Kansas City Half Marathon

On October 20, Matt and I each ran our first half marathon. The Kansas City Marathon was a fabulous event with a full marathon, half marathon and 5k. We ran with the NF Endurance Team in support of the Children's Tumor Foundation and our friends the Woods family. Together Matt and I raised $1,625 and overall the Kansas City team raised over $16,000! The CTF team put together a great video of the morning that you can view by clicking here. We make a few cameos in it!

 

Here I am with my running girls early in the morning before the race began. I trained with Christy, Tracy, and Leslie for the race for 18 weeks. We ran regularly on Wed. and Sun. mornings at 5:30 am. It's amazing the friendships you can build on those long, early runs. I am very thankful for these ladies.  

Matt trained alone, which was hard at times. But on race day he was joined by two of his fraternity pledge brothers, Alex and Nick. Alex and Nick are both accomplished marathoners. They pushed Matt and ran with him the entire way. He said without them it would have been much more difficult. He ran the 13.1 miles in an amazing 1:48:48! Here's a shot of the three of them between mile 12 and 13.

Matt was there to see me cross the finish line. I ran it in 1:59:55 and was thrilled with my time! Overall, it was a great experience for me. It was hard, but I expected that. It was a beautiful morning and running through my adopted city was awesome. All of the cheering people in Westport and on the Plaza were so encouraging and provided great motivation. I was doing really well until about mile 9, but then the crowds are gone and there were a couple of more hills that were tough, but I was able to push through. The end, running through the chute with people on both sides of you was really cool. I was very emotional after the race...it was a pretty unbelievable accomplishment for me.





We were lucky enough to have our own adoring fans along the route. My parents and sister were kind enough to bring Luke and Grace out to watch us. They had a great spot on the Plaza and then dashed down to Crown Center to see us finish too. Matt's parents also cheered us along in a different spot on the Plaza. It was awesome to have them all there and was a major rush each time we saw someone we knew. Thank you all!

Here are a few more post-race shots of us celebrating with our friends and each other. We had a fun morning hanging out with friends after the race and watching all the other runners come in. All in all, a great half marathon experience for Team Taylor!