Not to be dramatic. If I don’t capitalize, it looks like “door die” half marathon. That’s a totally different race.

DO or DIE!!! Half marathon is a fun little race put on by the Boonville, Missouri family ymca. The race is on the Katy trail from the Boonville trailhead, out 6 and a half miles (approximately) and back.

Sydney had this race on her bucket list because she wanted to race on the Katy trail. I wanted to do this race on account of the awesome logo.

Boonville is a little less than 2 hours away on I-70 in the middle of the day, going the speed limit. Sydney and I were up, “ready-to-go,” and on the road by 5 a.m. and I drive like I run…fast, y’all. I drive pretty fast.

We arrived and they were still setting up. It was pretty chilly, and we had an hour to kill. Luckily, they opened up the visitor center. What a cool place! They had a model train running through a scale model of the town. They had artifacts and examples of old timey clothes. There was a model of the Lewis and Clark expedition boat. There were plenty of souvenirs. I didn’t bring any money, so I didn’t buy anything. Most of it was geared toward cyclists, anyway.

There was a briefing before the race that I pointedly ignored. I’ve been told they mentioned the outbound was uphill. Ridiculous. Saying “uphill” about the Katy trail is like saying “spicy” about McDonald’s.

Syd and I decided to take it really easy. To not be competitive and just enjoy the scenery. She was going to try to run relaxed and not look at her watch at all.

This section of the Katy trail is cool. There were a lot of cows, some horses. A loud doggy. A big tunnel that didn’t echo very well, and a couple of bridges.

We even had a truck honk at us while we crossed over I-70.

The aid stations were great! The first one was a bit further out than we expected, but there was a port-o-john there. The second had fun size snickers. The third had gummy bears. They all had full sized cups and super friendly volunteers!

Sydney and I finished together in 2 hours, 24 minutes for “not last.” We didn’t care. It was gorgeous and fun. The winners got hand made plaques that were awesome, but we didn’t get a picture.

We ate burgers at the second best diner in Boonville, the Northwoods diner. It was fine.

We made it back to k.c. in plenty of time to see Ted Luce and the moneymakers with our friends.