Trek the Trails Half Marathon Race Report
Time to brag on my girl, Gina! She ran her first (almost) half marathon this year in February, a redemption one two weeks later, and a third half marathon yesterday. I don’t know about you guys, but after my first half marathon, I didn’t run another for a full year*! Go, Gina, go! I am super proud of her!
Oh! And the awesome thing about this half marathon is that it was the full half distance (ha ha, unlike the first one) and that we got to run it together. New couple personal distance record (CPDR?)! Awww!
The Trek the Trails Half Marathon was in the town she lives in – McKinney, Texas. It started at a high school, followed a road, then quickly got on a paved trail.
The trail was gorgeous! And I really liked the parts of the trail that were shaded, as there was hardly any cloud coverage from the sun, and surprise, surprise, Texas is a bit warmer than Illinois right now!
I was actually a bit concerned about getting overheated and feeling lousy, like I have on a few recent “hot” (not really) runs. But we kept the pace easy and I took some electrolyte tabs, which seemed to help a bit! I was still hot and dripping in sweat (and it only got up to 68°F), but I felt fine and we were able to run the whole thing…
EVEN when we went through this tortuous hilly neighborhood loop that had hardly any shade. Ha ha. We weren’t really sure what the course was like. I thought it was a straight out and back, but it was actually an out, a little loop, then a BIG loop, off of the trail, through a hilly residential area. Then back on the trail.
Needless to say, we were happy to get back on the trail! The course marshals and race volunteers were fantastic, and we were getting lots of “go bunnies!” and “I like your ears” when went through the residential area, but it was a bit mentally challenging. It was a smaller half marathon, and sometimes, it was just us, with no one else in sight! At one point I told Gina it just felt like a training run through a neighborhood (ha, which is really what it was, since we weren’t going for a time goal). I was fine with that, but happy when we got back on the trail and we knew we were headed back.
Since part of it was out and back we got to see the boys twice, which was a surprise!
Our pace dropped the last few miles, but I was really proud of us for running the entire thing and dealing with the hot sun (Gina usually does her long run earlier in the day to avoid the heat!)! We saw a lot of people walking, and the fact that they were mostly local** and still struggling with the heat, made me feel better that I thought it was challenging, too.
We crossed the finish line in 2:13:18 (2:13:17 for Gina, ha ha) and were very happy when we saw they didn’t make us run a hill right by the finish, and when we found out that the course was an accurate distance. Woo hoo!
What a fun race! I enjoy doing longer distance events with friends, so we can chat and have a good time, and love that I can do that with Gina (well, you know, chatting until the last few miles when I am all “hot. brain no work.”). I think it’s so awesome she has kept her distance up (and even run over the half marathon distance!!!) since her first “half,” and that she is continually challenging herself! And that she finds this fun – we actually signed up as a celebration of her birthday the day before. Woo hoo!
And I was very happy that we got to see our boys a few times on course! Ha ha – every time I saw them I thought, “they look so hot, in long sleeves!” But actually, it was really nice out, if you weren’t running! Hee hee.
One last story. At the beginning of the race, this guy told us that his dog liked to chase bunnies (after seeing us in our bunny ears), which made us laugh. He passed us right away in the beginning, and I was like, “Gina! We can’t let that dog beat us!” Ha ha. We only passed him, a little over half way through, because the dog stopped for a potty break. After the race, that guy told us he was trying to catch up with us the whole time after we passed him. I asked him a bit about training his dog to run longer distances, and he said the dog had actually done two 50 milers recently and this half was an “easy” run! Color me impressed!
*oh, that is because I immediately signed up for a full marathon then got a stress fracture… that kind of set me back for awhile
**Looking at the race results, there were three people from out of state – me, someone from Nevada, and someone from Louisiana
Themocracy
Awesome job, y’all! (I had to use y’all since this was a Texas race!)
I’ve actually ran up to 11 miles with Denali. As long as the dog trains and fuels the way you do, it’s good. I hope to do the Huff with him one day.
Good use of y’all! 😀
I think I am misinformed! I knew medium/large dogs could, but thought smaller ones couldn’t. But… small people can train to run long distances, so it’s the same thing, right?!
There’s a Half Fanatic right behind you in that last picture! You know, Gina totally qualified with her 3 halfs (as did you). Just saying…
We saw her a lot on course!
Ahh! That is cool! She qualified so quickly! I wonder how many times I have qualified, lol.
how awesome! I am jealous of how green it is there…
Yeah! I kept commenting on it. It was so pretty!
Congrats to both of you! Wow Gina is doing great! I think my first two halves were at least 6 months apart. Haha!
Go Gina! And I love the bunny ears! Sounds like this is the year of the half marathon for our Texas runner!
Looking adorable in bunny ears and matching colorful shirts!
I love everything about this. Congrats to you and Gina on another half! And you gals look fabulous in the matching tanks 🙂 so much awesome here 😉
Love the bunny ears! Sounds like a really great race – well done to you and Gina! I am impressed that she’s committed to the half-distance. I definitely do a race and then need time to rest, recuperate and not do too much focused-training, if that makes sense.
That does make sense… if you have focused training. LOL, for me, I try to be at half+ distance year round so I can always run them for fun. It would be different for me if I was training for a certain time. And I think it comes easy for Gina – this race was a new personal worst time for her, ha ha! I wonder if she was even tired after!
Go, Gina! I like the bunny ears, too! And I can confirm that it is warmer in Texas than in Chicago. 🙂 How funny that we both made the Chicago to Texas trip this weekend!
It is funny! And I am happy it worked out to see you! I hope you had a good trip home!
It looks like an awesome day for a race.
Wow! Gina rocks (and you are not too bad yourself!!) I am SO impressed. Looks like a great time!
Go, Gina, go!! That is really, really impressive. Plus, you guys look great in your matching tank tops. And, really, isn’t that what it’s REALLY about? 🙂
Thanks! It’s so fun to match 🙂 At first we were going to try to match just by color, but I was going to Kohl anyway and had a 30% off and her bday… it just made much more sense to get something COMPLETELY matchy 😉
I’m always a fan of matchy-matchy race ensembles, and these do look pretty perfect for Easter 🙂
And dang, I’m impressed by that dog! Bob’s hesitant to take Jude for more than 2-3 miles, I don’t know if he’d ever even get up to a half, let alone a 50 miler?
Kohl! They just have the best stuff 🙂
Why is he hesitant with Jude?
Duh, of course it’s Kohl’s. Where else would you shop?
Bigger dogs like Jude are more prone to hip dysplasia, which leads to arthritis, so Bob doesn’t want to overdo it. And he only takes Jude out in warm weather, so he doesn’t want him to overheat.
Such great photos (go Steven!) And congrats to both you and Gina- woo hoo!!
Pretty soon we will be seeing some great photos taken by Tyler!!!
And your outfits are beyond stellar…
I think it’s awesome that Gina is running like she is! Y’all are so cute in your matching tanks and bunny ears!! And matching shoes (or are my eyes playing tricks on me?)?!? Too cute!!! It looks like y’all had a great time!!
=^..^=
Yes! Ha! Good eye! Even matching shoes! We wear the same model, so I asked which color she is wearing now and brought those with me. H aha hahahahah.
AWWW CPDR! YAY! Great recap! You captured everything perfectly! That was a fun race despite the heat and hills. : ) I liked that we were referred to as “The Bunnies” when we crossed the finish line lol! Thanks for the ears and awesome tank!
Ha ha. “Bunnies.” Playboy bunnies!
The heat and hills are going to have you in even awesome-r shape! (Then you can come to the flat midland and kick butt in some races!)
Aww, you are welcome 🙂
Congratulations to you and Gina! She’s really killing it with her fitness and racing goals, and I’m so impressed! I can’t believe your bunny ears stayed on the whole time too!
Thanks! Wearing that sort of stuff really doesn’t bug me! I wore bouncy shamrock ear things to teach on St Patricks day and they stayed on for burpees and everything!