Cowtown Marathon

I completed my second full marathon last Sunday, the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth, Texas. While I am proud of accomplishing my goal of finishing the marathon, since the race my thoughts have gone back and forth between being proud of my experience with the event and just relishing in the joy of finishing. I think distance running is a really strange thing - it's like you are crazy for trying to do it but at the same time you have such an amazing feeling of accomplishment at the end once you meet your goal.

I remember the days after I finished my first marathon in December of 2010. I was so shocked by the number of friends and family who asked, "So, when's your next marathon?". All I could think at the time was "Are you crazy? Finishing that one was NOT easy, and why on earth would I want to do it again?" I thought running a marathon was a bucket list item for me, something I would do once and never try again. Little did I know about how the experience would affect me, obviously.

So fast forward to 2011 and I got the itch to try again. I considered a few marathons in Texas in late fall, but nothing seemed to fit well on our family's calendar. So I set my sights on spring of 2012, specifically the Austin Livestrong marathon to be held on February 19th. I loosely started training for that race. But a few months out I learned that Scott would not be able to travel during that time due to work issues for him - and I didn't want to go to Austin for the race by myself - so I reshifted to train for Cowtown, which was held locally the week after. I figured a local race would be easier on our family's schedule and the late winter timing would be good for running training in Dallas.

Since I wasn't connected with an official training group - the support of which I found VERY helpful during long runs when training for my first - one of my friends at work connected me with another runner who was training for a marathon race to be held around the same time. Bill, a mid-50's-ish runner who has run way more marathons than I have, became my training partner for the three Saturday long runs of 18, 20, and 22+ that we completed during December and January. I appreciated Bill's support for the long-run training distances, very much so. But for me this race was very much a solo effort on my part. I ran the race alone and had no spectators for support (Scott and the family did not travel over to Fort Worth to watch this time).

But it all ended up fine. The race itself was a good event. The race was well-organized, and I enjoyed being part of a local marathon and appreciated the lack of travel involved. It was nice to be able to wake very early on Sunday morning, drive 45 minutes to the race, run it hard, and return home again by 12. My time on the course was 3:45:14, which was 3 1/2 minutes shy of my time at the White Rock Marathon. I ran this race smarter and it was a little (just a little!) bit easier because I knew what to expect. But running a marathon is still a beating on your body no matter how you frame it. It took three days for me to be able to walk down a flight of stairs without wincing afterwards, if that tells you anything about the physical pain involved.

Below is I think my least-attractive-ever running photo! This was taken coming down the finishing chute of the Cowtown marathon. I was tired and beat-up, and I had major hair issues with random strands of hair flying all over my face. Maybe next month as a treat for myself for my birthday I will buy myself a hairband to wear for races so that I don't have all of the random hair strands flying around my face! I took my ear buds out to listen to the crowd at the end, and their cheers is what carried me through until the end. Seriously!

Below I am crossing the finish line toward the middle of the cross bar.Below I was in a state of delirium. I was barely functioning at this point, just trying my best not to cry (I was so emotional!) because I felt so much pain combined with emotional relief about acheiving my goal.It took me almost an hour to hobble my way through the finisher's area. I picked up a few food items and drinks, but had little desire to eat them. Then I got my bag that I had dropped off in the staging area before the race and slowly walked back to the car. I was so eager to get back to Dallas, to see Scott and my kids and just rejoin the normal course of our family life on the weekends. John had his first flag football game of the year in just three hours, and no way was I going to miss it for my race.

Check out this super sexy photo below...the salt beads ALL OVER my face after the race. I asked John to take a photo that morning after I had returned home. I so badly wanted to wash this crusty stuff off my face in the bathroom after the race, but considered it a sort of proof of how hard I had worked during the race that I carried it from Fort Worth back to Dallas as a sort of war symbol. Rock on.