That time I ran back to back half marathons part 2

 

This past Sunday I ran part 2 of my ' Stephanie Squared Half Marathon Squared Weekend'. This race was in Clayton, Mo, about 30 minutes from home. TheRelay and Run for 21 started a few years ago to raise money and awareness for Downs Syndrome ( trisomy 21). It was another small race. Packet pickup was available before the race and my friend Jennifer www.LiveLearnloveRun.WordPress.com was able to pick up my packet for me.

I ran the race with Stephanie and Jennifer. Since Stephanie and I had run the day before we had no personal expectations for this race...just finish. I wanted to run it for fun and hopefully run it with Jennifer to get her a PR.

It was very cold and windy again! Typical St. Louis weather...just a couple days ago it was warm and beautiful...now that it was race weekend, it was cold and miserable. We got to downtown Clayton in time to use the porta potties ( perk of small races is no lines:). Since it was so small there were no corrals and we were lucky enough to wait inside a small coffee shop across from the start with some other runners. At 7:30 the race started right on time and we literally left the coffee house and took off on the course.

This was a VERY hilly course!! It was also a point to point race. I have never run one before. We ran from Downtown Clayton to West Port Plaza.They then bused us back to Clayton after the race.  Other than the hills, I really liked the course. It was mostly residential and we ran through some beautiful neighborhoods. There were alot of volunteers and more water stops than i think i have have seen at a race.

All 3 of us were able to run it together. I loved that...especially since Jennifer DID get her PR!!! At the last 1/2 mile Stephanie and I took off so we could get to the finish line before Jennifer to get her picture crossing the finish line with her new PR. So proud of her!! That was a killer hilly and windy course, but she blew her time out of the water and I am so glad I was able to capture that moment for her! Although I suspect she will not have that PR for long....she will smash that time next time:)

Over all I really liked the race. It was well run and for such a great cause. I really liked the point to point race. I want to do more of those. This will absolutely  be a race I run again...but probably not the day after another race....I will save my legs for those hills:)