On June 13th, Debbie, Chanti, and myself (along with quite a few fellow runners) ran the first ever Joplin Boomtown 1/2 Marathon. It was a nice day with lots of sun and many hills but we finished. The course was well supported (except for the college kids manning the intersections that looked like they would rather be sleeping). There were plenty of water stops with many volunteers and porta-potties at mile 8ish. Unfortunately the spectators left a little to be desired; it was as if they didn't know they were there to cheer for everyone not just the one racer they knew. At one point Chanti and I had to ask them to cheer us on to help get us up the hill. I am going to mark it up to inexperience ;-)
Chanti and I stuck together and finished in 1 hour 59 minutes. One of these days we are going to both be "on" and get a great PR but we were both very happy with our sub 2. Debbie ran a steady pace (cussing the hills as she went) and found herself at one point running and talking with the legendary Bart Yasso who was a guest speaker at the pre-race banquet and started the race on Saturday morning. Check out the full race results, they are pretty good. Looking forward to an even better Boomtown Half-Marathon next year...come and join us!
Run On! - Brooke
