The gun went off promptly at 10:00AM but it was a rather underwhelming moment as I was still at a complete stand still and it wasn’t for another minute until we finally started into a slow jog and another 36 seconds until we actually crossed the start line. Once we crossed the starting line people started moving along and the first mile, with a steep 130 ft drop felt downright slow but I could not have gone any faster even if I wanted to. The whole place was elbow to elbow and I was just glad no one trampled me and I didn’t trample anyone either. I have never experienced running with the crowd, certainly not to this level.

Right after the start you saw a bunch of guys stopping in the woods and taking care of business. I’m pretty sure that the trees grow as big as they grow because they get plenty of fluids on Patriot’s Day every year. I don’t know how those guys schedule their potty breaks or water intake but I never had to stop during a marathon for any kind of break before because nature called. I usually stop drinking two hours before the race start and I don’t start up drinking again until 30 minutes before the gun goes. This way everything that I drank two hours prior the race has plenty of time to come out before the start and everything I drink 30 minutes before the race will never make it to my kidneys as I’d be sweating my ass off by the time it processes through my stomach.

The first mile was 7:06 which was way off my target pace. So what was my target pace? Well, with my Achilles issues that I had been fighting since January my training didn’t go exactly as planned and I ran a total of 47 miles between the Cowtown Marathon, a 3:20 pacing job and training run, and Boston. I did a lot of swimming and biking to keep up my cardio fitness but I seriously lacked in running. The longest run I did in the last 6 weeks prior Boston was 4 miles instead of the scheduled 2 20 mile long runs that I was supposed to have. So you would think that I’d throttle back on my expectations and run Boston as a fun run and just run it for the experience and enjoy it. Well, I’m one of those type -A personality guys who lose all self control when they have a bib on their shirt and go balls to the wall all out. My Physical Therapist, whom I visited 11 times in the last 7 weeks said I should probably not even run Boston but knowing that I wouldn’t listen to that advice at least run it easy and enjoy it. Well I didn’t listen. I printed up a pace band well in advance and I knew that I was going to shoot for the moon in Boston and try to break 3 hours. Boston is generally a tough course and people tend to run about 2 minutes slower than they would on a flat fast course but I knew I had to go for it. So I stapled the pace band, with weighed mile spits depending on elevation changes of the course, on my wrist and went for the sub-3 hour marathon.

After the first mile I was 16 seconds behind but I knew that I could make that up later and I wasn’t too worried about the pace, I enjoyed the run and tried to keep it easy and pay attention to the Achilles and try to soak in the experience. After the wooded toilet break area the roads started getting lined with people and the cheering was on! I run in a shirt with my name printed on the front and I have never heard my name getting called as much in 3 hours as I did in Boston. It was just unbeliveable how strong the crowd support was from the get go and it didn’t get any less as the run progressed. I failed to realize that there was no water stop at mile 1 and I was kind of anticipating one and it didn’t dawn on me that there wouldn’t be one until we got to mile 2.

Mile 2 was 6:37 which was 10 seconds faster than planned so I was already back to only being down by 6 seconds. Things were looking good and feeling good. I was giving high fives to the little kids lining the road, waving and smiling and feeling pretty good. Little did I know that things would be different in about 17 miles.

Mile 3 was 6:46, I was 4 seconds off the pace again and things were still pretty congested. I thought it’s still better to run with the crowd and conserve energy than trying to dodge people and getting worn out. I was 10 seconds off my target time and still felt pretty decent. What really started to amaze me was the depth of the field. Running downhill you could see hundreds of yards ahead of you and you could see a sea of people running in front of you. Thousands of runners running at or faster than my pace. It was a very humbling experience to see this many fast runners around me and feeling like an “also ran”. This was uncharted territory for me, with the small races I’ve been running I would usually be by myself and pretty close to the front by now. Boston was different.

Mile 4 came in at 6:38 which was pretty much right on the money for my target pace. I felt good about it and I finally thought that things were moving along. The race was still super crowded, the water stations were busy as hell but the pace was right on. The water stations were very impressive and very organized and quite amazing, just like the rest of the BAA organization. Every mile, shortly after the mile marker you would have a table with volunteers on the right side of the road with Gatorade first and water second. Then about 50 yards down the road there would be another table with volunteers on the left side. The Gatorade would be in cups with Gatorade logo, the water was in cups with the water sponsor’s logo. It took me until mile 15 to make that realization as all the cups were green though. But I never missed a cup, I got water where I wanted to and the cups were filled with plenty of water not just an oz in the bottom. The volunteer support was just truly amazing.

I also took my first gel at mile 4. My nutrition plan for the race was very simple and tried. One gel pack every 4 miles up to mile 20 with water at every water station up to mile 24. This setup worked for me before at Tyler, TX and at Dallas White Rock although I was ready to change plans if I felt the need just like I did in Tyler when I switched to Gatorade at mile 17 and stopped taking gels. With the water stops being so accurately placed this plan worked amazingly well.

Mile 5 was 6:56 which was 3 seconds slower than anticipated. I was 15 seconds behind in pace for a sub-3 and I was contemplating that maybe I should forget about a sub-3 and just try to run a 3:01 which is the pace I was on at this time. The left Achilles felt a bit of tension by now and I felt that the extra 3 seconds per mile would probably help me out. I also knew that my pace band was set up to allow for a slight fade so I felt that I might still snag a sub-3 if I didn’t fade at all.

Mile 6 came in at 6:49, another 4 seconds off pace. At this point I mentally gave up the sub-3 goal completely and started concentrating on hitting a 3:01 or 3:02. I figured if I’m 4 seconds behind on every split I’ll be OK and it will still be a sub 7 minute average pace and a huge PR by over 2 minutes. 2 minutes might not sound like a lot, especially on a marathon but I can assure you, non runners, that it is! It is a huge difference!

Mile 7 was 6:51, another 5 seconds were added to my running tally of being off pace. The road finally opened up a bit and we already dropped 300 ft of net elevation in the past 7 miles and my quads were starting to feel it. The next 8 miles would actually be equal amounts of uphill and downhill running, to my legs they felt like a constant rollers not unlike Tyler, TX.

Mile 8 was 6:55, a plus 3 second split. This is where my heart rate finally started creeping up and it went up to 82% of Heart Rate Reserve. I had ran all my previous marathons with an 81% HRR average and I bonked hard in Fort Worth where I was running 82% of HRR for the first half of the race. I was getting a bit concerned but I tried to stick with the pace.

Mile 9 was 6:54, I was losing 6 seconds on this split. I was trying to keep equal effort over the rollers vs. trying to keep equal pace. When I look at my heart rate chart it looks relatively flat throughout the rollers while my pace closely follows the elevation profile of the course. I knew that this was the right strategy so I tried to stick with it.

Mile 10 was 6:59, 7 seconds off sub-3 pace. Heart rate stabilized at 82% of HRR and I was still running strong. I felt my right heel hurting a bit, like a chronic insertion point Achilles tendinitis which was totally different from the left Achilles’ acute pain that was further up. The pain was pretty strong but by mile 12 it subdued and I could keep running with it.

Mile 11 was 7:01, I was 9 seconds off sub-3 pace by now. This was my first mile split slower than 7 minutes. I knew that a sub-3 was completely gone but I was still hopeful that a 3:03 would still be possible. As long as I would stick with the pace I was running I could snag that sub 7 minute pace average.

Mile 12 was 6:42 which was right on the money for the sub-3 pace for this mile. I really picked it up on this mile, I figured my heart rate was 82% HRR and maybe it was time to push it a bit more and try to see if I can hang on for dear life. Knowing that the sub-3 was out of the question I thought if I was going to blow up at least blow up in a big way. I ran through the Wellesley College scream tunnel which was just as loud as they said it would be. This part of the course had brand new fresh asphalt and it felt good under my legs, the girls were screaming their heads off and you could hear them from half a mile away. The right side of the course was lined with girls screaming and waiting to be kissed by runners while the left was lined with photographers ready to preserve the moment forever. I did not really have time to smooch the Wellesley girls plus I was expecting to kiss my wife at mile 21 later on the course instead.

The Wellesley girls gave me such a boost and there was a small uphill section right after the scream tunnel where I decided to push up hard and forget about even effort. I turned to a guy on my right and asked him if this was Hearbreak Hill. He said “I don’t think so!”. Neither did I but he just wasn’t quite in the mood for smalltalk at this point. This was the first time in the entire race where I actually said anything to anyone. There I was running with thousands around me yet running all by myself. Marathon running is an experiment of one.

Mile 13 came in at  6:55 which was only 3 seconds slower than the sub-3 target pace. I felt that a 3:03 was genuinely possible. I pushed harder and my heart rate showed it. I crossed the half mat at 1:30:03 which would lead the untrained eye to believe that a 3:00:06 would be possible but Boston is a sinister course with four very rough hills coming in the second half.

Mile 14 was 6:48 which was actually 2 seconds faster than the sub-3 pace needed. But my heart rate raced to 86% of HRR which is well into lactate threshold territory for me. I was an hour and 36 minutes into the race and I knew I had another hour and 16 or so minutes to go so I kind of realized that maybe I should throttle back and not run this heart rate this early and hold my horses. The fear of bonking went out the window, I was going full steam at this point.

Mile 15 was 7:03. I really throttled it back, my heart rate went back to 84% HRR which was a less unreasonable heart rate than 86% HRR. However, my time was 9 seconds slower than the pace band.

Mile 16 was 6:48 instead of the prescribed 6:36. The wheels were falling off and I started to regret deeply the early push at mile 12 and second surge at mile 14. I had serious doubts whether it was a bright idea to push that early. I was getting so out of it that I forgot to take my gel at mile 16 so I drank Gatorade instead and took my gel at mile 17.

Mile 17 is where you start hitting the hills and hitting them hard. And for mile 17 I was not off 6,7 or even 10 seconds from the sub-3 pace I was off by 20 seconds. The hills were killing me and killing my time. I ran 7:28 instead of the 7:08 and this was only hill 1 of the 4 that were coming.

Mile 18 had the second hill, a shorter but steeper hill than the first one right after the first 90 degree turn in the course. You turn and BAM! It just hits you in the face. My pace was slowing down substantially and I hit a 7:21 average on it which was 14 seconds slow.

Mile 19 was supposed to be a bit of recovery before the final push for the last two hills and I ran 7:08 instead of 6:45. I just didn’t have the energy to let myself loose on the downhill part and really push for it, my quads were toast, my hams started to fatigue and I knew that I had 2 more hills and 7 more miles to go.

Mile 20 had a pretty steep hill in it and I quite honestly don’t remember much of it or how I managed to climb it but I started contemplating walking at this point. The only thing that held me back from walking was the fear of not being able to start up again

Mile 21, the oh-so-famous Hearbreak Hill. I ran the Miracle Match Marathon which has three very steep hills past 20 miles, plenty of rolling hills in the second half of the marathon. I thought I was prepared for Hearbreak Hill and how it would have nothing to teach me. I was wrong. Heartbreak Hill isn’t called Hearbreak Hill for nothing. By this point I’ve seen plenty of walkers amongst the runners, these are sub-3 hour capable runners at this point I’m running with, mind you. I was very close to stopping myself and just walk it in. My entire body craved the stopping. I ws ready to check out. And then out of nowhere a familiar face appeared and helped me run.

A fellow Texan who I met at the Cowtown Marathon Expo and bumped into at the Boston starting coral patted me on the back and said “Hang in there, you got this!”. He was shooting for a sub-3 himself the last time I talked with him which was about two and a half hour earlier at the starting line. I said “No, I don’t have it!” to which he replied  “Yes you do!”. So I decided to just suck it up and run up Hearbreak Hill with him and try to hang on for dear life. My cadence was hitting 99 going up the hill, my stride length was gone so I had to short step it and step it fast to keep up with him. My heart rate ran all the way to 89% HRR which is above my lactate threshold training zone level but I climbed up Heartbreak Hill and I did not stop. As we passed the crest of the hill I looked at my watch and I said “Well, sub-3 is out of the question” to which he replied “No it isn’t!” to which I said “Yes, it is!”. These were the last words I spoke to anyone during the race and I didn’t catch him until we were in the finishing chute. He finished 30 seconds ahead of me.

Mile 21 was 7:41 instead of 7:19, 22 seconds off pace.

After Hearbreak Hill I knew that we were getting close to where my wife was supposed to be which was at the end of one of the green tram lines. I kept looking on both sides of the street which were still filled with a never ending sea of spectators. Trying to spot my wife was like trying to find a needle in a haystack. And I’m positive that the experience felt the same way from her perspective as well. I was trying to see my daughter’s stroller with no luck. I eased up on my running and I was running slower than I should have and could have on purpose with hopes of spotting my family. By the time the mile marker came up I knew that I missed them. This part of the course runs by a cemetery one one side, the tram tracks with a fence on the other side so the amount of cheering and the number of spectators dwindles. It’s the only quiet part of the course where you can have a bit of time all by yourself without hearing your name chanted by drunk frat boys repeatedly until you flick a wave in their direction.

Mile 22 was 7:18, I was really getting off pace, I gave up 33 seconds on this single mile. I can blame it partially on slowing down for trying to find my family but in all honestly I’m glad I didn’t because had I seen them I probably would have stopped and that would have cost me far more than 35 seconds.

At mile 23, I really tried to pick up the pace and as we turned onto Beacon Street the cheering and the mass of spectators was back on again. I truly felt like a champion and I just wish I could have sucked in a bit more of it instead of feeling totally wasted. Mile 23 was 7:20, +31 seconds.

Mile 24 was uneventfully painful at 7:14, +16 seconds. I could see the Citgo sign in the distance but it felt like an eternity to get there. The overpass at the Massachusetts turnpike felt like another Heartbreak hill and I used female rabbit to pull me up. She was kicking my ass at this point but I tried to hang with her going over the bridge and hanging on for dear life. I was also trying to do math in my head whether I could still sneak under 3:05. The 3:03 plan was out the window when I ran past Heartbreak Hill, the new goal was to just get under 3:05 so I can beat my Boston Qualifying time by 10 minutes and hopefully guarantee myself a registration slot for next year so I could come back and do this all over again. Unlike in Tyler where as soon as I finished and I knew I qualified for Boston but felt that it did not matter because I would never ever run another marathon in my life again this time I Was already shooting for a target time so I could come back and run Boston again.

I ran 7:24 on Mile 25 and I only had 8 minutes and 38 seconds left to cover the last 1.2 miles. I thought as long as I run 8 minute pace I would have it. But as you can tell I wasn’t very good with math with 25 miles in my legs and I actually needed to run 7:11/mile pace to make it under 3:05. When I turned onto Boylston street I looked at my watch and I saw it say 3:02:35. I had 2:25 left to cover a third of a mile straight down to the finish. I almost cried. That finish line might as well could have been a mile away. I felt that there was simply no way I was going to cover that distance in that amount of time. But I also figured that even if can’t get under 3:05 at least I can try to beat my PR of 3:05:28. So I picked it up for the final sprint and I really kicked it in high gear. I was going as fast as I could as strong as I could, looked at the clock as it kept going higher and higher and finally I raised my arms, I was in the finishing chute, I stopped my watch and it read 3:04:49.9. My official finishing time was 3:04:50. I got under 3:05 and I got a new marathon PR!

I was on cloud nine and I still haven’t come down from it. It’s been two three weeks now but I’m still getting goose bumps every time I think about Boston. I was a Boston marathon finisher and re-qualifier. I did it! Despite the injuries and setbacks I still managed to have a really good run in Boston and an amazing experience.

The first four happened at our local 5K, the Aledo Advocats Run, Walk or Crawl event which is a small 5K race that benefits local children and families in need. My son kind of swore off running another 5K after he ran his first one at the Cowtown 5K at the end of February claiming it was too long of a distance. He has done several 1 mile and 1K runs before but the 5K was just a bit too much. But when they announced at school that the kids who are running the 5K this weekend would get their water bottles and t-shirts last Friday he got all excited and wanted to do it. It’s all about the cotton T-shirt, my friends!

Since my wife ran the Susan G. Komen 5K three weeks ago in 38:10 she felt like she would be OK running another 5K so she was game. I am coming off my Boston marathon and I knew that if I was going to enter the race I’d race it with full force so I decided to run it with a stroller and my daughter in it to slow me down and keep me reasonable and not injuring my Achilles which is still recovering.

I also told my co-worker about the race who also ran Boston and was in town for the weekend. He never ran a 5K race before so it was kind of interesting for me to see what he thought about running such a short race.

My running buddy, Todd won the last three years at this event and he was going to run this year again. Had I not had the stroller with me I knew I would have given him a run for his money but with the stroller I knew that was out of the question.

We all showed up at the start, bumped into my co-worker who was doing strides in the marking lot as he was warming up, I said hi to Todd and wished him good luck. They had a kid’s 1K event before the 5K and my wife was seriously contemplating whether she and my son should have signed up for that one. I think they made the right decision by running the 5K. The race is a small event, only 338 finishers so the start was pretty friendly and a completely different experience for my wife and son who ran massive 5K events for their first race. They were calling out people to only line up in the front if they would run a 6:30/mile pace or faster. Without hesitation I lined right up but I felt rather uncomfortable with the big stroller at the start, I was wondering what people around me were thinking. I don’t think they knew that I would not be the one holding them up.

The race started and we were off. I started a bit slow and waited until the small kids got their 100 yard dash in before they ran out of juice to pass them then I passed the female leader and I found myself in 4th position. We were running into the wind and I could really feel it hitting me and the stroller. Then we took a turn and we finally got a relief from the wind but only for a small period of time until we turned around and headed back again. I hit the first mile in 6:07 and I felt it was a bit too fast but I wasn’t completely wasted. The 3rd place guy was pretty far away, the 5th place runner was nowhere in sight so I essentially settled into the notion that I would finish 4th overall and I quit pushing so hard.

Then we hit an uphill section and I could really feel the pain of pushing the stroller up the h ill but I was actually gaining on the 3rd place runner so I figured that if I can gain on him on the uphill I’m most definitely going to run past him on the downhill. So that is exactly what happened. I blew past him on the downhill section after the second turnaround and kept on motoring at a steady pace. I ran a 6:27 for the second mile and I felt pretty good about it with the hill behind me. The lead guy, a 14 year old kid and my buddy Todd were so far out that I knew there was no point trying to catch them so I held back once more and kept cruising. I had a lady offering me to hold the stroller and push it back to the finish but I told her that it was a matter of principle and I would push it all the way. Then at the turn after mile two where we ran another dogleg they asked if I wanted to drop the stroller until I came back from the dogleg but I declined the offer once again. I was on a mission and I was going to run the race with the stroller for the entire run.

In the dogleg I saw Todd still being in second place and I thought this was it, his winning streak will finally be over. I saw the clock at the 3 mile mark just roll over 19 minutes as I ran by and I pushed the pace a bit faster and ran 5:55/mile pace to the finish. I finished in 19:38, 3rd overall, a new PR for me for the “stroller assisted” 5K. This was my first run with the stroller other than I ran 3 easy miles the night before around the neighborhood to get a feel for it. It’s definitely pretty rough to run with the stroller and I respect all the moms and dads who do it every day out on the trail.

After I recovered in the finish I went back out to find my family and cheer them on. I found my wife at the 3 mile mark and I ran her in for a 36:40 which was an awesome PR for her. Her first words were that she needs more training, words that filled me with joy. She’s definitely a runner now! My son ran a very slow 48 minute 5K at Cowtown so I thought he was behind my wife and I was just about to head out to get him when my wife told me that he was actually way ahead of her and he already finished. He ran a 35:19, which I am very proud of. He finished 9th in the 6-8 year old age group and he was the fastest 6 year old of them all. I’m one proud daddy. So that’s 3 PRs for my family in one race but I promised you a total of 5 PRs.

My co-worker, who never ran a 5K before and ran Boston with me 2 weeks ago wanted to break 22 minutes. He ran 22:03 and won his age group and finished 10th overall. He was very pleased with the run and he said that while a 5K is much much shorter than a marathon it is definitely a painful experience. I nodded in total agreement. A 5K is a lot more painful than a marathon for me but it’s over in 18 minutes. I think he’ll be back for running more 5Ks. So that’s the 4th PR for the weekend.

The last PR came from my training buddy, Daniel in Oklahoma City at the OKC Memorial Marathon on Sunday. He ran a 3:04 marathon at Cowtown and after I ran a 3:04 in Boston I felt we were even again and we should be good to go for some friendly competition in the summer 5K races and in the fall marathon season. Well that equality lasted 2 weeks. He ran an incredible 2:57 marathon in OKC and I’m officially the slowest amongst my running buddies again by a long shot. Granted, Daniel is 10 years younger than me but I’ll be training very diligently to try to play catch-up with him.

It was a fantastic weekend on all fronts with lots of meaningful PRs for me so I’m pretty happy with how the weekend went. If I could have worked a bit more in the backyard on Sunday instead of being stuck inside due to the nasty rain/hail that we got again it would have been an even better weekend.

Cliff notes: second marathon in 5 weeks, a PR by almost 2 minutes despite some utter BS unnaceptable race situation and a serious bonk. 3:05:28 9/223 overall, 2/18 in age group.

Last Sunday, 5 weeks after my Tyler marathon debut, I ran a second marathon, the Fort Worth Marathon. I usually give a play by play on every mile but this time I’ll do something a bit different. I’ll do the race report as a friend usually does and give you the good the bad and the ugly.

The Good

1) Weather. Race day weather could not have been any more perfect. Temperature started at 37F and climbed to 56F by the finish. It was awesome. I wore shorts, a racing singlet, a hat with visor and some $0.99 gloves that I was planning to throw away which I did at mile 15. There was no wind for the most part and a gentle 2-3 mph breeze on the way back.

2) Race size and location. The race was a local race for me, I made it to the start from my house in 25 minutes and I parked 200 yards from the finish line. There were 250 or so entrants and 223 finishers in the marathon distance, 300 runners in the half and a 100 runners in the 20 mile “race” which is really advertised as a long run before the Dallas White Rock marathon that’s in 3 weeks.

3) Post race meal and support. The race finished at the Fort Worth Cats baseball stadium and they had plenty of water, bananas, oranges, hot dogs, fajitas and even beer. There was a small race day expo with vendors doling out Honey Milk and other stuff too. They had a massage tent that was giving post race sport massages to runners with at least half a dozen beds going.

4) Finisher’s medal. It’s a simple medal that is on a string that is connected with Velcro so it can be removed and the medal doubles as a belt buckle making it actually useful for something for once. This is one medal you can wear out in public.

5) Pre-race nutrition. I carb loaded for two days straight and gained 5 lbs of glycogen and water in the process. I ate lots of pastries and pasta and felt really good and ready on race day.

6) Course. I run this course weekly with my running group, I am familiar with every turn and it felt great to run on familiar territory. Although I have to be honest; under race conditions your perception of the route changes and, especially towards the end, the mile markers just can’t come soon enough. The course had a total of 100 ft of climb going out and 60 ft of climb coming back making it a super flat course. There was one tough climb at a low water crossing at mile 9.3 going out and mile 17 coming back respectively but it didn’t feel too bad when I was on it, I was still flying.

7) Company. I ran the first 17 miles with my training partner, Todd. He’s a master runner and while he refused to commit to a goal time prior the race he said we should do a 6:45 pace out to bank a small amount of time for my sub 3 goal and see what happens on the way back. We were at the half way point at 1:28:45, a new half marathon PR for me, which meant we ran a 6:46 split, right on the money. We clocked a couple more good splits on the way back from 13 miles and we were doing great by mile 17 where I tried to keep the pace as I felt Todd was slowing down so I left him only to see him pass by me at 25.5 miles. More on that later. We certainly had a good time together and the only regret I have is not sticking with him longer.

8 ) First 23 miles. For the first 17 miles with Todd we did great. Then I pulled a away and maintained a solid pace for the next 6 miles on my own. I was at mile 23 at 2:36:29, well under schedule for my sub 3 goal. I ran a 6:48 pace up until this point which meant I only needed a 7:20 pace for the last 3.2 miles. As you can see that did not happen.

9) Family at the finish. In Tyler my family set up camp at a playground which we ran past at mile 16 and mile 25. This time they showed up at the finish line and saw me finish. My wife was actually not very happy with what she saw. She said I looked terrible and she was concerned whether I was OK or not and whether I needed medical help or not. She didn’t understand that looking the way I looked is absolutely normal for a marathon finish. She also had a hard time with understanding that I as much as I wanted to sit down I couldn’t. I just had to stand and walk off the cramps before I could even attempt to sit down. It was really weird for her to see me in such a bad shape. She’s seen me finish 5K and 10K races before but never a marathon. It was a bit shocking and she much prefers to wave at me at the middle miles and see me at the finish 20-30 minutes after I finished and partially recovered.

10) Post marathon feelings. After Tyler in the finishing chute I swore up and down that I would never ever run another marathon in my life. Yet 5 weeks later here I am just finished another one. This time I did not have that feeling. This time I felt relief once I crossed the finish, in my finishing photos I look terrible but I did not despise the distance. I was actually quite OK with the notion that I will repeat the same thing in 3 weeks in Dallas, at a much slower pace mind you.

So that was the good part of the race, it’s time to discuss the bad part:

1) Route Markings. The race started from the parking lot of the ballpark and we had one of the veterans who ran the race the last three years show the route up to the trail. At one point we were supposed to climb up to the levee and Todd jokingly yelled “Last hill of the course!” to which one of the lead guys got confused and jumped over the railing and went the wrong way thinking Todd yelled at him for going the wrong way. I felt really bad for him. This could have been avoided if there were cones on the course. Once we were on the trail things were obvious to me as to which way to run, I ran the course dozens of times. But for people who were out of towners I could see how the course could have been confusing. And to boot there were no volunteers or cones for the half marathon and the 20 mile distances only some paint marks on the ground. But there are hundreds of paint marks on this trail, it seems like every running group and cyclist paints their own set of markers so unless you had a GPS and you knew that your turnaround was supposed to be pretty close you very well could have missed your turnaround. I know that another friend of mine was yelling at half marathoners who ran past their turnaround telling them they ran too far. This kind of mess up is totally unacceptable for any race especially for a race that’s in its 4th year.

2) Water. If you thought the markers were bad the water situation was simply unacceptable. After the start we had one water station at mile 1 where I got a cup that was not even quarter of a way filled, but I didn’t think much of it, we were only one mile into the race so I was fine with not taking on too much water. Little did I know what was coming…. At mile 2 the same situation repeated itself. I was a bit ticked that the cups were so ridiculously low on the water. I’m already a glass half empty kind of guy but these weren’t even half empty, they were 3/4 way empty. Todd, my buddy, didn’t even take on any water at this point thinking it’s too early in the game. And this is where the surprise came. There were no water stops after those two for the next 9 miles. I’m not kidding you! We had a friend of ours who’s nursing a plantar fasciitis injury standing by at mile 8 on the course yelling at us that “there is no water until mile 11″. I could not believe what I was hearing and I was already pretty pissed off about not having water for the last 6 miles by then. So Todd and I made the decision to actually stop at a water fountain that’s on the trail and try to get some water from that. So we made a quick pit stop at mile 8 and got about three sips of water from the fountain, definitely not enough. It cost us 15 seconds to stop and get that water. After the low water crossing at the 9.5 mile mark we ran into the family of our friend who were going to hand him some water and we finally got two nice 16 oz bottles of waters from them. Again, it cost me time to run to the other side of the street, raid their SUV for a water bottle and I just took what I could find. I drank about 1/3rd of it then Tood and I tossed our bottles to the side of the road so we’d have something on the way back. By the time we got back my bottle was gone; someone took it and drank it. At mile 11 we finally got some water and at mile 13.1 at the turnaround we had water again. Then we had water again at mile 15, then nothing for me until mile 19 where I stopped for water at the fountain, another 11 seconds I never got back. By then they had water stops set up on the rest of the course and there were strangers handing out bottles along the way as well. But at one of the stops where I actually wanted to drink they said “water is on the way”. What were they expecting me to do? Stop and wait until it got there? It was totally unacceptable for a race for 600 people not to have water on the course. I am not sure how much this water situation affected my time but it cost me at least 26 seconds in wasted time at the fountain not counting the other problems with the lack of water such as the next one.

3) Race nutrition. In Tyler I took a gel at 4 miles then another one at 8 and one last one at 12 after which I switched to Gatorade at the aid stations. For Fort Worth Marathon my plan was a gel at 4,8,12 and 16 then Gatorade to the finish. So at mile 3.5 I took the gel pack out of my pocket and I babied that freaking gel pack for the next 5 miles waiting for a water station. Once I took the three sips from the fountain I was too worried to take the entire gel pack so I only squeezed half of it in my mouth before I tossed it. So by mile 8 I had a half gel in me instead of the planned 2. Since I was still concerned about the water situation I didn’t take a gel until mile 15 and that was the only gel I took. So I had 1.5 gel packs instead of my planned 4 and I stuck with water for the rest of the race whenever I could get any, I was just glad that I found water let alone Gatorade. So my race nutrition was totally shot and I think this ultimately lead to the ugly part.

The ugly, AKA the bonk:
In Tyler I didn’t bonk. Sure I faded and ran my last 2 miles in the 7:50s but I did not bonk. Sure I felt tired and fatigued but I did not bonk. Today I bonked. And I bonked hard.

As you can see I was holding a very respectable and solid 6:48 average for the first 23 miles. I just wish it was a 23 mile race. Because what happened after that was just pure misery.

At mile 23 I knew I was getting in trouble. Mile 22 was 6:55 and mile 23 was 6:59. They were the first two splits that were outside of the 6:52 goal pace. I tried to do the math and I figured I still had a chance at the sub 3 if I could just hang in there. When I finished mile 24 with a 7:35 I knew that I had no chance at the sub 3. I knew that there was no way I could dig deep and run two more miles at 7:15 or faster. I mentally gave up that goal in an instant. All it took was one mile. And once that happened I started slipping even more. I was running 8 minute pace by then and the pace was deteriorating fast.

2) Walking. I took my first walk break at mile 24.3 for 35 yards as I walked through a, “gasp”, water station. After the water break I got into a 9:30 pace and held onto it for a while but things were painful. My legs weren’t moving and I felt like I was done with running. I seriously considered quitting. I actually felt that not only my sub 3 goal and my sub 3:03 goal (7:00 pace) were out the window but the chance of beating my Tyler time of 3:07:26 was out of the question too.

Once I reached the zero mile marker on the trail I knew that I had less than 2 miles to go. I had to cross two bridges and I walked the second one. I just had to walk again. So this was walk break number two lasting another 100 yards. I had one more 20 yard walk at mile 26 at which point I thought I would just walk the last 0.2 miles in. But I didn’t. I got going again and finished the race running. So I walked a total of 150 yards and I’m not proud of it.

3) Getting passed. Getting passed is never fun. But getting passed by slow runners is just ridiculous. I don’t have anything against slow runners but I don’t know how to describe the feeling I got in the last mile when I was getting passed by half marathoners on the way to the finish. These were half marathoners who started an hour behind us so they were the 2 hour half marathon group meaning they were the ones who averaged 9:09 minutes/mile for the 13.1 mile distance. And I was getting my ass kicked by them at the end of my marathon. Their kind and encouraging words of “hang in there, you’re almost there” did not help one bit. I know full well they were words of genuine encouragement but at the moment they felt like insults. I felt like replying to them and telling them to just STFU and mind their own business and I ran 13.1 miles more than they have but luckily I didn’t even have the energy to say anything so I just kept my mouth shut and tried to finish the race at an embarrassingly slow pace.

4) Getting passed by Todd with one km to go. Todd caught up with me with about 1km to go and he told me to hang in there and go with him but I could barely keep myself upright at the time. He beat me by 31 seconds. He had terrible muscle cramps past mile 21 when he had to walk a bit himself yet he still finished with a respectable pace instead of crawling trough on all fours like I almost did. And the thing is that Todd is still probably in a lot better shape tonight than I am with an impeding tendinitis of my left foot.

So there you have it. That is my Fort Worth Marathon race report. It was a good race, I ran a solid effort for the first 23 miles at which point I practically died. Could I have run strong longer had I fueled better and had I had more water in me in the first half of the race? I don’t know. It is what it is and there is nothing to do about it now. I still beat my marathon PR by 1:58 and I also got a shiny new half marathon PR of 1:28:45 out of this race. Even with the nasty and ugly last couple of miles I think it was a successful race and I’m honestly not sure if I would do anything different. Maybe I would stick with Todd a bit longer and not let me get ahead of myself just because I felt good at the time.

Splits:
1 06:32.0
2 06:43.5
3 06:39.8
4 06:48.2
5 06:44.9
6 06:49.8
7 06:49.2
8 06:48.3
9 06:55.4 – 15 seconds of water fountain break
10 06:48.9
11 06:46.3
12 06:46.0
13 06:40.0
14 06:48.1
15 06:51.4
16 06:56.4
17 06:47.3
18 06:59.2 – 11 seconds of water fountain break
19 06:43.1
20 06:48.4
21 06:48.8
22 06:55.0
23 06:59.7
24 07:35.3
25 09:49.0
26 09:47.0
26.2 01:47.0 (8:55 pace)

The Cliff Notes version is that I ran a 7:09/mile average for a 3:07:26 which is indeed a BQ time. All that hard work and training has paid off and I’m on cloud nine. For the longer version feel free to read on.

Here is a video of me at mile 16.5 and 25. I was looking and feeling a lot better at mile 16.5 than I was at mile 25. 3:07:26 finish was awesome though just as much as my family cheering me on!

I have arrived in Tyler Saturday around 4:00PM with my wife and two kids, picked up my bib, t-shirt and goodie bag at the sponsor hotel. They also had the medals and age group awards on display and they all looked very nice. The goodie bag was rather Spartan, a couple of coupons for New Balance and some free music download, it was nothing like the bags celebrities get at the Oscar’s. But then again, I was there to run a marathon not to load up on freebies. The shirt was a nice technical New Balance shirt, nothing special.

I ended up with bib 220 which my wife liked a lot; her favorite number is 22 so 220 worked out to her liking. The bib numbers were in alphabetical order up to 260 or so and the rest of them were scattered all over the place. On the registration sheet the highest bib number was 274 and unless some more people registered Saturday that was going to be the final count. There was no race day registration.

Once we picked up my bib and shirt we drove to our hotel and checked in. A fellow runner who I see in the mornings as he lives real close to me was also running the full at Tyler while his wife was running the half. They were also checking in and we went out to drive the course together just to get a feel for it. The full course was basically 15 miles on a large loop then it connected up with the half marathon course and the two were running together to the finish. When you go to the Tyler Marathon website they describe the course as “There will be some rolling areas and a few hills on our course”. Well they weren’t kidding. The course is actually extremely rolling and there is really no flat in it at all. You’re either going up or coming down. And while the mapped course on mapmyrun.com indicates 430 ft of elevation they’re clearly lying. My Polar RS800cx with the barometric altitude measured 1,100 ft of elevation on the course which was not at all surprising once we drove the course.

During our course drive we found a great location for my wife and kids at mile 16.5 that we also hit at mile 25 on the way back so they had a chance to see me twice and there was a nice park with playgrounds right next to it. I told them to expect me to roll by around 9:30 and again around 10:20 and be on the lookout.

Once we drove the course I had serious doubts about whether it will be a BQ course for me at all, it just seemed way too daunting with the constant hills and slope changes not to mention the dozens of turns in the second half of the course.

I also checked the weather forecast and it promised a scary 56F start with temperatures steadily rising to mid 70s by the finish. The hot weather combined with the rolling hills was a recipe for disaster. So I thought that I should get at least my nutrition right.

I had been eating pasta dish after pasta dish for the past 2 days and Saturday night we went to a great little place where I had a nice bowl of pasta with mushrooms in marinara sauce and a dinner roll. I was also going to get some sweetened tea to get some more carbs in my system but it was so sweet that I could not drink it and had to order an unsweetened one instead. Then I sipped on some Powerade Zero throughout the evening to get some minerals in me.

Race day nutrition plan was one 100 calorie gel pack at every 4 miles with taking a cup of water at every water station. I ran a 22 mile long run with this setup and my stomach did well with it so I figured it would work on race day too.

I went to bed at 10PM but woke up at 12AM and kept awake for a while thinking that it was close to morning and the alarm was about to go any minute but once I checked the time I realized that the morning was far away so I fell back asleep only to wake up at 3:30 to take care of No. 1 as I drank way too much Powerade the night before. The alarm went off at 5:15. I had no BM on Saturday which gave me a major concern as I’m usually not shy when it comes to No 2s. I woke up at 5:15 on purpose to hope that I could take care of things before the race and luckily I did so that was a big relief that I did not have to worry about mid-run “runs”. I ate a plain bagel for breakfast; I’m not a big breakfast guy on race days.

I went down to the hotel lobby where a bunch of other runners were getting ready and sipping on coffee or having toast or a bagel. I talked with a couple of them. One of them ran 117 marathons so far. He ran his first one in 1976 and 50 of the 117 were sub 3 hour finishes. He also ran marathons in all 50 states and ran the big 5, Chicago, Boston, New York, London and Berlin. His goal was just to get one more marathon under his belt.

A lady was running the half but told me that he had two friends who were running the full and one had a 3:17 finish from last season and wanted to better that while the other guy was shooting for a 3:05-3:10. I figured he’d be my guy to run with if I wanted some company.

My neighbor, his wife and I headed over to the start where I hit up the port-a-potties one more time, with success, checked in my sweat pants and compression shirt with bag check, put on my nipple guards, applied copious amounts of Body Glide to all parts of my body whether they were prone to chafing or not and headed to the start.

15 minutes before the race start I had another 18 Oz of Powerade Zero and a 100 calorie gel pack. At the start I saw Kiplimo Chemirmir, a local elite runner, and I figured he’d be the one to win this one. I also talked with two other guys. One said his goal was 6:52 pace so I knew he was going for the sub 3 marathon finish. He said he’d been trying for 3 years with no success. The other guy was a 38 year old lawyer who said it was his second marathon and he was hoping for a BQ time but he was going to go at 7:00 pace at the beginning to “bank” some time. I knew there was no such thing as banking so I tried to talk him out of that idea and I figured we could probably run together, at least for a while.

There was no bullhorn or air horn or gun, just a “Runners Ready, Go!” at 7:30. And we were off. Me and my newfound lawyer friend stuck together and after the first straight’s 6:20 pace we slowed it down to a more manageable pace.

Mile 1: 6:53. I knew it was fast and I knew that it was not the pace I wanted to run but it felt easy. I thought there were about a dozen people in front of me at this point.

Mile 2: 7:05. That’s more like it. It was still fast with some rolling elevation and by now we were stretched out pretty far and were just me and lawyer guy. We had a good conversation going, I felt like I was doing a long run with a friend. We also had a women pass us at this point and I thought to myself some people are going out way too fast.

Mile 3: 6:58. Another rolling section and we were just talking away. Turns out that my lawyer friend did not drive the course the day before so I thought he was in for a bitter surprise. I tried to warn him and told him that things were going to get ugly and these rolling slopes were nothing compared to what the second half was going to look like.

Mile 4: 6:50. Another fast mile. This one was pretty much downhill the entire way so I felt good about the pace. Legs felt fine and refreshed at this point. Took my first gel.

Mile 5: 7:06. I felt good about the pace, 7:06 felt certainly doable at this point and it was a mostly flat mile. At the end of it we finally got off the major highway and started running on a narrower one lane farm road with much less, practically non-existent, traffic.

Mile 6: 7:05. Another great split, or so I thought. This one had two little humps but it was nothing major at this point in the game. We also found our first group of supporters who yelled and screamed at us. They were carrying signs that said “Go Ashton” so we told them that they should relax as we were not Ashton. Waving back and cracking jokes was fun at this point, things were in smooth sailing.

Mile 7: 7:11. You would think I was fading rapidly by now but it wasn’t the case. Mile 7 had some massive climbs and this is where I realized that my lawyer buddy was more of a constant pace runner than a constant effort runner. He was pushing hard on the climbs but he was running slower on the downhill. I let him get ahead on the climb but I caught him on the downhill. I felt that I had to run my own race and I wasn’t going to jeopardize my finish just to keep with a stranger on some hills.

Mile 8: 6:57. Mile 8 was mostly uphill and apparently I was getting dragged along for the ride. I took my second gel closer to mile 9 right before the water stop.

Mile 9: 6:57. It was mostly flat with a bit of downhill running. Just before the mile marker we had a water stop where we caught up with the 6:52 guy from the start. We told him that he was running 6:59 average and his sub 3 was dwindling away. He said he was aware but he wasn’t feeling it. We stuck together and we were a pack of 3 at this point as we turned back onto another major highway heading back towards town just passed circling around the airport.

Mile 10: 6:46. My fastest mile split. We were running into the sun heading east and apparently 6:52 guy was still hoping for that sub 3. I told lawyer guy that we should let him go as he’s still trying to shoot for that sub 3 and it would be foolish to try to hang with him. We also saw the “Go Ashton” cheer group again and we clapped and yelled “Go Ashton” as we passed them to everyone’s great enjoyment.

Mile 11: 6:52. We were still hanging with Mr. 6:52, he was surging ahead but he’d walk the water stops where we’d catch him.

Mile 12: 7:24. Me and lawyer guy were talking about our half PRs, I told him I ran 1:31:20 and he said he also had a 1:31 PR. We felt like a good match and we were thinking about how we just might break that PR today if we keep up the pace. That was until we came up on the 4% incline at the end of mile 12 that killed our split. Took one more gel, little did I know that this was going to be my last.

Mile 13: 7:05. After that tough climb it was mostly downhill for Mile 13 where I picked up some momentum and started pulling away from my lawyer friend. Then just as mile 13 was coming to an end we hit another 4% climb and he started catching up. I asked if he was still with me and he assured me that he was.

13.1: 1:31:59. Not a PR but that wasn’t the goal. It’s still blistering fast and much faster than what I probably should have run. It was a 7:02/mile pace up until this point. They say unless you feel like things were too easy so far you’re already in trouble. I felt things were going easy so I thought I was doing well. Lawyer guy ran the split at 1:32:03.

Mile 14: 6:51. This mile had a massive 6% climb at the beginning then a -4% drop. By the time I hit bottom I never heard of lawyer guy again. He was behind me and so was 6:52 guy. They checked out so it was my race from here on out, no small talk, no BS, just running my own race.

Mile 15: 6:59. Mile 15 ended with a massive climb. I saw the Ashton cheer group one more time and I ran into the back end of the 5K race. They were at mile 1.5ish into their run and they were slow and walking. I was dodging them and hoped that the cops would stop traffic if not for them but at least for me. Luckily they did and I managed to run through the rough patch without much issue.

Mile 16: 6:56. My hams were starting to get a bit fatigued but I knew that I have “banked” an incredible amount of time for my BQ goal. I knew I needed a serious bonk to screw this one up. I was getting to the point where my stomach wasn’t feeling all that hot so I switched from water to Powerade and stopped taking gels.

Mile 17: 7:01. By now I was picking off the walkers at the back of the half marathon group and I was running pretty good. This mile was great as I finally got to see my wife and two kids by the playground as I ran by them. They waved at me and made me feel pretty darn good. One of the best miles on the course despite the fact that my hams were getting really worn out.

Mile 18: 7:03. The calves were cramping. They started cramping pretty bad and I was a bit worried about my run. I still had a whole lot more to go. This was the fastest 18 miles I have ever run and it was getting pretty toasty. Temperatures were in mid 60s by now and I could definitely feel it. I was passing more and more half marathoners and I passed a full marathoner as he stopped to take a walk. I knew I wasn’t the only one hurting at this point.

Mile 19: 7:10. This was definitely fading. The alternating 4% ups and downs were getting more and more miserable and my calves were killing me and I wasn’t even at the 20 mile point.

Mile 20: 7:13. More of the same except mile 20 was mostly uphill. I also almost sprained my ankle on a tight corner as I passed some half marathoners. For a moment I felt like it was going to do me in and my chances of finishing were gone but luckily the ankle held up and I kept running.

Mile 21: 6:57. You might think this was me getting a second wind but I wasn’t. I just happened to run down some steep 6% grades for a little while that helped my pace along nicely. This was the point where I knew that I would BQ. And this was the point where I almost sprained my ankle a second time. This one felt a lot more severe than the first one but it still ended up being nothing.

Mile 22: 7:18. This mile had two steep and persistent hills that were killing me and my pace. I kept thinking that these hills sure sucked ass. But there was nothing to do but run them. I tried to mutter a “thanks” or “keep it up” every time I ran by a group of half marathon walkers but it was getting harder and harder to say anything to them. The times of waves and jokes and claps were long gone. Running was no longer fun.

Mile 23: 7:14. I was inching up on another marathon runner and I finally passed him on this section. I really contemplated to just sticking with him but when I got next to him the momentum just carried me away from him and I never looked back.

Mile 24: 7:42. A miserable split. But this was the split where I had to be thankful for some nice people who decided to run their sprinklers in their front yard so I could run through it and enjoy a much needed shower. Temperature was 70F at this point and everyone around me was hurting just as much as I was.

Mile 25: 7:53. Getting close to that magical 8 minute mark. It was downright pathetic but that is all I could muster at this point on some tough 4% elevation grades. I saw my family one more time, I was much less receptive of the cheering and I barely waved at them, I was ready to check out.

Mile 26: 7:57. Worst split of the day. I was done. My legs were done, mentally I was done and I just wanted to call it quits. I knew I had the BQ in hand even if I ran a 9 minute pace and I no longer cared about my time or anything else other than finishing the course. The last climb was another killer and while the elevation chart indicates a mostly downhill mile it didn’t feel that way with the two short but sweet climbs in it.

Mile 26.2: 1:42 I had a tiny bit of kick left in me and when I heard over the PA my name and that I was 4^th overall I could not believe it. I hoped that I finished in the top 10 but to be 4^th it was just awesome. 3^rd would have been better but I’ll take what I can.

When I stopped my Polar it read 3:07:28 and I knew I BQd. It was a fantastic feeling but I needed a good 15 minutes of walking and stretching before I had the guts to sit down without the fear of cramping up to the point of no return.

If you had asked me at that moment whether I was going to run another marathon I probably would have said that you were out of your mind. I felt like that even though I BQd I’d never run Boston or any other marathon. I was done with this stupid distance forever. But 30 minutes later I was already contemplating whether I should run a full or a half next month, under ideal conditions at the Fort Worth Marathon where the course is straight, it has +200 ft of elevation in the first half and -200 ft of drop in the second half on an out and back course by the Trinity river that I run every week.

My family made their way to the finish by then and I learned that I finished 4^th overall out of 252 runners and 246 finishers. I got 2^nd in my age group out of 16 and I got 3 out of 145 for men. Top women ran an impressive 2:54:15 with an awesome negative split (1:28:16 at 13.1). I was 9^th at the half marathon point, one guy DNF and I picked off 4 guys. My age group winner finished with a 3:06:45.

Lawyer guy ran a 3:56:13 after that 1:32 half. I’m glad I didn’t stick with him for the second half and I didn’t bonk as hard as he did. I think “6:52 guy” finished with a 3:19. My neighbor was shooting for a 4 hour marathon and ended up running 4:08. The guy that the lady at breakfast mentioned running for 3:05-3:10 ended up running a 3:28:26 after a 1:24:15 half, another serious bonk. “Go Ashton” ran a 1:38:42 half and ended up with a DNF. I was wondering about him and the lack of his supporters after mile 14, he probably threw in the towel shortly after the first half.

According to my GPS I ran 26.39 miles but we all know that I ran 26.2. It was a tough course with tough weather but I still managed to run what I planned to run. A BQ at 7:10. I wish I had achieved it with more even pacing but I take it either way.

Some other aspects of the race besides the incredible amounts of rolling hills and elevation and the high temperature worth commenting were the road quality, the number of turns and the race organization.

Roads for the first half were very coarse highway asphalt where I could feel every single gravel packed into the tar. It was a choice between that rough texture and running on the tight camber of the concrete curb. I chose the rough surface to save my knees. Once we were back in town running through the historical Azelea trail the roads turned into red brick that had zero give or cushioning but in return they were perfectly uneven.

When I thought of road racing I never considered the number of turns and how it might affect your run. That was until I ran this race. The first 15 miles had 7 turns and some mildly winding roads. Things were perfect. The second half was an utter disaster in terms of turns. I counted them on the map and there were a whopping 42 turns in the last 11 miles which means that on average we had to make a 90 degree turn every quarter of a mile. It was utter misery. Some of the turns were well manned and marked while at others I was hoping to see some half marathon runners in the near distance to know which way to go even though I already drove the course the day before and had some recollection of which way the race was meant to go.

The organization of the race was great. Start was prompt and friendly, port-a-potties were abundant, and the water stops were well manned and stocked with ample warning about which side had which kind of refreshment. Post race food offerings were plentiful 3+ hours after the half marathon start even though I only had a banana as that is all I could stomach shortly after the race.

So there you have it, my first marathon race report. Thanks for reading and hanging with me throughout my training, it was a great experience and I can’t wait to do it again!

The first one was the High Noon Shoot-out. This was a stupid race. Some might call it novelty but I just call it stupid. 1.3 miles in blazing sun 97F temperature at high noon just for the hell of it. This race was put on by the Fort Worth Runners Club and it was followed by the annual club picnic.

I already ran 7 miles at marathon pace (7:08 min/mile) in the morning so I wasn’t feeling all that good, hip and the calves were cramping a small bit but I decided to run it anyway. Entry fee was free which is always a good price. The race had no timing or bibs, it was a short and narrow out and back course along the Trinity River. Timing was self administered or they called out your time as you crossed the finish line. Then you had to turn in your time with name, age and sex on a placement card that you got at the finish. This was the first race where I ran without a bib or timing chip. Definitely made the race feel very friendly and low key.

I never ran a race this short so I had no idea what to expect in terms of pacing. I figured it shouldn’t be much worse than my 800m repeats it’s just “slightly longer”. When the horn sounded and we were off I was in the lead and stayed there for the entire out section. By then it was a pack of 3 of us who kept together and the other two guys just passed me at the turnaround. I felt like I was done and I have clocked a 3:29 for the first half which was a 5:21 pace, a bit slower than my 800m repeat pace at the track. Based on race calculators I was supposed to be able to run a 5:30 mile so I was right on target. The second half was much much harder and I faded a good bit so my back time was 3:43 for a total of 7:12. My mile split was actually 5:24 which I am pretty happy with. I finished 3rd overall and 2nd in my age group.

The winner ran a 6:57 and the second place guy ran a 7:00 flat. They both ran 8 and 13 miles this morning respectively so they weren’t exactly running on fresh legs either.

But my co-worker who also ran the race already did his 20 mile long run before the race. They say the shorter the race the longer the warm-up should be, well I think he might have gone overboard with that 20 miler .

After the race we had free beer, hot dogs and burgers which made it into a fun an enjoyable event. And now I have a 1.3 mile PR!

The race I ran last weekend was the 4th annual El Scorcho which is another novelty race. It was my longest race so far and the venue was not ideal for a record setting pace considering it was 84F at the start with 65% humidity and it happened to be at midnight. But I did pretty good all considered.

I have learned from my last half marathon in 80F that hot weather and fast paces just don’t match so I purposefully picked a much slower pace than I should be able to run in ideal racing conditions. The slower pace was 7:03/mile. This was my goal which would have given me a target time of just under 1:50.

I got to the race venue around 11:00PM and things were in full action by then. Everyone was lugging coolers from the parking lot to the start in Trinity Park. It looked more like a picnic/free concert at the park than an endurance event. I was only half crazy and ran the 25K but there were full on crazies who went twice the distance at 50K. There were 128 finishers in the 50K and 329 in the 25K.

I met up with a couple of my running buddies, one of them was going to bandit the 25K and we decided that we would stick together as long as it was possible. His goal pace was 7:05 best case and 7:30 worst case. My 7:03 sounded doable for both of us.

We had a staggered start, the 50K started at 12:00AM and the 25K started at 12:10AM. The course was a 5K loop in Trinity Park and we had to do 5 or 10 loops respectively.

At the start I toed the line as usual and I was asking the guys around me about their target pace. Most were talking about 7 minute paces so I figured we should be good to go and hang in there. After the start two guys bolted and ran definitely faster than 7:00 pace. But I didn’t care, I have learned my lesson about running my own race instead of someone else’s. Me and my bandit friend and three other guys formed a pack and we were putting in some solid time at the beginning. First 5K was 21:33. I felt good and things were right on target.

Second lap was pretty uneventful although we have started lapping some 25K runners and we were definitely catching a lot of 50K runners. We were actually catching the back end of the 50K about 6 minutes into the race which meant some of those folks were on a 16+ minutes/mile pace. I’m not sure how many of them actually finished the distance. Second 5K was 21:55, right on the money.

The third 5K was getting a bit tougher our pack was starting to separate and two guys jumped from us and were a couple of seconds ahead of me and my bandit friend. We kept our distance and tried to maintain as much of it as was possible. Third 5K was 22:12. I was slipping and I could feel it. I asked my buddy if it was the 3rd or 4th lap and I was pretty disappointed when he told me that we had two more laps to go.

On the fourth lap the two rabbits from the front of us disappeared they were keeping a pretty good pace while me and my buddy kept on fading. My buddy was fading more and more and he took a water break after the 4th lap and said that he would try to catch up with me and keep coming. When I lost him at the lap marker I actually started to feel like he was holding me back and I was slowing my pace down for him earlier. But looking at my pace I was wrong. I was fading on my own just fine. Lap 4 was 22:46, my pace was falling apart. I started to have flashbacks of my last half marathon how I could barely keep it together by the end and how my pace was slower than 8 minutes/mile at the end. I felt a bit better this time and I kept thinking that I should push the last lap harder and harder. I thought it was all mental at this point and I jut had to push myself through it.

The last lap was feeling fine, I knew I was fading but I kept thinking about my form and pretending it’s a tempo run. I lost my buddy at the water station but he caught up with me a mile into the lap only to fade one more time. He could not keep the pace any longer and once again I was on my own. My half marathon split was 1:33:30 which I’m pretty happy with, it looked a lot more even paced than the last half I ran. I have decided that with 0.5 miles to go I’d really try to kick it hard and see where I end up. Last lap was 23:36 even with the kick and I ended up running a 1:52:02 and finished 4th overall. Considering the weather and the time of day I think it was a great pace for me and I think my BQ goal for October is definitely still attainable. When I checked some of the other finishers around me they all have 1:22-1:25 half finishes from last year under ideal conditions. It gives me hopes that under ideal conditions a 3:10 is certainly doable.

As for the other aspects of the race, it was really good.

Venue: The looped course is a bit twisty and boring and the constant lapping of people make it tough but it also keeps you on your toes and provides you with constant rabbits to chase. The surface conditions alternated between pavement, packed gravel and some areas we had to run even on grass. I thought I was going to twist my ankle on the grass but luckily that didn’t happen and I managed all the terrain changes just fine. The course was very well marked with glow sticks in the darker sections and there was no doubt ever in my mind which was I’m supposed to run.

Crowd Support: This race was the best I’ve ran so far in terms of crowd support. People were out there cheering everyone on. I have heard my name yelled more than I could possibly count and it never stopped to be entertaining. I really enjoyed the crowd and the constant cheering. The two end points had music blasting from two pick up trucks which also made them something to look forward to. All in all the crowd was fantastic.

Hydration: I brought my own 8oz bottles and the Fort Worth Running Company staff kept them ready to go every time I ran a lap. It was awesome to have my own pit crew and they did a phenomenal job. I almost forgot to stop for water after the first lap it wasn’t until they yelled me that I realized I was supposed to get water. I need to get the 8oz bottles with the nipples next time though, the ones with the caps just don’t work too well, not even with a straw especially when the straw is too damn short to reach the bottom. Volunteers were abundant and water and electrolyte was plenty at all parts of the course. The cups were nice and large and the volunteers yelled out what they were holding so you didn’t end up with electrolyte when you were expecting water. Post race support was also great with plenty of water and electrolytes to go around.

Nutrition: pre-race nutrition was a mixed bag for me. It’s kind of hard to prepare for a midnight race. I had pasta for lunch then the family wanted pizza for dinner so I had two slices of that and three hours before the race I ate some yogurt with muesli. I had no GI issues, things were going great. I had a gel pack 15 minutes prior race start along with 8 oz of water. I had 3 gel packs on me and I was going to have one per lap but I didn’t even get to them I was just too busy running. In training I usually eat the gels during water break but with racing I just don’t stop. I really need to start working on fuel consumption during running if I ever want to eat some of these gel packs during a race. Post race nutrition was also awesome, they had plenty of bananas, skittles, M&Ms, trail mixes, cookies, oranges, peanuts and chocolate to replenish some of the lost calories. I felt pretty dizzy when I finished the race but after drinking and eating some food I felt perfectly fine. In an hour after the race I felt really great even though the legs were fatigued. Again, the race food was great and the race staff did a phenomenal job!

Mile splits and HRR% (Heart rate Reserve %):
06:45 – 80.7% – A bit too fast start
07:00 – 87.8% – getting in the groove
07:03 – 88.0% – right on the money
07:02 – 88.9% – perfect pace
07:04 – 89.1% – still going strong
07:02 – 88.4% – another perfect split
07:01 – 88.5% – Why am I speeding up?
07:12 – 87.8% – Uh-oh!
07:13 – 87.1% – Yup, the wheels are coming off again
07:09 – 87.4% – Or maybe not! Hanging on for dear life
07:17 – 86.4% – Tougher and rougher
07:26 – 85.3% – Yeah, I’m done
07:27 – 83.9% – Is this thing over yet?
07:42 – 82.5% – OMG!
07:51 – 83.1% – WTF?
07:05 – 87.3% – Last 0.5 miles and I still managed to kick it! I’m happy and relived

As you can see I was running well into lactate threshold throughout the entire run (82-88% of HRR) and I “bonked” right at the 1 hr mark which is basically the definition of lactate threshold runs, a pace you can keep for one hour. Us, fatties (165lbs) just can’t run fast in the heat.

All in all it was a great event and I’m certainly planning on running it again next year!

1) Course was on a narrow asphalt trail in a city park with public walking their dogs against race traffic all day long.

2) Race was on a looped course, 3.7, 3.1, 3.1, and 3.2 for the last leg. It would mean lapping slower people in a regular marathon by the second lap. But this was even worse.

3) It was also a 4 men relay race with 2,000 people competing which meant a bunch of fast guys going out like crazy at the start, essentially running 5Ks while a whole bunch of 35+ minute 5K people grouping together and taking water from front of you at the water station. It also meant a whole lot of stupid surging with relay runners passing you at the exchange then you having to pass them at the 2 mile mark once they ran out of steam.

4) Water stations sucked. They had them at the exchange, 1 mile and 2 mile points on the main loop but the stations were short and I never had a chance to double up on the water which felt really needed considering the heat. And some of the volunteers, bless their heart, were holding onto the cups with their death grip where by the time I freed the cup half of the half filled cup’s content spilled which left very little water. One time I accidentally picked up Gatorade instead of water out of desperation as there was no water left on my side.

5) Speaking of the heat, the race started promptly at 8:00AM in 77 degrees with 89% humidity. By the time I finished it was 80 at 81% humidity. Not running friendly weather and it definitely made it into a novelty race instead of a PR course.

So these were the issues that I really had no control over and I can blame. Here are the issues that I had control over but still managed to screw up:

1) Going out too fast. My Polar footpod was 1.1% off meaning the pace it indicated was actually 1.1% slower than reality. It meant that my 6:40 splits were really 6:36 splits. But considering the weather even the 6:40 pace was way too ambitious of me. I really should have paced myself better.

My first 5 mile splits were: 6:27, 6:35, 6:34, 6:32, 6:38. They were all way too fast and I should have slowed it down more but it felt easy at first and I felt good.

Mile 6 and 7 were 6:40 and 6:42. It was mile 8 where the wheels really started to come off the bus and my splits got progressively worse and worse throughout the remainder of the run.

Mile 8-13:
06:52
07:07
07:09
07:36
07:47
07:59

The last 0.1 was a 7:27 pace which was my feeble attempt of a final kick. I knew that the goals were gone and I knew that I was done. I just wanted to finish and sit down.

2) Relying on my watch instead of feel. At 7.8 miles it was the 1 mile marker from the exchange into my 3rd lap. I looked down on m watch and I saw 6:46 for the lap timer for the last mile which was off my pace but not entirely bad. But 20 seconds later when I looked down I saw that my pace was 7:06 so I tried to pick it up. Then another 20 seconds later I saw my pace dropping to 7:26 so I tried to push even harder. Then a minute later I was down to 8:26 pace yet I was passing a whole lot of people and I felt completely exhausted. by the time I felt completely wasted my watch indicated a 9:00 pace. Or so I thought. You see, I never switched back from the lap timer to instant pace display and what I thought was instant pace was just the time elapsed since the lap started. So naturally the time kept going up and my pace was not really slowing down I just thought it did. So I was running 6:35s while I was thinking it was 8:30 and my heart rate was climbing at a steady rate into the stratosphere. I’m sure I have built up some solid amount of lactate during this stint which ended up hurting me in the long run. Sure, I was already down to 7:00 pace on my own but after this little stunt I dropped to 7:30+ and I just never recovered.

If you think I didn’t like the race or the organization, it’s not true!

1) The entry fee is $25 for both relay and individual races. This is probably the cheapest half marathon out there and in terms of bang to buck it’s impossible to beat. You get a t-shirt, a finisher’s certificate and a catered Italian pasta with chicken meal which looked really yummy! I gave up my meal ticket as I had my family with me and we had to go to Seaworld and I had no time to get in line and enjoy the meal.

2) The race was very well organized, the exchange area was perfect the way they called out the teams ahead of time via radio sure seemed to work for the relay runners. The course was perfectly marked and there were marshals at every corner where you could have had any doubt about which way to go.

3) They had age group awards in all combination of the relays (all men, all women, 3+1, 2+2, 1+3). They also had calligraphy on site to do the half marathoner’s name and time on the certificate.

4) Post race refreshments were plenty, from banana to beer. To have beer you needed an ID, it would have been nice to include that tidbit on the FAQ on the website, just like the fact that bag check was available. Both were mentioned in the race packet but for out of town runners who picked up their race packet on race day and walked up to the start with nothing on them in case there was no bag check it was a bit too little too late.

5) Crowd support was great. Even though most of it really came at the exchange it was very strong there and made you feel pretty good about the run. I had one guy who cheered me with a “Go Greg!” every single lap. It was awesome.

6) Water stations were at every mile, my problem was with their length not their spacing. If you were running a sub 7 pace there was no way to grab a water at the beginning and another one at the end. If you were running a slower pace and didn’t mind to stop at the water station then yeah, there was plenty of water. I must also mention that I have heard several times the volunteers yelling out to the slower runners to let the faster runners grab their water first so they tried their best.

7) There were door prizes. I won a bag and another t-shirt! Free stuff is always good.

So if I sounded disappointed with the race, I really wasn’t. It was actually a lot better organized and a lot smoother operation that I expected it to be. The only thing that I think they should have changed was to lengthen up the water stations to twice their length so you get a chance to double dip. Would I run it again as a half? Probably not. Would I run it as a relay? Absolutely yes!

So there you have it, my first half marathon with a not so stellar debut but I think I did OK all things considered.I finished 6th overall and since they only had a 0-39 and a 40+ AG I placed 6th in my AG as well. I think I have learned a bit from the race, mostly that a half marathon is not a 10K and I should certainly respect the distance. Running 26.2 at 7:15 seems even more daunting now than ever before.

Monday morning I drove to Arlington, TX to run the American Heroes 10K race. There just aren’t that many 10K races around to enter so I have to pick the ones I can run and go with them. This made for an interesting weekend with the double races but I think I came out alright.

The race setup was nice, it was fully chip timed from start to finish, the only thing I didn’t care for was the fact that both the 5K and the 10K started and finished at the same place at the same time which meant that at the start I was running with guys who were gunning for a 5K PR and I was finishing with the 40 minute 5K crowds. This means that the starters will drag you along for a fast starting pace and the finishers will slow you down as you try to zip by them. Certainly not a good combination. Another thing that bummed me out was the fact that this race had a great 1 mile fun run/walk unlike the one my family ended up doing Saturday. I really wish they had done this race instead.

Weather was hot and humid. We started out at 80 degrees and 70% humidity. We finished in the same conditions with some wind thrown in for good measure. It was not PR weather to say the least.

The race took place in Arlington, TX right by the Texas Rangers Ballpark, Six Flags over Texas amusement park and the brand spanking new Dallas Cowboy’s stadium. So the venue was nice with a lot of eye candy.

The start corral was done nicely, they had a separate place for the non-chip timed walkers and the chip timed runners. I started from the front as usual and I was talking with a lady about my goal pace which was going to be 6:10 for the entire race. Little did I know…

Once the gun went after a 3-2-1 countdown, 20 seconds of fiddling with the gun and then finally the old lady firing in the air the race was on. I had to hold myself back not to try to stick with the 5K lead pack. I recognized some familiar faces and I even had time and energy to say hi to them while running the first quarter mile. My plan of slowing it down kind of worked, I clocked a 6:00 even pace for the first half mile and 6:09 for the second half.

First mile: 6:04

After the first mile we got into our first slight climb and I started to feel that a 6:10 was going to be awfully difficult. We split off from the 5K pack and I found myself motoring in 5th place overall.

Second mile: 6:13

So far so good. Still within target but then we hit an overpass that went above I-30 and we caught up with the sole wheelchair racer on the course. Once you lose momentum it’s pretty tough to push that wheelchair up the hill. There is no coasting in a wheelchair uphill. My pace dropped as low as 7:30 on the climb but I managed to recover somewhat after the climb and got back in the groove again. A long stretch of straight running was coming and I finally caught up with the 4th place runner. He gave me a “go ahead” as I ran by him, he did not look too good.

Third Mile: 6:26

At this point I knew that any hopes of breaking 39 were dwindling fast and based on how I felt I thought a 40 minute run would be also in strong jeopardy. I kept inching up on the 3rd place guy, slowly but surely. At this point I picked a new goal; instead of trying to break 39, which I knew wasn’t going to happen, I tried to get on the overall podium. Just before the turnaround point I passed the 3rd place guy and I saw the first and second place runners pass us by on the way back. The first place guy looked rock solid and really far out. The second place guy looked like he wasn’t all that hot and he was younger kid, under 18. After the turn I thought this is where I should start pushing it and shoot for that negative split. I stepped on it and if felt like we were cruising downhill a bit and things felt OK. I also received crowd support from the slower runners who were still on the out part of the course as I was coming back. It felt pretty good. I kept looking back to see how far the 4th place guy was, I did not want to give up 3rd place.

Fourth Mile: 6:24

We had to cross the interstate again which meant one more climb over the bridge. As I got to the top I saw the second place guy in front of me grabbing water from the water station and walking a bit. I thought I had a chance of catching him but he started running again. At 4.5 miles we turned away from the outgoing course which still had plenty of people running/walking and went for what I’d call the place that separated men from the boys.

It was a quarter mile 4% incline through a parking lot that almost killed me. I was so ready to throw in the towel by the time I hit the top it’s not even funny. I thought my 3rd place was gone and there was no way I could hold onto it. But then I looked back and I actually saw that the distance between me and the 4th place guy actually increased. I wasn’t the only one who was suffering on the hill, it was everyone else too. My pace slowed to 8:00 by the time I hit the top.

The guy in front of me hit up the water station at the top again, then stopped, then started running again.

Fifth Mile: 6:40

At this point I didn’t know how things were going to shake out. My new goal was just to finish the race. Forget PRs, forget placing, forget about anything else. Just finish the damn race. I kept looking at the Ballpark and that thing was so friggin’ huge yet it was so friggin’ far.

At this point the 5K and 10K races merged together again and I was in a river of 40 minute 5K walkers. I had to stay outside of the cones so I could get past them with their iPods blasting and them not paying any kind of attention to anything else around them. The 2nd place guy slowed down significantly along with me so I still kept him in sight and at this point I felt that I was actually inching up on him even though I felt we came to a screeching halt in terms of pace. I was right about the pace. When you’re passing people that are on the 14 minute/mile pace a 7 minute/mile will feel downright speedy. But in reality our pace was cooked and done.

Sixth Mile: 6:39

Once I had the finish in sight and I felt confident that I could kick it I went for it. My rabbit was done, he was so far gone that when I kicked it he didn’t even lift a finger. After the race he told me he threw up twice during the race and he needs to work more on his pre-race diet. I didn’t see him barf but he still posted an impressive time and gave me a tough time to beat him even with the GI issues he’s been having. I saw the clock above the finish line just turning over 40 minutes which made me feel really sad in terms of time but I kept on kicking it strong until the very end. Once I stopped my watch it read 39:59 but I knew that it had at least 20 seconds extra on it due to the lame start with the old lady who failed to work the starting pistol right.

Last 0.2 mile: 1:09 (5:36/mile)

Official time: 39:35

I finished 2nd overall and since the winner took the overall win I also won my age group once he was out of the picture. If I could have done anything different it probably would have been towards the end. I think I got influenced and caught up in other people’s pace around me which caused me to slow down instead of trying to push it. I’m not saying I had anything left in the tank but I think I could have done a bit better had I had a faster rabbit to chase at the end.

Considering the hot weather and the brutal hill in mile 5 I think I did pretty good. This was certainly not a PR course for me but my race time is still a good indicator of what to expect in my future training for longer distances. It would have been nice to get a sub 39 10K to go with my 18:13 5K this season but that will just have to wait until next fall as I am done with the shorter distances, at least for now.

Last weekend I had a planned 5K and I hoped to beat that 5K time. I had high hopes due to the nature of the course. It was an A to B course with 140 ft of elevation drop in mile 2 on an otherwise pretty much flat course which kind of lends itself to a PR. I also knew that the race was a well established race, this was the 12th year for it with some pretty good times and good turnout so I knew that pace would be set for me by some other runners.

It was another one of those gun time start, chip time finish races so I made sure to start from the front of the pack. Since I also had a 10K race coming up on Monday I knew that I wanted to keep my legs intact as much as possible and I promised myself that I would not go out too fast at the beginning. I certainly tried to stick with that plan but I still clocked my first half mile at 5:40 minutes/mile pace. It was most definitely faster than anticipated even though I let a whole bunch of people go early on. I have decided to run my own race instead of trying to keep up with the front runners early on.

My second 0.5 mile split was ran at a more modest 5:54 pace which was exactly in the ballpark for my target goal. It felt pretty easy actually even though this was the one segment in the race with a small climb. My split for the first mile was 5:47.

My second mile was the one that contained the huge elevation drop of 140 ft and it certainly showed in my pace as I have managed to eke out a 5:41 for the second mile.

By the time I hit the third mile my legs started to feel tired and worn out. But I was proud that no one has passed me since the start and I have picked off a couple of guys every mile. It clearly showed that I have paced myself well when compared to the other runners around me. I kept on motoring and reeling in some people. This segment of the course was pretty much flat with just a tiny bump around the 2.8 miles mark. That was actually the point where I have decided to start my final kick and I averaged 5:38 min/mile for the last quarter mile. My third mile split was a 6:03 which was still not too far off from my otherwise great pace.

I crossed the finish line 13/517 overall and got 2nd out of 18 for my age group. 16:36 won the race and my AG winner got 17:25 and finished 7th. My time was still a great PR at 18:13 which is a new PR by over 50 seconds from last weekend. It really felt awesome to break 19 minutes as well as run a sub 6 minute pace for the run. Granted that the course was super fast with the steep decline but I still think I would have PR had it been a flat course without the drop.

The best part was that unlike after last weekend’s 5K where I got some pretty bad calf cramps after the race, this time I felt great and rested. Instead of taking the shuttle back to the start I just jogged back with the winner and the master’s winner and had a great talk with them. They were some really nice guys and quite inspirational to see them kick my buttocks at age 40 and 48! There is certainly something to look forward to!

I wasn’t the only family member who raced this weekend. I have signed my son up to run the 1 mile fun run again and while I was going to let him do it by himself my wife didn’t let that happen so she and my daughter also came and they all ran the 1 mile event. My son had a blast all the way until the end of the 1 mile. Unfortunately the race was not very well organized and they didn’t really have a 1 mile finish, the 1 mile people were just simply supposed to run up to the 1 mile mark on the 3.1 mile course and stop in the middle of the road. The race director should go and try to explain to a 5 year old why he needs to stop while everyone else is zipping by. I don’t envy my wife for having had to deal with that situation at the 1 mile point. But I’m still very proud of my family that they came out and ran/jogged/walked the race.

After last Saturday’s 10K my 5 year old son, expressed great interest in wanting to run with dad. So last Sunday I took him to the local track after my 8 mile long run where he promptly got side stitches after about 100 meters.

I told him to run slower but he was pretty set on trying to run a 7:25 min/mile pace for 100 meters, get stitches, slow to a walk for 200 meters then try again. He was really killing me with his pace I could not keep up myself; my calves were burning from the 10K and the 8 mile long run. We kept it up for about 2 laps at which point we did some runs across the field and called it a day. I have tried to tell him to slow down but he didn’t want to listen. He was pretty cute to try running with dad and I was really proud of him.

Monday I went and bought him some running shoes, shorts and a wicking t-shirt. I figured if he wants to run at least he should look the part. Monday we went and ran in the neighborhood just up and down the street as we felt like and we probably put in another half a mile. This time we slowed down and he finally listened to me. We took breaks but he had no side stitches.

Wednesday we did a repeat of Monday’s training and Friday we ran probably close to a mile with very little stopping. I felt he was ready to run a one mile fun run this weekend so I took him to a race this Saturday.

I was not going to race this weekend, I had a 30 minute fartlek on tap for Saturday and a 10 mile long run for Sunday. But since I promised my son to take him I figured I’d jog the 1 mile with him and I’d video him as he ran.

My son has a rough time getting up in the mornings; we have to kick him out around 7:30 every morning to go to daycare. Saturday by the time I was ready to wake him at 6:55 he was already up, all excited about the race and ready to go.

So I fed him some yogurt and granola, got dressed and we took off. I wore my racing singlet and 2.5″ inseam split pants which were most definitely overkill for the 1 mile I was going to run but I wore my Brooks Ghost 2 shoes that I use for long runs and recovery runs. I did not sport the T6 Racers which are my shoes of choice for 5K and 10K.

We got there right at 7:30, just in time for registration to open. We got our bib, paid $50 for the two of us and they even gave us chips for the timing even though the 1 mile race was a non-timed event. It made my son feel important with the chip dangling around his laces, just like daddy’s shoes do. I have the foot pod on my shoe for pace cadence and distance information and he’s wanted something to be attached to his shoe too. The chip was just perfect.

$50 for a one mile fun run seems excessive. It was for a good cause, the Fort Worth Can Academy so I didn’t feel that bad about forking over the money. The lady at the registration said “you know you could just run the 1 mile with your son and you can run the 5K afterward if you feel like it”.

At this point I wasn’t sure if I should run the 5K, I mean I had my son with me and I had no idea what I would do with him until I’d be running the 5K. We get up for the 1 mile fun run and there are less than a dozen people lining up at the start. It wasn’t a heavy field to say the least; my son and I were the only ones who really showed up just for that, the other people were using it as a warm-up for the 5K. I was a bit disappointed that my son’s first race was such a weak turnout but he didn’t care.

The air horn for the start really got him pumped and we were off! We settled into a good steady pace of around 11 minute miles and we didn’t stop! My son ran the whole one mile. It was actually 1.12 miles in 12 minutes and 9 seconds! I was very proud of him! He ran a 10:58 average pace. It really felt great to see him run and not stop for the whole way. Even though there was zero crowd support and zero competition support the fact that he was wearing a bib made him run the whole thing. I’m one proud daddy!

After we finished the 1 mile “race” I found two nice ladies at a vendor booth and pawned off my son on them with my RoadID wrapped around his bicep in case he got lost and I decided to go for the 5K race.

The race wasn’t anything big, it had 80 finishers but I wanted to see just how fast I could run it. The air horn sounded and we were off!

As with every race I have ran there are some crazy young guys who go out way too fast at the beginning then they fatigue about a quarter mile into the race when they realize that it’s a but longer than a quarter mile. Or there might be some crazy fast people that you just simply shouldn’t even attempt to keep pace with. But the problem is that these crazies tend to drag you along for the ride if you’re not careful. I have been guilty of trying and hurting myself in the long run.

My problem today also has been that my foot pod was not calibrated right. I only run long runs with these shoes so the calibration was way off. So what I assumed was a 6:14 pace based on my watch for the first mile was actually a 5:44 pace. It felt hard but I didn’t realize that it was that fast. We were running into some pretty strong winds so I just assumed that it was the wind that was holding me back and I should be picking up some good pace on my return.

After the early crazies fell off I found myself in first place at around the half mile point so I had to dictate the pace. There were no rabbits in front of me and, luckily there were no real chasers behind me either. The course was not marked very well and I was running off course at one point heading way off course when the guy behind me yelled at me which helped me to find the right trail.

At the turnaround I felt pretty wasted, I kept checking my watch for pace and I have seen numbers in the 6:25-6:45 range for my pace. I was thinking there is no way I could run any faster but I kept wondering why my pace was so lousy. I mean it wasn’t super slow but it was slower than my pace at last weekends 10K yet I felt a hell of a lot more tired. I chalked it up to running on tired legs as I haven’t tapered one bit for this race and it was unplanned plus I thought that I wasn’t pushing myself because I had no one to catch up to and there was no one really chasing me.

After the turnaround the wind situation didn’t get better and now it felt like it was blowing from the other direction. My pace deteriorated even more, now my monitor dipped down to 7:15 min/mile paces at times. I could not believe it! I was still in the lead the second place runner was about 20 seconds behind me but I just couldn’t keep it together. I could not believe how slow my pace was and how badly I was hurting yet I was still in the lead.

Once we got to the last half mile I was trying to give it a good kick which I thought I did but my pace didn’t really show it. I took one glance back and saw the second place guy still 15 seconds back I figured there was no way I would not win this one. I have given it one final kick once the finish line was in sight and as soon as I saw the clock I could not believe it. It was just rolling over 19:00. Based on my paces I knew that was no possible. But it still didn’t occur to me that it might have been my monitor and my paces that were wrong.

I crossed the finish in 19:05.7 a new PR for me! Second place was 12 seconds back; he clearly gained some time on me on the way back but luckily not enough.

So the lesson I have learned from today’s race is not to trust my monitor for paces blindly, especially when I’m running in shoes with incorrect calibration values. After I have corrected my downloaded data for the calibration my mile paces were:

1.0: 5:44

1.0: 6:17

1.0: 6:20

0.1: 6:19

It is obvious that I had killed myself on the first mile because of some crazy fast starters and my own stupidity of trusting the monitor for paces. Bottom line is that I still won the race and got a PR from it. I was really hoping to get under 19 minutes but that goal will just have to wait a couple more races…

Sunday I went and ran my usual long run, this time it was 11.1 miles on the Trinity Trail. I did it in 1:29. A lady caught up with me after 4.5 miles and we ran 2 miles together. She had 15 on tap and had a 3:30 marathon PR. It was nice to run with someone but she was clocking 7:40 miles so she dragged me along. It’s a good thing she stopped on the way back after 2 miles so I could settle into my own pace again. Then I went home put the bike rack on the car and drove back and repeated the same route with the family on the bike. My son in tow on a trail-a-bike and my 2 year old daughter in front of me sitting in a baby seat. My wife rode her own bike. We rode for 5 miles, stopped for lunch at Panera Bread then rode over to the playground and let the kids play. Then we rode back to the trail head. Total was 12 miles. We did it in 1:29. Kind of funny that our pace on the bike was almost the same as my pace while running.

When I manually mapped the course on mapmyrun.com it became clear where the discrepancy came from. Whoever mapped the course mapped it on-line and got 6.19 miles for the distance which is a lot closer to the 10k than the actual distance we ran. The problem is that auto routing when it’s set to follow roads will pick the middle of the road for the distance. If a race is mostly runs on long segments of straight roads it is not a big problem. But this particular run ran through some winding and turning residential roads that were long stretches of curved roads. On these sections the distance ran was significantly lower than the distance estimated as we all ran on the shortest line at the inside edge of the turns. This is why you have to actually ride the course with a calibrated bicycle on the shortest path to get it certified. This course was not certified so I can’t really say much about it, it was close enough.

The race was the 29th Azle Lake Run 10K. It’s a small race with few participants, this year just shy of 50 runners in the 10K, 11 runners in the half marathon (new event) and a bit over 100 in the 5K (new event).

I had several goals for the race:

1. Finish in the top three for my age group. Considering that last year there were only 39 finishers I figured it would be an attainable goal.
2. Finish under 40 minutes. I ran 40:55 a month ago on a much hillier course so I thought I had a pretty good chance at breaking 40:00 this time. It would have been a first.
3. Run downhill smart and fast. I’ve been struggling with the downhill segments before by not letting loose and losing a lot of energy. I really wanted to make sure I wasn’t going to make that mistake this time.
4. Don’t go out too fast, shoot for even splits. So far on every single race I have ran I ended up with positive splits. I fade towards the end and I have a hard time keeping my pace up.

Weather was pretty good for the day, considering it’s May in Texas. It was around 60 degrees, full overcast with a pretty good amount of humidity but luckily no wind.

Start was pretty uneventful; there is really not a huge crowd when you only have about 60 runners starting at the same time. The Half Marathon and the 10K started together while the 5K started 15 minutes later. There were some pretty solid half marathon runners and some pretty fast paced 10K runners at the beginning. Start was also downhill for the most part so pace was pretty fast.

First mile was 5:58.

By the second mile I finally slowed down and got into a groove where I could run my own pace. There was one guy breathing down my neck that was a bit annoying and eventually he passed me by which I didn’t mind as I finally got to run my own pace. My chaser just became my rabbit.

Second mile was 6:13.

During the third mile I started seeing several younger guys in front of me who clearly went out too fast early on as they were fading pretty badly. I started to reel them in slowly but surely. It was actually a lot of fun to pick them off one by one as me and my rabbit passed them by.

Third mile was 6:23.

At mile 4 the half marathon and the 10K split up. My sole rabbit, “Mr. wheezing guy”, went towards the half and I took the right turn onto some crappier quality residential road. All of a sudden I found myself alone with no one in sight. It was a long stretch of road with a pretty good climb and not one person in front of me. This is where I really started to feel the pain and the difficulty of running by myself.

Mile 4 was 6:24.

Up until this point my pace was all alive and well and I felt pretty good about my run. I was a bit concerned that I might have gone out a bit too fast early on and I was wondering what kind of toll it would take on me. I had two more steeper climbs ahead of me and my pace showed it. Running with no other runners in front of me I took a quick glance back and there was only one guy in my vicinity but he was a good 45 seconds back. He was one of the guys I already passed so I knew that there was no way I was going to give 45 seconds back on the last mile and a half. I also asked one of the marshals at the turn how many were in front of me and she said there were 3. I was bummed out that I was going to miss the podium finish in the overall. None of the 3 was in sight, I wasn’t even close.

Mile 5 was 6:29, the first split above my target pace.

During the last mile we ran into the 25 minute finishers of the 5K race. Their race started 15 minutes after ours but ended at the same finish. It was a bit difficult to pass them at times and I really don’t think it has helped my pace to be surrounded with all these “slow runners”. A girl in front of me was asking someone how much further the finish was. I glanced at my watch and I saw we had 0.4 miles to go. As I passed her I told her that it’s 0.4 miles to go. I wasn’t ready to start my final kick at this point I thought I’d wait until the 0.2 mark to really go for it.

Mile 6 was 6:30.

We took our final turn towards the high school track where, based on the map, I assumed we’d have a half a lap around the track to the finish. I started picking up my pace and as I looked up there it was; the finish line that is. I was a bit confused as I didn’t realize it was going to be this close. There was no track in sight and the finish was right there in front of me. I did a 5:00/mile sprint at the end until the finish and stopped my watch.

After talking with the other guys we concluded that the course was short and I probably didn’t do as well as I thought. My monitor indicated an average pace of 6:25 but that included 30 or so seconds of rest after the finish so I had to wait for the official time. I knew I beat 40 minutes just simply based on pace but I didn’t know by how much.

Official finish time was 38:08, a new PR. If I extrapolate it up to the correct distance it would be 39:11 6:18/mile pace which is still a new PR and under 40 minutes. Actually I think I could have kept up the 5:00-5:30 pace for the missing 0.15 miles so it would have been probably a tiny bit better than that.

As they told me on the course, I finished 4th overall and I got 2nd in my age group, there was a 32 year old guy who finished 3rd with 35:31. He was over 2.5 minutes faster than me, there was no way I could have beat him. Not this time at least.

So how did I do in terms of goals? I did finish in the top three for my age group which I’m pretty happy about. I love to leave the races with some hardware.

I also beat my goal of 40 minutes. If you look at the pure time I beat it by a long shot. If you consider that the course was short I still beat it by a decent amount and I totally killed my 40:55 from a month ago.

If you look at my pace graph I almost recovered all the speed lost on the inclines on the declines. I felt really good and really fast on the down slopes. Every single one of them were under 6:00 pace. I feel a lot more confident on the downhill now than ever before.

As for my last goal of getting to negative splits, well that didn’t happen. I went out a bit too fast, the second half had some climbs, there was a lot of lonely running and finishing with the 7:30/mile 5K crowd did not help much. But it is what it is and that elusive negative split is still out there. One of these days I’ll reel it in!