Lincoln Presidential Half Marathon 2015

This was my first half marathon for 2015, and the third time running this race.  We drove down on Friday and stayed overnight at the Hilton, which was the host hotel, so we didn’t have to go far for the expo.

The race started at 7:30, we arrived at the start in plenty of time.  We took pictures around the train station and the museum and library entrance. I joined the 2:15 pace.  I met a couple half fanatics and saw a fanatic that I met last year, Dawn, who we’ve kept in touch through social media.  There wasn’t any wave starts, so once we finished the national anthem we were off.

I like this race, because it lead us through historical locations and the neighborhoods and parks of Sprinfield. When we got to the historic neighborhood we heard a bugler play morning taps. After going through some neighborhoods we turned a corner and we were running up to the state Capitol.  This course gave us paved roads, gravel, sidewalks and even brick roads. I had to watch my footing because I almost stepped wrong and that could of been disastrous. The only thing I would complain was that there was no restroom facilities until the 6 mile mark.  If you have been following my blog, I tend to need to use the facilities early into the race, you could imagine what I was going through hoping at every water stop.

I haven’t been training regularly as I have been. I could totally tell during this run.  I took a lot of walking breaks towards the end. After we went through the cemetery where Lincoln is buried there were a couple inclines that were a challenge. When I saw Rick at the 12.5 mile mark I knew Iwas almost done and had all the intentions in running or at least jog the rest of the way, but that wasn’t the case I took a couple walking breaks. But I did finish it!  I finished in 3hrs 0min 36sec.  I got my big penny medal and took my finisher photo with Abe and Mark Lincoln.

After freshening up and checking out we had lunch and spent the afternoon at the Lincoln Museum before heading back home.  As always we had a fun time in Sprinfield.