The Texas Half Marathon Race Report

While all my friends were running in Miami, New Orleans, and Huntington Beach this morning, I was running in this (pink is ice and blue is snow!):

Thankfully the starting line had covered parking and a nice warm waiting area. Oh, and I must mention this--NO LINES for the toilets. I'm not sure how that is possible, a lot of people probably stayed in bed this morning! And I kind of wished that I had too. The conditions really were as miserable, as you could expect from the forecast above. The wind was brutal and it felt like we ran into it for a large portion of the race. The rain started just as we went outside to line up at the start but at least it dropped off to a drizzle fairly quickly. The poncho didn't do me much good with the wind whipping everything around; it was really just like I was wearing a trash bag sail.

Pre-race: warm and dry

The unofficial starting line

The actual starting line

The race course was not "mostly flat" as the website touted. There were no tough hills, but the first 5 miles were up and down, not challenging, but not flat. I didn't pay too much attention to the scenery because I had my head down trying to make myself (unsuccessfully) aerodynamic as I ran into the wind.

This is the first race that I've run since I got my Garmin. And how interesting it made the race. First of all, it helped me from going out too fast in my first couple of miles. Then it helped me to maintain my pace during the rest of the race when I got lazy and wanted to slow down. I wanted to keep my pace under 11 minutes per mile. When I signed up, I was hoping for a PR, but figured the race conditions would keep me from one. And well, I kinda made one, but that's a long explanation.

As we ran past the mile marker for the first mile (which was laying on the ground, as they all were), my Garmin read 0.87 miles. Pretty significantly off, but I thought that maybe I hadn't started it right at the start line or the wind had blown the marker down the street a bit. Miles 2-7 were all off as well, but overall maintaining a tenth of a mile discrepancy. And then it got worse from there. The mile 8 marker was placed around mile 7.5, but mile 9 was only a quarter mile off.  Then mile 10 was half a mile off and that's the way we went for the rest of the race.

According to my Garmin, I finished the race in 2:11:31. A PR by 8 minutes for me! BUT, the distance was only 12.51 miles--0.6 miles off from a half marathon distance. Had this race gone the full distance, I would likely have made a real PR. Everyone was talking about this at the finish. I kind of feel like I was robbed of something. None of us that run these races ever wants to cheat, part of the joy of the finish line is knowing you earned every inch of the 13.1 miles.

The only photo I took during the race

The second half of the course was mostly on a paved trail through a nature preserve in Las Colinas. Every half mile or so, there was some piece of workout equipment, pull up bar, sit up machine, etc., but it was too cold to take my gloves off and get a photo. I wish my husband was running with me, because we would have stopped at every station to take hilarious pictures. Sorry guys.

Post race: cold and wet, but happy to get my medal!

All in all, I am a little disappointed about the incorrect mileage on this race. But it was well organized, was a nice change from running at White Rock Lake, had good bling and finish line food. If they can correct the mileage thing, I would run the Texas Half Marathon again next year.

Miles logged: 12.51