Cowtown half marathon race recap

Saturday morning, I got up before the butt crack of dawn, not to go run as I usually do on Saturday mornings, but to hop an Amtrack train with my husband and 14 of my good running buddies en route to Fort Worth, Texas. We arrived in OKC, located all of our group and boarded the train without incident. The train ride overall was very enjoyable!!

We arrived in Ft. Worth around 12:40. We had a short walk to our hotel. After we all got checked in, the decision was made to go to the expo and eat later. Several of us were really hungry but we went along with the majority.

The expo was approimately 2.5 miles from the hotel. Some of our group hopped in a cab, several others car pooled with other friends who had a car and a few of us decided to walk as it was a nice day. The expo was incredibly busy and we were all getting HANGRY after our death march nice little jaunt, so we called a cab and headed back to the hotel with the intention of ordering pizzas when we got back. Our nice taxi driver over heard our meal planning and offered to drop us off a few blocks from our hotel, but within walking distance of quite a few eating establishments. We chose an Italian place called Picchi Pacchi. Weird name, but really good food!! The portions were more than generous and the prices were very reasonable. After we stuffed ourselves and our bellies were beyond full, we hopped on the "Molley the trolley" to get us back to the hotel. Hubs and I put on our pj's and retired to our room for the night.

We woke up @ 4:30 on race day, I showered, curled my hair and put on make up. What the heck?? Why would she do all that to run a race, you're wondering. Well, I had decided to sit this one out. :-( My IT band has been irritated for a couple of months. It is finally on the mend, but I didn't want to take any chances. We got ready, got downstairs to the lobby, grabbed a little breakfast and met our group to board the shuttle to the start line, which was the same location as the expo. We got there about 45 minutes early, everyone made their final trips to the potty and we hung out inside the expo center until about 10 minutes till gun time. Most of the group was in corral 4, so they all lined up and I heckled them from the other side of the fence. It was a wave start so corral 4 didn't acutally start at 7 am but closer to 7:15. I watched the massive sea of runners from corral take off  when the gun sounded. It seemed like it took an eternity for all of those runners to cross the start line. It was very surreal not to be running with my friends.

I suddenly found myself with about 2.5 - 3 hours on my hands. What to do??  I thought about a cab back to the hotel but I wandered back to the expo center. I got a cup of coffee and a Chobani sample and decided to camp out for a while. I checked out the Cowtown swag area and got some really good deals. About that time, I got a text alerting me to my husbands 10k time. I decided to go outside and wait for him. I made some silly signs and camped out on a corner near mile 12. It was fun to hear the band, watch the police officer dancing and cheering on the runners and of course, to cheer/encourage the runners. It was about an hour later when I saw hubs coming up the hill @ mile 12, I snapped his photo and headed back to the expo center to try to catch him crossing the finish line. I got there just in time!!

The post race was a fiasco, but that's another story!!  Bottom line, I'm glad we came and I'm glad it's over!!  I am glad I DIDN'T run it. I thought the logistics were a disaster at best. I don't think this is a race that we will run again!!  Now, we're off to find some Mexican food and big azz margaritas!!  Gotta run!!