The Chisholm Trail Marathon Recap
This was its inaugural race. Pretty simple course, two loops with a total of 12 turns. One ‘big’ hill and then several rolling hills. It felt pretty hilly to me, but this is where I live and train, and I can find much flatter areas to run here; however if you are from anywhere but Kansas, it would probably feel prettty flat. The race organizers developed this course to be flat and fast and to be a good opportunity for BQing/PRing.
It was a pretty small race. I think about 800-1000 runners combined between the half and full with about 200 of those running the full. It definitely thinned out for the full. I knew several people out and about spectating, so that helped. There was no course entertainment, so no bands to help provide a jolt of energy when I needed it.
I started out about 30 seconds below goal pace until I got over the first hill. Then I picked up the pace. I think I ran a little to fast in some of the early middle miles. By the start of the second loop I was starting to get a little tired, but was still pretty good. I kept reminding myself for the next several miles that this is what I had trained for - this is what my long runs were simulating, the last miles of the marathon (Thanks
@DopeyBadger). It started to get tough even before the last turn around - with 7 miles to go. But I kept pushing. Slowed down going up hills and I tried to pick it up on the way down. Somewhere in the last 3-5 it got pretty hard, but I kept going. I knew if I kept my miles under 10 I would still set a PR (still kept them under 9:30). The last two miles there was one unofficial water stop and a normal water stop and I took the opportunity to walk through both (I normally walk for short bits through official water stations). And then I took another short walk break with about 0.5-0.6 left. I was tired, after that I told myself just to finish so I could be done! I didn’t quite make my goal of under 4, but I still set a 10 minute PR. Yay! I’ll take it.
@LSUlakes My time was 4:01:34.
It was a beautiful sunrise when I ran over it. 
Two years ago I paced my wife through it in a run/walk fashion. Last year I used it as a training run. I've run it every year since 2013, but my previous best times were all about the same (1:21-1:22). This year I knew I was quite a bit stronger than I was the last time I actually raced it (2016). When I put my goal down on the calendar here months ago, I just wanted to be 1:20:xx. Winter training and recent races had actually gone better so I actually had a stretch goal of being 1:17:xx. The race went extremely well and I actually ran pretty smart. It's essentially 3 miles flattish + 3 miles hilly in a park + 3 miles flattish + 1 mile that starts with a train overpass (coming right at the end of a race when you don't really want to see something like that) and the finish in the football stadium. The main thing is to not burn it all on the 3 hilly miles that are in a park. Midway through the race, I thought I could get my stretch goal if I didn't do anything silly. After I got out of the park I realized I could get even lower if I kept pushing in a controlled fashion. I ended up with a pretty significant improvement on my PR of over 6 minutes! I have a half marathon in 5 weeks and I'm interested to see how I do on it. Saturday's race was a nice confidence boost.
They disappoint me when I pick them and when I don't pick them, but I am super excited they've made it to the Sweet 16! 
