Lessons from the 2018 Cowtown Marathon

This morning the twin and I got up bright and early and headed back to Fort Worth for the Cowtown half marathon (the twin) and the marathon (the idiot who writes these blog posts), both of which started at 7 freaking AM.

She's not much for humor at 6 AM, that twin of mine.

It was a MUCH better weather day - perfect for a nice long 13.1 or 26.2 mile run.  Or even an ultra - Cowtown offers an ultra (50K) option, which is rather exciting for someone who has a few ultras under her hydration belt.

There's that art deco again.

However, I'm not sure I would actually do the ultra after today's marathon experience. Let's run through that experience in a nice bulleted list of lessons from this marathon because, you know, I have an unnatural love of bulleted lists:

• Lesson #1: Don't overdo it on the 10K the day before or your legs will be toasted from mile 3 of the marathon.  I ran WAY too fast yesterday, and I paid for it dearly, especially when it comes to lesson #2 below.
• Lesson #2: The Cowtown Marathon is freaking hilly.  Nothing too steep, but mile 9/10 and mile 14/15 were nothing but one long steady freaking hill.  Like really long - a half mile or longer.  Then throw in the short hills that were all over the place combined with my already tired legs and I was run/walking by mile 15.  Not exactly what I wanted to do; the goal was to run an easy 20.  But those hills had other plans for me.
• Lesson #3: I can't hold the Cowtown Marathon's hills against it because it is really well organized.  They've had 40 years to get it right, and they have the routine down pat.  Plenty of parking (free and paid), a place to wait inside before races to get out of the cold, plenty of start corrals that were easy to find how to get in (you don't know how many times I've been at a race and had no idea how to actually get into my corral and ended up fence-hopping), easy to find gear check, and really well-organized post-race picking up of food, shirts, and challenge medals and gifts.  
• Lesson #4: More races need port-a-johns in the free parking area.  'Nuff said.
• Lesson #5: If you are not aware of all of those freaking hills on the course ahead of time, you will hate everyone and everything by mile 12.  Or at least I did.  I was like a toddler throwing a tantrum between miles 12 and 16, screaming inside my head that THESE HILLS ARE SO MUCH BULLyouknowwhat.  But when I finally got into the groove of my run/walk pattern, I stopped internally sulking about the hills and finished the damn race.
• Lesson #6: Even through my hatred of the hills, I realized that Fort Worth is a nice little big city with a lot to look at.  Well, except for the part of the marathon where they shunt us through residential areas to get mileage in.  But other than that, there were some interesting sights:

ATTENTION: Elvis at mile 3. Or 2.  Maybe 4. I can't remember.

The historic stockyards merited a selfie.

Not sure what this is, but it was at the end of the road
with the stockyards.

Around mile 12.  My face says it all.  

Mile 20 party zone.  Because the cow was the first thing
of interest I saw since that weird wood person at mile 12 

CHOO CHOO.

Bringing it home through Trinity Park.

• Lesson #7: Don't forget to pack your own race hats or you'll be forced to wear a visor you borrowed from the twin.  And then you get race photos with this crazy hair.

• Lesson #8: MORE COWBELL.

And now for another bulleted list of learnings:

• I cannot describe how badly my hammies hurt right now.  They nagged me the entire race.
• I also cannot describe how pissed off I was at the course and the hills.  By far it was the worst mental state I've ever been in during a race.
• This makes me think that those long runs on the treadmill aren't doing me any good.
• But good thing my goal marathon is pretty much flat as a pancake.
• And I cannot WAIT for my race photos.  Heh.

Tomorrow's workout: Moving my legs enough to get me to the airport, on a plane, off a plane, through another airport, to the bus station, and to my car.

The Cowtown 10K that almost wasn't.

Yesterday's adventures at the Cowtown Health & Fitness Expo were followed today by adventures at the Cowtown 10K race.

Now, the weather wasn't really cooperating with us - it was thunderstorming and flashing all sorts of pretty lightning all over the place when we got to downtown Fort Worth.  This necessitated my twin and I to wear very fashionable rain ponchos as we walked to the starting line and while waiting in the packet pickup hall due to the 10K race being delayed by 1.5 hours.

We iz so beautiful.

We also got to traipse through the expo again, hitting up the Bai booth for a quick stupid picture and huge bottles of free water.

As a consequence of having to wait an extra hour and a half to run and bringing no extra snacks with me, I got hungry.  Good thing they were passing out these free boxes of marathon-themed cookies for me to nosh on and take selfies with.

MOO

Anyhoo, the race did manage to go on and then we headed outside into the grey crappy morning surrounded by the intensely art deco Will Rogers Memorial Center buildings and the new Dickies Center under construction.

My goal for the race was to run it in just under an hour, and as you can see below, mission was freaking accomplished.  And you can see that I finally realized in mile 5 that I should slow the you-know-what-that-begins-with-an-F-and-is-a-really-bad-word down because I'm running a marathon tomorrow.

And I also accomplished getting a cool 10K medal with a little guy designed in 1979 that spins around because 40th anniversary.

And for my last accomplishment, some learnings:

• I meant to write this long hilarious post about this 10K, but then I made the mistake of checking my email and was working all afternoon and evening.  We'll never know the post that could have been--so sad.
• This was a well-organized event.  I am impressed as a first-time runner.
• Unlike the Austin marathon, this course is flat with a few hills rather than hilly with a few flat areas.
• I did start out way too fast today, and I'll likely pay for that tomorrow.  It's a good thing I have a small dog to help me recover.

Hooman.  This is how you recover.  Not by
writing stupid blog posts.

Tomorrow's workout: Cowtown Marathon!!

Just another marathon expo with lots of tie-dye.

So I completely forgot to tell everyone that I was running a marathon this weekend.

So hey-I'm running a marathon this weekend!  The Cowtown Marathon, to be specific, in Fort Worth, Texas.

Or the Cowtown Marthon, according to the race guide.

In the past I've run the Austin Marathon this time of year, but I decided to go for something different for this February.  And by "different" I mean "a marathon that isn't so damn hilly and makes me want to cry by mile 12."

So the twin and I (she's running the half) headed into Fort Worth today to grab our race packets and spend too much money at the expo.  It was held at the Will Rogers Memorial Center, which is a collection of mostly cool old 1930's art deco buildings that look like they came straight off a cover of an Ayn Rand novel with old timey murals painted on them.

This place also gave me the opportunity for a selfie with old Roy Rogers himself.

After admiring the architecture and the statues, we made our way into the expo to grab our bibs and our race shirts.  Packet pickup was quick and painless (mainly because we were there on Friday, not Saturday), and the expo, while not as large as I would have thought it would be, offered a wide variety of things I wanted to buy, most of which I could not because I am not independently wealthy.   It even included a booth that sold beef jerky, cheese, and sausage because, well, Texas:

Twin sis is actively purchasing some beef jerky goodness in the
center of this pic.

I did manage not to overspend too much, but I simply HAD to have that new Roo sport pouch, those cushy recovery sandals, and that freaking awesome tie-dye marathon sweatshirt:

TIE-DYE GOODNESS

Please note the other two shirts in that picture.  The one on the left is the official "Sunday finisher shirt," and the one on the right is the "Saturday finisher shirt."  I got both since I am racing on both Saturday (a 10K) and Sunday (the marathon).  And you'll further notice the tie-dye sides on the Sunday finisher shirt and the tie-dye edges to both of the race bibs.

All I can say is that I fully support any race that uses that much tie-dye.  I can also support all of the post learnings listed below:

• You probably noticed that I didn't work out today.  I decided to take an actual rest day with a marathon and such this weekend.
• I have no plans on actually racing either of the races this weekend - just running them both for fun and to photobomb other runners' race photos to ruin them.
• How can you NOT be excited about this much tie-dye?!?!
• I am not excited, however, about the thunderstorms that may cancel the 10K tomorrow morning.  We will see.
• I'll try to get video and pics during the race tomorrow for your viewing pleasure; keep an eye out on Twitter, Insta, and FB!

Tomorrow's workout: Hopefully 10K-ing it in downtown Fort Worth!