Running Girl

Cowtown Half Marathon

This race? Just awesome.

Great scenery: downtown, Stockyards, neighborhoods, bridges, and everything that epitomizes Fort Worth. The energy of this massive event just feeds you, even while you’re running upward on long gradual slopes (which there are a few), panting, digging really deep, and wanting to shout “Who put this hill here? Unfair!”

My favorite part, I have to say, was running through the Stockyards. The cheering spectators and the old-timey Fort Worth ambiance give you a little energy boost in the middle. However, I didn’t really have the foresight to worry about running on the uneven brick road in my Alien Shoes (Vibram Five Fingers)…that didn’t feel great.

My time? 2:00:52, says the Garmin. The official was 2:00:51, I was 68^th out of 424 in my age group and 434^th out of 2656 women. This includes some stops — my moving time was 1:57:54. (Not that I’m splitting hairs here…) While I didn’t achieve my goal of running a sub two hour half marathon, I’m still very proud of my performance.

Though for a moment right at the finish, I was a little pissed I’d come so close without actually making it. (see below)

You can “if” these things ‘til the cows come home (get it?), like, if I just wouldn’t have stopped at that last aid station for water, or gee if I just would have peed my pants instead of stopping and waiting in line for that port-a-john at mile 2 and so on. (And seriously? I peed three times between 6 and 7 a.m. to try to avoid that situation. But the cup of coffee, glass of chia fresca and sips from my water bottle went right through me. Curse my small bladder.)

But that’s all futile, silly, and not-gonna-happen.

I used to think you should stop as little as possible while running 13.1 miles. But why deny yourself a 30 second break for water or Gatorade if it’s going to make those miles more enjoyable? Why suffer? I’m glad I took the advice of my favorite running blogger and stopped at almost every aid station for hydration, I think it made the miles better.

When it comes down to it — I thoroughly enjoyed this race. I felt like I was flying, I marveled at the beautiful steady rhythm my body fell into, and I drank it all in without paying much attention to my pace/time. I had energy the entire distance. I got a great sense of how far I’ve come as a runner just compared with the half marathon I ran in September, and there’s something very inspiring in that. Not to mention I finished almost 6 minutes faster than that one. New PR!

In other words, I kept my vow to dance this run.

All in all? Success.

Just in case you haven’t had your fill of  images of me in this post, my hubby took some great video of corral three starting off (I’m there in the front, amongst all the dudes):

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