The Cowtown Half

On Sunday, February 26, 2012, I ran the Cowtown Half Marathon in Fort Worth, TX. 

Obviously, it's taken me some time to get this blog post written and published. This latency is due, in part, to the general madcap pace of life, but more so, it is due to my disappointing race performance. 

To be absolutely clear, The Cowtown Marathon and Half marathon are terrific races. They're fun, flawlessly managed, well supported, and the course passes through some exceptional neighborhoods. In short, I have nothing but praise for Cowtown and I look forward to running this race again some time. 

My personal performance is another matter. Going into the race, I had a base of about 25 miles per week and I'd put in a number of long runs. I was feeling strong and reasonably fit.

The truth of the matter is that I was only modestly prepared. Sure, I was healthy and race conditions were good, but I was not in peak condition. My training lacked speed work, hill work, and plain old fashioned mileage. 

My mistake was not spending any time thinking about a realistic outcome given my modest training. At some level, I think I was expecting to throw down personal record. 
 
In retrospect, I actually am pleased with the effort and the result. I set a clear goal and was diligent and focused on achieving it. At race time, I set out at a respectable pace and maintained it for thirteen miles. An accomplishment in my book, even if it took me a few weeks to realize it.

"Hindsight is always twenty-twenty."
-Billy Wilder