Fort Worth Marathon

It was a humid day, and the one or two people who ever read this blog will know this is not a good thing for me. I was sweating within the first mile, and there were a few sprinkles in the first four miles that did nothing to help assuage the humidity. I followed the run/walk 9/1 pattern, which felt weird at first when I walked before the first mile marker, but which I think helped me in the long run, no pun intended.

My overall time was 4:37, not great and definitely in the middle of the pack. For the first 20 miles or so I was following a 10-minute/mile pace, but fell off in the last six miles. Maybe because my iPod died at mile 20 in the middle of a Lyle Lovett song, darn it. I actually made it to mile 24 before the calf cramps took over, and I believe it would have happened a lot earlier if I hadn't done the run/walk routine. I walked the last two miles, and once I hit the mile marker at 26 I tried to run the last bit but quickly experienced the worst cramp of the day in my left calf. At that point it was enough to hobble to the finish line and get my medal, which is cool because it doubles as a belt buckle. Gotta love Texas.

I'd love to try this method again on a drier day. Humidity was 93% at start time, and went down to about 86% or so during the race. Post-race I feel pretty good other than the mild flare-ups of some cramps. Strangely enough, I'm usually not very hungry after a race and had just a few bites of waffles and fried chicken. This race had food trucks instead of the tables where everyone pigs out and leaves nothing, so I appreciated that. I didn't feel like a beer at that point, also strange for anyone who knows me. We stayed at a downtown hotel and I was able to go back and take a nice long, hot shower due to a built-in late checkout time, and I'm grateful for that. Then on the way home we got nice greasy burgers at Five Guys, and I felt much better.

The route was a very nice, flat course along the Clear Fork of the Trinity River. Not much help along the way in regards to people pointing the directions out, but really there wasn't much of that needed. The water stops were fantastic and the people all so friendly. Other than the humidity there's nothing I can complain about. I'd run this race again, hoping for less humidity next time. I'm glad it's over and that tonight I can go to bed early and spend a few days recuperating.