This year was a great year for the Cowtown series! They had a record breaking year with more than 21,000 runners. This race was not our strongest but the events leading up to the race were the most fun!
Lee’s parents came all the way from Illinois to support The Running Couple. They even came with us to our Cowtown Tweetup at Buttons Restaurant in Fort Worth in which we were able to round up some great sponsors:
@Lifeway_Kefir gave away some of their yummy kefir bars and coupons for all attendees. Careful…they’re addictive!
@RoadID supplied $15 gift certificates to raffle off as well as $2 coupons for all attendees!
@ForzeGPS gave away packets of their Accelerade product (our favorite!) and samples of their Forze GPS bars. Forze GPS is their new weight management bar geared toward endurance athletes who are looking to control their appetite.
We had a great crowd and enjoyed the menu that Buttons established for our event. It was great to see tweeps from DFW and beyond connect and share their running stories.
With the events of the weekend and family in town, we were unable to make the Cowtown Expo before the race. We will have to say that the Cowtown Expo is not one of our favorites. Its outdoors, cramped, and only leaves room for a few vendors. We would love to see this expo moved into the new Fort Worth convention center. Surely a race bringing 21,000+ people into Fort Worth could get a pretty good deal right? Since we didn’t make the expo, we picked up our packets before the race. The expo tent was full of runners trying to stay warm, so it made the simple task of getting our bibs difficult. Right before the start of the race, we had to stop at the party booth that is Athletes Honey Milk (@athletesmilk). We saw Anders and the rest of the crew there for some laughs and pump up session!
As we headed out to the start line, Isis made her trip to the porta-potty (a new, but ever important routine for her). When we got to the corral we were able to meet up with Mel (@asingulargirl), Kris (@seekrisrun), and Bowflex. As we started off, all we could think of is beating Isis’ PR that she set at Austin. This was definitely not the strategy we needed… As we headed to the first water station we remembered that the Cowtown did not have any electrolyte drink for the first 8-10 miles….FAIL. Why do races do this? We had just ran Austin two weeks before and they did the same thing.
By the second water station Isis was not feeling the best. This was not going to be the PR buster that we thought it was. Right after Lee passed the water station he was looking back for Isis and ran into a overturned traffic cone. In this epic battle between traffic cone and his left shin, the traffic cone won. This was definitely going as planned…but the weather was perfect!
As we headed to mile 7, we were met up by the Running Couple cheer team (Lee’s parents). It actually felt great to stop, take a few pictures and inspect Lee’s shin. What a race…we knew we had a serious battle ahead. A couple miles later Isis was really fighting it. After we met up with Isis’ mom around mile 9, she really contemplating a DNF. The lack of sleep and proper preparation really had an effect. A couple of pep talks later, we were headed into downtown and across the finish line. I don’t think either of us had ever been so happy to see mile 13.1. As we crossed we entered one of the most crowded and confusing after-race areas. We headed for some food and made a stop by the first-aid tent. Lee was pretty shocked to find that they had nothing for his shin. They could give him an ice pack, but had no plastic wrap. Lee didn’t think we wanted to walk around while holding an ice pack on his shin! We grabbed our finisher shirts and headed to our favorite Fort Worth breakfast place, Yogi’s Bagel Cafe.
All in all it was not our best race, but it definitely showed Isis that she could push through pain and finish. Runs like this happen to people everyday. Those who push through and finish come out stronger runners. We love Fort Worth and will continue to support the Cowtown race. We hope to see improvements made to the expo and after-race areas as the race entries continue to grow.
Also wanted to make a shout out to our good friend Mel who PR’d (2:12) at Cowtown. Congratulations!!!
