The Journey of 26.2 Miles

…begins with purple, orange, and green confetti!

I ran my first full marathon on Sunday, December 13:  The 40th Annual Dallas White Rock Marathon.  Weeks of training finally culminated in just under 4 hours and 13 minutes of running for 26.2 miles.

I have to say that Victory Plaza looks amazing in the darkness of pre-dawn.  Kathryn and I used the DART Rail and arrived there just around 7:00 AM on a cool and hazy morning.  After getting our bearings, I went for a 15-minute warm up jog.  About 20 minutes to race start, I kissed Kathryn goodbye and went to line up in my starting wave.  For some reason, they put me in the A wave even though I’m not particularly fast.  It was fun breaking through the B line to an open area.  Things filled up quickly though with almost 20,000 participants in the full, half, and relay events.

The race start was AMAZING!  There were people everywhere!  Smoke was shooting out above the starting line and multi-colored confetti was flying in the air!  I waved to the TV camera as we passed under it.  I’ve been told since that I made it on TV!  That never happens to me!  I also found Kathryn further along than I expected along the spectator fence.  She cheered me on and I whooped back.  I would not see her again for over 4 hours.

Some of the memorable moments along the course were…

• Chugging down Hall and Blackburn towards Turtle Creek.  I might have taken that a bit fast, but it was early and I was having fun.
• Speeding through the first relay exchange point and along Longview, Greenville, and Ellsworth between Miles 6 and 7.  This was some of my fastest running of the day.  I had the soundtrack to The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring playing at this point.  I was running down the M Streets as the Fellowship were running to the Bridge of Khazad-dûm.
• Running through the marathon/half marathon cut off and yelling, “Go Halfers!”  Most, if not all, of the half marathon runners would be finished long before I returned to the finish line.
• The quad-killing downhill at Mile 9 as we approached the lake.
• Crossing the halfway point at just over 2:02.  This was the last point at which I hoped to break 4 hours.  I’ve made it a goal to run a half marathon under 2 hours next year.
• Seeing a female runner with prosthetic leg pushing a girl in a wheelchair with no arms below her elbows.  If that isn’t inspiring, I don’t know what is!  You can find more about the two amazing people on the Dallas Morning News website.
• Seeing Matt Crownover, my ultra-runner hero, between Miles 17 and 18.  He was wearing his trademark flannel shirt and running with a friend who was trying to qualify for Boston.  Matt ran the Western States 100 this year.
• The guys dressed as Dolly Parton at the aid station in the Dolly Parton hills.  Hilarious!
• The lady who baked chocolate chip cookies between Miles 19 and 20.  Just what I needed!
• Numb fingers.  It didn’t warm up as much as we expected it to before noon.  I started having trouble using my gels during the last half of the race.
• Passing an old running acquaintance around Mile 21.  He is a much better and more accomplished runner than I am, but was taking it easy with some friends that day.
• Tears around Mile 25.  That was my wall.  I became very emotional and had to dig deep to keep going.
• High-fiving Kathryn and several more spectators about a hundred yards out from the finish line.

I was finished!  They gave me my finisher medal and heat wrap and pointed me to the finisher shirts.  I got a couple of finisher photos taken, grabbed my shirt, and headed for the food tent.  After grabbing some bagels, bananas, oranges, and water, I went to find Kathryn.  I was so glad to see her and so glad she came with me.

Here’s a link to my results on Active.com. http://results.active.com/pages/oneResult.jsp?pID=71829680&rsID=88520

RunPix has also provided some really cool stats about my results. http://www.runpix.name/dwr09/00/finord.php?LastName=5056&lan=&aset=0&dist=42

I am done for the year.  My first event of 2010 is the DRC Frigid 10K on Saturday, January 2.  The race will serve as a time trial for the DRC spring marathon training program I’ll be using to prepare for the 10th annual Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in April.  2009 was a big year for me.  2010 will be even bigger and better!

jb