Race: The Big D MarathonOfficial Time: 5:21:52 (27.3 miles)
Watch Time: 4:49:54 (26.2 miles)
Comments: This was not my finest race effort by any stretch of the imagination. I knew going in that I was undertrained and the odds were enormously against me but I didn't realize how terrible this race was going to be.
First off lets address the issues that shouldn't have been part of the deal. The folks who put this race on, Mellew Productions, were absolutely awful. They sold this race as a smaller, by-the-basics event. I liked that. It was something I had gotten used to in Arizona where there are a number of distance races with a thousand or so entrants.
Instead of being frugal, they turned out to just be cheap. I passed a lot of it off as part of the deal but it turns out the issue extended to the way they managed the race. Somehow these geniuses screwed up leading the runners out of the Fair Park area and succeded in adding more than a mile to the course. Then, for the rest of the day, when we mentioned it to any organizer on the way, they just blew it off.
(I tried contacting Mellew Productions by Twitter and email to get an explanation and refund but, predictably, they have completely ignored my requests.)
Now adding a mile to any marathon is a serious problem but doing so on this course was downright dangerous because the conditions turned out to be extremely challenging.
It was cooler earlier in the week but by Sunday we kind of knew what to expect -- start line temperature of about 60 degrees and, depending on how long it took you, about 80 at the finish. Add to that the course went through an industrial area the final two miles you had to contend with the sun beating on you the whole way. And this is what ended up happening.
I got out very well at the start. I knew a fast beginning would be disastrous so I tried to keep myself in the 10 minute mile range. Of course, I was going about thirty seconds better than that most of the first third of the course. The tree lined neighborhoods and a bit of cloud cover kept the sun from being too much of a problem at this point so I tried to take advantage of any downhills to conserve energy. I was walking though the aid stations and making it a point to get a good drink of fluid at each one.
Things got ugly when we got to the lake. As the course wound around White Rock Lake it gave it's first long gradual ascent. Then, it threw the first big hill at as as it led into the Lake Highlands neighborhood and the host of the uphillsI was concerned about followed soon after. Seriously people, they call it "Lake Highlands" for a reason. I tried to take the ascents easy and ride the descents but I could tell my reserves were going quickly and my quads were taking a lot of abuse.
At the "halfway point" I told the timer that he was at the 14-mile-mark. He said a lot of runners were telling him that but "this is where they told me to set up." I know it's not your fault dude, but you could let one of the idiot organizers know. A guy in a Mellew Productions shirt at the 20 mile marker (but 21 miles into the race) was similarly unhelpful.
Coming out of the neighborhood and back around White Rock Lake was when the course started to turn the screws. I knew I was going to have a tough battle on my hands at about the 15.5 mile mark but then things got ugly. There was a 10 mph wind coming off the lake that simply battered me. It was at about the 18 mile point I walked for the first time. There was no way I could keep up against that and the rolling incline of the lake trail and get to the finish.
When the wind lessened and the trail leveled off I was able to get back into my 11 minute mile pace but then the course went into the Lakeland area and threw another series of hills at us. About 100 feet of ascent in less than a mile. And, by now, the temperatures were well in the 70s and enough overhead the trees only gave limited protection. The neighborhoods were pretty but I wasn't really able to appreciate them.
At this point I started walking the uphills and trying to "run" down the descents. But because I was nearing the end of my energy reserves and the agony of my quads, my "running" was little better than a shuffling jog. Going down Swiss Avenue, which is a long easy descent, I had to walk every quarter mile or so. The hope was to conserve enough for the end which, by now, I was reasonably sure included the extra mile courtesy the incompetent race director.
Even though there were no more hills the heat was my undoing at the very end. I mustered enough energy to shuffle run most of mile 23 and 24 (at an electric 12+ minute mile pace) but after that I was done. There was nothing left in my legs. Nada. My walking pace was reasonably decent for mile 25 but at mile 26 I was even struggling with that. And the final extra mile was simply awful.
In the end, my watch time came to 4 hours and 50 minutes or so. That was minus the extra distance and the bathroom breaks. My official time was a good half hour more than that but who cares? This was a pretty complete disaster with the single saving grace that I don't think I injured myself in the effort.
My goal was just to finish another marathon and that I accomplished. The strategy now is to rest up and ease back into general training over the next month or so. Then segue into strength work over the summer. As awful as this race was, I have to have some conditioning as a result of it. The hope is I can build on that over the summer and then translate that into a good marathon effort in the fall.
