So when my co-worker, Keith, said he was doing the Dallas marathon, I was in. He had done one marathon before, and wanted to improve his finishing time, so I told him I'd run with him and try to pace him. And when I found out I was gong to be flying there anyway for work the week before, and had some extra vacation to burn, I decided to take my time enjoying the great state of Texas while I was there.
The Race: Dallas Marathon (formally White Rock Marathon), Dallas, TX, December 9, 2012
My Training Plan: I only had a month to train for Dallas, since I had just completed the Manchester City marathon on November 4th. Since I was running with Keith, I decided to use his training plan. He got his training plan out of a book, and sent the mileage to me. My longest run was a 22 miler three weeks before the race.
Weather: The weather was warm, for sure. But I really like warm weather, so it didn't bother me too much. The start of the race was about 64 degrees, and it got up to about 70 during the run. By the end of the race, however, the temperature was dropping as a cold front moved through that afternoon. It was probably about 50 when we finished, and dropping. (It actually snowed a little bit that night after the cold front came through!)
Running Attire: I started out in shorts and the Liz shirt I wore during the Manchester City marathon. I also wore my signature pink Nike visor and iFitness belt. After about mile 3, I tucked my shirt up into my bra, so my midsection was exposed. In doing that, I was able to keep cool enough to be comfortable throughout the race.
Who I ran with: As I said before, I ran with Keith the entire way. I also met several people along the way: Evan who was originally from Detroit, but had just moved down to the Dallas area for work and was running his first marathon; Darren who worked for the Dallas Parks and Rec and had run several marathons but hated running; Ed who was also running his first marathon and was from somewhere close to Fort Worth; John, a guy who did IT architecture for a small company in the Dallas area. Most everyone I talked to was fairly local. I didn't run with any of them for long, but it was fun to hear the stories of the runners around us.
I would describe the course as having rolling hills. Most of the hills were gradual, but long. The elevation change wasn't drastic, as the elevation chart shows, with only about 160 feet difference between the lowest and highest points.
There were some beautiful points along the way. At one point, when crossing over the bridge with the big white arch, you could see the city in the background with the bridge and the Texas state flag in the foreground. It would have been a beautiful picture had I gotten my phone out to take it. There were also some beautiful parts along the lake and some very nice neighborhoods that we went through as well.
Organization: The organization of the race was good. There were plenty of emails that went out to tell you about the event and the expo. They alerted the runners about all the possible parking lots near both the start and finish. The did not have a map of the course that showed where the water stops were in the bib packet though, which was disappointing. It was easy enough to look it up online, but it would have been nice to have the map in front of me when I was getting everything ready the night before.
The expo was held in the convention center and was big enough - with plenty of vendors (although not a lot of free giveaways) - and the lines for the bibs were short and quick. I did not, however, like that they made you go to one line for the bib and another line at the other end of the expo for a shirt.
Along the course, there were not enough volunteers. There were plenty of water stops where there were no cups filled and volunteers were clamoring to keep up with the runners, particularly during the first part of the race when both the marathon and half marathon runners were on the same course. I saw one stop where a runner just grabbed a cup and dipped it into the Gatorade bucket. With temperatures in the 60s and 70s, having limited water and Gatorade supply is not acceptable to me.
One of the good things, though, was the number of porta potties along the course. There were probably five at each water stop, so the lines were minimal along the course.
Swag: This race was a first for me in that they had two shirts: a regular race shirt that you got at the expo, which was a regular cotton long-sleeved shirt, and a finisher shirt that you got after you finished the race, which was the actual dri-fit long-sleeved shirt. I'll probably use the cotton race shirt as a throw-away shirt at another race in the future. They of course had a medal as well for all finishers. Other than the two shirts and the medal, there wasn't anything fun or exciting in the swag category.
Starting Line: The starting line was set up with estimated pace signs along the side so you could, theoretically, line up by the people who were going the same pace as you. However, the corrals were open from the back, so it was very difficult to make your way up to your desired pace sign. In addition, as advertised, there were porta potties inside the corrals. In corral A, the porta potties were along a side street, so the lines were obvious. In corral B, however, they were just lined up along the side of the main road, so you couldn't tell who was in line for the porta potty and who was just in the corral waiting for the race to start. You also had people walking right in front of the porta potties trying to get up to their estimated pace sign, so when you exited them, you were knocking people over with the door - or you couldn't get out at all because of the crowd. Again, I say, the half marathoners should have either started at a different time or from a different place. This would have alleviated some of the congestion.
Fans: Surprisingly, I thought the fans were actually better once the half marathon split off than at the beginning. Perhaps this was because the first few miles were in a sort of shady part of town, and no one wanted to stand around and watch the race from there. I saw several groups of people who went from place to place cheering on the runners. It wasn't like I imagine NYC would be with fans constantly lining the course and cheering, but there were enough fans in the last six miles of the race to motivate you to keep on going.
Finish Line: The finish line may be my biggest disappointment of the race. They directed you into the convention center to get your shirt and food. You had to go up to the second level to get to the area with the shirts, beer, and food. The escalator was broken, so there was a huge line of people waiting for a slow elevator to go up to the second level. We ended up taking the stairs, but I can see how that would be difficult for someone who just ran 26.2 miles to try to climb up stairs.
Once we got into the convention center hall, the food left much to be desired. They had bananas, pretzels, unpeeled oranges, and chocolate milk (which I loved). Other than the chocolate milk, which were in small cartons, the only hydration was water and Gatorade in small paper cups. There wasn't anything you could take with you. No bottled water. No bottled Gatorade. They did have Miller 64 beer in cans, one per runner, but I am not a big fan of drinking beer and getting more dehydrated after running a marathon.
Results: We were shooting for 4:30 and were on track the first half of the race. Unfortunately, toward the end, our pace slowed. We ended up finishing in 4:56:20 - still beating 5 hours, but behind our desired finish time.
How I felt: I'll have to admit, I felt great throughout the entire race. Granted, I ran slower than I usually run, but I felt like I could have kept on going after we were done. Who knows, maybe someday I can do a 50k or 50 miler...if I run slower the entire way.
Travel/Tourism: Like I said before, I took some vacation time and saw some of Texas that I had never seen before. It was an amazing vacation, one of my favorite for sure! I flew into DFW airport on Monday morning, and worked from our Dallas office on Monday and Tuesday. While there, I stayed at the Holiday Inn Express in Irving, which is a newer hotel and is pretty nice. It's not as nice as the Omni (which I have stayed in before), but still nice enough to enjoy my stay.
Tuesday-Wednesday - Waco, TX
On Tuesday evening after work, I drove the hour and a forty-five minutes to Waco, TX. I stayed in the Fairfield Inn, which is another hotel that is good value for the money. While in Waco on Wednesday, I drove to Baylor and ran through campus, along a river, through a park to the top of a mountain (they call Lovers Leap), and back. It was a very nice 15-miler. After cleaning up and checking out, I went to Rudy's Bar-B-Q for lunch before heading south. It was delicious! The meat was great, the creamed corn was good, and the banana pudding was delicious too. I would highly recommend this place, which looks to be somewhat of a chain in the Texas area, but I had never heard of before.
Wednesday - Austin, TX
I drove another hour and a half to Austin. Austin was just a stop along the way. I parked downtown and toured the Texas state capital. I learned so much about the history of Texas from doing that. After the tour, I headed to The Salt Lick restaurant southwest of Austin. I had heard a lot of good things about the restaurant, and was a little disappointed. The meat was good and the sandwich was huge, but the beans and potato salad were not tasty at all. I ended up leaving so much food on my plate that I felt guilty.
Wednesday night - San Antonio, TX
From there, I headed south to San Antonio. After checking in at the Hampton Inn near the Forum, I changed and went to Semeneya Ballroom to go swing dancing. The ballroom is pretty big and the dancers are good. It was a fun night.
Thursday - San Antonio, TX
The next day, I found an 8-mile out-and-back run from downtown to the San Antonio zoo. After running the four miles to the zoo, I walked around the zoo for a couple of hours before running back downtown. After showering I came back to the Riverwalk where I took a riverboat cruise at night, learning even more about the history of San Antonio. I ate at a nice Italian restaurant along the Riverwalk called Paesano's. I got the baked eggplant, and it was delicious! The riverboat cruise also had a coupon on the back of the ticket for a free dessert with the purchase of an entree, so I got these little balls of ice cream covered in chocolate and drizzled with caramel. The entire meal was amazing!
The Riverwalk at night with the riverboats
The Alamo at night
Friday - San Antonio, TXOn Friday, I got up and went for a 5-mile run mostly along the Riverwalk. The run was designed to be a tour of the historic points of the downtown/Riverwalk area. I passed by an old U.S. Arsenal, a flour mill built in the Civil War era that is still family owned and operated by the same family, a neighborhood with historic houses, the Alamo, the Tower of the Americas (which I stopped to go to the top), and of course the Riverwalk area. Then I toured the Alamo before I went back to the hotel to change. After showering, I went back downtown to take some pictures around the Riverwalk before dark.
Running on the Riverwalk
The Riverwalk during the day
Once it got dark, I headed up toward the North Star Mall area for dinner and to wait until dancing at Luna started. A band called PM Soul was playing at a CD release party at Luna. One of my favorite Texas leads, Michael Williams, who I had met when I had a work project in Houston for six months back in 2006, was there. I also danced with a couple of the leads I had met on Wednesday night at Sameneya, but a majority of the night was spent with Michael, who has got to be one of the best blues dancers I know - well actually one of the best dancers, in general, that I know. I didn't want the night to end!
Unfortunately, I had to get up really early on Saturday so that I could drive the four hours back to Dallas and meet Keith for the marathon expo. So four hours of driving and a 5-hour energy later, I was back in Dallas. I went to the expo and spent the night at Keith's house to get ready for the marathon. After the marathon on Sunday, I flew back to Atlanta, and it was back to reality.
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