The Story of White Rock

I'm posting a bit later than originally planned on Monday due to a 30-minute session on an elliptical machine. My thighs begged for mercy the entire half hour.

On Saturday night, Marriott Rewards points placed me in a Spring Hill Suites Hotel in Dallas' West End, which put me only a short walk from the American Airlines Center, site of the White Rock Marathon's start and finish lines.

So, a 6 a.m. wake up call on Sunday morning left me plenty of time to wake up, eat, relax, finish final preparations and enjoy a leisurely walk to the starting area. The morning temperature was in the upper 40s/low 50s, so a long sleeve t-shirt over my running outfit kept me warm.

American Airlines Center is the home arena for the Dallas Mavericks and the 1999 NHL Stanley Cup Champion Dallas Stars (I used to share a season ticket package to Stars games, but has it been a decade since the championship???). It also includes a fairly new development known as Victory Park, which is a small version of Times Square, but Dallas style. Lots of glass, steel, video boards and a gathering area in the middle of the buildings.

As I strolled towards the start/finish line, I took this picture of a bride (see the white dress to the right) and groom, who were followed by a wedding party. I ran a marathon back in November 1988, the day after Cathy and I were married. Both the bride and groom were wearing running shoes, making it appear this was a mutually agreeable decision. Whatever the background, they certainly created a memory.

I eventually found my way in to the American Airlines Center, where I located a warm and comfortable seating location to wait out the 30 minutes leading up to the race start. From the standpoint of having a nice place to wait for the race to begin, it's hard to beat sitting in a warm arena lobby with plenty of restrooms for well hydrated runners.

Shortly before the start time of 8 a.m., I left my warm seating area to push through the crowd to starting corral C, which is where the four hour marathoners hung out. A unique feature provided by White Rock's organizers are the video boards showing a live television feed of the pre-race festivities and the starting line.

It's been a while, like all the way back to Boston, since I have been in the midst of 20,000 runners to begin a marathon. Last month, in New York, I was in front of 42,000 people. In October, September, August, July, June, and May, I ran in small events. For me, the large crowd meant it took seven minutes from the starter's gun until I crossed the starting line. The mass of runners also helped slow me down for the first few miles, which was a good thing as I didn't want to burn up from the adrenaline surge I was feeling. I will note that it is hard for me to understand why people who intend to walk the route would line up towards the front of 20,000 people. During the first two miles I nearly ran over about two dozen people who were just going to walk the race. They have every right to join in the event, just in a better spot than in front of those trying to run.

By the way, if you look closely at this picture you can see the clouds hanging along the tops of the buildings to the right (above).

The race winds through part of downtown Dallas, along McKinney Avenue and its trolley tracks, to the Turtle Creek area and then Highland Park. Turtle Creek and Highland Park are filled with high end homes...very high end. So, I'm sure the homeowners appreciate the annual groups of runners peeling off the race course to use the bushes, so to speak.

I don't know the name of all the neighborhoods, but after a few more miles the race approaches White Rock Lake. I started slow, but picked up some momentum along this stretch of the course to a pace that would put me at two hours for the first 13.1 miles. My watch read 1:59:46 at the half way point, which doesn't mean much since there were still 13.1 miles remaining in my run.

To illustrate the overcast sky and low clouds, on a normal day the picture to the left would show the Dallas skyline behind the lake. On Sunday, all you saw was clouds.

The marathon makes a lap around White Rock Lake and when you finish, the distance is just over 18 miles. So that leads me to mile 19 and the signs of the day. If you have followed along, this tradition started back in May and has kept up ever since. I actually have three signs of the day for you, all presented below.

For those of you interested in learning how to run a marathon, read the t-shirt on the right.

Mile 19 presents the primary hill on the course and it's not all that big. That left me with six miles to the finish, mainly along Swiss Avenue. I noticed at this point I had begun smiling...constantly. The smile lasted all the way to the finish. Yes, I was tired. Yes, my legs hurt. My achilles were tightening. I was thirsty and sweaty. But I kept smiling the entire way.

As I neared the finish line, at just about the 23 mile mark, the doom and gloom of a foggy morning suddenly gave way to a beautiful blue sky. The sun came out, which just added to an already great day.

As I ran along the last stretch of the marathon route, I moved away from the crowd of runners on the right side of the street for the purpose of running alone with the crowd of onlookers to the left. My name was printed on my race bib, I was smiling, slapping fives to people as I ran along. I even sang along with u2 to the tune "40," from the recording of their concert in Paris. FYI, the last three songs on my marathon playlist are 40 by U2 (the words "how long" repeat over and over), King of Pain by The Police (for obvious reasons at the end of a marathon), and Sweet Home Alabama by Lynyrd Skynyrd).

I smiled all the way to finish, raised my hands as I approached the line, said a prayer of thanks and gave one loud clap of my hands when I was done. 13 marathons, 12 different states, 340.6 miles of running.

My official time was 4 hours, 10 minutes and 5 seconds. That placed me 53rd out of 251 men in the Clydesdale Division, which is a special class for the ground pounders who weigh over 200 pounds. I have always wanted to run in a race with a Clydesdale Division, just to see how I'd compare to those lugging around a mass of humanity similar to mine. Now I know. Overall, I was 1,691 out of 4,457 finishers and finished 197 if 405 men in the 45-49 division.