http://connect.garmin.com/activity/287936094
Pre-Race:
I woke up at about 4:30 and took a shower. I tried to find some information on the weather on TV. There wasn't any local news on yet so I switched to the internet. The race is in Decatur and there was a heavy storm cell heading that direction. The weather service issued a warning when I was on the way out the door. I had everything packed and gave myself several options depending on the weather. I had a light rain jacket, tights, shorts, arm warmers, shirts for layers, you name it. I met Joe and the Matrix in Flower Mound and we headed out at 6am. In the dark, you couldn't see anything but there were some lightning flashes to the west. When we were on 380, not too far from Decatur, the rain started. Light at first and the closer to the race site we got, the heavier it came down. I think we arrived at about 7:30. I put my rain jacket on and went to pick up my packet. I was number 418. It was raining pretty hard and all three of us could not figure out what to wear. Rich is a minimalist and always goes light. I was going to wear the rain jacket but Rich checked the radar on his phone and it looked like the worst had passed. I decided or was convinced to not wear the rain jacked and I opted for a warmer shell for running and my gloves. We went back to the start area and awaited the beginning of the race.
Race:
As it got closer to 8:30, everyone began to gather around the start line. We were to follow the blue route. Yes, the blue route. Many of the routes merge together in areas and this can become confusing. We positioned ourselved close to the front of the group. There were 300 signed up but I don't know how many were actually there. When they turned us loose, we took off on the blue route. At about a mile in, we were so tightly grouped I wondered what would happen if the leaders took a wrong turn. I was about to find out. There was a fork that was not marked at all. The leaders took off down the orange trail. Probably 3 or 4 tenths of a mile in, everyone started yelling about going the wrong way. Everyone reversed course and started heading back. For some reason, another person declared that we were on the right course and a bunch of us started heading back in the wrong direction again. Rich was with me and we were with the group going the wrong way again. A women running with us stopped and was going to bring the route up on her phone but she couldn't get a signal. We decided that we were in fact going the wrong way and returned to the fork in the trail. We sent two scouts down two separate trails. Rich spotted a blue marker and away we went. I went from running with the leaders to dead last. I mean dead last. We had wasted at least a mile in distance parlayed with a lot of standing around trying to figure out what to do. I looked at Rich and told him we were screwed. One of the guys running with me asked if we would ever catch anyone. I didn't know. The only thing you could do is run. It was so early on that it was a little bit funny and maddening at the same time. I really wanted to go 2 hours or 2 hours 10 minutes, somewhere in that range. That goal just went out the window in the first 10 minutes. My first few miles were very fast, probably 7:55 range. It was at least a mile before I passed my first runner. They started coming back to me pretty fast for awhile. I was going to count but couldn't keep that kind of focus. Rich left me after about a mile or so and powered on. I couldn't stay with him. At mile 3 or 4, I started running with an Asian guy wearing those Vibram toe shoes. He was a nice guy but I couldn't understand a single word coming out of his mouth. I left him behind but he always seemed to come back to me. At around mile 6, I think the first aid station came up. I blew through the aid station. I had my fuel belt with Accelerade and water. I also was loaded with gel so I had no intention of stopping anywhere. Passed quite a few people at that first aid station. Around mile 7 or 8, there was a flash in the sky and tremendous clap of thunder. The kind that makes you jump and want to hit the ground. Oh no, this can't be good. It wasn't good. HAIL! Probably a little bigger than pea sized hail. Are you kidding me? Seemed like the hail went on for about 5-10 minutes. It was also raining. It wasn't raining too bad during the hail, but as soon as the hail stopped the rain started coming down hard. I don't have trail shoes. I run in road shoes. Problem with this is the bottoms are slick and not optimal for navigating mud. I was sliding around everywhere. Any hill, up or down, was an adventure. Hell, just running period was an adventure. I think I was at mile 10 when a guy between me and a girl ahead of him had his feet go completely out and hit hard. We stopped to make sure he was ok and helped him up. He got going again and stayed pretty close to me for awhile. When the second aid station came, they both stopped and I kept going. Didn't see them again. I started passing people in clumps. The footing was so bad, many people had to walk many sections of the trail. I was pissed at myself for letting Rich talk me out of my rain jacket. I hit a dead spot with no one behind me or in front of me. A little voice in my head tried to make me give in and say the hell with this but I didn't let it win. My pace wasn't great at this point. Due to the bad footing, I was probably cranking out high 9 minute miles. All of the sudden after the aid station, my Asian buddy made an appearance and passed me. I used him as a pacer for a few miles and we passed quite a few people. We were coming up to a hill and there were some buildings in the background that looked like tents. He thought we were done and yelled something undeterminable and took off like a shot. Bad move on his part. We were still 2-3 miles out. I passed him going over the hill and never saw him again. There is a dam you cross on the way into the parking area before heading out into the woods again. I passed a guy with an Ironman tattoo on his calf. Funny thing is, all 3 of remember where we were when we passed that guy. It was like a badge of honor blowing by the guy with the Ironman tattoo. At this point, I thought I was close but no. We went up this hill. It was leg crushing and crossed the road back into the woods. I looked at my watch and I was at 12 something miles in. I wanted to mentally mark the 13.1 mile mark when I passed it. After crossing the road, I hit the 13.1 mile mark and my watch was 2 hours 4 minutes and change. I was very happy with this. The conditions were horrible and I was still able to knock out a near sub 2 hour half marathon. Very satisfying. I had no idea how far it would be to the finish. I figured about a mile at least. The trail through the woods was a lot of up and down and I passed 3 or 4 groups of runners. It was single track with not much room to manuever, so I really had to dig in to get by them when I had a chance. I finally emerged from the woods and recognized the parking lot. The rain started again, of course. I sprinted in to the finish with whatever I had left and passed a few more guys. My watch said 2 hours 16 minutes and 12 seconds. My actual time was 2 hours and 19 minutes. My autopause must have come on during the wrong way adventure and helping the guy that fell down. I covered 14.34 miles. A little over 1.2 miles more than official half marathon distance. I would have broken my 2 hour 10 minute goal, if I could have stayed on the course. I was thoroughly soaked, cold, and beat to hell.
Post Race:
Rich came in 12 minutes ahead of me and finished 9th in the masters division. Remarkable, considering where we had to come from. Joe finished a couple minutes ahead of me. I haven't seen the result yet on line but was able to see them at the finish line. From memory, I was 79th overall, 26th in the masters division and they told me something else but I don't remember. I grabbed a beer and we headed to Joe's car to get into some dry clothes. We pretty much stripped down right there next to the car. I didn't really care if anyone had to see me standing there naked changing clothes. I wanted what I had on, off. After we had dry clothes on, we bagged up the wet stuff and headed out. There was a Denny's on the way in off of 35W and we stopped there to eat. I was really cold to the core until we ate. I felt much better after some food was in my system. This was quite an adventure. Probably one of the worst and best races ever. It sucked when I was in the middle of that race but looking back it was a hell of alot of fun. I never gave in and finished with a decent time. Cool!
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