White Rock Surprise!

So in my last post I stated that I would not be able to attend the White Rock Marathon this year. Well things can change quickly. On Saturday the day before the race Dori calls around 2pm and informs me that the WONDERFUL bride had chosen not to require me until around 3pm on Sunday. That meant I had all morning to run the race!

The only problem was that I had not gotten my bib number because I figured I wouldn't need it. I had to work until 7pm that night so I could not make the 6pm cutoff time. Well my awesome Dad drove out to Dallas and got it for me. FYI I have a great family.

The morning of the race GandaMan and Nell rode with me out to the race so it was an enjoyable ride plus we got a great parking spot thanks to my tiny car. I was so excited to be at the marathon because I really didn't think I was going to be able to participate. Nell stuck with GandaMan and myself until about mile 6 when she had to duck into the relay exchange zone to pass of the baton to Donaldo, GandaMan's Dad who was the next person in her relay team.

GandaMan and I had an understanding that neither one of us would feel an obligation to stay with the other. That being said, neither one of us really pulled away from the other for most of the race. We train together so we naturally run at about the same pace. Around mile 8 we started to enter the White Rock Lake area. This is the longest part of the course where you are basically running around the lake for about 10 miles. The great part about this is that there isn't very much traffic. The bad part is that the lake can get a little old after about 5 miles.

We made it around the lake feeling pretty good. GandaMan had just finished running a sub 4hr marathon at Marine Core about a month ago so he was still in great shape. He had flamed out at White Rock the year earlier around mile 17 so he enjoyed flying by the 17 mark still feeling great. I on the other hand had fizzled around mile 14 of the White Rock the year prior and ran a 5hr+ time. Needless to say I was just happy when I hit mile 14 with no pain or major fatigue.

I have started to figure out something about my body on these long runs and marathons. I don't like gel shots or sugary sports drinks after a certain point. It seems as though my body can only take the sugary intake for so long before it begins to tire of it and I actually begin to feel sick at the though of taking another one. Well this happened to me around mile 16 of the race and by mile 21 I was beginning to feel the consequences. I was afraid if I actually had a gel or more than a sip of Gatorade that I would throw up and really lose all my "fuel".

To make a long story short, I told GandaMan goodbye around mile 22 and watched him dash of for the finish for what would be his new PR. I then reduced my pace to stave off any cramps that might cause me to miss my goal of 4:15. Miles 22-25 were really slow, probably around 13-15 minutes each. I hit mile 25 at around 3:57 and realized I better pick up the pace to give myself some breathing room in case my watch was off from chip time. I ended up cruising across the finish line at 4:05:12. Well below my goal of 4:15 and light years ahead of last year's time of 5:05:53. Wow if I keep that up then I should run a 3:05 next year and qualify for Boston..........yea right!

At the end I caught up with GandaMan who looked incredible. The guy acted like he was ready to run another marathon. I on the other hand was suffering because of my lack of calories. My brother has diabetes so over the years I have spent many days checking my blood sugar with him. If I had checked it at that moment it probably would have been below 25. For those of you who don't know, that is incredibly low and actually borderline dangerous. I really didn't care at the moment though because I was just glad to be done and pleased with my results. Nell gave me a yogurt smoothie which tided me over until we stopped and got Braums on the way home. I was on a time crunch because I had to be at the chapel by 3 to shoot the wedding with Dori. For the sake of time I decided to eat lunch while I was taking my post race bath. As strange as it may be, that was a great experience. Feeding my completely empty stomach while relaxing my overworked muscles.......I can't wait till Cowtown so I can repeat the experience. Maybe I should find a hot tub.

FYI: My goal at Cowtown is going to be sub a 4hr.