This was the 10th Anniversary race of the Texas Half Marathon and it was the biggest race that I've run in a while, probably 1000+ runners vs. the 300 runners in the last 2 races. We ran a scenic course around White Rock Lake (similar to the DRC course, but backwards). The first few miles had some challenging hills, then from about mile 4 on, it was fairly flat. There were 2 difficult parts of the race for me. First were the 3 bridges--these aren't remarkable bridges, they were just not built to handle a lot of pedestrian traffic and literally bounce when you run across them. This is a somewhat disorienting and extremely painful experience, as you have no idea where your foot will actually land. I survived these by running on my tip toes, but told myself that I wouldn't be able to finish the race if I had to run across a fourth bridge. The other difficult part was the uphill run to the finish line. The last thing you want to see at mile 13 is a looming hill. But I made it up, and in record time.
Another race where I have PR'd. I guess my training continues to pay off as I get faster and faster. It was disappointing for me since the race time was based on gun time, not on your chip time. My official time was 2:22:52, though I know I was at least a minute faster than that. I timed myself and, as usual, forgot to stop my watch when I crossed the finish line. I didn't stop it until I had collected my medal and walked out to meet my husband. My watch said 2:22:02 at that point. I'm not going to lie, I care about my time, so I am disappointed to not know how well I really did. I officially carved 2 minutes off of the time I achieved 3 weeks ago, so not too shabby.
The weather was not ideal for me during the race--very cold, in the low 40s, with a whipping wind. I'm pretty sure it was in my face for the whole race, no matter which direction I turned! At least I've been training with the wind. I kept my gloves on the whole time and remember my ears hurting at one point. I envied all the girls with their fleece headbands. I'm going to get me one!
I noticed a few runners from the Bold in the Cold race. One woman in particular--I wrote about her in my BitC race report, the walker/runner that had a horrible habit of stopping to walk in front of me and others. I had to kick it into gear and left her in my dust at about mile 2 because I was having bad thoughts about tripping her.
Just to show you that I don't hate all other runners, I paced with another runner for about half of the race. The guy in the gray shirt and white compression socks became my unofficial running partner for a while. I wish I had introduced myself to him, because I lost him somewhere about mile 9. There was a big hill and I sprinted up it and was on my own again. I hope he finished well!
Despite the hill to the finish line, the end of the race was great. They called out my name when I crossed and had cold beer and food inside a small building (away from the cold and wind). I'm only 2 races away from Uranus!!!
Starting line video
Finish line video
Miles logged: 13.1
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