Cowtown Half Marathon - 2013

I have been searching for a sense of peace with races over the past year and a half. With the exception of the good sense of accomplishment I felt after the marathon I ran last February, I have struggled in my ability to achieve my running goals during races. I haven't participated in that many races, but both the DRC Half in November 2011 and the Dallas Half Marathon in December 2012 were disappointing events for me, largely because of the mental failure I experienced during each race. I gave up both times and ended up finishing with poor feelings about my run, which was something I hadn't experienced before in my 5+ years of running longer distances.

So after last December's disappointing race I was bound and determined that my next event would be better. I just wanted to run smarter and not give up mentally. My training during late December and January went well so I signed up for the Cowtown Half Marathon. The first time I participated in Cowtown was a year ago when I ran the full marathon for this event. I had a great experience with this race last year and since Fort Worth is now my adopted weekday home town due to working at TCU, I was excited for the opportunity to potentially achieve race redemption.

The day before the race I did everything I was supposed to do. I did not exercise, I drank water like a mad woman, ate healthy foods that would be good running fuel, abstained from alcohol, and was in bed and asleep relatively early. I was pumped when my alarm went off the next morning and was out the door with coffee and breakfast on time for the 45 minute drive over to Fort Worth. The weather was chilly but great for running, probably about 45 degrees at the start. I love that this race begins at 7:00 a.m. so the finish is pretty early for a Sunday.

And did I ever achieve race redemption - I had such a great time running the Cowtown Half this year! I felt great during most of the course and I was really engaged mentally this time around. This felt so amazingly awesome after the other recent disappointing races!

Below are a few photos (I am wearing a blue shirt with black shorts). One of my favorite parts about this course is that about midway through you get to run through the historic Fort Worth Stockyards. This is an older, now touristy, area of town designed to showcase the barns and arenas that were used long ago to stage cattle shows and other events involving the auction of livestock. The crowd support in this area is incredible, so combined with the historic ambiance this mile+ is a really fun part of the race. If you look carefully you can see the Stockyard banners at the top of each frame.

After the stockyards the course includes a long incline towards downtown between miles 8 and 9, which I feel that I handled pretty well (my stats below indicate that I averaged just below 8:00 per mile on the incline, which I am proud of!). And then once we were downtown one of the newer songs I had downloaded the day before from itunes came up on my ipod shuffle - Scream and Shout by will.i.am and Britney Spears. I know this song is a bit too cheesy for my age, but I was so pumped when I heard it. I literally started waving my arms back and forth and was singing out loud. I wonder what the other runners next to me - the ones not wearing earbuds - were thinking when they heard the crazy red-faced girl muttering "scream and shout, let it all out" while panting next to them?!? After that came "Va va voom" by Nicki Manaj, another new song for the iPod, which set me off once again. Miles 10-12 weren't bad at all as I kept repeating these fun songs.

I finished strong and was honestly so happy to have succeeded mentally this time. Look at the grin on my face! The guy who took my photo was fun. He said, "wow, ma'm, you are looking super cute and happy!" and I remarked"no way, I am anything but...", but I do look happy in the shot below, because I was feeling so good.

 The uploaded stats from my Garmin are hard to read in the photo below, but the mile splits were:

mile 1: 8:25
mile 2: 8:37
mile 3: 8:10
mile 4: 8:00
mile 5: 7:55
mile 6: 7:55
mile 7: 7:39
mile 8: 7:59
mile 9: 7:48
mile 10: 8:04
mile 11: 7:43
mile 12: 7:34
mile 13: 7:54

According to the official clock, I finished with 1:44:11, average pace 8:01 per mile. 17th in my age group (females 35-39 years of age). Not quite negative splits, but given the number of sub 8:00 minute miles compared with others greater than that, I feel great about this. I kept thinking I should reign it in and slow down, but it didn't really happen when you see the outcome.

I am so happy to finally have felt peace after a race. The whole point of running is to have fun and be healthy, which about 95% of the time is what I feel after either a regular training run or a more competitive race. I think I was spoiled by the early years of racing, because I can run somewhat fast (genetics, desire for energy release, anger, hormones, who knows what?) and I was able to achieve PRs most of the time. So when I suffered mental setbacks I didn't know what to make of them. But I have learned from my experiences and they have made me enjoy the release I feel after running even more.

Rock on! Can't wait for the next event!