Cowtown

This Saturday, my buddy Josh finished his very first marathon -- the Cowtown! I am incredibly proud of him. He and I trained all summer long for the White Rock Marathon, but he sprained his ankle stepping off a curb exactly one mile into that race. You can read all about that experience in one of my December posts.

But Saturday was his day! He ran strong the entire time through a pretty challenging course. Ft. Worth is much hillier than Dallas and it seems like the race takes you up and down each one those hills! My buddy Trey, his daughter Alex, Josh's wife Ann, and I crewed for Josh during the race. We met him every four miles to offer support and give him his electrolytes, etc. There was one particularly tough hill around mile 14 where everyone was walking. We saw Josh about a 1/2 mile after that hill and I mentioned it to him. He told me he ran that entire hill! I was blown away!

I offered to pace Josh through the last 11 miles of the race and he graciously accepted. So I was able to get a nice training run in and help support my buddy. My knee/IT Band held up fine, but my legs felt really heavy after awhile. That was the longest run I've done since the injury. It feels really good knowing I can at least run 11 miles now without the crippling IT Band pain.

Josh had a really good race. He prepared well and his hard work paid off. He ran all of his long runs (after I got injured) by himself which can be a tough thing to do. But he stayed with it and this marathon is something he will always remember. Right now he says the Cowtown will be his only marathon and he'll stick to half marathons going forward. But I'm not so sure about that. Once marathoning is in your system, it's hard to get out! He's planning on running the Grasslands Half in March. I'm scheduled to do the marathon on that course. I'm hopeful that my IT issues are behind me, but I'm still taking every precaution so that it doesn't creep up and bite me again.

Final notes about the Cowtown. Wow -- what a great course! It is very pretty and takes you through some of the best parts of the city. I really enjoyed the portion of the course I ran. The race is much more laid back than White Rock which really appeals to me. They offer a 5K, 10K, 1/2 marathon, marathon, and 50K. I highly recommend this race. I will be back one day and do it myself.