I ran my first half marathon in 2022 when I was 28 years old. I had run several full marathons in the past but never an official half marathon race. One of my friends/co-workers, Mike, convinced me to run with him in the MO Cowbell Half Marathon. He must have been pretty convincing because about 10 other co-workers also signed up. Conveniently (for him, anyways) the start line was only a little over a mile from his house.

Not so conveniently for me, St. Charles was about 22 miles from my house. Driving would only take about 30 minutes, but since I didn’t have a car (more on that in a future post), I had to either take a bike, bus, or train. I decided to do all three.

Reconnaissance

A few days before the race, Mike invited me to run from his house to establish a strategy for the race. I was supposed to go to the St. Louis Zoo for a “team-building activity” but unfortunately we had high-priority work to do. Really, I was happy to not have to pretend to socialize with my coworkers outside of work. I was even happier when we finished our work early. Looking at Google Maps, I determined that if I biked to the Stadium MetroLink station by 3:56 pm, I could be in St. Charles before 5:00 pm or before 4:00 if I got to the station by 2:56. I left at 2:40, waiting for my co-workers to approve my work, and hurried on my bike to the station. I got there at 2:59.

While at the Stadium Station, I heard someone shouting “look out!” There were dozens of squeaking baby mice running around in the bushes. I stayed away from them. At 3:14 pm I got on the Red Line train and rode it to University of Missouri – St. Louis North Station. There, I had about 20 minutes to ride to the North Hanley station, which gave me a chance to use the restroom and take a leisurely bike ride through the campus where I used to live when I was an intern 9 years ago. It was much more pleasant than just sitting at the bus station for 15 minutes and a nice way to enjoy the sunny 70 degree weather. At 4:05 pm, the #34 Earth City MetroBus departed. This was the fullest bus I had been on in awhile, almost all of the seats were full, so I ended up standing. The driver slammed on the brakes driving down I-70 as a car cut him off, causing more of a ruckus. At 4:22, I pulled the cable to request a stop and departed the bus, detaching the bike from the front rack.

I rode a quarter mile down Earth City Expressway, which was a bit scary, not knowing if car/semi drivers were going to see me on the shoulder. The next half mile was along a quiet 4-lane stretch of St. Charles Rock Road. After that was a few miles along the Missouri River on the Riverwoods Trail, followed by a lane along MO-370 across the river and finishing on the Boschert Trail. Once I arrived at Mike’s house his parents dropped us off a few miles away at a cul-de-sac along the official route.

During the 6-mile run, Mike showed me the most difficult section of the route, the hill. Much like the Boston Marathon’s infamous “Heartbreak Hill” this hill was close to the end of the half marathon race, around mile 10. The hill rose about 90 feet over a mile, not huge but definitely not flat. But the extra challenge came from half-way up: a false summit – rising another 30 feet after you thought you were done! We agreed that we would try not to go too fast up the hill, not get discouraged half-way up, and then to try to quickly regain speed going down. Finally, we ran by the last mile of the course where we saw the finish line was kind of hidden from view as you came around the final bend. This was where we planned to go all out.

Before returning home, we had some takeout Chinese food. I horrified Mike by eating my entire order of Kung Pao chicken (my training at the Panda Express paid off here). Thankfully, the trip back home was much easier – Mike’s parents dropped me off along their drive back home.

The day before the race

Many people suggest “tapering” the week of to a few weeks before a race, where you run fewer miles to save energy for the race. This is easier said than done, especially with such comfortable weather. The Saturday before the race, I decided to do some yard work I was very behind on. It had been about 4 weeks since I had cut the grass and the blade on the gas-powered mower was bent so I couldn’t use it. The fence line and area between the fence and alley were extremely overgrown with weeds and small bushes. There were also dead flowers and dead branches to remove. I used a trimmer to cut as much as I could before the battery died, and then sawed off the branches. A few hours later I had moved several piles of brush, overflowing the yard waste bin. I pushed the lawn mower 2 miles away to the repair shop – I just couldn’t change the blade myself. Finally, I did a 3 mile shake out run at a slower 8:09/mile pace, stopping at the Whole Foods for some groceries and pre-race fuel (i.e. bread for peanut butter and jelly). I was horrified at their prices for bread (the cheapest I found was over $5) so I got cheaper pita bread instead. (I already took packets of peanut butter and jelly home from work for free with my lunch).

As I was getting everything packed for the morning, I (very unhappily) realized my bike had a flat rear tire. I had changed flat tires several times before but never the back tire myself on this bike, which annoyingly didn’t have the quick release levers many (most?) bikes built after 1927 have. So I spent 2 hours digging through my tool box trying to find the correct size wrench, and then discovered that I needed two, one for each nut holding the wheel on. Luckily, I had an adjustable wrench and ratchet/socket combination that just barely worked. I wrestled out the old tube and then discovered the rim tape was broken. After a few futile attempts to reattach it, I gave up and wrapped the wheel with electrical tape, despite warnings online that it wouldn’t work. A little after midnight (maybe it was 1:00 am), I finished reassembling the wheel on the bike, ready to ride in the morning.

Getting to the race

My alarm woke me up at 4:04 am. I wanted to just press the snooze but definitely didn’t have time. To get to St. Charles on time, I had to get to the first bus, a quarter mile away, by 4:28. I left at 4:25, watching the dot for the bus on the Google Maps app get closer and closer. I arrived at the bus stop with less than 30 seconds to spare. While riding my bike, I was thinking, “this seems more difficult than usual, I better make sure I put everything together correctly.” I got off the bus at the Forest Park-DeBaliviere Station, and waited for the Red Line train, finishing my peanut butter and jelly pita. There were two other people at the station. At 5:12 I boarded the train, and at 5:25 I got off. Luckily, the Earth City bus was already waiting with the heater running. The same 2 people got on the bus with me.

Around 5:55 I got off at my stop. It was quite dark, with only a few lights from nearby warehouses and parking lots to break up the darkness. This was where I realized something went horribly wrong with the tire tube replacement. Every time I pedaled, it became more difficult. Apparently, the nuts were not reattached tightly enough and the wheel became unbalanced, rubbing against the side of the frame. With 5 miles of biking left to go, I (shouted several expletives) tried re-tightening the nuts by hand. It appeared to work, for 3 miles of slightly downhill riding. After I went uphill to get to bridge path, the problem reappeared. This time I angrily kicked the wheel back into place (again releasing some expletives). What had been a completely dark sky now was a glowing sunrise, quite pretty as I angrily crossed the river. As I came down the hill on the other side, the wheel suddenly jerked out of place and skidded along the gravel-covered pavement. With 1.5 miles and 20 minutes to go to get to Mike’s house at the agreed time of 6:45, I gave up and just walked the bike along the trail. Part of the trail was under construction and re-routed along a country road, where people were driving what looked like 50 mph around a blind corner. If nothing else, I was definitely alert and awake before the start of the race.

The race

Mike, our friend/co-worker Don, and I got ready and left on a warm-up run to the start line at 7:00. Mike was nice enough to pick up our race bibs/packets the day before at the race exMO. This was very convenient, except for one thing: he forgot we needed safety pins (he had his own reusable pins). With 7 minutes to go before the start, Don and I frantically searched for the pins. We finally found them at a tent at the back of the starting corral. After pausing for the national anthem, we had 2 minutes before the start. We jumped the barrier fence and tried to make our way closer to our expected pace starting position. By the start of the race we made it to the 12 min/mile pace, much further back than either of us planned to be.

Although we started further back, the chip timing (as opposed to gun time) ensured the clock wouldn’t start for us until we actually crossed the start line. It was really crowded with thousands of people running, but at the same time fun to try to weave through the crowds and pass people. I was probably half a mile into the race when I passed Mike, and kept passing others pretty regularly for the first 7 miles. One (i.e. 4) of the people I passed was a guy pushing a triple stroller, going quite fast – probably around 7 min/mile – I was very impressed!

Eventually I found a guy weaving through people pretty efficiently. I heard him tell one of his fans, “I started too far back.” I thought I would try to keep up with him for awhile, maybe eventually pass him. The first mile was through town, and next 4 miles through some corn fields. We passed a park that I used to stop at when I would ride my bike from St. Louis to Kansas City, and a go-kart racetrack I went to once before. Miles 5 through 8 were through a subdivision called New Town. There were lots of spectators with signs and costumes. I didn’t notice my friend saw one house had free mimosas. The guy I was following passed me around mile 5, then I passed him once in New Town, then he passed me again!

Miles 8 through 10 were through the corn fields again, but this time I was familiar with the area. The guy was about 1/3 mile ahead of me at the bottom of the hill, and he was getting closer to the next runner. I tried to get closer over the next 2 miles down the hill towards downtown St. Charles. By the last mile, I was sprinting down the hill and ended up passing the 2 guys in front of me. I tried to think about leaning forward and having fast turnover as I sped down the hill. Remembering the end was near, I sprinted toward the finish line without looking back, expecting someone to pass me at the very end. Surprisingly, I kept my position, finishing in 4th place, 1:14:09, with the 5th place guy 1 second behind me!

After the race

When the race was done, I walked around for bit, waiting for my co-workers to finish too. I saw a climbing gym, Climb So Ill, and checked that out before walking back. Within 30 minutes Mike and Don finished. We waited for everyone else and then went to the Bike Stop Cafe for a post-race brunch. From Mike’s recommendation, the three of us got the Juarez wrap. Afterwards, we took a group photo, I picked up my age group award (a MO Cowbell cowbell) and we ran back to Mike’s house. From there, I rode my bike down the same hill to a bike shop, asking for help with my bike. The mechanics looked at it and informed me that the frame was cracked and that it would be unsafe for them to fix anything more than just tightening the nuts (which they did for free). I don’t know if the crack came from me kicking the bike, from riding it unevenly attached for 8 miles, or if it was a problem even before I had the flat tire. Luckily I was able to ride it back across the river, passing by the infamous Westlake Superfund Site, to Bridgeton, where I got on the #35 Rock Road MetroBus, rode to the Rock Road train station, and took the Red Line back to Forest Park.

By the time I got home, my lawn mower was ready, so I ran 2 miles back to the repair shop to retrieve, pushed it back home and finally finished cutting my grass. Along my way, I saw a cat, calmly standing on a sidewalk as I noisily passed.