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Cowtown Half-Marathon - RunHalf Marathon


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Ft. Worth, Texas
United States
50F / 10C
Sunny
Total Time = 2h 20m 31s
Overall Rank = /
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/
Pre-race routine:

It's my birthday weekend! Last year I did the full marathon of this race on my 30th birthday and they started the 5-year medal thingie, which is awesome. So I'm back baby! Not only for the medal but because I love running and what better way to spend my birthday weekend?!

Drove down to Ft. Worth Saturday afternoon - WAY later than we planned since Tom was stuck at work. We actually had to have my friend Jen pick up all of our packets since we didn't make it into town till around 8:30 p.m. Ate at a place called Uncle Rico's (Mexican of course) and I even had 2 margaritas! Shock! If you look at my training, it will become quite obvious that I didn't train for this race! Double shock! I ended up working in another state for the entire month of February so that just threw me off even more. But I didn't care... I was here to have fun and enjoy the weekend with good friends - Yay!
Event warmup:

Our hotel was just blocks from the start line and you could SEE the start line from our window! It looked cold out, and Eric's iPhone told us it was only 33 degrees out. Brrr. So I put on long pants and long sleeves over a short sleeved shirt. And my birthday girl headband of course :)

Ate my bagel (that I had to "toast" on the coffee pot burner!) literally minutes before walking down to the lobby. Oopsie. That would come back to haunt me, just a little.

Waited probably a little too long to walk to the start line, because by the time we got there the pedestrian traffic was at a standstill and we had to literally hop over the gates to get into the start coralle. Fun! So many people! I love it.

I think we were in Coralle C (suppoed to be in D but oh well) so we heard three guns go off before it was out turn. Jen and I were planning on running together, WITHOUT IPODS! It's not a big deal for me, but it was for her. We're conditioning her for her first 70.3 (Lonestar) next month. She is not used to to running without it so this was a good first step for her.

Anywho - time to run! Totally unprepared! This will be fun, no doubt :)

Run
  • 2h 20m 31s
  • 13.13 miles
  • 10m 42s  min/mile
Comments:

First mile is all downhill - wahooooo! Jen and I are chatting and catching up. She moved to Houston last year and I miss her a lot. I was SO glad she came to run with me :)

I got hot about 3 miles in but decided to wait to take my long sleeves off until Jen found a porta potty without silly long lines. Mile 5 had crazy lines, but at Mile 6 we stopped and I put my shirt around my waist. I had short sleeves on under it, which was perfect. The stop was maybe 4 or 5 minutes, but my Garmin auto-paused so my time I list here is actual running time.

After this stop, my body started to deteriorate. Bad knee was hurting, and my left quad was angry with me (and it was last year, too?!). At mile 9 I completely overheated and did not feel good at all. I tried to eat some of a GU but only got 1/2 down by the aid station. I stopped at the aid station and chugged two cups of ice water and felt a little better, but my tummy was also feeling funny. Dang bagel! I really need to re-think eating so soon before the start time. Lesson learned.

So around 9.5 miles, Jen kept speeding up and I didn't feel like killing myself so I told her to go on and I'd see her at the finish line. After some negotiation, she finally went ahead and I ran the rest by myself. I was just not feeling awesome at all, but was determined to have FUN and enjoy the race. The sun was out and shining on my face, and I was RUNNING!

I slowed down considerably in the last few miles, but never had to stop. I didn't even try to speed up in the last mile or last few blocks... just had fun running it in to the finish line. Whatever! :)
What would you do differently?:

NOT WEAR LONG PANTS.
Train.
Have a meet-up plan for afterwards (see below)

Post race
Warm down:

After I finished, I got my sweet medal and looked around for my group. There were lots of people in a small area, but they had to be somewhere. After about 15 minutes, I decided that the most logical meeting place (since we hadn't formed a meet-up plan) would be the hotel we were all staying at. Right?!

So I sit in the lobby (don't have the key) for about 30 minutes and no one shows up. I realized I hadn't gotten my finisher shirt so I head back to the finish line to grab it. Look around in the food area and saw JeepFleeb (yay!) but no Tom or Jen or Eric. Hmmmm! Where is everyone!? To make this long story short, I went back and forth from the finish line to the hotel 4 different times, and never found anyone. Really frustrating, and my legs and feet hated me. I finally parked at the hotel and just sat there. Eventually, the girls came back to the hotel and found me - I guess they never saw me finish and thought I was hurt or passed out in a porta potty or something! I guess they calculated that from when the time Jen left me... worst case scenario was that I walked the rest of the way (4 miles), took 2 porta potty stops, and I should be finishing at X time. Well that time came and went and they got extremely worried. They visited the medical tent with no sign of me, so the boys decided to start walking the course looking for me, while the girls checked the hotel. This was about an hour and a half AFTER I finished.

Pretty dramatic from their end, just frustrating from mine. But I was alive and well and had only finished 7 minutes after Jen, which is pretty funny when you think about it.

So after a shower we ate at Uno's Pizzeria which has gluten free pizza! So good. Then we went to Flying Saucer and played card games and drank a LOT. Then we went to Pete's Piano Bar and sang and danced and had a great ol' time. What a fun day! Woot!

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Lack of training!




Last updated: 2010-01-14 12:00 AM
Running
02:20:31 | 13.13 miles | 10m 42s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/
Overall: 0/
Performance: Below average
Course: Good old Cowtown! NOT FLAT!
Keeping cool Bad Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Below average
Mental exertion [1-5] 2
Physical exertion [1-5] 1
Good race? No
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5

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2010-03-01 12:14 PM

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Alpharetta, Georgia
Bronze member
Subject: Cowtown Half-Marathon


2010-03-01 12:40 PM
in reply to: #2700009

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The Original
7834
5000200050010010010025
Raleigh/Durham
Subject: RE: Cowtown Half-Marathon
Great race report!  Glad you had a fun bday weekend!  My favorite part of your RR was reading that you "toasted" your bagel on the coffee pot burner.  I've never thought of that- what a clever idea!  I'm going to have to try that sometime.
2010-03-01 12:40 PM
in reply to: #2700009

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The Original
7834
5000200050010010010025
Raleigh/Durham
Subject: RE: Cowtown Half-Marathon
Oops- DP.

Edited by runnergirl 2010-03-01 12:41 PM
2010-03-01 12:40 PM
in reply to: #2700009

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The Original
7834
5000200050010010010025
Raleigh/Durham
Subject: RE: Cowtown Half-Marathon

Sorry- TP. 



Edited by runnergirl 2010-03-01 12:42 PM
2010-03-01 2:39 PM
in reply to: #2700009

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Master
1376
1000100100100252525
Chicago
Subject: RE: Cowtown Half-Marathon
Nice job on the race, especially with being out of town for the last month.  Sounds like you had fun on your birthday.  I'll see you in Madison in September. 
2010-03-01 2:48 PM
in reply to: #2700009

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Expert
1103
1000100
Plano, TX
Subject: RE: Cowtown Half-Marathon

Congrats on your finish, even with the suffering in the second half!



2010-03-01 6:07 PM
in reply to: #2700547

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Expert
1618
1000500100
Temple, TX
Subject: RE: Cowtown Half-Marathon
I saw you just posted on MY race report... first thing I noticed was that our time was exactly the same too... VERY FREAKY!  This was my first and I am NOT a runner although I am trying hard to be one.... so I was happy with this time!!  My goal was to break 2:30 or keep my pace around 11:00 miles and I did both!  We probably were near each other at some point, although I did go with Corral 4, but I didn't take any potty breaks!  Were you there around mile 11-12 when the van came through yelling at us to move to the left because the first marathoner was coming through??  Everyone moved over into the next lane and a minute later the cops came and yelled at us to get right!!  Crazy!
2010-03-02 8:21 AM
in reply to: #2700009

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Pro
4277
20002000100100252525
Parker, CO
Subject: RE: Cowtown Half-Marathon
well, you wouldn't have had the full 1/2 marathon experience if your body didn't give you some sign of pain.    nice job!
2010-03-02 1:08 PM
in reply to: #2701745

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Champion
8540
50002000100050025
the colony texas
Subject: RE: Cowtown Half-Marathon
way to finish !!

you should log the miles from walking back and forth from the hotel

2010-03-02 8:56 PM
in reply to: #2700009

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Expert
968
5001001001001002525
Wellington, North Island
Subject: RE: Cowtown Half-Marathon
I'm glad you had such a good time over the weekend. Great job with the race!
2010-03-02 9:05 PM
in reply to: #2700009

Iron Donkey
38643
50005000500050005000500050002000100050010025
, Wisconsin
Subject: RE: Cowtown Half-Marathon
Trying to have fun is 1/2 the battle. This is one step closer to IM Moo!!


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