Rock To Victory Half Marathon

Procrastination is my closest friend and worst enemy. I’ve waited too long to make this post (the race was on March 15th), but I’ve got to get it out before I completely forget the details I want to remember.

Amy and I spent the night at my brother’s house as all four of us (my brother and his wife included) were going to go to the race. The day started bright (well, cloudy actually) and early (not as early as I wanted, but we were up too late the night before) as we all got up and got dressed to leave. I consumed a Kashi Bar before leaving the house and I consumed a banana on the way there.

We had agreed the night before to pick up breakfast on the way (for the others, not for me; I was happy with what I had), but in the end, we were running a little too late to risk a stop.

We got there with about 15-20 minutes to spare (so we did have time to pick up breakfast, but better safe than sorry). Amy got a few shots of me before I went to get into position. I still hang back about 2/3 from the starting line. I know I’m not a fast runner so why get in the way of the real runners (yeah, it’s some racer etiquette or something).

When the race finally started, it was only a minute or so until I was across the starting line and Amy was getting a few shots of me as I passed by. This is the last I would see of them until the end of the race.

I had failed to really study the map so I didn’t memorize specific directions or where the mile markers would be. It also turned out that I had no clue what the mile markers looked like. What I took for race “decoration” was actually the mile marker, if I had only looked up to the top of the 10 foot swoosh to see the number. Live and learn, but this created a problem for me. I had no clue when I could call my family and let them know I was at the 9 mile point (which is what I had planned).

Now why would this be important? Remember when I said we didn’t have time to pick up breakfast? Well, they had to go get it. They had also decided to go ahead and visit my parents who were about 10-15 miles from the finish line. Naturally, I would have to call them at a point where they could then estimate my current pace and know when I should be crossing the finish line and when they need to be there to take my pictures and, well, just be there. More on that in a moment.

It really was a chilly start at around 45F (it would be about 54F by the finish). I was really thankful for my gloves I had purchased at the RunOn! store in Dallas. I was also wearing new socks from the RunOn! store in Coppell. It would remain cloudy the entire run, but that was just fine with me.

I had decided to be very careful in my run and, as I had the previous Sunday for my 9 mile training run, I would run approximately 12 minutes and then walk 1 minute. With the exception of some water/Gatorade breaks, this pattern was upheld until the 9-mile mark. After that, I was doing about 6 minutes and then 1 minute break. Until about mile eleven, but more on that later.

At about 70 minutes into the race, I had my first Clif Shot; it was “chocolate”, though it tasted more like lightly sweetened and slightly tart chocolate frosting. It wasn’t bad, but not great. I refused to do like other runners and just drop my trash on the course. I put the empty packet into my fanny pack. I also put all empty cups in trash receptacles instead of the ground. The second Clif Shot was at 2 hours into the run.

As I said, I had not studied the map, so when it came to a bridge going across a freeway, I had not paid attention to where it was (just focused on avoiding any rocks or uneven places to trip on) that I had thought we were crossing Woodall Rogers back into Downtown Dallas (the race had started off going into Downtown and then back out and up McKinney). The half way point was just outside the Granada theater on Lower Greenville. Again, I was confused about where I was and didn’t realize this until I saw the street sign. There was a band playing there WAY too loud (you could hear them over a block away, but not understand a word they were singing).

With this realization, I knew now that the bridge had been over Central Expressway and I suddenly had a better mental picture of where the course had taken me. It was just after crossing that bridge again heading back to the start that I needed to know what mile marker I was at. None of the race officials/volunteers I asked had any clue (which I thought was kinda silly). Finally, there was a race official with a bullhorn calling out “9 mile mark”.

I pulled out my Blackberry and texted my wife letting them know I was at the 9-mile marker. It wasn’t long after this that we were on Katy Trail. There were a couple of ladies running together who would run ahead of me, then I’d catch up while they were walking and pass them, then they would take off and get way ahead of me again. We joked about them just making sure to stay ahead of me and that the only reason they knew they had rested enough walking was when I passed them. We finally got to chatting once in a while on the Katy Trail and I lost sense of time until we were crossing Harry Hines.

“Wait a minute”, I told myself, “I’m a LOT closer to the finish than I thought.”

I called my wife at that point to tell them where I was and found out they were still at my parents. They started to leave right then.

I hung up and got back to running and about five minutes later, I crossed the finish line. There was none of my family or friends there to see me finish. Carolyn and Bob had rescheduled one of their training runs for the Boston Marathon to see me finish my first half-marathon and missed by a few minutes as they weren’t expecting me to finish so quickly.

What had contributed to all of this?

• I had told everyone that I would be lucky to finish in 3 hours as I had estimated this based on my run the previous weekend of 9 miles in about 2 hours.
• When I was told it was the 9-mile mark by the official, I checked the map and found out he was closer to the 10 mile mark.
• My family had calculated my pace based on my call and had expected me to take much longer for the last leg of the race than I did.
• When I hit the 11 mile mark (approx), I got to running and, for the first time, didn’t feel the need to take a walking break (though it would not have prevented this situation) and did not stop until I finished the race fairly strong.

I got my finisher medal and the photographer got a shot of me in front of the background screen and was walking to the tent area when I found Carolyn and Bob. They were extremely disappointed when they realized they were late, but it was only because I ran faster than I expected. Carolyn asked me if I was ready to go and run that route again right now and I said “heck no”. I am NOT ready for a marathon.

While hanging out with them around the tent area, my wife, brother and sis-in-law showed up and apologized profusely. They still got a few more photos of me after the race and we hung around for some of the medals. The winner of the half-marathon was a classmate of Carolyn’s daughter, so the running community is still pretty tightly knit. Once they covered my age group, we left to go back home

After we got back to my brother’s house, I showered and then we went out to lunch. Since it was my choice and I knew my brother and his wife had never been, we went to Sweet Tomatoes. The problem was I was starting to have trouble walking due to severe pain in my ankles (both). We had a wonderful lunch, but the pain only increased. I realized then it was a gout attack in both ankles (exacerbated by the 13.1 miles of running). By the time we get back to his house again, I’m just ready to lay down and prop up my feet. So my brother and I settle in for a few hours of Halo while the wives go out for a movie (this was the plan anyways).

I ended up having to take the next day off from work due to the gout attack.

So when is the next race? I have no clue, but I don’t plan on doing another half-marathon for several months (though I may do the Dallas White Rock Half-Marathon in December which follows the exact same route I just did for the Rock to Victory). I would like to get in another 5K soon, but other planned activities mean that the only two I can do in the next two months in the area conflict with my plans. So it may be June or July before my next 5K (unless I find another race on a weekend not already scheduled).

Timed Results
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