Fort Worth Cowtown Marathon Masters 3 Man Relay

February 25, 2006

Fort Worth Texas

Team Name – 3 Okies, Male Masters Division

Tim (me), Tim Lewis, Jackie Carroll

Start 7:30 AM

We arrived the night before the race and stayed at Ramada Inn on Loop 820 about 10 miles from downtown Fort Worth.
It was cold and rained all evening, the thought of running in the morning was not too appealing to me. The weather report predicted rain until about mid morning.
My wake up call was at 4:30 AM, very early, it was pouring outside.
I selected an old pair of running shoes (worn at the Houston Marathon a few weeks earlier) and headed out of the Hotel at 5:15 AM….arrived at downtown Fort Worth at 5:45 AM, with time to spare.
I immediately parked and headed to the porta potty, returned to the car and watched it rain a slow drizzle. I started heading to the starting line at 7:00 AM, with one more porta potty stop. The rain had backed off, minutes before the start the wind picked up from the south.
I wore my Houston Marathon short sleeve shirt, wind breaker gloves, hat and ear muffs. Many of us were discussing how crazy we were to run today. The gun went off; I met Barefoot Rick from Kansas, talked to him for a few seconds, and then tried to race. I lost about 21 seconds getting to the starting line.

The course is roughly downhill the first mile, levels out, and then mile 4-7 is rolling kills, not too easy.
I lost some time in the hills and tried to recover at mile 8, where I picked it up until the 9.8 mile mark where I handed the relay to Tim Lewis.

These are my splits:

Mile 1: 7:59 Downhill, talked to Barefoot Rick for a few hundred feet.
Mile 2: 7:47 Feeling good, trying to hold a 7:45.
Mile 3: 7:35 I am finding a nice pace but the hills are coming.
Mile 4: 7:56 Lost my pace, I confirm that am not going to do well today.
Mile 5: 8:10 Here are the hills, as my splits show.
Mile 6: 7:56 As I try to pass a runner he straddles a pylon and I almost trip.
Mile 7: 8:29 Hills again.
Mile 8: 8:16 More hills. I start to pick it up.
Mile 9: 7:39 I am l-leased as I pass one runner after another.
Mile 9.8: 6:56 I keep picking up the pace, with a strong finish, but slower than most years.

First leg, Tim (me) : 9.8 miles, 1:18:26, 8 minute/mile pace

Second leg, Tim Lewis time: 8.6 miles

Third leg, Jackie Carroll time: 7.8 miles

Team Time: 3:29:55

4^th Place.

It rained during Jackie’s leg, as usual the results were messed up, and we had to wait until Tuesday for our results.