In the famous words of Chappell Roan, H-O-T-T-O-G-O!

What a fun and memorable day. The Irving half marathon and marathon took place on March 30th starting at 7:30 a.m. Texas graced the runners with a high humidity that promised weight loss, sun burns, and one tired Redhead.

This weekend event continued the good, the bad, and the ugly. The good included getting to race this weekend with my wife who completed her first half marathon!

(Disclaimer, the top left says Boston Qualifier, this refers to the event being a possibility and spoiler, not my time!)

On to the race! My training leading into this left great potential for the next marathon to be great. My goals initially were to land in the range of 3hrs45 to 4 hrs. It would be around a 8:40-9 minute mile pace.

The race began at 7:30 a.m. sharp and I lined up in the middle of the marathoners. Over 500 of us runners made the decision that sweating together would be more fun than coffee in bed with the AC blowing.

Before I knew it, mostly because I couldn’t see over the heads of the people ahead of me, the race began! The elite group were sub 3hr runners and fit munchkins so I stayed happily where I was at.

As the pack moved forward, I was able to cross the start line about a minute or two behind the leaders (this gap would grow significantly as the race continued). I started with the shuffle, the pity jog, and then into a run once there was additional space to break into my pace.

As I rounded the first bend, I saw the pacers take off into a variety of different speeds. Irving Marathon does a fantastic job providing many pacers to help runners hit goal times and I spotted the 3:50 pacer about 30 meters ahead of me. That would be the one the man I was sticking with!

Within the first mile, I lost my initial, what I estimate to be, 30 pounds of sweat. The sweat poured off me and many other runners as we left the start and it did not make me feel good to see the pacer, objectively in much better shape than those around, was sweating just as much.

As I caught up to the pacer, I found out his name was Abhi and he would be shooting to keep us around 8:40 per mile pace. His PR was 3:20 and he happily got a good group around him that was excited to shoot for under 4 hours. We had about six to seven of us together through the next couples miles and I found myself able to maintain the pace and conversation. Marathon life seemed bright!

As we kept cruising, I stopped at every aide station for the opportunity to spill water on myself and get some into my system. Aide stations were phenomenally staffed with access to water, electrolyte drinks, bananas, oranges, and other little goodies.

We hit the first five miles right on pace which signaled time for my bathroom break! I hoped to go before the race and with the line length, it was a porta potty time. We will skip this race report info and leave it that I caught up to the pack a mile later feeling good!

Miles 8-12 took us along the lake about a couple feet from the water’s edge. The clouds kept up the coverage and our pack started to get passed by half marathoners putting in a surge. Our pacer sped up to encourage a few of them to push a bit towards the end and me and another guy happily took our feet off the gas to conserve energy for the second half push.

Irving Marathon does one pretty brutal move. Most marathon courses are looped and you repeat the half marathon course. This means you come close to the finish line before mentally and physically duking it out with the pain cave.

The course designer decided to bring the marathon route within 5 feet of the finish line before brutally taking us from heavenly relaxation and going off to the flaming hot oven known as Texas roads. Yes, I was moping.

Right on cue, the sun decided to peek out and heat up the day about 10 degrees. There were a lot less smiles in our group and as we bunched together around Abhi and even he mentioned how he could use a hat and fluids. Turns out we all could use a lot of fluids. We were just under 2 hrs at that point and the battle was beginning.

I broke away from the pack for the first time in the forward direction around mile 14. Soon after, I felt myself getting into the first dark moment of thinking that finishing may be up in the air and certainly a sub 4 attempt was not something that I would put my money towards. So much for a surge!

Luckily, the dark time passed and by mile 15, I felt good enough to focus on the highlights of the day so far. I was able to continue under 9 minute pace and pound down gatorade, bananas, and water at each aide station. Miles 15-18 saw the few gradual hills in the outskirts of the race and the racers spread out like a long long caterpillar.

At mile 18, I got a reunion with an old friend of mine, the wall. The definition of this refers to a dramatic loss of energy and shutdown of the body typically around mile 20 in a marathon. Fortunately, I got to have my old friend hit my body earlier leaving great physical and mental pain to be strong feelings I would carry throughout the run.

Unfortunately around mile 18, I lost some fluids the way everyone does not desire. Disclaimer, at least it came out of my mouth. The 3:50 pack came past me as I slowed to a walk and Abhi gave me a thumbs up as he led one last member of our original 3:50 group. Godspeed runners!

The next few miles would see the same pattern of run, wobble, walk, and trying to hold down fluids. At this point, runners were passing me left and right and I went into survival mode. It was not a pretty sight yet the volunteers and people watching kept the positivity rolling!

At mile 23, I came through the time just below 3.5 hours. On the bright side, I could imagine myself finishing the race! On the dark side, each mile incorporated more and more walking so the finish line did not appear to be coming any closer.

Miles 23-25 saw some of the prettiest areas of the course running right alongside the lakes and canals of Irving. The route loops along the race within a foot or two of the edge. My thought process at this time consisted of “Please don’t fall in, please don’t fall in.” Though I desperately needed to cool down, I didn’t think I could get out if I took a tumble.

Coming up to mile 26, I could see the finish line in the distance. There was no sprint finish in my legs and all I could dream about was the opportunity to sit down. How glorious that sounded! Amazing how the best reward in the world during a race is the future opportunity to get off the feet. It’s the little things that really matter.

As I came through the finish line, a tear of relief came out of me and I thought, it’s over. It was an incredibly tough effort and I certainly debated whether I had the strength or not to finish throughout the second part of the race. The final time was 4:09:56 and recovery would now be the priority!

Overall, it was a fun experience and the best highlight was Janel completing her first half marathon! She did a much better job pacing without a serious bonk and has recovered faster too.

A big thanks to all the wonderful volunteers at Irving and the staff for putting on a great event. The next goals will be to properly build a base for a marathon later in the year that is yet to be determined. I’ll probably shoot for a quality mile over the summer and enjoy the time running in between.