Big-D Texas Marathon
The ‘D’ in ‘Big-D Texas Marathon’ meant ‘Dallas,’ but in my case it very well could have stood for ‘double.’ Or even ‘Dan.’ This is because this was our second marathon in two days, and this time I was going to run the entire way with my bud.
My legs were quite achy after my first-place finish in the previous day’s Davy Crockett Bear Chase, so going at Dan’s more manageable speed was a good prescription for the day. I took advantage of our 10:40 pace by stopping at every water stop to drink Gatorade, eat bite-sized bananas, Snickers and Skittles. I also did a bunch of pull-ups at a neighborhood park to counteract the arm muscle-eating effects of running so much during the weekend. After each stop I’d sprint back to Dan—my speedwork for the day.
There were many aid stations with themes, including Snickers, Skittles, Crazy Cats, and Dogs. The runners were encouraged to vote for the aid station with the best theme. I liked the Skittles station the best.
The course had short but steep hills, so I also used this race to experiment with power walking. I couldn’t quite keep up with Dan while doing so, meaning that the fastest I can walk up a moderate hill must be around 11 minutes per mile.
A lot of people had earbuds in their heads—maybe a third of all participants. One young woman was wearing Vibram Five Fingers, which mimics running barefoot. She seemed to have really good running form despite going 10:40 pace.
Dan and I finished the race in four hours and thirty-nine minutes, which happened to be the same time that Dan finished the Davy Crockett Bear Chase the day before. He is very consistent! It was a pleasure to cross the finish line side-by-side for the first time since the very first marathon for either of us, the 1999 Silicon Valley Marathon. Despite running the day before, we were about 15 minutes quicker in this race than that one 11 years ago.
I guess you can say our running has come a ways since then.
Time Splits
Miles 1-2: 21:02 (10:31/mile)
Miles 3-5: 30:52 (10:17/mile)
Mile 6: 9:58
Mile 7: 10:12
Miles 8-9 20:48 (10:24/mile)
Mile 10: 10:25
Mile 11: 10:31
Mile 12: 10:40
Mile 13: 10:35
Mile 14: 11:28
Mile 15: 10:32
Mile 16: 11:10
Mile 17: 10:51
Mile 18: 10:28
Miles 19-20: 22:39 (11:20/mile)
Miles 21-22: 22:51 (11:25/mile)
Mile 23: 10:23
Mile 24: 10:28
Mile 25: 10:36
Mile 26: 10:41
Mile 26.2: 2:xx
Total time: 4:39:13
