Dallas Marathon & A Look Back on 2014

Dallas Marathon

December 14th was a pretty good day to run a race.  Temps were in the high 50s and into the 60s with complete cloud coverage.  We had high humidity and a slight breeze with occasional gusts, which helped me stay cool throughout the race.  There was an increasing chance for rain after 12:00 PM however I finished well ahead of the rain.

This was my second time to Dallas Marathon, so this race had some redemption value to me.  In 2012 I finished with a time of 3:11:00 due to fairly severe pain in my knee that didn't allow me to continue running.  I was really looking forward to running the race again in 2013 but mother nature was not going to make it so and so the race was canceled due to a freak ice storm that hit the Dallas/Fort Worth region several days before the race.

Right before the race began I decided that I wasn't going to push myself to PR and just run the race at a pace I could feel really good at.  After the race started I settled in at a pace between 10:00 and 10:20 per mile.  This is a pace I am very durable at and had run when I was in the middle of my marathon training, so I knew I could easily not bonk out at any point during the race.  The only really challenge I had was that I got blisters which made it painful to run at the end of the race.  I've had trouble with blisters for several weeks now so I need to see what I can do to fix that.

I will say that I really enjoyed the route this year compared to what the route was back in 2012.  I would love to see the route used again in the future as I got to see some parts of Dallas I have never seen before, especially along Greenville Avenue.  There also was some great crowd support along much of the half marathon course.  Another stark contrast between the 2014 route and 2012 route is that at the end of the 2014 route you run downhill to the finish line for about the last .1 to .15 miles.  The 2012 half marathon route had you running uphill, past the finish line and then make "U"-turn back down towards the finish line.

This year the race felt like it was very well run.  2012 was well run as well but I think this year was better than before.  I guess we were lucky but this time the family reunion area was located outdoors.  While that's not an issue it would not have been fun to be sitting in the rain waiting for a family member to come out of the finish area.  In 2012 that area was indoors in the convention center.  To be fair there was some remodeling construction taking place so I wonder if that forced the marathon planners to move that outside?

The Dallas Marathon returns next year on December 13th, 2015.

Two Races in Eight Days

I think I just attempted the second hardest thing I've ever done next to running/training for my marathon.  I ran two half marathons in eight days.

On October 25th, I ran the Michelob Ultra Half Marathon.  The course is relatively flat with a portion of the route on the Katy Trail.  I started out where I wanted with my pace just below 9:00/mi. I was running with another runner who I had been training with the last several weeks.  I started having trouble with my left foot falling asleep.  I was concerned with not being able to "feel" things and so I pulled back a little but was still maintaining a pace I felt could get me under two hours.

About the time I reached the end of the Katy Trail my right shoulder was really hurting.  It forced me to walk for stretches in order to stretch it out.  I don't know if I was tensed up for some reason or if I over-worked my arms in one of my cross-training boot-camps.  I finished with a time of 2:01:28.  Rats, I just missed my goal time of finishing under two hours.  I felt pretty disappointed and felt I had a "bad race" despite blowing away my previous best time of 2:18:38.  However I knew I had a chance at redemption as I was running the DRC Half Marathon in a week.

So I rested.  I slept in all week while I skipped my speed classes.  I was trying to rest my legs as much as possible so that I could push hard in a race I know the course.

I love running the DRC Half Marathon.  It is the first half marathon I ever ran.  It's my Super Bowl.  The course is beautiful and relatively flat.  The weather the past two years has been very nice with temps in the 50s.

I started out with the 2:00 pace group but after just a mile or two I decided to pull ahead so that I give myself some buffer in case I run out of juice towards the end of the race.  I am running my best race ever with a consistent sub-9:00/mile pace until I get to around mile 8.5.  I develop this nasty cramp in my abs/stomache and it causes me to not be able to draw in a full breath (plus it hurt pretty bad).  I started to slow down.

Somewhere past mile 10 the 2:00 pace group passed by me and my hopes for finishing within my goal time was dashed.  At this point my legs were really achy and sore.  I flashed back to how I felt in my marathon training as this was the type of fatigue pain after running 13 miles.  I generally felt like this somewhere around mile 15 or 16.  I continued to press on though and would walk when I felt like I needed a small break.

I finished with a time of 2:06:40.  In the grand scheme of things, I took 12 minutes off my time from the last time I ran the same race.  I also have never ran races in back to back weekends like that.  I might do a couple things differently the next I try something like this.

This next week I am taking a week long training course to become certified Personal Trainer.  I will go from being the motivated to being the motivator.  What will be interesting is how I can tie getting certified as a coach with next year's goals.  I'll wait and see how the class goes and think about what I want to accomplish for 2015.

I'm also keeping an eye on the RRCA website for upcoming Running Coach certification classes.  I want running to be my focus for my Personal Training experience.

Speaking of 2015, I have updated my races page with races I am planning to run or have already signed up to run.  I am going to run fewer races next year but more of them will be out of town races.  I may still sign up for the Fayetteville Half Marathon in December 2015 in Fayetteville, AR rather than run in the Dallas Marathon.  I haven't made up my mind on that yet.

LiveWire Run Club 7/19

This week we've had some freaky weather resulting in some below average temperatures.  This made for very ideal running conditions in the middle of July here in Texas.  This morning we had temps in the upper 60s with cloudy skies.  Due to the great conditions, I was able to keep my pace under 10:00/mile and even got under 9:00/mile.

Today's goal while running was to run a Negative Split, which I feel I did a good job of executing.  I ran the first two miles by myself and then from there I ran with a group of people who help push me a little.  About halfway through the run I was feeling great and so I pushed ahead of the group and to my surprise I was running under a 9:00/mile pace!

Split	Time	Distance	Avg Pace
Summary	1:05:14.1	7.02	9:17
1	9:58.7	1.00	9:59
2	9:55.8	1.00	9:56
3	9:37.2	1.00	9:37
4	8:57.0	1.00	8:57
5	9:06.3	1.00	9:06
6	8:50.1	1.00	8:50
7	8:36.7	1.00	8:37
8	:12.1	0.02	8:31

I have a goal to run a Half Marathon this year and finish in under 2 hours.  If I can maintain a pace around 9:00/mile I'll have a little wiggle room should I end up running a mile or two off my goal pace. I need to try to start out around 9:20 to 9:30/mile for the first couple miles and then speed up to 9:00/mile further into my run.  The good thing is I have some races in September and October to practice a negative split strategy and to see whether I can maintain a sub-9:00/mile pace.

I think the speed training I've been doing the past couple weeks has really helped me.  I ran a 6:53 for my mile assessment this Thursday evening in Boot Camp.  I haven't ran a sub 7:00 mile in something like a year or more.  This just inspires me even more to try to train harder to keep getting faster, even if I'm one of the more "slower" people in the class.

In closing, I'm going to post this link to a Top 75 list someone created.  It's pretty funny and I have thought some of the things on the list before.

500 More Spots Opened for Mountains 2 Beach Marathon

Post by Mountains 2 Beach Marathon.

Week 14 - Big D Half Marathon

Today I ran for the second time the Big D Half Marathon.  I did better by about four or five minutes better compared to last year's run, despite last year having better weather conditions.  I didn't mind the cool temps as I love running in temps between 50 and 65 degrees but it either threatened to rain throughout the race or it was a light drizzle.  The last 5 minutes of running were perhaps the worst in that it poured rain and made for a very cold finish.

It's a fairly hilly course (in my opinion) but it can be a very pretty run through a couple nice neighborhoods.  I think it lead to part of my running struggles later in the race as it caused me to expend more energy than I wanted.  I also didn't eat or drink anything before the race and so I bonked right around the 9 or 10 mile marker.  This just further reinforces that I must eat or drink something before each training run or race if I want to perform my best.

I really don't mind this race and would run it again.  They offer a full marathon course and if I ever decide to run a full marathon I would consider it.

Course

Elevation Chart

Up next - and 18 mile training run on Saturday!

Week 8 - Cowtown Half Marathon

So I am late getting to this post due to various other things in life but here it is.

I ran the Cowtown Half Marathon today.  The course is mostly flat but there are several hills to note.

I started off doing pretty good running a 10:00/mile pace.  I wanted to start off slower in order to save myself for the end.  It was right around the 6 mile marker that I started to have problems where I started walking.  Just after the 8 mile marker I started to walk almost exclusively.  When I got towards the finish line I started running again even though my legs were completely dead and I was hurting pretty bad.

Right around the 4 mile mark there is a small hill with an elevation gain of about 45 feet or so. The largest and most challenging hill was just after the 9 mile marker and it is a pretty big hill.  You go from an elevation of about 515 feet to about 620 feet in about a tenth of a mile.  There was a another small hill right before the 11 mile mark with an elevation gain of about 25 feet.  You wouldn't know it but as you run across the Lancaster bridge you are running a gentle downhill and after you come across you start another gentle uphill.

This wasn't my best race as I finished with a time of 2:41:20.  I ran the day before the race and with the way I run, which is towards the top of my capabilities and it killed my legs.  I just couldn't keep them moving later on in the race.  I also fault the fact that I didn't have any time to eat something to give me that extra boost of energy that I have started to depend on.  Another thing I wasn't ready for was the warmer temps.  I had been training with temps in the 30s to 40s and it was something like 55 at 7 AM.

After looking at my time, it is actually only four minutes slower than my first ever half marathon which really speaks to how having a bad race only puts me four minutes behind my first ever race.

It's always discouraging to have a race like this but I wasn't going to drop out. Even if I feel somewhat defeated when I have to walk it is way better than quitting.  Maybe it's a good thing to have a bad race which helps make you appreciate the good races you do have.

Week 5 - Texas Half Marathon

So this morning I ran the Texas Half Marathon.  Temps were in the mid to low 30s, winds in excess of 10 mph.  Chance of rain.  Not ideal conditions for a run if you ask me.  Add in that I am currently fighting off a cold.  I still finished the race, all 12.6 miles.  If you're scratching your head wondering what happened to that last half mile, I'm wondering the same thing.

The course is relatively flat with only a few hills where you are running on the streets on the front half of the race.  Once I got close to the 6 mile marker we got onto the Champions Trail which is very flat.  The last time I ran on that trail was for the Wounded Warrior Half Marathon where it was raining, which resulted in portions of the trail being flooded.  Thankfully this wasn't the case this time around as I wanted to keep as much of me as possible dry so I don't get any worse off on dealing with this cold.  Before I got to mile 11 we got back onto neighborhood streets and finished the course.

There were parts of the course that were not a lot of fun to run as there was a bitter cold wind blowing into your face.  Running on the trail was nice as it seemed to be more protected and so you weren't always dealing with a stiff wind.

I can't say it's a bad course because of the weather and is a race I'd consider running again in the future.  The weather (namely the cold wind blowing in my face) is what made the race one of my less memorable races I have run.

I didn't finish with a time that I am the most happiest with (2:26:05) as I really wanted to finish with a time under 2:10.  I did still finish even with my cold slowing me down since I didn't want to get winded and then suffer a cough attack while on the course.  I am hopeful that I will eventually get over this cold and maybe can do much better when I have another race in a couple weeks -- The Cowtown Half Marathon.

For this race I tried out my new Garmin Forerunner 620.  It's a pretty sweet watch that tracks way more data points than my Garmin Forerunner 110 did.  Two things I really like about it was that it vibrates when you hit a lap and even with it having a touch screen you can swipe to other screens even while wearing gloves.  I'm working on a product review blog entry but I need a few more run before I can give a decent review.

Why I Run

I got the inspiration to write this post from the LiveWire Fitness blog, so I wanted to share why I started running which is different from why I still run today.

Let me start off by saying that I never thought I would be one of "those people" you see running early in the morning or in the evening.  I thought running was pointless unless it was for some type of sport like football or basketball.  My mind would eventually be changed and now I start looking forward to my weekend runs midway through the week.

I first started running around June of 2012 to improve on my cardiovascular fitness and it morphed into something more.  I had been doing boot-camp type exercises for several months and was looking for a way to further my fitness journey.

Today, I run in part as a get away from the stress of life and I guess now you can consider me an addict as I ran 6 half marathons (should have been 7!) in 2013 and am planning to run a similar number of half marathons plus a full marathon this spring!

I love the challenge that comes with running.  I am always out to try beat my best time/pace.  I get excited and motivated when I run a great pace.  It makes it that much easier to put on my running gear and go out for another run a few days later.

I also run for the fun of it.  Despite the pain I might feel after a long run, I really do enjoy it even if it's not always a good run for me.  The best part might be the runners high that I experience when finishing a run.

I'm already signed up for 4 halfs and will likely run at least 3 to 4 more in the fall/winter in addition to my first marathon in May.  I have a page with all the races I have run, races I am currently signed up for, and races I want to run at some point in the future.

Right now I do not participate in triathlons but I won't rule that out in the future.  The biggest barrier would be that I do not own a bike.  I also would need to find a gym where I could do some work on my swimming.  I have a gym in mind but I need to see what the cost might be.