Pasito a Pasito Suave Suavecito

If you happened to hear that song wafting through downtown Fort Worth last Sunday around 7:30 am, that was me.  Sorry.  Actually, no I'm not.  It's a great song to remind you what you should be doing at mile 2 of a marathon.  OK, clarification.  Not the entire song.  just those 5 words actually.  The rest of the song, well...  that's for other things.  And yes, it WAS the Biebs (Beebs/Biebz?) version.  but of course.
So, Cowtown came on the 25th of February and, as I've detailed in this blog, my training hadn't been going to plan.  I had hoped that we would have a large, cohesive group reminiscent of my TnT or Carrera days.  That didn't turn out.  Justin and I met up once and I met Keerthana on a run, but it was a lot of me alone on the long runs.  I lost interest and motivation a bit but added a good amount of strength training.  Mila and I hit the gym a couple of times a week and added bodyweight core exercises nearly every day.
Come race day, I was looking for a 4:15.  Jon gave me a creative way of setting a time goal.  He said that I should time the drive there and try and beat that.  Due to having to search for parking and stopping a couple of times, it was 4:23 from parking spot to parking spot.
Cowtown is really a two day race combo.  On the first day, they have a 5K, 10K, and kid's 10K.  The second day includes a 1/2 marathon, marathon, and a 50K.  People can sign up for any of the single races or a Saturday/Sunday combo, which they call The Cowtown Challenge.  Many of my Team RWB homies did the challenge with the 5k or 10k on Saturday and half marathon Sunday.
We left here Saturday morning and went straight to the Team RWB social at Cattlemen's Steak House near the stock yards.  There was some sort of event (rodeo, concert?), so it took us almost 30 minutes just to find parking.  It was a cool area to check out though.  Horses, long horns, and carriages were all around. 
The lunch was good, there were about 8 of us enjoying a steak lunch.

The "Jose Iniguez special"

Everyone but Mila and I had run in the morning.

The few of us that stuck around for a picture. (Photo Credit: Ally Roebuck)

From the lunch, Mila and I headed over to the expo.  I had hoped to snag someone that could check out Mila's stride but had no such luck.  We did run into Blanca and Jennifer and talked for a bit. The expo was a pretty good size.  They advertised a couple of 5ks that would be worth running if I lived closer.  I didn't do well on pictures over the weekend, so most of these I grabbed from Facebook or Mila. 

The RWB ladies

MORE COWBELL!!!!!

Mila and I also did some exploring in the Sundance Square district of downtown.  It's an area with theaters, nice shops, restaurants and a plaza with a fountain.  I wasn't really expecting all that. 

In an effort to try and eat something not TOO crazy or heavy, we found a Turkish restaurant.  I ordered something that I thought was like gyro but with tomato sauce instead of tzitziki sauce.  Uhh... it wasn't exactly what I thought but it sure was good.

They put us in the corner

flat (rumpled) runner

We stayed on the west side of town, maybe 15 minutes from downtown.  With the race starting at 7am and hotel checkout at 11, I'd hoped to get a late checkout.  Unfortunately, they weren't able to accomodate and we had to scramble to get out stuff out of the room.  I guess that fancy lunch I had hoped for wouldn't be happening. 
It was about 40 degrees at the start.  Perfect for running, not so much for Mila spectating.

ready for the cold pre-race

The race was pretty large, with 8 corrals.  Mila walked me to corral 3 just after the elites started their race. 

let's hurry up, this is kinda cold

Unfortunately, Mila and I didn't really coordinate where we would be for the start.  I stuck mostly in the middle, trying to look for her but never spotting her.  I guess she was on the right and never saw me either.

Mila took off for the car after the start and got some sleep.  Smart.

Like I said, I planned on running about 4:10-4:15.  To accomplish that, I planned on running 10 min miles during 1-2, 9:45 2-5, 9:30 6-8, 9:15 9-half, and run "strong" over the last half.  That was the plan, anyway.  It was tougher than I thought it would be.  I didn't have Ryan yelling at me to slow down every 30 seconds this time.  To combat that, I just tried to make it more fun.  Hence, the singing.  There were lots of hi-5s given to little kids and mascots along the course, and I even had a conversation with an older guy running the 50K.  I figured if I could try and keep up with Daddy Yankee at mile 2 and, later, with Kendrick Lamar at mile 9, I wouldn't be running too quickly.

I say it was tough because I was going faster than planned.  The second section was close(ish) to 9:45, but I was still under 9:30 for all of the miles.  

Part of the way through mile 7, I realized that I was going to have to find a bathroom.  I had seen Port a Potties at each of the aid stations, so I wasn't too worried.  I did, however, decide to speed up.  I made the pit stop at the 7.5, taking 2 minutes to get in and out.  Doing some math on the run, I figured that I could make up the time before the 20K mark by running around 9 flat.  After that, I could relax a little if need be.  Mile 9 has the Main St bridge.  On the course elevation chart, it looks almost straight up.  In real life, it was roughly 1/3 mile long at about 14%.  But, I felt strong.  Like I said earlier, I was going up the hill trying to keep up with Kendrick Lamar.  I really attribute it to the added weight training that we have been doing.  Andy has been making me do squats and work on my technique.  I felt more powerful up that hill, that's for sure.  Or, it's just that I was listening to Kendrick Lamar.  Equally possible.

The split for the 1/2 and full was around mile 11 and I nearly went the wrong way.  I was worried that the course might get "lonely" at the split as it does in some marathons do.  This wasn't a problem though.  There were supporters and bands all along the full length of the course.  Well, maybe they weren't all "bands."  There was a group out there slaughtering "Uncle Bob's" Old Time Rock n Roll.  To the point that a few runners exchanged bewildered looks.  Then there was Fat Elvis later on the course.  Singing, if I remember correctly, a Beatles song.  It certainly wasn't an Elvis song.  Things like that, bands showing up early in the cold to play for free, make these races even more fun.  It all adds to the atmosphere.  When we ran through residential neighborhoods, there were plenty of people on their lawns cheering us on and even offering water, beer, liquor, and snacks.  How neat is that?

I made it through the 1/2 point at 2:02:14 (in 483rd place).  My thought was still "Hey, I'm on track for 4:05!"  I kept running at a comfortable pace, which ended up being around 8:45.  I'd made up the bathroom time and noticed that my heart rate was still barely out of my "easy pace" range.  It wasn't until I passed the 16 mile marker that I really started to think about going under 4.  I made sure to keep my watch on the "lap" screen so that I would keep thinking about only 1 mile at a time.  I did the math and figured I needed to average 9:01 for the rest of the way to do it.  Doing the math keeps my mind occupied while running.  Another way that I can tell if I'm too tired is when I can't do the math well.  Somewhere in there I started to really warm up (it was in the mid 50s by then) and was wondering if it would be worth it to throw my hat away. 
At mile 17 I started remembering Han Solo's "Don't get cocky kid."  I have had a few marathons where I was feeling great at mile 17-19 only to run face first into a wall between 20 and 21.  I think I was trying to break that wall as mile 21 was my fastest in the entire marathon at 8:38.  I paid for it a little as 22 was tied for my slowest post-porta potty mile at 9:01 haha.  At the 37K mark I finally allowed myself a mental congratulations.  I had moved up to 325th overall (not that I knew that), a jump of around 300 places after the 15K mark, and had nearly 30 minutes to finish the last 5K.  I was feeling a little beat up, but not tired.  At mile 24 my left knee started to twinge.  Out of nowhere!  I basically just told my knee to deal with it.  We had just over 2 miles left, and we weren't going to slow down.  Well, much.  Mile 26 was 8:57, but all the while I was arguing with my knee and trying to pick off people in front of me.  The marathon that I had been running one mile at a time became a matter of repeatedly catching the person in front of me.  Right around the 26 mile mark, the courses joined back up.  Mila was waiting for me with about 400m left, cheering me on.  I even saw Angie at the end of her first ever 1/2 marathon!

yee haw!

there I am!

It felt like I was runnig so much faster/cooler than that.
What was odd was that over the last 400m or so, I didn't see another marathon runner.  Everyone was there finishing the half.  I crossed, saw that my time was 3:58:19 and cheered.  If I wasn't cheap, I'd have paid for my finish line pics.  Maybe there's a blog goal, make enough money to pay for those pics. 
Blanca and Jennifer found me shortly after the finish.  Jennifer had crushed her goal but Blanca, as usual, was hard on herself.  We found out later that she'd placed 2nd in her age group at the 5k on Saturday.

that second medal they got was the cowbell medal for completing the challenge.  Maybe next year

It wasn't long until the adrenaline died down and the pain in my legs set in.  Normal marathon pain though.  I hobbled through the shirt line and wandered around through the food area until Mila found me.

(your sound effect here)

we got finisher's jackets too.  How about the angle of them feet, huh?

As I've pointed out, the race went surprisingly well.  I think the perfect running weather played a factor in that.  Add in weight training and the lack of pressure I'd put on myself, and you get a great race.  If I was in better running shape, I probably could have gone more quickly.  I honestly don't know if stopping at the port a potty slowed me down all that much.  Hear me out.  Knowing I'd have to stop was the catalyst for speeding up.  After I realized that I was feeling better than expected, I decided to stay at that pace.  If I wouldn't have had to stop, I might have happily finished in 4:05.  Who knows.

Over all it was a 3:58:19, good enough for 283rd overall out of 1,211 finishers.  In my age group, I was 37/93rd.  best of all, I negative split the race (1:56 2nd half) and had a fantastic time doing it.  Now I'm on to take some rest.  Kinda.  I've got a trail 1/2 marathon next weekend.

San Angelo 5K ranking updates

With the new year and the trail series, I had to update my San Angelo 5k rankings.  Here are the changes - 

Adrian Rodriguez and David Hoien's wins put them in the top 25 over all at #16 and #17 respectively.  They are also now #3 and #4 in the 20-29 age group.  Tye Masters is up to #23 on the over all rankings.  Yep, Dennis and I got bumped out of the top 25.

Age group changes include Matt Garcia being #5 in the 40-49 male division,  Wendell Wheaton now at #5 in the 60-69 division, Deloras Shubert at #3 for 50-59 females, and Carmen Vasquez #1 for 40-49 females.  Finally, Alex Rodriguez and Julie Anderson switched spots at #20 and #21 overall and #1 and #2 in the women's 20-29.