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.