So we ran our first half in 7 months! 7 months?!?! Can’t believe we went that long, but we did.  But this is a great race put on by the Dallas Running Club hence the DRC and we weren’t able to run it last year as it was the day Beth & Brent got back from their honeymoon.  So 2011 was our last and first encounter with the DRC Half!

The way in which we handle race mornings kind of goes back and forth a lot and depends on how big the race is, the location of the race and what experience we’ve had with this race in the past.  We had a 7:30 start time for the DRC Half, so Beth was going to aim to be at Teal’s house at 6 a.m. which meant she’d be there a few minutes after 6:00 a.m. at the earliest until she realized she left her Garmin at home and turned around to go get it which would have put her at Teal’s house past 6:15 a.m. Ha!  But then Teal texted about how she meant to get peanut butter because they were accepting donations of peanut butter to be given to the North Texas Food Bank and Beth went ohhhh, yah, I wanted to do that too.  So plans were quickly altered and we met in the parking lot of Walmart, Teal’s favorite store (sarcasm font), to get us some peanut butter!

We basically made it in time to stand in the line for the port-a-potties, Teal to spot her trainer friend, drop off the peanut butter and run into our friend Elaine before we made our way to the “corrals.”

Miles 1-3

Teal:  I was pretty nervous going into this race even though I have been running. Pretty much between 9 and 10 miles each weekend and shorter runs or cross training during the week but the first ½ marathon while pregnant made me nervous. I knew I would not run under 10 minutes a mile so I started out at just that. Beth and I had both decided to not run without music because really we haven’t been running with it at all lately. It actually proved to be very entertaining. During the first 3 miles I stayed with a pack of men between the ages of 68 and 70. Yes I felt slow, and I only know their ages because they made fun of each other the entire time. One man was like, “only those in the 60-69 age group wear knee braces,” needless to say they both had them on the exact same leg. Another said “I can’t wait to get to that 70 age group next year and smoke them all.” I was pretty much dying laughing for this stretch and it made it go by pretty fast!  So impressed they are still running at 70!

Beth: I didn’t really have expectations for this race, so I more just wanted to run, not die and be happy with myself by the end of it.  Ok, well, actually I did ideally want to run it in under 2 hours since I know I am capable of that.  It was chilly race morning so I was just more anxious to get warmed up in these first few miles.  It was in these miles that a lady dropped something I went back and grabbed it for her and thought wonder if I’ll regret doing this later because of the big maybe 3 seconds I just lost. 🙂

Miles 3-6

Teal: HILLY.. FREAKING HILLY!! Beth lied to me! She told me it wasn’t hilly and I am pretty sure at this point I knew why she lied to me. It sucked. It is one of those that literally every other turn is up hill. I made a decision to run them. I wanted to walk them but I RAN them! I figured if nothing else, if I didn’t make it or died at the end, I could at least say I ran the hard part. I kept going back and forth with a trainer I knew from 24 hour fitness, Mark, and he kept walking the hills. I actually felt pretty strong up them but once I hit about 6.5 my legs felt like lead.

Beth: Hehe, I wasn’t tryyyyying to lie to Teal.  Maybe I’m just really bad at reading race course elevations, OK?!  I thought there would be two main bad hill areas and so I’d apparently not even made myself aware of how hilly this race was.  Neither one of us really remembers the course for DRC 2011, but we know we didn’t run the exact same one.  Pretty much anytime you run a race that’s around White Rock and takes you off into the neighborhoods surrounding the lake there will be hills.  I normally slow pace down to run up a hill and don’t go for the as fast as you can so it’s over faster method because I fear I won’t recover my breathing and what not soon enough should there be another hill. So that meant this area I had a lot of back and forth with some other runners that would pass me on the hills and I would catch back up to them once they were over.  At the mile 4 marker I was presently surprised to see one of my tweeps that I know not because of running! 🙂 Laura was volunteering at that mile marker calling out times as everyone passed it was a pleasant surprise to see her and helped get me up the hill at that moment!

Miles 6-9

Teal: Legs are pretty much dead at this point. I always wonder if people get the same feeling I do after running tons of hills in a row, my legs feel fine on the hills but when I get to the flat part if feels like soooo much more work. At 6.5 is the first time I actually walked during the race. I had walked all the water stations but didn’t walk during the actual race. I ate all my gummy bears between mile 6.5 and 7 because I was starving!

Beth:  More back and forth with the people plowing up the hills and then me catching back up to them.  At this point in the race I was around this dude and maybe it was because I was getting tired that I kept thinking you really aren’t funny! 🙂  He asked a volunteer where a turn was that you know was abundantly clear WHERE the turn was.  At the mile 7 marker he asked that volunteer calling out times what mile we were at.  I don’t think that volunteer found it funny as he was taking his job seriously and having to be on top of calling out times.  Oh, well I eventually lost him at some point and wasn’t too sad about it.

Miles 9-12

Teal: After mile 9 you have pretty much made it up the last hill over by the spillway bridge. THANK GOD. If there had been more I might have died. I am super familiar with this part of the lake and just did my normal mental talks. “make it to the arboretum”, “make it to the forest” “make it to the boats.” It worked and I just continued to walk water stations. I knew at around 11.5-12ish I would see Catherine because she was going to hang out in the “forest area” because there is a playground. I kept running knowing I would get some motivation and I knew after that I wouldn’t stop again. That area was the last water station! I saw Catherine and she made an awesome sign that said “ baby Catherine Elizabeth wants her first bling” (Please note: Catherine and Beth have named my child after them, they are flexible in the order, Catherine Elizabeth, Elizabeth Catherine, either will due for them…. She really has no name at this point so I’ll let them claim this for now 🙂 )

Beth: It was in this part of the race I hated myself.  I knew after we got just far enough from the car before the race started that I hadn’t put body glide on my shoulders for where my sports bra tends to chaff and oohhhh I could feel the pain of that chaffing.  I knew Catherine was going to be at one of the park areas along the lake with her kids, but I didn’t know for sure which one she’d pick and then I saw her and was so excited to see a familiar face!  She had a sign for me that said “Hurry up, Beeper, only 3 more miles to the port-a-potties!”  Haha, because every long run we’ve done I make her stop at some point during the run for me to go the bathroom. 🙂

Miles 12-13.1

Teal: Pretty much felt like the death march. I was super-hot and very much wanted to be done running. I  took off my jacket around 12.5 just in time for Jesse to snap a ridiculously ugly pictures of me walking and taking off my top, HOT I tell ya, HAWTTT!!! @@. I was secretly hoping I would see someone I knew here and maybe Beth had been done so long she wanted to come drag me in. I saw Mark and he cheered me on to the last stretch and saw Beth immediately after finishing!!

Beth: I was just ready to be done during this part.  The chaffing part of my shoulder sucked.  It was nice to see Jesse out there and see yet another familiar face!  At this point I knew I would be coming into the finish line under 2 hours and I was happy!  My official time ended up being 1:57:42 – a success!

Teal: This was not my fastest, duh, who is surprised, but not my slowest, which kind of surprised me. Overall I was pretty proud of my effort and lack of walking. Bring on half number 2 slash 20 on December 8^th!!

Side note: We are super excited about the race bling serious they have started. Each year will represent a different part of the lake on the metal. This year was the pump house, next year, Winfrey Point, which many of you know has a special place in our heart now. We have tons of motivation to keep running this over the next few years to collect them all! God help us that we can keep staying in this kind of shape!

We also stayed at this race for. ev. er. 🙂  We found #TeamK in the beer garden and had to hangout with them.  They’d actually acquired a new friend in the beer garden, Glen, which we all might run into again at Dallas Marathon. Fingers crossed!

 

We all enjoyed chatting with Glen and hearing about all the running he’s done over the years.  We also all admired his legs! Ha Hence while the below picture captured them. 🙂

Over all it was a fun day and such an exciting day for Teal & baby to complete their first half marathon!!