A Rainy Adventure in Kansas: Salina Crossroads Half Marathon

Tina Torun(MM15672, DA3665, HF16109) – Salina Crossroads Marathon on November 2nd was my 34th state (Kansas) and 80th half marathon. There were a lot of Half Fanatics and Marathon Maniacs at the race. I chose to fly into Wichita and drive 1.5 hours to small town Salina, KS. Midwest weather can change quickly. On Monday, it was 85F, but then a cold front went thru. A possible thunderstorm was going to hit by race day. The race officials were awesome to keep us informed of the conditions. The thunderstorm shifted and it would only rain the entire race. They had not had any rain for 40 days prior and it was unusual to have thunderstorms at this time of year. The bib pick up was easy at Homewood Suites the day before or they had race day pick up. This race was very inexpensive $5 entry fee and $25 if you wanted to buy race shirt. Their sponsors help cover the rest of the fees and they donate revenues to local charities. Small expo. Lots of free parking in downtown. Had I known better, I would of arranged the pre-race photo inside the Salina Fieldhouse.

We met near the race start by the DJ and stage. It was dark in the start area because no sunrise. It was raining as I left my hotel and preceded to rain the entire race. Thankful for the small group to meet up before the race.

They asked us to go to the start corral at 7:40am. You could only enter the corral from the very back. I picked a spot further up in the corral because with 5000+ runners I didn’t want to start in the back. My position was good (2:20 pacer nearby) because faster Marathon Maniacs and Half Fanatics passed me and I saw them! It was great that they had pacers. The full time limit is 6 hours and the full does 2 laps of the course. I am glad to only have to do one lap because there are 3 hills at mile 6-8, when we were told only 1 hill but it kept going up, up. The downhill was nice. At mile 6.5 or so on top of hill, there was an announcer calling out names and occasionally saying where people were from. I was disappointed that he didn’t know AK stood for Alaska, so he called out Tina. Later said is that Alaska?

They have a lot of parks and the route was scenic thru neighborhoods. The male marathon winner passed me at mile 9.3 and the female marathon winner passed me at mile 11. The aid stations were every 2 miles and they had water, Gatorade, lots of snacks- kind of like what you would see at an ultra race- pretzels, m&ms, etc. I had some pickle juice. The finish line had slices of pie- cheesecake and chocolate cream pie, tons of free food- sliders: cheesecake, bacon cheeseburger, veggie burger, banana, milk, chocolate milk, crackers, etc. Probably the only thing missing was giving us heat sheets. Cold and wet once we stopped, so I went to my car immediately to get my jacket and change clothes. The RDs are runners, so they know how to put on a race for runners! This was their 3rd year and I highly recommend this race for Kansas!