into giant hollowed out treehouses. There’s even an area where visitors can climb
up elaborate “caves” all the way up to the tenth floor, and then ride a slide
ten stories down. Outside, there’s a
massive maze of “not your ordinary” playground equipment! I only had an hour here, and didn’t wear the
best clothes to be able to explore like other visitors (hello, skinny jeans…),
but it was still a blast.
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Running kit laid out
for the early morning! |
Shortly thereafter, I met up with Donna, who had just flown in from Baltimore (after
traversing the globe from a two week vacation in Australia, where she ran the
Melbourne Marathon the same day I ran Chicago, running the
Baltimore Half Marathon on Saturday, and then getting on a plane to St. Louis to run a half
there!) and new friend Andrew, who drove in from central Illinois (and had also
run Chicago the week before).
We ate
(more) pasta at the
Old Spaghetti Factory at Laclede’s Landing near the arch,
and then they dropped me off back at my Airbnb for the night.
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The Start Line, just before we were
off to start our 13.1 mile "jaunt!" |
A vision in turquoise and orange.
Donna joked that I glowed in the
pre-sunrise darkness. |
Bright and early the next morning, they picked me up and we made our way downtown to the
startline of the race.
It was a CHILLY
morning. We were off by 7am, making our way around the gently rolling hills of
downtown, passing by
Busch Stadium, where the Cardinals play, and then
traversing across downtown toward
St. Louis University, passing by
The Fabulous Fox Theatre on Grand Boulevard. It was between the fourth and fifth mile, where
we made our way eastward for about half a mile on Laclede Avenue, where we
encountered our first major hill of the course.
And it was a doozy… at first, you could only see the very top of the
arch.
As you got to Grand Boulevard
(again), you turned right and headed downhill toward the I-64 underpass, and
then uphill again, as you went over the MetroLink and industrial train tracks.
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Appreciating the pretty architecture
of Lafayette Square |
The course continues through the Tower Grove and Botanical Heights area, through Shaw and
the pretty homes of Compton Heights.
It
makes its way through Lafayette Square before heading back toward downtown, passing
St. Louis Union Station, and then a final push along two blocks of Chestnut
Street to the finish line, just a block away from the start.
The deceivingly hilly route was actually
quite well laid out, and there was decent crowd support especially in the more
residential areas of the latter part of the half marathon route. The
marathoners were running the same first half and then split off just before
mile 11, to St. Louis’ Carondelet Park on the southern fringe of the city,
before making the return trip back toward Lafayette Square toward downtown.
The aid stations were decently spread out,
and I took advantage of water and Gatorade along the route (though a supposed
GU stop after mile 7 never actually happened, which Rock ‘n’ Roll has
acknowledged was due to their oversight of not arranging proper delivery.)
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| Wearing ALL of the bling. |
In the end, I managed to eclipse my previous “second best” half marathon time, which I had
set the previous week on the flat first half of the Chicago Marathon, a 2:10:53
effort.
I finished in a time of 2:05:29,
only four minutes off of my PR, which I had set in the RnR Chicago race in
July.
To heck with a shake out run – and
it didn’t feel hard!
This will
definitely make me ready for my November test of four halfs within a fifteen
day period.
I met up with Andrew and
Donna afterward (Andrew finished in a blazing fast 1:29:42, good enough for 58
th
place out of 6000+ finishers!), did my victory headstand photo (with my well-deserved
Midwest Best medal and St. Louis finishers’ medal, which all three of us got –
and Andrew was able to pick up his “Rock Star” medal for his fifth RnR race), and
then had a great lunch at a really awesome burger and shake restaurant
downtown,
Baileys’ Range, where everything was made from scratch!
We were all super tired, and Andrew drove Donna and I to the airport for our afternoon flights back to NYC.
I proudly wore my medals on the flight home!
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| Victory Headstand! |
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| Bye, St. Louis!!! Thanks for an awesome race! |
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