My Dallas White Rock Half Marathon Race Report - Finished with some help from the Marines

Today was my first half marathon run as I participated in the Dallas White Rock Marathon / Half Marathon event. The White Rock part is actually White Rock Lake that is near downtown Dallas, which, ironically, the half marathon participants don't actually go near. For this event everyone, both marathoners and half marathoners, started at the same start line, but near mile 7, the different participants split and go their separate ways. There were even two different finish lines for marathoners and half marathoners.

My DW Christine, DD Sydney and I got up at the inhumane hour of 4:45 to get to the parking lot of the American Airlines Center, which was the event headquarters. We decided to stay at a hotel near the event (well, not really...it was more of blind luck that my in-laws decided to visit us for our Sydney's birthday this weekend and booked a hotel that happened to be near the AAC) which was only a mile away from the AAC so it only took us 10 minutes to get situated with a prime, front row parking spot.

We had about 2 hours to kill before the starting gun so I chilled out in the back of the van while Christine had some breakfast and Sydney renewed her slumber that we rudely interrupted.

By the time 7:00 am rolled around, I was ready to see what was going on in the AAC...which was really a whole lot of nothing. Lots of people milling around and congregating, using the restrooms, stretching, etc.

I looked around, did my stretches and lunges, and made sure my calf sleeve was fitted right. I was wearing the sleeve because of a sore/strained calf/tendon that I had suffered the week before. I kinda broke a cardinal rule by getting both the sleeve and the arm warmers before the event and had never tried them about before until today so I had no idea of how they would or would not work. Okay okay, for breakfast I had yogurt and bananas which I also had never had for breakfast before prior to a long run. Previously I had tried Power Bars, CLIF bars, and oatmeal, and each time I ended up with side stitches. I was determined not to have side stitches because they were REALLY annoying and slowed me down significantly. Anyway, I headed towards Victory Park where all the corporate sponsors had their tents. Before I knew it was 20 minutes before the starting gun and we were strongly urged to get to our starting corrals. Since Sydney was still slumbering, I really didn't want to disturb her sleep as it has the same effect as waking a sleeping bear.

I found my corral and the long anticipated waiting began. It was a fairly warm (15 C) and windy. The arm warmers I brought along were perfect as the wind was bringing a bit of chill to the air. I couldn't hear much of the starting announcements with the exception of the F-16s which buzzed the venue. I gotta admit, that put a chill up my spine and really got me pumped up.

The starting gun went off and we got the start and the immediate stop and wait. We had a slow walk up to the start line and then we were off about 8 minutes after the gun went. I had never been in a race with so many runners. In total, there were 17,000 participants in all distances...CRAZY I tell you!

Everything felt great for the first 5 miles. Pace felt good, maybe a little faster than I wanted, but comfortable. I had a problem with wiping the sweat away from my eyes. Every time I had to do so, I had to take off my sunglasses (mainly for reducing glare but it was a overcast day so the sun wasn't really a problem). After about the fifth time I did so, I just took the glasses off and tried to tuck them into my fuel belt. Well, you can guess what happened about a mile later....yep, they dislodged from my fuel belt and were on the pavement behind me. No great loss since they were cheap sunglasses as I have a bad habit of losing/breaking them.

When I got to mile 6, I had to use the restroom but the lines were about 5-deep and I didn't feel like waiting so I bypassed them and waited for the next aid station. About a hundred yards beyond the port-o-lets, some male runners made their own restroom from some bushes. The same idea was crossing my mind at that instance and I made a sharp right turn to the bushes for a bio-break. Despite the bio-break, I realized I hadn't encountered any side stitches which usually afflicted me after about 2 or 3 miles. Evidently the change in my pre-run ritual worked so I got off lucky there. Also the calf sleeve I was wearing wasn't even noticeable and it was doing its job. In addition, the arm warmers were put to good use for wiping away sweat. So I was 3 for 3 in getting off lucky with race day changes that had never been tried before.

After the marathoner/half marathoner split after mile 7, the half marathoner course consisted of a down-and-back where the runners went down the road, made a U-turn and headed back in the opposite direction. The "down" part felt like it went on for miles and miles. Each time I thought we were going to make the U-turn, it just kept going to the next intersection. In reality it was only 3/4 of a mile but it felt like it was about 3 times that distance. It was at this point I started feeling a semi-sharp pain in my left ankle. What it felt like was bone-on-bone contact in my ankle. As I'm typing this, it's still really sore and it feels pretty much like it did back after mile 7. I was hoping I would be able to run it off but it basically persisted to the end of the race. For about 10 seconds, I had thought about dropping out because the pain wasn't going away after about a mile. I could tell I was favoring it a bit and it was definitely having an effect on my running form. I was then reminded that I hadn't trained for 2 1/2 months just to drop out and I knew I wouldn't forgive myself if I didn't suck it up...so it was up to mind over matter. In addition, the aid station nearby was being worked by some Marine volunteers and they were barking up encouragement as only Marines can do. :) I think some of that encouragement helped me keep moving.

I hit mile 10 and the course moved to a runner trail that had the nicest, softest asphalt. Ironically it turned out to be the hardest 5 kilometers of the entire race. I don't know what it was, but being on that trail was slowing me down. I don't know if it was psychological or physical, but running became difficult. I remembered at that point to text message Christine to let her know that I hit mile 10 which was her cue to make her way to the finish line. The softer surface of the trail didn't really help my left ankle that much and I was trying to keep my focus off the ankle.

The trail turned a corner at mile 13 and we could see the AAC where the finish line was. Right before the mile 13 marker I saw someone being attended to by 3 other people. It looked like she had cramped up or something because they were trying to stretch her out. I couldn't see her face to see if she was in a great deal of pain but to have that happen to you with one-tenth of a mile to go is up there in the SUCK Hall of Fame.

I remembered that Christine and Sydney were going to be near the finish line to my right so I was kinda looking for them and focusing on the finish line itself. I managed to spot them just as I passed them and I could hear Sydney yell, "Go Dadda Go!!!" I have to admit that hearing them cheer me on got me right *there*. :) I felt so proud.

As I closed in on the finish line I pulled out my shirt to hide my fuel belt and took off my headphones for the finish line photo. Every thing afterwards -- the medal, the finisher's photo, the food line -- was pretty much a blur. I texted Christine to meet me back at the van. When I got to the van I couldn't help but get a bit emotional as she was so supportive with all the early morning training runs that probably woke her up when I got up. She was definitely deserving of some of that finisher's medal. :)

Anyway, I'm back at home, icing down my left ankle. Every thing feels okay except for some leg soreness which is to be expected. I ended up finishing with a time of 2:28:56. Not stellar, but heck, I'm happy to finish. :)

*UPDATE*
Apparently I wasn't the only person disappointed with their times. It was such a windy day that it affected a lot of finishing times. In fact, the fastest finisher had the slowest finishing time since 2002 when there wasn't an elite field. YIKES.

Also, a sad outcome for a marathon participant, who collapsed at mile 21 and died a short time later. :(