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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

09/25/11: 36th Annual Omaha Half Marathon (race report)

More than 4200 runners turned up for this years event....and the weather couldn't have been more perfect. The temps hovered in the mid to lower 40's and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.


Although, while preparing for the 7:00 am race start, you couldn't see anything in the sky except stars and the slightest fingernail moon.


Doug signed up to run the 10K and Inny and I were running the half together. It was her first, and she was pretty excited!


I'm not sure how long it took this guy to get out of the race staging area. But there were nothing but people shoulder to shoulder blocking his way.


Because of the severe flooding the region has experienced this year, the start was moved to the new TD Ameritrade ballpark (only a few blocks away from the original start).


As the sun came up, shivering runners waited for the starting gun.


Let's get this party started!!!






This woman ran with the garbage bag around her waste for AT LEAST the first 5-6 miles. Neither Inny or I could take the "swish swish swish" any longer and passed her by.






The support from cheering residents along the way was fun!


At around mile 8 there's a hill. A big hill. And it lasted for well over a mile. Inny was cheering because we'd hit the top.

We hadn't yet, as we would soon find out. :-)


Our time was pretty good considering it was her first (yeah!!!) and I wasn't wanting to push myself hard. The pain in my lower legs is finally 99% gone, and I didn't want it to come back.

Maybe I should have? My knee (of all things) ended up sending me to the doc and an MRI appointment the next day anyway. :-(


After I was done running, I jumped in my car and drove to mile 22 of the full marathon route? Why 22? That's where Mot was volunteering for the day as a human cone. (that's literally what his shirt says!!)

The put the "human cones" along the route to direct running (and non running) traffic. He was having a pretty good time. I stayed over there with him for an hour or two, then headed home for a shower.


The medals, for the second year in a row, are made from recycled glass. There is a glass studio in Downtown Omaha that does them for the event. At the end of the race, there was a line of Marines in full dress putting them around the necks of the runners.
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13.1 miles, just over 2 hours 39 minutes, overall avg pace 11:58, 455 ft elevation gain, 1487 calories, 185 Max HR, 172 Avg HR

2 comments:

Faith Ann said...

Congratulations to you and your sister! That's a fantastic time considering it was her first half!

Can't imagine running with a garbage bag for that long. I can't imagine what purpose it would serve other than being annoying!

Nej said...

I know she did it for warmth. There are always quite a few people a the start line wearing garbage bags. But you definitely don't usually see them still on 5, 6, 7 miles into the run. :-)