White Rock...

When did 26.2 miles turn into a "training run"? Seriously. That's nuts. I'm nuts.
Let me back up and tell you how I ended up at the start line of the White Rock Marathon in Dallas this morning. My training plan for Rocky had me scheduled for 24 miles today. Since I'm training on my own right now, it's harder to get in these long long runs on my own without support. So, I opted to run White Rock to get in the miles on a marked course with fluids provided along the way. When I registered for the race, I had to give a projected finish time. Since my plan was to run solely as a training run, then K and I figured 4:30ish would be reasonable. With how strong I have felt lately, I figured I could run faster than that if I actually tried...and if everything else fell into place. However, with today's projected weather forecast of 60+ degrees at the 8am start rising to 70+ degrees after noon coupled with 20-30+ mph winds, I wisely abandoned that plan and just focused on finishing.

Logistically, this was an "easy" race in terms of traveling, packet pick-up, proximity of our hotel to the start/finish line, and overall race organization. A+ in all those areas.

The race started at 8am, which I was initially excited about since I would get to sleep in a little bit. However, that quickly changed when I realized how warm it was going to be today. With that in mind, I wish we would have started at 7am.

The race was seeded into 3 corrals by projected finish time. I started at the front of the second corral. K gave me a kiss and sent me on my way. Since he doesn't feel that comfortable driving around Dallas on his own, I wasn't sure whether I would see him along the course. But, he made it over to mile 2ish so I stopped to stretch for a minute when I saw him because my shins were feeling tight. Thankfully, that went away in the next mile or so.

I really enjoyed the first half of the course because it went through some of my old stomping grounds when I lived in Dallas. I ran by effort and never looked at my watch. I had no idea about any of my mile splits - I didn't want to stress about it. Thankfully, the wind didn't really make it's presence known until we hit the lake, a little less than halfway in by that point. And, that is reflected in my times. For those of you who remember, recall the wind tunnel that the 20-miler was in Round Rock back in 2006. That's what this was like. The winds were so strong that I could barely maintain forward momentum at times. And, the lake is about 9 miles around. It just sucked pure and simple. Mentally this was a bad stretch for me.

I was also having a hard time managing hydration in the warm temps. Thankfully, there were aid stations nearly every mile on the course, and I stopped at nearly all of them - walking through and taking 2 cups each time. I never got to the point where my stomach was sloshing, although the last couple of miles nearly approached that feeling. The good news is that I didn't have to make a bathroom stop on the course! That was definitely a positive.

I saw a friendly face at around mile 18.5 and stopped for encouragement and to check in. That's when I got the news that K was just up ahead past mile 19. I really needed that pick me up! K was positioned at the beginning of the "Dolly Parton" hills, which really weren't much hills in my opinion. I stopped to talk with K for a few minutes and told him that I would probably finish in around 4:30.

The last few miles were on a slight downhill on Swiss Avenue back into downtown, which was a welcome relief. The wind came and went a little during this stretch, but my main issue here was the rising temps and hydration. I just wanted to be done. And, I was in 4:33. Again, not stellar, but appropriate for the conditions, my training, and the purpose of the run.

Next weekend I get to do this all over again. Lucky me! But this time I am definitely running trail. Ah, sweet trail.