Fort Worth Marathon

After running laps at the track on Saturday, I drove up to Fort Worth for the Fort Worth Marathon on Sunday. I ran the race last year and finished in 5:37:11. With the hamstring problem this year, I thought it would be closer to 6 hours. Was I wrong! It finished 7:09:25. The pain was constant for the entire time. I got so far behind that the aid stations were virtually all closed after 10 miles. The temperature got into the 80's and I had to scrounge for water to make it in. Most of the course was on a concrete or asphalt sidewalk along the Trinity River. Even my MP3 player would not work right. It was stuck on one Texas Tornados song. After hearing it for 10 times, I turned it off and went without music. I suppose a sane person would have quit. However, I have run 563 races and have never dropped out. It's a streak within my streak. To my surprize, they kept the finish line open and gave me an official time and a finishers medal, which can be removed from the ribbon and used as a belt buckle.
After the race, Marilynn and I drove through Dallas and over to Wylie to visit my son and his family. We spent Sunday night there and drove back to Huntsville late this morning. I got back in time to submit my bi-monthly column to the Huntsville Item and go to the doctor for my hamstring treatment. Later this evening, I went to the track and ran laps.