Big D Texas Half Marathon

A month after my race through the boring rural outskirts of College Station (see how these all timed out with about a month between them – smart, no?), it was time for my third and final half marathon of the spring: the Big D Texas Half Marathon.

After the experience of the last race, it was nice to get back to a larger event. This still wasn’t nearly as large as Austin, but it felt like a nice middle ground between the last two events. It was just big enough to feel “real,” but still small enough to have that non-corporate folksy atmosphere we all crave for some reason.

And as an added bonus – I had running buddies for the first time. The Wife and our friend Val signed up for the 5K and got to share in the agony and ecstasy of race day at the State Fair grounds.

The race was a lot tougher for two big reasons – I didn’t get enough sleep the night before (damn you, interesting late night television) and I managed to come down the wrong way and tweaked my left knee about three miles into the race. From that point on, every time I put my left foot down on the pavement, a corresponding shot of pain went back up my leg. It was not fun. Still, though, I had paid like $70 to register for the race and I’d rather risk serious injury than bow out and waste money. That’s how I roll – stupid and cheap.

The course was pretty interesting. It started out (and finished) right outside the Cotton Bowl and wound its way around White Rock Lake and some swanky neighborhoods. For someone like me whose opinion of Dallas had been formed primarily by experiencing its hellish labyrinth of major roadways and it surrounding blight, it was quite eye-opening. Dallas is actually nice in some parts. Who knew?

My newfound non-disdain for certain parts of Dallas did not, however, keep me from muttering “****ing Dallas” with each step I took over the last couple of miles. I attribute most of that to the leg pain.

I usually try to find a pacer early on in a race – someone who runs at about the same speed as me and looks like they’re not going to quit. My goal becomes to beat that person, no matter what else happens. This time I picked a pack of three girls who unfortunately didn’t seem to have a decent internal cruise control between them. After starting out relatively steadily at the beginning, they were all over the place in terms of speed over the last half of the race. Maybe it was because someone was behind them muttering expletives about Dallas.

Despite all that, I managed to finish the race is just about the same time as Austin and College Station. In fact, my finish time for all three races were within in a minute of each other. That’s consistency, folks.

And in true Buccaneer Belle fashion, The Wife and Val managed to miss me crossing the finish line despite being camped out with a camera ready to record it. I called them about five minutes later after catching my breath and they were like, “What? You finished. When? We didn’t see it. Where are you?” I promised I’d make fun of them for it and now I have.

The course

The stats

Date: April 11, 2010

Distance: 13.1 miles

Official time: 2 hours, 20 minutes, 2 seconds

Finish: 1,221 out of 2,087 finishers