Sunday, December 13, 2015
Time: 4:23:30
Overall Place: 1172/2747
I left for
Dallas on Friday December 11 and yes I finally got to fly again,
driving twenty
hours one way while risking a snow storm is not for me, so I hopped on a plane
and headed to Dallas via Chicago. I’m
actually getting to know the Chicago airport pretty good and know how to get around
which is half the battle to traveling. This
trip Heidi was not going to join me because she had made a commitment to direct
the Grant Memorial Church choir in their Christmas special. She had been asked to do this after I had
booked the trip so I still had to go and she could not. What was ironic was that I had made arrangements
to stay with Heidi’s cousin Tammy and her husband Donald so Tammy was disappointed
that Heidi wasn’t coming along. I figured we’ll just have to go again sooner
than later. I arrived in Dallas in the
after to a balmy 25 degrees Celsius and got picked up by Tammy and Donald and
we headed to their home which is in Lewisville a suburb of Dallas. Dallas is a large city of around six million
people and my first impression was that I didn’t want to go back home because
it was so nice and warm and the city is quite beautiful. Dallas also has a great rail system so I
decided not to rent a car and just take the train when I needed to go downtown
where the race was. I asked them if they
had met J R Ewing yet and they said no.
That is for you 1980’s crowd.
When we arrived at the house I decided I couldn’t resist the opportunity and rather than go for a run on Saturday I put on my shorts and headed out the door for a four mile shakeout run.
The rest of
the afternoon was much more enjoyable as I was able to tour around the Expo and
take in a couple of more speakers.
driving twenty
hours one way while risking a snow storm is not for me, so I hopped on a plane
and headed to Dallas via Chicago. I’m
actually getting to know the Chicago airport pretty good and know how to get around
which is half the battle to traveling. This
trip Heidi was not going to join me because she had made a commitment to direct
the Grant Memorial Church choir in their Christmas special. She had been asked to do this after I had
booked the trip so I still had to go and she could not. What was ironic was that I had made arrangements
to stay with Heidi’s cousin Tammy and her husband Donald so Tammy was disappointed
that Heidi wasn’t coming along. I figured we’ll just have to go again sooner
than later. I arrived in Dallas in the
after to a balmy 25 degrees Celsius and got picked up by Tammy and Donald and
we headed to their home which is in Lewisville a suburb of Dallas. Dallas is a large city of around six million
people and my first impression was that I didn’t want to go back home because
it was so nice and warm and the city is quite beautiful. Dallas also has a great rail system so I
decided not to rent a car and just take the train when I needed to go downtown
where the race was. I asked them if they
had met J R Ewing yet and they said no.
That is for you 1980’s crowd.When we arrived at the house I decided I couldn’t resist the opportunity and rather than go for a run on Saturday I put on my shorts and headed out the door for a four mile shakeout run.
It actually took me quite
a while because I took the phone along and took pictures along the way. I couldn’t believe it. I felt like I was experiencing fall for the
fifth time this year. Beautiful fall
colors amid the Christmas decorations adorned the yards. Unfortunately it got dark and I had to come
in for supper. Not a bad idea having
supper but I really wanted to stay out longer to enjoy the weather. That evening we just watched some TV and visited. It was nice to catch up with family again.
The next morning
I had planned to go to the Expo at the Dallas Convention Center. For the purposes of this writing I will just
refer to it as the Convention Center. It
is really called the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center but I’m not going
to write that out every time.
So in the
morning they drove me to the train station and I took the train downtown which
took about 52 minutes. This is where the
day took an interesting turn which really became a highlight for me which led
me to being really low and then back on a high again. It was about a ten minute walk from where I
got dropped off to the convention center and I was in really good spirits when
I arrived at the Expo.
I went to the
race kit pickup and began searching for my wallet. I remembered taking it with me because I
tried to pay for the ticket with my credit card. So here I was with no wallet in the middle of
Dallas without any means of communication because I couldn’t hook up into the
free WIFI which was supposedly available at the convention center. My skills on the IPhone were not very good
and I was not thinking completely straight.
At this point I felt like my stomach had dropped out so I just decided
to go over to the stage area where they had scheduled some speakers and just
try and think this thing out. About twenty
minutes after I sat down my phone starts to ring and I look at the number and
did not recognize it not to mention I didn’t know why my phone was even
ringing. I decided to answer the
phone. On the other end was my daughter
Wendy who lives in Calgary and her exact words were, “dad I have your wallet”. I said what?
She repeated herself and I said I needed to go somewhere quiet to take
this in. What happened was that I had
dropped my wallet out of my jacket pocket and it was picked up by a guy who
lived in the downtown Dallas area. He
found a business card I had for Wendy while she was stationed in Lloydminster
Alberta and the dispatcher there texted all the information to Wendy in Calgary
where she has been stationed for the last year.
Wendy gave me a call and gave me
all of the information and I then called Sean.
He offered to meet me at the restaurant; he was at a couple of miles
away and also offered to pay for the taxi to bring me there. I immediately left and did a walk/run to the
restaurant. He gave me the wallet back
and offered to buy me some lunch. I told
him I needed to get back to the convention but I thanked him a few more times
and ran back to the Expo. What a
relief. Now tell me there aren’t still
good people in this world. I always knew
that but this just reaffirmed my belief.
With regards to the phone, yes I am useless when it comes to some of
this technology. I had received a text
message from MTS my phone plan provider that for $5.00 I could download some
data to save on roaming cost, so I did it not knowing what I was doing. It just so happened that I managed to set the
phone so that I could take the only phone call I took the entire weekend. I still didn’t know what I did so if someone
gives free lessons on how to use this thing properly I would be most appreciative.
I did
get to see some of the top distance runners in the US as they were preparing
for the Olympic Trials for next February.
I’ve always read a lot about these athletes but it was a privilege to
see and hear them at the Expo.
 |
| Pioneer Park |
I made my
way back to the train stop where I would catch the train going back to the
point I was going to get picked up by Donald, but not before seeing a few more sights around Dallas.
The nice thing about coming to the Expo is that this is where the race
was going to start and finish so it gave me a little bit of a dry run for the
next day.
The evening
was again spent just hanging out drinking PowerAde and eating chips. This is my prerace ritual and one of the few
times I get to eat chips. Lots of carbs
and salt, and it works for me.
The next
morning Tammy woke me up because as I have mentioned before I don’t hear at
night and especially a phone alarm. I am
going to buy an old fashioned alarm that you wind up and will wake the
dead. I got up at 4:45 and prepared
myself to depart at 6:00. It was a dark
and rainy morning around 10 degrees Celsius with a high expected around
18. Perfect running conditions. I left everything at home including my
hearing aids and wallet. All I had was
the IPhone and a little bit of money. I
was dropped off at the station again and caught the train for a downtown drop
off with a lot of other runners. There
is comfort in traveling to a race with other runners because you just follow
them. I made my way to the convention
center where I could stretch and get ready to drop my things at the bag drop
off. After this I made my way to the
starting Coral B and waited for the start.
While I was waiting I met a running friend from Dallas who I had met in
Omaha when I was there for a race, she is also a fellow Maniac so it was nice to
see a familiar face.
 |
| Tracy from Dallas |
The gun went
off and they let us go right after the first Coral. By now the rain had stopped so the conditions
were perfect for the race. I
started the race off at a comfortable pace taking short walking breaks at the refreshment
stations. The course starts in the
downtown area but then winds its way through some beautiful neighborhoods with
grand old homes. It wasn’t all flat but
there were enough flat sections to recover for the next hill.
By
the time we reached the half way point I had was at around a 2:06 split which
was right on pace for another personal best, but I also knew that I was a lot
more tired than I wanted to admit. I really
think that the excitement of the previous day took its toll on me. That was not what you want to be doing the
day before a marathon. Besides I forgot
my fast legs at home. Anyway that’s my
story and I’m sticking to it. We got to
around sixteen and my pace was still good but around mile twenty one I had
heard there was a really nasty climb and they were right. That really took its toll on me and the next
six miles were hard.
I pushed it all the
way to the end taking more frequent walking breaks then I normally do and finished
around 4:23. I was quite happy with
that.
I was really
impressed with this race and the fact that you never felt there wasn’t enough
medical around. I saw running medical personal
and some on bicycles. The entire medical
staff was supplied by Baylor University which has a top notch medical facility,
nothing but the best for us runners.
After the race I retrieved my bag and went to the convention center
where I was able to stretch before I headed back home. It was a really good experience overall and I
really appreciate the effort of the volunteers and the organizers. You can never thank them enough.
For supper I
did the cooking and we went to the Texas Roadhouse, one of my favorite
restaurants. What could be better than
to have Texas beef in Texas at the Texas Roadhouse?
One of the
things I really appreciated about this trip was that I didn’t have to drive
forever after the race. I was able to
sleep in the next morning and I even went for another four mile shakeout
run. I couldn’t resist. The sun was shining the birds were sings and
the signs of Christmas were everywhere.
Later that afternoon I got dropped off at the airport and caught my
flight to Chicago and then to Winnipeg.
Everything was on time and went off without a hitch.
Marathon
number sixteen is in the books and what could have potentially been a disaster
with losing my wallet turned into a great trip and reinforced that there are
great people in this world that give of themselves to make a bad situation
good. I also wanted to take the opportunity
to say thank you to all those who have supported Siloam Mission on my
behalf. I was just informed that as of
December 3 we have raised $26,127.73. I was floored when I
received that number this morning and I don’t know who all of you are but I can’t
say enough thankyou’s to everyone who has donated. You are helping to make this Christmas
special for someone else.
This weekend there is a group that
is running somewhere around 50 KM’s and I will be joining for as long as I can
with the intent of dropping off donations to Siloam Mission from the running
community. Runners in the
Storm 4. The Force Awakens Winnipeg! 52.7k fun run or bike. Hosted by Junel Malapad. You can see it on Facebook.
