In 2013, when I decided I wanted to run my first full marathon, I spent a lot of time looking for just the right one. After finding this race which was named after a joke from an SNL skit I had to share it with someone. During dinner that night I told my wife, "I found another marathon!" She thought I had walked a new route home from work and found a previously undiscovered gas station! 😂 I never got to run a marathon that fall because I got injured on a 17 mile training run.
Fast forward to January of 2017. Now on my journey to run a marathon in all 50 states I find MO' Cowbell on a list of races that Beast Pacing is providing pacers for and since I still need Missouri and I can stay with family in the area when race day comes I jump at the chance. I was originally assigned my very familiar 5 hour slot, but later moved up to 4:30 to help with scheduling.
The expo (or ExMO' as they called it) was held at a local community college where there was plenty of free parking and included the unique feature of having fitness and Zumba type classes, along with yoga for runners and an intro to the Galloway run/walk/run method. Packet pickup was pretty smooth with a nice selection of vendors also on hand.
After this I was off to check out some of the course. I wanted to familiarize myself with getting to the start at at Frontier Park and figure out the parking situation. I also wanted to get a feel for what I had been warned would be the toughest section of the course, a bridge over the Missouri river around mile 18. It turned out the bridge itself was fairly flat, but the initial approach to the bridge was the biggest hill on the entire course. There was also a smaller hill on the other side of the bridge that we would have to climb when we returned a bit after mile 20.
Early Sunday morning I was back at the park for the pacer picture. It's always fun to meet up with the rest of the team, usually with a few familiar faces and some that I'm meeting for the first time. After getting the picture, I realized that I had forgotten my pace band. One of the other pacers had supplies at her car so that I could quickly improvise one.
This race started like no other! We all got to jam on our cowbells to "Don't Fear the Reaper" before we headed out. We started out out running along the river headed upstream. It quickly got a bit rural out along some fields. I had a decent sized group to start with, but was primarily chatting with a guy who had run 2 previous marathons. As we moved along we eventually got to the highlight of the first half: it was a mixture of residences and businesses with big crowds out watching the runners come by and cheering them on. It wasn't too long after getting through this area that I decided i needed a quick bathroom break. I sent my group on ahead, telling them I would catch up. After finishing I found myself sprinting up the biggest hill of the first half to catch up to my group. They sped up after I left them, and it was at about mile 10.25 or so that I caught up again. I was able to slow them back down as we were getting ready to head into the second half.
Cue the music for one of the biggest mental hurdles of the race! As we were getting close to where we had started (and the half would be finishing quite soon) the full course kept going straight to put us on the Katy trail when the half turned to put them on the homestretch, back down 2nd Street. As we headed out on the trail for 13.1 MORE miles, we could see the half marathoners finishing just off to our right. Also, to top it off, we were now on a dusty gravel trail which would be our running surface for most of the second half. Just as we were leaving the Frontier Park area, we hit my favorite aid station of the entire race. I'm pretty sure it wasn't even an official station! It was a guy who seemed to be out there on a bike, with his very young daughter. We had to wait a little since they didn't have enough cups ready for us, but it was the coldest water ever!
At mile 17 we were detoured off of the trail to begin the climb up to the Page bridge. This was an act of mercy, because it spread out the climb over a longer distance than the steep switchbacks on the trail. I gave the group some walk breaks as we tackled the biggest hill of the entire course. It was also nice to be temporarily off of the gravel. As we crossed the bridge, my group began to thin out. The hill had taken its toll. As we continued on a bit past the bridge I really only had 2 people left with me, the guy I had been chatting with in the first half and Jessica who was back after she'd felt a bit beaten by the course last year. When we made the turnaround to head back to the bridge, only Jessica was left. The point of the course where she had fallen apart last year was the climb back onto the bridge. We took more walk breaks. We got back across the bridge still doing ok on time, but we didn't stop to admire the "love locks" in the center of the bridge.
There was an aid station right as we got back off of the bridge, and then it was down the steep switchbacks of the trail to get us back down to river level and the 4 miles back to the park.
From here on out we were going along the flat, dusty trail. I could tell Jessica's energy was ebbing, so I decided I needed to distract her for the final few miles. I had somehow made it to this point of the race without really sharing my story, so I was ready to give the 30-40 minute version. We kept going and I kept talking, but it wasn't really working. Jessica was slowing down and when we hit the mile 24 marker and I was a couple of seconds slow I knew I had to leave her behind. I sped up just in case the course was a little long. I picked up a couple a runners who needed a little encouagement and told them they had to finish in front of me. We passed the finish line ANOTHER time before we made a U-turn from the trail to the street to head towards the chute. I was now coming in a little faster than I wanted to, so I slowed down and sent the other runners on ahead.
I finshed in exactly 4:29:00 and then waited for Jessica to come across the line. She came in with her kids in 4:30:25. It wasn't quite where she wanted to be, but it was better than last year.
The after party was decent with various snacks, chocolate milk, and beer. The race had been hot, but not as bad as Grand Lake the previous weekend where I had gotten dehydrated. (opted to not do a blog post since it was a repeat state) I went to one of the "massage" tables, but it turned out to be more of a "stretch out" than a massage. I think they may have been doing actual massages at another location that was closer to the finish line. Overall it was a good experience: nice expo, fun theme, decent party. I wasn't a huge fan of the course, but the first half wasn't bad. I mostly didn't like the long gravel out and back for the second half. I would probably recommend the race for someone who needed MO for their goal, but I'm not feeling any need to go back to do their 4 year medal series that started with 2017.
