Cowtown!

Last Saturday was the big day for my marathon.  Overall, the day could not have gone better!  It was marathon number 4 for me and I (except for my big toe) loved every second of it. My goal was 4:50, and I crossed the finish line at 4:51.  I was totally happy with this.  The weather was great. It was COLD (high 30's) starting out, but warmed up to the 50's. It was a beautiful sunny day with not much wind.  And, I got to start the morning with these ladies:

 

Kylie (10k), Anita (half), Me (full), & Angela (10k) freezing before our races

 

sisters before

 

sisters after

Just a few feet away from the finish line with my cheerleader to the side

When I passed the point where there half-marathon runners split off I was very excited to be going on for the full marathon.  When I passed the point where the ultra runners broke off, I was very excited I was not following them for an extra 5 miles.  

This was my first time to run the Cowtown Marathon, my first 3 marathons were all in Houston so the rest of my thoughts about the race were pretty much comparison to Houston.  Here are a few in case you care, and so I don't forget:

• Much smaller crowd to deal with before, during and after the race.  No massive crowds like at the George R Brown.  The shuttle dropped us off, we walked a couple blocks to drop our bags, and then walked around the corner to the start line.
• There were several staggered corral starts. We did have to wait about 15 minutes until it was our turn to start, but when we crossed the start line we got to start running immediately.  At Houston, its always a slow pace getting to and crossing the start line.  My first couple of miles were always a few minutes slower because of all the other runners and the walkers (people, not medical equiptment).
• Someone close to the start line was calling it the Mootown.  This made me laugh.  There are no funny nick names like that for Houston that I know of.
• In Houston, there are bands, Elvis impersonators, belly dancers, and lots and lots of people out cheering on all of the runners.  This was definitely not the case in Ft. Worth.  There were scattered groups out cheering us on.  Mostly they were there for a specific runner, except in the neighborhood near the Colonial.  Several of the residents here were out cheering.  It was a little like West U or Tanglewood, but on a much smaller scale.  As far as bands, all I saw was a lone guitarist on the side of a bridge singing to us.  He looked like the other members of his mariachi band had stood him up.  I think that the lack of support at Cowtown would have made a much bigger difference to me if this had been my first marathon or if I had been expecting all the hoopla of Houston.  
• In Houston the only hills you have are basically the Westpark Bridge and Allen Parkway.  These are some serious hills.  Especially Allen Pkwy since they come around mile 20.  Cowntown had 2 hills that stood out, but neither was as steep as the ones in Houston. The rest of the course had much more general up and down hills.  I think I preferred the constant up and down of Cowntown to the scattered intense hills of Houston.
• When you finish in Houston, there is a hot breakfast waiting for you.  Not so much at Cowtown.
• Houston is always on a Sunday.  Cowtown was on a Saturday.  Not a big deal butl I caught myself thinking it was Sunday and even wondered why I saw some mail jeeps out.
• There were no former presidents in Ft. Worth.  

I would definitely do the Cowtown again, so who's running with me next time?