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Ft. Worth Cowtown Marathon

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Location:

Kingsbury,TX,USA

Member Since:

Jan 10, 2011

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Local Elite

Running Accomplishments:

 

Some day I will not be able to do this...today is not that day!

Started Running (6/1/10) @ 50 Yrs Old

  • 5K:
    • 22:26 (7:14 pace) McAllister Park 8/14/10
    • 22:24 San Marcos (7:13 pace) 10/19/10
    • 21:09 San Marcos (6:49 pace) 11/20/10
    • 20:19 San Marcos-Faith Run (6:33 pace) 5/26/12
    • 20:06 Fentress (6:26 pace) 10/20/12
    • *19:21 Gruene (6:20 pace) 11/22/12 (*Short Course)
    • 19:42 San Marcos-Faith Run (6:21 pace) 5/25/13
    • 19:42 San Marcos-Faith Run (6:21 pace) 5/24/14 (Not a Typo, exactly same time as last year)
    • 21:38 New Braunfels Orange Leaf (6:58 pace) 7/19/14
    • 19:33 Gruene Turkey Trot (6:18 pace) 11/27/14
    • 19:43 Kyle-For the Love of Go (6:27 pace) 2/14/15
  • 5 Miles:

    • 34:03 (6:48 pace) Hillsboro, Ill 7/4/11
  • 10Ks:
    • 43:24 (7:00 pace) Gatesville, Tx 6/4/11
  • Half Marathons:
    • 1:42:16 (7:48 pace) Austin Livestrong  2/20/11
    • 1:36:23 (7:21 pace) Moe's Better Half  3/6/11
    • 1:35:55 (7:19 pace) Chosen Half Marathon for Adoption 10/29/11
    • 1:30:10 (6:53 pace) Austin 3M 1/2/12
    • 1:43:13 (7:54 pace) Orange Leaf  7/14/12
    • 1:33:44 (7:08 pace) Chosen Half Marathon for Adoption 10/27/12
    • 1:32:23 (7:03 pace) Austin 3M 1/13/13
    • 1:35:16 (7:16 pace) Marathon for Adoption 10/26/13 (Ran off-course .3 miles)
    • 1:36:48 (7:23 pace) SA Rock-N-Roll 11/17/13
    • 1:37:06 (7:25 pace) Chosen Half Marathon for Adoption 10/25/14
    • 2:00:28 (9:11 pace) Long Beach Half Marathon (Paced Callie) 10/11/15
    • 1:39:29 (7:35 pace) Marathon for Adoption 11/21/15
    • 1:34:06 (7:11 pace) Marathon for Adoption 11/19/16
    • 1:37:43 (7:37 pace) Marathon for Adoption 11/18/17
    • 1:36:30 (7:22 pace) Marathon for Adoption 11/17/18
    • 1:45:10 (8:01 Paced Callie) Surf City Half Marathon 2/2/20
  • Marathons:
    • 3:38:09 (8:19 pace) Oklahoma City Marathon 5/1/11
    • 3:30:16 (8:01 pace) Ft. Worth Cowtown 2/26/12
    • 3:30:53 (8:03 pace) Oklahoma City Marathon 4/29/12 
    • 0:00:00 (DNF) Ft Worth Cowtown Marathon 2/24/13 (Ran off-course)
    • 3:22:56 (7:44 pace) Temple Army Marathon BQ 4/21/13
    • 3:27:24 (7:55 pace) Boston Marathon BQ  4/21/14 
    • 3:18:40 (7:35 pace) CIM Marathon BQ 12/7/14
    • 3:33:07 (8:08 pace) San Antonio R&R Marathon BQ 12/7/16
    • 3:25:32 (7:51pace) The Woodlands Marathon BQ 3/3/18
    • 3:26:17 (7:52 pace) The Woodlands Marathon BQ 3/2/19
  • Triathlons:
  • (1:12:23) Martindale (Sprint) Tri For Old Glory 7/1/12
  • Ragnar Relay:
  • (28:24:24) SoCal Ragnar 4/6-7/18 

Short-Term Running Goals:

  • Running Boston Marathon with Callie 2020 ...!!!
  • Break 19:00 in the 5K
  • Break 1:28 in Half Marathon
  • Hit 3:16:00 in the Marathon

Upcoming Races: 

  • Boston with Callie...!!! (my daughter)

Long-Term Running Goals:

  • Win 1st in the World Series Team Roping Finals Dec. 2020
  • Run Boston with Callie, My Daughter
  • Run Sub-18:00 5K (Ouch)
  • Run Sub- 3:10 Marathon  Run 3:16 Marathon
  • Compete in a Full Iron Man (Not sure since my two major bike accidents)

Personal:

Married, two kids  Kirby (Baylor University, Married not a a Runner), Callie  (TCU University, Married and Runner).

My main sport is Team Roping, I've been doing that all my life. 

I started running in the spring of 2010.

I Just Run               

Favorite Blogs:

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Brooks Racer ST 5 (Race Shoes) Lifetime Miles: 146.57
Saucony Kinvara 2 (Race Shoes) Lifetime Miles: 430.23
Swim Time Lifetime Miles: 26.00
Trek (Road Bike) Lifetime Miles: 989.00
Altra-Instinct-Blue Lifetime Miles: 551.67
Altra Instinct Black Lifetime Miles: 520.10
Altra Paradigm Black Second Pair Lifetime Miles: 7.00
Saucony Kinvara 2 Green (Race Shoes) Lifetime Miles: 145.70
Race: Ft. Worth Cowtown Marathon (26.2 Miles) 03:30:16, Place overall: 112, Place in age division: 8
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
1.5026.200.000.0027.70

 

2 Corinthians 12:9

9 But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.

Well, I think I'll just laught this one off to experience!!!

As you all know I had big expectations to complete this marathon and easily qualify for Boston. My gameplan was a little unsure until the morning of the race when I decided to just go ahead and shoot for the 3:15 I had been training for....What could go wrong? I get tired sometime in the race so I simply slow down a little and finish about 3:20-3:25 :-) Well, that plan went a little off course.

I went to the chute and lined up with the 3:15 pace group. As we were there talking I found out that our pacer was Ricky Cox (3 time winner of the Ft Worth Cowtown Marathon - Here's a aricle about him: http://www.star-telegram.com/2012/02/03/3710723/three-time-champ-ricky-cox-to.html  . I though, this will be cool, this guy has a great personality and I'll have fun running with him for a while.

So the gun goes off and here we go... running along at a sub-6 pace ...."WHAT" ... That's what I'm thinking to myself but I'm also thinking "Ricky know something about the course and this must be the right thing to do...he's won the this race 3 times" and the first mile is all downhill, so just go with it, I feel great! Through mile 1 and I feel fine so I just stick with Ricky. Mile 2 is the same....fast, mile 3 - "WHAT" 7:13 but that's ok I feel great and "I'll slow down when I get tired"...mile 4 still cruising at 7:15...man I'm doing good! Mile 6 I decide to eat a gel but oops I dropped it on the ground and had to stop, turn around run back about 10 yards and get it so I dropped behind my buddy Ricky a little, 7:41 with the backtrack :-) Two miles to catch back up to Ricky, 7:21 & 7:29 (I think he slowed down a little to let me catch back up) then came mile 9 which is all uphill so at the top at 7:40 I was feeling pretty good and thinking "that wasn't so bad". Usually at about mile 8-9, in my half marathons, I start thinking "whoo, I'm getting tired" but today I was thinking "I still feel good"! As I clicked along through mile 10,11,12,13 & 14 I just knew I was going to have a great time and not be feeling any pain at the end. I knew, at the halfway point, I was slightly faster than I needed to be for a 3:16 and knew when I got to mile 18 it was all downhill (literally -200' net downhill). Then ...Uh-Oh, at mile 15 my quads started to get a little tight. Mile 15 was the last uphill mile before the course levels out for 3 miles and then starts it's downhill decent. I was thinking "Ok...don't get excited, just run smooth, stretch out and look forward to the downhill". I decided at this point to let Ricky go and just run my own race from here on out so I said my farwell's and let him go. BTW...did I tell you that there was only one other guy running with me and Ricky? I think all the other 3:15 people said "the heck with this at mile 1 and ran their own race. Mile 16,17 both 7:39 but my quads were continuing to tighten up. Then, the greatly anticipated mile 18....YEAH!!!!.....Oh, wait a minute, running downhill puts more pressure on the quads...OUCH...now I want to run uphill :-(  8:08 on this mile and everything went downhill from this point (literally!!). I really don't know what caused the quad problem other than at mile 14 my HR% went to 90% and I'm assuming my body wasn't able to remove the lactate from my muscles at that point. After mile 17 my HR started to drop drastically and my quads just got more sore. It's funny because all my other muscles felt great (calves, ham's, etc.). Even today my body feels fine, no different than any other day after a long run except for my quads which are very sore.

The end of the race was very dissipointing seeing about 75 racers pass me in the 5 miles but I can still remember how much fun the first 15-17 miles were :-) Like I said at the beginning, I'll just laugh this on off to experience and start preparing for the next race. There is no question, I can BQ easily with the right race plan, I just have much higher expectation and aspirations than to just BQ :-)

2/26/2012
Mile Time HR HR %  
1 7:10:00 143 74%  
2 7:09:00 156 83%  
3 7:13:00 161 87%  
4 7:15:00 162 87%  
5 7:14:00 163 88%  
6 7:41:00 160 86%  
7 7:21:00 161 87%  
8 7:29:00 161 87%  
9 7:40:00 161 87%  
10 7:21:00 165 89%  
11 7:25:00 166 90%  
12 7:29:00 166 90%  
13 7:34:00 165 89%  
14 7:27:00 167 91%  
15 7:40:00 169 92%  
16 7:39:00 169 92%  
17 7:39:00 172 94%  
18 8:08:00 170 93%  
19 8:34:00 163 88%  
20 8:49:00 158 85%  
21 9:41:00 153 81%  
22 9:32:00 150 79%  
23 9:17:00 151 80%  
24 9:06:00 154 82%  
25 9:36:00 152 80%  
26 9:35:00 157 84%  
26.3 1:35:00 165 89%  
Total 210:19:00 161 86%  
Pace 8:01:38      
Ft Worth Cowtown Marathon
40Âș - 50Âș - 10-15 mph wind, Clear

 

Saucony Kinvara 2 (Race Shoes) Miles: 27.70
Comments
From Rye on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 09:56:01 from 174.27.109.210

There is a lot of silver lining here! Glad that you can have "joy in the journey." You were almost there and will certainly get there next go around! The program is working for you. Keep it up!

From flatlander on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 10:51:52 from 64.129.54.210

Bummer, I have run 10 of these now and still can't figure them out. Weird things happen in that last 10K, and you can never tell ahead of time what it is going to be. Love your attitude, though, and I'm sure you will get it soon, and then some. We all know you are a lot faster than that.

From rAtTLeTrAp on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:28:46 from 174.255.176.164

Thanks for sharing all the gory details. It looks like this race was a great learning experience for you. With better pacing I think you have got a BQ-20 coming very soon.

From SlowJoe on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 11:31:16 from 74.195.74.62

RICKY!!! Yeah looks like you had a pretty high HR by mile 3...the one and only thing I know about running the marathon is you have to be practically sleeping through the first half to get through the second half without slowing down. That "pacer" definitely did not help.

Even so, an 8-minute PR, right? Congrats on finishing your 2nd marathon, and I'm sure you'll take care of business in OKC. Good race report too.

From Dave S on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 12:09:51 from 4.254.216.248

That pacer was bad news. The one and only time I started with a pace group they went out much faster than I had planned too. I stuck it out for 5 miles but paid the price later in the race. I'm sure you could have easily gotten that BQ if that was your only goal but you never know when you might have a huge breakthrough day when you do go for your A goal the way you did. At least now you won't have to wonder. 8 minute PR is still great and you'll get to use that experience going into the next one.

From derhammer on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 13:41:53 from 192.156.110.33

IRJ - yes, this is definitely a learning experience. Pacers - stay away from them unless you have met with them the day before at the Expo and discussed their strategy.

The marathon is so much about fuel - start too fast and you burn right through it. They don't say "the race starts at mile 20" without reason. Joe has it spot on.

It took me 5 marathons to find out what works for me, I am sure you will make it a lot soon than that, but just remember every one of them - good, bad, or ugly - will be a learning experience.

Since you did not run all out for the last few miles you should recover pretty fast. You will be ready to start training again soon and head up to OKC in great shape.

You have made some huge improvements - you will make it - I plan to see you in Boston in 2013!

From Steam8 on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 14:16:23 from 166.70.55.77

I loved the report. I am glad to hear that you are feeling good, I generally can't walk for 5 days after a marathon. I loved all of the advice. It is fun to hear. I always think I am about to die from mile 18 on! ha! You learn from every race and you just never know how the next one is going to go. You are in great shape and I would love to run a 3:30, I just don't think my body could do it. Can't wait for Oklahoma...you are ready!

From Dan on Mon, Feb 27, 2012 at 18:46:36 from 24.209.83.20

I too have trouble walking for days after a marathon. I think you have learned alot here while setting a PR - a major plus!

From I Just Run on Tue, Feb 28, 2012 at 07:24:56 from 67.79.11.242

Thanks guys for all the encouragement and advice....

I promise I'll do better next time...!!!

From DLTheo on Wed, Mar 07, 2012 at 14:47:53 from 155.130.107.41

My first marathon went much the same way. i was shooting for 3:10, so I went out at 7:15 pace and was on target through around 16 or 17 miles. The wheels fell off over the last 6 miles and I finished in 3:30:30. Thanks for the details and making me relive that horror again :)

From I Just Run on Wed, Mar 07, 2012 at 15:38:55 from 67.79.11.242

Ha ha...DLTeo,

I'm so naive when it comes to running (that's why my Blog name is I Just Run). I never really researched how to pace for a marathon last year or this year. My first marathon was run after basically a 4 week layoff due to a bone spur in my knee. I did fine until the bone spur floated into the wrong spot and locked up my knee. On this marathon I was over confident and but still didn't know anything about pacing so I just went out with the 3:15 pace leader. In hind site I calculated he had us running a 2:58 marathon pace for the first five miles (based on a true pacing plan).

Since this fiasco, DerHammer has sent me a link to "Marathon Nation" where I found a great calculator for setting the proper paces throughout a marathon. I have taken that program, overlaid the topography of the Oklahoma City Marathon course and come up with, what I believe will set me up to succeed. I'm going to lower my expectations to 3:22:30 and see how that goes. The paces are crazy different than what I ran in Ft Worth. I really feel I can run this easily (since I just ran a 1:30:10 Half Marathon) :-)

Stay tuned to my Blog ... You'll probably get some laughs seeing some of the things I do :-)

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