There's no place like Kansas for state 28

 

I ran my 28th state in Salina, KS on November 8, 2025.  The temps were excellent...I wore a fleece while waiting that I donated to the fence...and leggings with a tank and arm sleeves.  I took the sleeves off after 2 miles.  But it was windy!  Sometimes I felt like I was being pushed back.  The course started downtown  Salina and ran through the outskirts of the town, including some parks.  It was a pretty course that was flat until mile 6 and after a decent uphill, there were several other hills before it got mostly flat again after mile 8.

I found a hippo on the way to the starting line

The flag was being blown around!

I was able to see some fall colors during the race

Tall grass in Kansas

I felt good during this race.  My goal was to beat 2:30 and I almost did, kind of.  My time was 2:31:35.  What I was happy about was that I only had three miles that were in the 12 minute range, the slowest being 12:15.  My problem is that I start out strong, not too fast, but strong, and then slow down the second half.  This time I did slow down, but not as much as usual.  I honestly think that if the wind had not been so strong from mile 9 to the end of the race, I would have beaten 2:30 hours.  But either way, I felt strong, but felt like I had pushed myself.  

The Salina Crossroads Half also had a full (I guess it really should be said the other way) which was two laps of the half course.  Only one marathon runner finished before me.  He passed me at 2:10 when I had 20 more minutes to go.  That was another win!  

The end of the race was great!  I did not wait in line for the free pizza and burgers, but I did get the free Edwards pie!  The choices were cheesecake or chocolate.  Although I don't really count their cheesecake as true cheesecake, it was still delicious!  Cool and refreshing after running!

  

All in all, this was a great course and the race was well organized with lots of volunteers.  They even gave out peanut M&M's on the course.  And there was a record number of runners...over 5000!  I would definitely recommend it!  

There were lots of sculptures in Salina and one was appropriately a runner!

The medal was shaped like Kansas.  With the weird looking runner on it!