Div: Male Open
Team: 3 Okies
Bib: 1234

Team Members:

1 Tim Vandagriff, 54, First Leg – 9.8 miles
2 Kevin Keys, 39, Second Leg – 8.8 miles
3 Jackie Carroll, 42, Third Leg – 7.6 miles

Weather: Start, 67 degrees, slight wind, cloudy, humid from overnight rain.
End, 60 degrees, clear, 30-65 MPH winds from the WSW direction.

We have been running the Marathon relay for 6 years: this year Kevin replaced Tim Lewis due to Tim’s back problems. As a result we entered the Male Open Division rather that the Male Masters Division.

I arrived downtown at 6:15AM and walked a few blocks to check out the starting area. While walking I met a guy who was running his first marathon; it was a fun and interesting conversation; he was nervous and excited all at once and it reminded of my first marathon. As we approached the starting line a runner approached me and asked if I was Tim from Coolrunning. It was Paul (Yukon Oklahoma) who is running with Karl (OKC). He said I looked like my picture. Hum, I am not sure if that is good or bad. Hehe.

The three of us had a nice conversation. Paf and I walked back to the parking area to get my wife and then we all proceeded back to the starting line with some time to spare. The relay time is judged on the starting gun so we were told to proceed as close to the front as possible.

My plan was to try and run tempo pace (7:15) for the entire first leg. If I could do this I would run a record pace for this race. Previously I was never in a position to train well for Cowtown do to recovery from recent marathons but this year it fit perfectly into my running schedule so I was hoping for a stellar performance.

I would also use this opportunity to become more familiar with my new Garmin 305.

The gun went off.

The first mile has a nice downward grade, perfect to find my Tempo pace. About ¾’s of a mile onto the first mile I saw I was running a 6:54 so I backed off some and nailed a 7:07.

Mile 2 7:29
Mile 3 7:35
Mile 4 7:38
Mile 5 7:51
Mile 6 7:32
Mile 7 Over 8, unknown
Mile 8 Over 8, unknown
Mile 9 7:26
Mile 9.8 6:56

Since, for an unknown reason, my Garmin went into AUTOPAUSE somewhere during mile 7-8, I lost my finish time. Jackie thought it was about a 1:15, but he could only guess. If so it would be a PR for me at this event but far from my expectations. Historically Mile 6 and 7 have slaughtered me and today was no exception. It just emphasizes my hill climbing weakness. Even so, I should have been able to maintain at the least a 7:20 pace (based on my current tempo training) during most of the race.
With that in mind I was very disappointed.

Kevin ran an impressive 7:12 average pace. Jackie’s watch did not reset properly so we are not sure what is time was either. He guesses that he ran about a 7:30 pace.

I tried to interpolate out splits base on out Official Finish time.

Finish Time: 3:16:28.8

Final results: Place 7/21

Tim – 9.8 miles, 1:15:00, 7:39 pace.
Kevin – 8.8 miles, 1:03:22, 7:12 pace.
Jackie – 7.6 miles, 0:58:15, 7:40 pace.

Our team performance was a PR by about 5 minutes.

Even thought I was disappointed with my performance I still had a great time and am looking forward to next years relay.