St. Luke's Half Marathon Preview Run #1

I was hoping to generate some interest in our LVRR Group Runs.  Therefore, I decided to break up the St. Luke's Half Marathon course into 3 preview runs.  Tonight was the first run.  After starting at Allen High School, the plan was to run to the Parkway entrance road and turn back around.  That would be the start and the finish of the run.

I posted the run on the LVRR facebook page as well as the St. Luke's page.  I was hoping for a big turnout, especially with some nicer weather.  It was in the 50s.  There was still a breeze.  It was perfect shorts and short sleeve shirt weather.

I guess I shouldn't expect much when it comes to these group runs.  I'll always end up disappointed.  We met in front of Allen High School.  Including me, only 6 people were there to run.  Some of them ran the course before and there was a couple that was new.  I didn't worry about remembering their names because I thought we'd get a bigger turnout and I'd forget their names anyway.

We started off at the gym, so it was actually a little before the race staring line.  One nice thing with the start is it is downhill.  We were running into the wind some.  They also just finished up a track meet at the stadium and we had to avoid some of the Liberty athletes and their equipment.  Good thing we didn't have a big group.

It was a nice day to run through the Cedar Beach area.  I hope this good weather is here to stay.  The one guy ran with me and the couple ran behind us.  We were chatting about a lot of different races, from the Philadelphia, Pocono and Boston Marathons to ultramarathons.  Every now and then, I would give the couple some advice on the half marathon or they would ask questions.  The pace was nice and easy.

One woman still fell behind in the early going.  A guy that came with us last week, was running with her.  After the Cedar Beach section, we had to cross the road in front of Yocco's.  That was quite tricky and wasted time.  It probably took us somewhere between 30s and 1 minute.  After that, the run was better until we crossed the road again.

We headed onto St. Elmo's and there weren't many cars.  We were able to just take up most of the road.  Before I knew it, we were on MLK Drive.  That was busy and kind of tough to run on.  Luckily, we weren't the first people to run through there.  There a dirt path along the road.  I had brought my GOPro camera along and I took some pictures throughout the run.

We turned around right at the entrance to the Parkway road.  We'll run the rest of MLK Drive next week.  We then went back onto St. Elmo's.  There are some hills on the course.  They aren't too bad though.  They are just tougher when you are running fast.

Crossing the road by Yoccos went much better the 2nd time.  I told the couple not to look over during the race when they come back through the Cedar Beach section.  They won't want to see the stadium and realize how far they have to go yet.  At this point, you are right near the stadium, but the course doesn't take a direct route.

There are some banners hanging up in Cedar Beach that promote the race.  It was cool to see them.  One of the photos had last year's winner, Tyler McCandless, on it.  I ran with him a couple years ago and I made sure to get a photo of one of the banners.

Cedar Beach was busy, especially the basketball courts.  There were some other runners too.  I saw a lot of them out today as I traveled around.

With the track meet having just ended, I was hoping that the stadium gates would be open.  Then, we could run the lap around the track.  That is how the race finishes.  However, they already closed the gates.

We just kept running back to where we started at.  That required an uphill finish.  Good thing for the racers that they don't have to do that.  Although the group was small, it was a fun run.  Even though we were on pavement, my legs didn't bother me at all.  Maybe I should try running a 9:30 pace more often.

I hope the people that showed up this week will come again next week.  Maybe we'll get some new runners too.  I really thought we'd have more people.  Well over 1,000 people saw my post the other day.  You would think at least 15-20 people would show up.  We'll be meeting at a different location next week.  I was hopefully that these three weeks of runs and then some warmer weather would bring more people out.  I'm really not sure that this weeknight group run will ever be successful.  It is so frustrating.

Tomorrow, should be nice weather again.  Since it is Friday, there is a good chance that I won't be working.  Regardless, I'm going to run at Trexler.  I want to run/walk the entire loop this time.  That will add up my miles.  The BCR is running at Plainfield on Saturday and I don't like it there.  Plus, I think I want to run 800 repeats.  I'll likely be on my own.  I just look forward to this better weather.

5.44 miles - 52:48 (9:43 pace)