MetroPCS Dallas Half Marathon

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MetroPCS Dallas Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

View Member's Race Log View other race reports

Dallas, Texas
United States
MetroPCS Dallas Marathon
70F / 21C
Overcast

Total Time = 3h 03m 53s
Overall Rank = /
Age Group =
Age Group Rank = 0/

Pre-race routine:

Said "no" to the inflated hotel room prices in Dallas by taking our RV to a dodgy little RV/trailer park on W. Commerce in West Dallas and stayed there instead. Only 1.3 miles from race start. It wasn't bad at all - didn't feel unsafe and the permanent residents of the trailer park were very friendly and helpful with directions, etc. So it was $30 a night instead of $200-250 for a hotel room. Ok, it was free as the manager was gone for the weekend and when I tried to contact him he didn't answer his phone so I didn't feel the need to hunt him down and beg him to take my money. Score one for the home team.

Saturday morning was exciting - a large parade of Latino people in various traditional Native American tribal garb banging drums, coupled with banners of the Virgin Mary, and many of them just dressed in scary costumes left me wondering what in the heck kind of parade it was... A LatinoNativeAmericanCatholicHalloween Parade! I put the leash on our dogs and went to the curb to watch, but they are girly dogs and scare easily so I had to put them back in the RV after 10 minutes.The parade passed right by us on W. Commerce (which was part of the marathon route, btw) so that part of town was seeing a lot of action throughout the weekend.

"Carb loaded" Friday night (carb loading isn't something I have a problem doing on any given day, so I took it easy) then Saturday met-up with a friend who lives in Dallas for lunch at the Bread Winner - had a salad and water with a slice of orange. Went to race expo, registered, bought a pair of socks and went back to the RV. Found a funky little hipster restaurant in W. Dallas and ate a light dinner. Went to bed at 10pm.

Event warmup:

Woke at 5am, dressed and ate a breakfast of a mini bagel with two wedges of laughing cow cheese, and a bowl of homemade apple-cinnamon steel cut oats with 1/2 c. of almond milk. Hubs dropped me off at Corral C, the Corral for slow runners, and I waited for my coach to show and get the party started. She finally did show and we chatted for a while. 10 minutes before race start I sucked a Gu and finished my bottle of Vitamin Water.

Run

3h 03m 53s
13.1 miles
14m 02s min/mile

Comments:

Way too hot and humid for me. Not enough water stops, and the small dixie cups weren't nearly enough for me so I always had to grab 2-3. I sweat like a man so I was drenched throughout the race. My HR started going up around mile 9 and my breathing was labored and stayed that way until the end of the race, which confused me as this didn't happen at Cowtown at all. I think the heat, humidity and hills (however small and few) got to me since I don't train on hills at all. It was a hard race and I had to work hard to push it to the end, but I did it and I'm very happy that I did it. A bad day running is better than a good day working, or something like that...

What would you do differently?:

Train on hills more. Lose more weight.

Post race

Warm down:

Walked about a mile to the expo area and got my finisher's shirt, chocolate milk and pretzels. Felt OK until about 30 minutes later when my legs started cramping up a bit. Luckily by that time my husband found me and helped me back to our car.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Heat, humidity, hormones, weight, lack of hill training. Zombies.

Event comments:

Huge marathon with lots of spectators, music bands, etc to keep you entertained. I did have the misfortune to go into a porta potty that was so gross it will haunt me for the rest of my life. Some things just can't be unseen. Great volunteers. The finish line was too far from food for my liking, but can't have everything. I've heard a few people say that this race was difficult so maybe it wasn't just me struggling.

Last updated: 2012-09-20 12:00 AM

Running
03:03:53 \| 13.1 miles \| 14m 02s min/mile
Age Group:	0/
Overall:	0/
Performance:	Bad
Jeez this race hurt. I was soaking wet with sweat by mile 3 - I had no idea it was going to be that warm! I wore capris running tights and a short sleeved tech shirt, and felt way overdressed. Glad I had a bandana with me to wipe all the sweat off my face throughout the race.
Course:	Beautiful downtown Dallas on Main Street past the book depository where the horrible thing with Kennedy happened which then crossed a river and turned-into W. Commerce street into west Dallas - a part of the city that's trying very hard to revamp it's image and doing a decent job of it from the look of things. Then north a bit and back east over a new bridge like the one in Boston that's been there forever. Not sure why Dallas would want to emulate Boston...but anyway I think it's a cool bridge. Then to the Turtle Creek area where are the rich people in Dallas live and back towards downtown to the finish line. The course had a lot of small hills and Turtle Creek was one long low grade hill that kicked my butt. At mile 11 there was a steep hill and that sucked. Finally into downtown they ran us back onto Main St to do a turnaround and back to the Convention Center for the finish line. My coach ran the entire race with me. She is a small woman with two Ironmans under her belt, a lot of spunk and very outgoing personality - I think she knew half of the people running the marathon! It was a pleasure to be around her positive energy - she was so encouraging and kept me on my toes!
Keeping cool	Bad	Drinking	Not enough

Post race
Weight change:	%
Overall:
Mental exertion [1-5]
Physical exertion [1-5]
Good race?

Evaluation
Course challenge	Just right
Organized?	Yes
Events on-time?	Yes
Lots of volunteers?	Yes
Plenty of drinks?	No
Post race activities:	Average
Race evaluation [1-5]	3