Kansas City Half Marathon Pacing-My very first pacing gig!

I will try and not turn this into a novel, because this was my first pacing gig, and I enjoyed it SO much!!!!  My friend Lindsey at Livinglovingrunner  paces races for a group called Smart Pacers and had been after me for a long time about trying out pacing.  I was intrigued, but kind of scared, because you are holding the hopes and dreams of others in the palm of you pacing hand. I didn't know if I would be able to really open up and enjoy this responsibility, or be completely freaked out and stressed about pacing correctly.  The good news is I experienced the former and not the later!  I had a great front pacer and Lindsey, who really explained exactly how to pace people correctly.  While we were still a little close to our time (from what i understand the front pacer needs to be in pretty much on the dot and the back pacer can be a little behind by one or 2 minutes), I think my first gig was a huge success!  Let me back up and unfold a little more of the story.


On Friday, we traveled down to KC for the expo.  Lucky for me, Lindsey has been pacing races for a few years, so on the drive down, she answered my hundreds of questions and gave me TONS of great advice.  She had decided we needed an adventure, so instead of just parking at the expo at Union Station, we parked downtown and took the streetcar/trolley in.  After catching trains in Chicago, I felt very confident, but what I don't feel confident in is parking!  Thank goodness Lindsey does not share my fear, and was able to park us street side!

Parked right in front of the Drafthouse! 

We easily hopped on the street car/trolley/train and were off.  The short and fun train ride ended at Union Station, where we headed into the expo.  This building and space was very beautiful, although a bit warm.

I quickly found the Gypsy Runner booth and the Saucony booth.  I was very good and only purchased one thing at the Gypsy Runner booth, and if you know me, that is really, really good.  The expo was a good size, and had a variety of booths both informational and gear/shirts/races oriented.  We spent time at the Garmin booth and Gypsy Runner booth, and then headed over to pick up our pacing sticks and shirts.  Each race this team does has a specific pacer shirt, so we are recognizable and this year our shirts were blue.  Also a side note, as a pacer you get all of the swag that a runner entering the race would including the race t shirt, finisher's medal at the end, and ticket for food and beer post race.

I kind of screwed up.  Usually medium women's tech ts are small and tight on me.  I got a large just in case, since this kind of breaks the no new things on race day rule.  Well, it was HUGE on me, and v neck, so I kind of looked like I was drowning in it.  Oh well, at least I wasn't looking like I was trying to show off any assets LOL!  We had some chipotle for dinner, a new thing I am doing for carb loading the night before.  I think the rice and steak is better on my tummy than the pizza, but the jury is still out.  I always get salsa, and anything with onions gives me indigestion, so that is a trade off.  Luckily Zantac is amazing because it works fast, and usually takes care of any issues that might incur.  We got to bed around 10 pm for a nice early wake up call of 4:30 am.  

We had to drive in that morning, but I will take a little drive over an uber expensive hotel room.  Lindsey's car was already seeing all the closed and block roads and warning us, but she knew exactly how to get to where we were going.  I am so grateful to her for driving, because me and city driving do not mix! I would have been a nervous wreck!

 

We easily found parking and headed over to the pacer meet up at the Westin Hotel.  My co pacer was not there yet, and in fact got caught in the traffic that must have started in earnest after we got there.  Around 6:30 am, we all headed out to line up in the corral.  I had hoped that my co pacer would be there as I had NO clue where to stand, especially since there were not the usual pacer signs on the corral to tell me where to be.  I quickly got boxed in by runners and really couldn't move anyway, but lucky for me, was between the 2:35 and 2:45 pacers sort of.  Quickly, I started having runners line up around me that were introducing themselves and telling me that 2:40 was their goal.  I kept telling them that I hoped we were in the right place and that our other pacer was going to be there.  Lucky for me, she finally showed up after having to fight the traffic and then swim upstream through all the throng of excited and nervous runners.  I am not sure how many runners were there, as I have heard between 6,000 and 10,000.  After an amazing national anthem, we had fireworks, and we were off!  Let me tell you, as a runner it is super hard not to blast out of the chute at the beginning of a race, and even harder as a pacer because we start out a wee bit slower than normal to get our pace group warmed up.  Thank goodness Julie was there to help me stay slow, and of course I was already talking to people from the get go which also helped me slow down.  The pace felt very comfortable for me, even on the hills, and let me tell you, this course was nice and hilly.  

I didn't take a ton of pictures during the run, but the course was beautiful.  I had run parts of the course for other KC races, but it was fun to see parts of KC that I had previously never seen or had forgotten about.  The trees had started to turn bright reds and yellows, and the neighborhoods we ran in were gorgeous.  The miles and the hills honestly flew by, even though we were at a nice easy pace.

  

My special pace band that needed a safety pin to keep it on!

 Since I was the 2:40 group, our overall pace was a 12:12, but each mile had a specific pace on our special pace band.  I have always had success running with pacers from this group because of this very strategy.  I had a few faithfuls that stayed with me the entire race, or as they felt good or bad, floated from the front pacer back to me and then sometimes back again.  We had several first timers, and the fact that we were able to help them reach their goals just makes me SO happy!  We also caught some people who were struggling and helped them finish strong, or gave them motivation to keep it up.  We got lucky in that the weather that was predicted (rain, storms, and heat) stayed away, and the cool breeze and clouds helped keep things manageable.  I was red faced and had sweat on my face, but overall, I felt pretty good.  Most of the runners in my group were also pretty red faced and sweaty, but no one got in trouble with the heat and all seemed to be hydrating properly.  We walked through each aid station and the front pacer I was with did some walk run intervals and walked at the top section of a few of the tougher hills. 

I think the hardest part for me was staying slow enough, especially those few times I was without someone to talk to.  My front pacer had very long legs, so even her fast walk was my slow jog.  Sometimes I just had to take a little walk break, so I didn't get too close to her.  I think the next time, I would like to try out lead pacing or back pace the 2:35 or 2:30 group.  I have to say it was easy to stay slow when I was doing a lot of talking.  Several people asked me pretty detailed questions and you know me, I was ready to talk about anything and everything in detail to help them stay distracted.  Most wanted to know how long I had been running and what distances I had run.  Some wanted to know more about what I did for a living or if I had kids or pets. I am an open book so I am super easy to talk to.   We kept a pretty big core of people between us, and I think we only lost a few.  Lindsey was right, as we passed a few, they got pretty down but I tried to encourage them to keep up with me and to find their strong and chase me down!  Especially on the super long down hill at the end, which my hip did NOT like.  I am sorry to say that while my hip felt fine during the course, today as I type this, my hip is SUPER sore.  I am really glad I am headed to Dr. Needles tomorrow.  I ended up with an official time of 2:41:10 with my overall pace being 12:19.  As a back pacer, I can be directly on or a little bit below pace.  I feel like and hope my boss thinks my first gig was a success!

Post race I just hung out at the finisher's party eating, drinking, and listening to music by a band that did Lady Gaga and Madonna covers.  I saw a few of my pace group at the party and we had a few laughs and a few tears :).  Pacing is definitely very rewarding and can be very emotional.  I also went back out on the course and cheered some marathon runners in and cheered Miss Lindsey in.  She got a 15 minute PR on a very hilly and tough course, and I am very proud of her!  I recommend this race highly due to the beautiful, but hilly course, and I will be back pacing if they will have me!  I so hope I get to pace some this spring for Smart Pacers, because it basically is a very nice way to get a long run done, see some new places, get some swag, and make some new friends.  Fingers crossed!