White Rock & COLD Marathon 2011

I KNOW THIS IS SUPER LATE!

It's been sitting in my DRAFTS folder since the beginning of January... eke!

*****

Got to Dallas on Saturday afternoon and went straight to the Expo to pick up our race packets.

Me, Diane, Connie & Karen

This is marathon #2 for our Texas marathon series and officially marathon #1 for the Marathons of Texas Medal.

We checked into the new Omni hotel downtown - it had only been open 2 weeks.  The rooms were really nice - the carpet was new - the decor was very chic.  What really "wow-ed" us was the bathroom mirror...

A.TV.IN.THE.MIRROR!!!

C-O-O-L!!!

One thing that REALLY stressed us out all weekend, was the weather.  We start watching the weather forecast as soon as it shows up on all the weather apps - which is usually about 10 days out.  All forecasts showed rain & low temps.  For us Real Texans - cold is almost anything under 55.  add rain and/or wind and that's a freeze.  I'm just sayin' ...

The race started at 8 am and this is what we were looking at...

We got to the starting line and we were HAPPY and RELIEVED because 1) the race organizers were handing out rain ponchos and 2) it was cold but it wasn't raining.  We were hopeful for 'perfect' running weather.  MAYBE the rain would only be a drizzle.

Then Roger from my Saturday running group posted a "Go Coach Go" message & this pic to my Facebook page. 

WHAT THE...?

Within 1 mile of the starting line, the rain came down and it didn't quit...

"We been through every kind of rain there is.  Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain.  Rain that flew in sideways.  And sometimes rain even seemed to come straight up from underneath."  ...Forrest Gump  (I love that movie-lol)

Connie & I paced the whole marathon together.  She was coming off an injury and I just wanted to finish strong.  I did not want to peeter out like I did 3 weeks ago at the 2011 San Antonio Rock 'n Roll marathon.  We kept to our nutrition and hydration plans.  When you're running in cold and rainy weather it can be a challenge to make yourself take in fluids so we held each other accountable.  We completed the marathon using a 5:1 minute intervals.  (Run 5 min: recover 1 min)  I've used this plan for the each of my marathons and it has worked well and, for the most part, been good to me.

The "wall" of this race was getting around the lake.  The rain came down hard and the wind was blowing across the surface of the lake so it was cold!  I believe the total route around the lake was almost 10 miles.  At about the halfway point around the lake, I was done with the lake.  No doubt that the scenery and the homes were beautiful but I was wet and I was cold and I was looking for the 19 mile marker so we could get to the finish line.  (I wonder how many times I can use the word "cold" in this post?)

When we trekked thru miles 19-23, we ran thru the Highland Park(?)

The houses were BEAUTIFUL and I'm convinced that the residents of this fine-china-residency made it a point to have their home fully decorated in their full holiday glory in time for race day!

I was very impressed!  I even forgot about being cold - for about a minute.

The rain did finally let up and was down to a drizzle and we caught a break at mile 22.  It remained cloudy & overcasted until we got to the last 1/2 mile - then it rained/drizzled again.  Connie & I revved up our pace when we saw the finish line... RATHER we thought it was the finish line and it was really the start line so then we choked back an "oh crap" and proceeded to hang a right turn and run another 100 yards to the real finish line. 

FINISH TIME

4:50:41

This was a hard race due to rain and cold weather but it was my personal-record-race for fastest finish time.

In fact we all PR'd that day!

Can you tell we were cold?

2 down - 2 to go

for 4 mothers in 4 months!