Wellstone's Dallas White Rock Marathon - RunMarathon

The weather was mid-40s with wind and some light rain, and it got colder as the race went on. The wind on parts of the lake was strong, and I was caught in a squall for about half a mile at one point. I wore a windbreaker, thin gloves, and cap for most of the race. Other tahn a few times, I didn't think that the cold or wind was causing a problem for me.

I was shhoting for 10 min./mi. pace. After a couple of warm-up miles, I ran miles 3 - 16 in under 10 mins. -- miles 7 - 9 were all in the 9:20s. Miles 17 - 19 were in the 10 min./mi. ranges. Starting at mile 18, you come off of the lake and climb 120' to mile 21, until you start back downhill. That did me in. By that time, I'd run out of energy, and my pace stayed in the 11 min./mi. range until the finish. But, in July, 2006, I was seeing if I could run for 5 minutes without stopping. Overall it was a fun but cold day.

Work to keep my 10 min./mi. pace early on.

Trying to get into the American Airlines Center and out of the cold and wind.


Poor race management.


Having never run a marathon, its hard to comment on the course, aid stations, etc. The course is as scenic as it gets in Dallas. Seeing the number of people running off of the course and into the bushes in the first few miles, I suppose there could have been more toilets early on. My complaints are with the area around the American Airlines Center (AAC) where the race started and finished:

I was confusing to figure out where you were supposed to go, so more and better signs could have helped.

The AAC seemed to have a real hard time getting people into the arena. All of the entrances weren't open, and the lines to get in were very long at times (sometimes in the 5 min. range). Thats a lot when you're in your running clothes and the wind is wipping around the buildings. They handle 50,000 for sports events, so they should have done a better job with this crowd.

The worse decision, was to put the bag check outside. To check your bag, you had to go outside, and then they put the bags though a door into the arena. After the race, instead of coming inside to the bag check, you had to stand for 5 minutes or more in a freezing line to come up to the same door and let them hand you your bag from inside the arena. My teeth were chattering, and some people were cramping. There is no reason that the bag pick up could not have been inside -- a really bad decision.

Someone had the smart idea to wrap runners in foil blankets as they finished this was a great idea.

By the time I finished, the post-race feast was down to yogurt, apple slices, and long lines for popcorn and some sort of chicken. No bagels, no bananas. It looked like most of the food stations had run out and left.