Liberty Hospital Half marathon and 5 K

First time running this race and I am happy to say I would run it again!  Let's start at the beginning.  If you checked out my weekly post, you know I came down Friday night to stay with one of my old students for some good food and some visiting.  We had flat bread pizza and beer and good conversations.  I am so proud of her for getting an amazing job and doing so well in the big city!

Packet pick up was for several days at several different locations.  Since I was coming in Friday afternoon and the packet pick up was about 50 minutes from where I was staying, I opted to get my packet pre-race.  I am always up early on race days anyway, and was planning on leaving super early to get to the race sight since it was a new to me race, so that plan of attack made the most sense.

I was up by 4:45 am and on the road by 5 am to go North to North KC into Liberty.  I knew I would be traffic free, but the fact that I don't know my way around the north side of KC was kind of daunting, especially when I needed to find parking and get my packet.  Lucky for me, there was little to no traffic, and my GPS found the place very easily. I got checked in and got my packet easily, and headed back to my prime parking spot right behind the porta potties to listen to a podcast and chill.  There were several options for parking, and they had great maps for the shuttle lots and the parking lots around the community center, which was the start/finish for the race.

It was still a bit chilly out, so I was glad I had on my tights and not my shorts and also had a long
sleeved shirt on.  I was actually able to use the restroom in the community center after getting my packet, but then after that, I just hopped over to the porta potties right in front of my car. I did end up using one porta potty on the course, and had no lines to wait in or any issues.  As the race grows, I am sure they will want to increase the numbers of potties on the course, but I did not see any issues this year either pre-race or on course.

My front pacer for the 2:40 group had picked up my stick and shirt for me, since i was racing Psycho Wyco the day that they were giving them out.  I am sure they are glad I didn't stop by the store, since I was COVERED in mud that day.  Anyway, the shirt was not a tech tee, instead it was a soft cotton shirt, so I decided not to layer it over a tech long sleeved T, but instead put on my Gypsy Runner arm warmers to keep warm.  I sure am glad I did, because by the end of the race, I was sweating!  I did decide to have my Trail Nerds buff on just in case, more so because the wind was a little chilly at first, but also because it's purple and I just adore it.  

the course map

I would describe the course as unrelenting hills.  They weren't horrible hills, they just never let up.  There were two pretty steep and long ones that we did walk partially up, but for the most part, we ran everything.  The scenery was varied with lots of big beautiful houses, some rural area, and some residential.  We went through one neighborhood that had the prettiest house I have even seen and each one was unique and brightly colored.  We oooo'd and ahhh'd  a lot and had guessing games to figure out how much they were worth.  I had my pace band on my arm and was keeping a close eye on it the whole time, and we were able to bank an extra minute in our time back for a little bit of a cushion.  The course is mainly on a four lane road with the runners having the entire 2 lane side of the road to run on without the threat of cars, which is super nice.  We started out with several people in our pace group, and by the end, I had two ladies that were sticking with me.

This was Danielle's first half and she ROCKED it!

I am so happy that both ladies rocked it out and got in a little after the 2:40 pace group.  Neither had time goals, both just wanted to finish, and they did so!  I headed back on the course to check on runners that had dropped from our group and got another 1.5 mile in before calling good.  I didn't want to leave without a beer and some food, and I was worried that they might run out.  

Love the medal and love the soft t shirt that we got for the race (plus my pacer shirt is the same material, YIPEEE).  While I prefer to run in a tech tee, I really prefer getting t shirts in my swag bag.  We also had tons of coupons and goodies in our drawstring swag bag, including two stickers for the car and some chapstick.  Unfortunately,  all of the coupons are for KC located businesses, and I don't go to Liberty very often, but if I was local, I would be so excited!!!!  For a small race, this race had everything very well organized.  Three packet pick ups at different locations, to ensure everyone could get their packets easily was nice.  I think I heard this was their second year and I could see this race growing by a ton.  There is lots to do for the kiddos, food trucks for food post race, merch for sale, and amazing beer.  Plus, it's nice to have an early in the year half marathon to cut your teeth on.  I will for sure pace this race again in a heartbeat and would love to try and run it for time as well!  I would like to bring Andrew and Tony to this one as well since there was so much to do while waiting.  Well done Liberty Half Marathon and 5K!!!!!