I drove 7.5 hours with my two friends to the Texas Half Marathon in Dallas. The drive was LONG. I swore that I would never drive that far to race anything less than a marathon, but where I live I have to drive a very long way to get to any city. Dallas was COLD!!! It was 34 with a wind chill. I had planned to wear my tank top and skirt. Ended up wearing a garbage bag for the first three miles and I never took my long sleeve shirt off. My friends were very antsy at the start of the race, I could tell they were rather nervous. I just tried to relax and not really think about anything major, just thought about running 13.1... I took a mile warm-up to shake out the nerves. Race started and I was pretty far back. I crossed the start a minute and a half after the gun went off. The first mile was all about weaving outside of the main traffic jam. I ran upside the hill onto the grass and passed the masses. Mile 1: 7:28 Pulled over and tied my shoe that had the chip on it. Really? Mile 2: 7:07 Mile 3: 7:28 Extremely windy at this point. Found a tall man and ran behind him for about a half mile... I have been doing this when I run with David, so I am used to drafting off someone else. :) This kind of annoyed the guy, I just wasn't ready to chick him yet. Mile 4: 7:44 A relatively large hill for someone that trains on flat surfaces... Nothing like Utah hills... It was just a challenge for me to climb that thing in the crazy wind. Mile 5: 7:30 Starting to finally get into some kind of groove. Mile 6: 7:29 Mile 7: 7:53 Stopped and gooed, guess that is why I am slow? Starting to see a lady in blue to catch. Mile 8: 7:29 Caught the lady. Now I have some kind of competition to keep up with. Mile 9: 7:36 Out of the wind, goo kicking in. My timing chip comes off!!! Grrr. I have to stop and fix it on a shaky bridge. Mile 10: 7:25 Feel good. Shoe comes untied again!!!!! I double knot the dang thing, girl in blue passes me plus another slow looking chick. Time to get angry. Mile 11: 7:10 Catch those girls and keep them behind me. Mile 12: 7:43 Back into the wind we go heading uphill. Mile 13: 7:04 Last .1 was up a big hill. NO sprint up this thing. Felt great when I finished and I ran back to my friends. Caught them at mile 12, ran with one of them for her last mile. She took 11 minutes off her last race time. We all had a great race. The awards ceremony quickly started after we arrived at the finish, and so we didn't have to wait around forever. Food at the finish was also delicious. This race motivated me to want to train harder for upcoming races in the Texas area. The scenery of the race was very beautiful as well. We did all 13.1 around a nice clean lake. I would recommend this race and if I am here next year I might do it again. | 