Bad Information = Bad Planning

We worked the Little Rock Expo, advertising The Rocket City Race Weekend (we are moving to a two-day event with a 5K and 10K on Saturday, and TWO half marathons and the full marathon on Sunday).

--Okay, I know some of you reading will be wondering...why two half marathons? Well, our half marathon has always been the "BACK" half of the marathon course. That's the part of the course that runs through the Space and Rocket Center and Botanical Gardens. We have to limit the number of runners who can register for that race because we can't flood the back half of the course with too many people. So we worked to make the front half VERY interesting and fun so that we could bring in more people to our wonderful city.... 

Back to my Little Rock Marathon race report...

If you read "Part 1" you know I thought I had done my due diligence in gathering information with regard to doing/not doing an early start at the Little Rock Marathon. 

Years ago Little Rock didn't have an early start at all...everyone started at the same time... which meant the police were out there a VERY long time for the slowest runners. They have a slogan "the race for all paces" because for years they basically didn't have a cut-off. They might move you to the sidewalk, but they wouldn't cut anyone off (at least I had never heard of anyone being cut off). A few years ago they implemented the "early start" for anyone who was going to finish in "MORE than six and a half hours"...saying the cutoff for the regular start was 6 hours. I was caught up in that the last time I did the marathon. I was thinking I would be right at 6 hours and had no idea when I should start so I went with the regular start. I think I finished in JUST SLIGHTLY over 6 hours (and still got a listed finish time).

This year it was ever so slightly clearer-6 hours or less meant a regular start, over 6 hours meant an early start. But I really wasn't sure how we'd finish. I was figuring 5:45-6:15. So I went to the early start meeting and got information...They said early starters were ABSOLUTELY NOT ALLOWED to pass the 6 hour pacers-AT ANY TIME, even at the finish. They also said the "hard cutoff" was at mile 19.2 and was going to be at 12:45pm. That meant with a regular start we had to maintain, at the very least, an average pace per mile of 14:50. I figured there was NO WAY we'd miss that. And, I was right...but...

Well...let me back up and explain why they won't allow early starters to pass the 6 hour pacer (who starts early). That pacer "opens" the race. The police stay in front of the front runner...the schedule of police working the intersections and the aid stations are based on a 6 hour pace starting at 7am. If a faster runner were to get out in front of the 6 hour pacer the police would not be ready at intersections and the aid stations wouldn't be open and ready to go on time. It would set up a very unsafe situation.

If you are a runner and a mathematician you can figure out the leaders of the regular start would overtake the 6 hour early start pace group but that doesn't happen until about mile 18. It's MUCH easier for the sake of having easy to follow rules to say "early starters may not EVER pass the 6 hour pacer" rather than allowing that rule to be fuzzy. I understand and can respect that rule. I can also fully understand why there is a cutoff time on the course. It's at the perfect spot...at 19.2 the course turns left and does a VERY VERY VERY long out and back along the river. Not meeting that cutoff time allows the runners to be turned so the course can be shut down. Totally reasonable. I thought 12:45 was VERY generous...and it turns out it was "too" generous...

But let me start at the beginning

I met my friend in the last corral...where I was supposed to be. She was actually supposed to be further up based on her projected finish time of something like 4:30. Since she had run Snickers the day before she had planned on taking her time with me and just having "fun" running back-to-back marathons. She had never been that far back in a marathon before so she was enjoying the antics that happen with the people who are out there getting our money's worth (costumes of all sorts!). The gun went off and we crawled to the start. 

The race was smaller this year so it didn't take nearly as long to get to the line and before we knew it we were off. We started out next to the 5:45 pace group (there was NOT a 6 hour sweeper/pace group) but we quickly realized that group was NOT running a 5:45 pace so we didn't try to stay with them. We settled into an easy run. Mile 1 12:26. Mile 2 12:45. Mile 3 13:20. Mile 4 12:11. The course was different this year than the other 3 times I've run it so it was fun to try to figure out where we were. I realized we were close to the school I went to in the 2nd grade so I regaled my friend with stories of how my brother and I would walk to a school that we lived almost right beside only to be bussed across town. One day we missed the bus so we set out to walk there. We found a little (TINY) mom and pop store where we spent $.25 of our $1 lunch money to buy a Hershey bar... We started skipping school after that when were realized no one seemed to miss us at school that day! (We did eventually get caught!)

Mile 5 we came upon a friend of my friend's so we started running with her. That mile was 13:39. That was the mile we "stopped" at the first aid station of the day...I got the LAST cup they had! And, they were out of Gatorade! That was NOT a good sign. There were literally hundreds of people behind us. Mile 6 was 14:08...so I told my friend we had to leave her friend so we could stay on our pace target. Mile 7 12:47. 

Mile 8 takes runners back over the Arkansas River bridge....13:45. Dwayne was messaging the whole time giving us updates on our predicted finish time. We were WAY ahead...and at that point VERY (VERY) glad we didn't start early (forcing us to slow down from our overall pace thus far). Mile 9 12:39. 

Mile 10 has one little stinger of a climb and goes past the School of Law. I couldn't help but remember my high school self dreaming of going to Law School there. It's obviously changed a lot but I was flooded with memories. We also had a potty stop...14:00. Mile 11 we made up some time with a 12:29 split. However, we encountered another aid station that was out of Gatorade! This was shocking...it was a hot day and this was too early in the race to run out! 

Mile 12 takes runners by the governor's Mansion--the Governor was actually outside taking photos with people!! I (we) didn't stop because there were a few people waiting to get pictures but how cool that he was out there!! There's some elevation gain there and we were feeling the lack of Gatorade at that point. That mile was 14:04.

Mile 13 seemed like it was faster but we had lost the half marathoners at the split, it was HOT, and we were climbing. The course goes by Central High School--famous because in 1957 the Governor of Arkansas actually brought in the Arkansas Army National Guard to prevent school desegregation. My dad was actually one of the National Guardsmen who was there carrying out the Governor's orders. (Shame on them.) That mile was 13:49. Mile 14 13:54...I was getting worried. We had seen too many miles over the 6 hour pace but Dwayne was messaging our predicted finish and we were still on target for about 5:45ish so we were doing fine. 

Mile 15 is really where the Marathon truly begins...that mile takes runner by the Capitol Building and just beyond that is where the wonderful climbing begins. The Capitol Building is so impressive to me. It's an exact miniature replica of our nation's capital! I love seeing it and LOVE "running" past it in this race. I remember thinking on this day it was the hottest LRM I'd been to. What's "funny" is that they had been calling for storms ALL WEEK LONG. I honestly expected the race to be canceled, or for us to be pulled off the course because the storms were predicted to be BAD. We had maybe 4 drops of rain. At that point I was praying the sky would open up on us just to cool us off! We were slowing WAY DOWN but I expected this and had accounted for it...15:19. Looking at the time of day we needed to cover JUST over 4 more miles and we had like 90 minutes. We had PLENTY of time to make the 12:45 cutoff at 19.2...

Mile 16-18 is the most challenging part of the course. That's the long slow climb that makes you understand why LRM has a dinner plate sized medal!! THIS is where you really earn it. On this day I started wishing we had actually started early-not so much for the additional time as much as for getting us out of the heat 2 hours sooner! 16-16:23. Mile 17 14:07. 

Then mile 18...I was telling my friend this was the hardest part of the whole race but we were WELL ahead of that 12:45 cutoff time at mile 19.2. So she stopped at a potty for an apparently very necessary "visit". By my watch we lost 4 minutes there...but, again, we had like 30 minutes to cover a mile (point two). We were golden even though that mile was our slowest of the day at 17:27. 

Mile 18 to 19 the course goes through Allsopp Park and is a fairly steep(ish) downhill section that leads to the LONG out and back along the river. When I was in high school and college this park had a VERY bad reputation for being filled with drugs! It's a VERY pretty park actually. It's strange because you feel like you are in the middle of the woods there, not in the middle of a major city! That mile I was feeling really good...we were coming up on 19.2, we had PLENTY of time to make that 12:45 cutoff, we were both feeling decent enough to pick up the pace on the flat section so we could make up lost time to make the 6 hour cutoff...SWEET! The biggest complaint was that several aid stations had been out of Gatorade and the gels we expected were NOT at the aid stations! Mile 19 was 13:35.

The course crosses a major road, goes up and over a little "bridge", then turns left at the 19.2 mile aid station to start that LONG out and back... When we were on top of the "bridge" we could see the aid station...we had right at 15 minutes...SWEET!!

Just then a city vehicle sped past us and pulled sideways at the bottom of the little hill, the guy got out of the car and said something to the volunteer...my heart sank... The volunteer pointed to his left (our right) and told the 2 runners in front of us they had to turn...then told us the same thing. 

HOW DID WE MISS THE CUTOFF WHEN WE WERE SUPPOSED TO HAVE ALMOST 15 MINUTES??????? 

I did NOT want to argue with the volunteer-he was just doing what he was told. It was a city vehicle so maybe there was something I didn't know? The aid station was to the left. I considered saying "hey, we need water (and hopefully Gatorade if they weren't out)" and then quietly continue on our way...but that felt very WRONG to me to "sneak" past this volunteer who was just doing what he was told.

I pulled out my phone and called Dwayne to tell him that we had gotten turned...we missed the cutoff and were now DQ/DNFs. That call was placed at 12:33, after we had turned and started walking. (This is important...)

My friend was PISSED. I was devastated. I am the one who made the decision for us to skip the early start. I felt like I must have somehow gotten the cutoff time wrong. I wasn't thinking clearly enough to check my text message to Dwayne. But even if I had checked it right then I still would not have argued with the volunteer. 

We walked all the way to the lipstick stop (LRM has a lipstick station right before the finish line where they give free lipstick and they have a mirror for you to apply it...so you'll look good for the finish line)! Thanks to the idea from a wonderful Marathon Maniac who goes by the name "Lipstick Lady"! Then we ran in to get our 21.81 mile medal with a DQ story.

My friend said she would never to LRM again, but I told her this was a one-off kind of thing...I LOVE that race almost like she loves RCM. She caught them on a bad day-running out of cups at that early aid station, running out of Gatorade, us getting turned on the course by the volunteer...those were not the normal LRM experience!

Later I checked my text message to Dwayne--I was right, it said 12:45...I also went back to the race instruction email...the one that said the cutoff for the regular start was 6 hours (14:53 pace) AND it said the 19.2 mile cutoff was 12:33....

Here's my BIGGEST mistake...it wasn't that I relied on the information given in the meeting. It wasn't that I didn't start us early. It wasn't that I didn't speed us up along the way. It wasn't that I didn't argue with the volunteer. It wasn't that I didn't find a way to sneak around the volunteer who told us to turn. It was that I didn't VERIFY the cutoff time. The information in the instruction email regarding the cutoff pace was wrong and that was clarified in the meeting...I should have clarified the cutoff time rather than just taking what was said without asking. That is on me.

Running out of cups and Gatorade...I blame the weather! :

At the end of the day I still love this race. I don't know if I'll do the marathon again, but most likely I will. I will just make sure I'm trained up enough to not get caught in the early/regular start delima. I'm also going to recommend that they have a 6 hour pacer/sweeper at the end of the regular start. That would have saved us. 

Probably most important...this experience gave me some very good lessons learned for a potential early start option for Rocket City Marathon!!

Thanks for stopping in and sticking around. I know this was long...but so was the race! :D

When a Race Goes WRONG

Little Rock Marathon has this early start thing...if you are going to finish between 6 and 8 hours you start at 6am. If you are going to finish in under 6 hours you start at 8. Well...I was planning on a 5:45ish finish, but I was going to be running with a friend who was planning to run a PR marathon the day before at Snickers. She had not told her coach (not me) that she was going to do back-to-back marathons. I really wasn't sure what that might do to our race day. She assured me she was down to do whatever I wanted (early start and make it a 6-8 hour day or regular start and make it sub 6). I figured I would be good for a 5:45 on a good day but 6:15 on a bad day. 

So I asked questions...

When I picked up my bib I went to the "Bless Your Heart" booth (so cute to call it that)....and asked for some details on the early start. I was told that the most crucial thing is that early starters MUST NOT pass the 6 hour pacer (who starts with the early starters) because that pace group "opens" the course. I said at some point the regular starters would pass that group. The lady said that wasn't until about mile 18...and at that point it would be fine to go ahead of the 6 hour pacers. So I thought an early start would probably be great-hold us back a bit early on and then after the hilly section (at about mile 19) we'd turn it on and finish sub 6 (even if not by much). The lady said it's really hard to hold back when you are fresh on the front half but I figured that might be the better option.

So a little while later I went to the early start meeting. (In order to be in the early start you have to have a special bib...I wanted to gather all the information before pulling that trigger.)

In the meeting they said if you were to join the early start you ARE NOT EVER allowed to pass the 6 hour pacer...even at the finish line...and if you had an early start bib but end with a sub 6 hour time you would be DQd. (This was NOT what I was told earlier, but the lady who told me this was in the room so I figured she was wrong since the RD was giving the information.)

Earlier in the week they had sent out written instructions. In that email it said the early start was for 6 hour or slower finishers and that the cutoff for the general start was 6 hours (must be faster than 14:53 pace).

From the instructions:

Well, a 6 hour pace is really like 13:40...so that question was asked in the meeting. They said basically they made a mistake in the instructions (I get it...instructions are copied from one year to the next and sometimes new information gets missed). They clarified and reiterated-slower than 6 hour finishers need to early start.

So I asked the question...if I'm having a good day I'll be 5:45. If I'm having a bad day it will be 6:15. Given the fact early starters are NEVER allowed to pass the 6 hour pacer (who starts early) I really wasn't sure if I should start early or at the regular time.

This is the CRUCIAL point in time where my race day plan was formed, and WHY my race went VERY WRONG....

They said there are 3 cutoff points but the first two are more for the half marathoners (therefore much slower than the full marathoners would need to be at that point in the race). The 3rd cutoff point was at mile 19.2. They said that is a HARD cutoff...if you miss that one you will be turned (cutting the race short for you). You'd still get to finish, you'd get a medal, but you would be DQd in the results.

They SAID that cutoff time of day was going to be 12:45. He said it was based off the 8 hour pacer (who starts early and is the last person to cross the early start line...then they add buffer time; he said it was based on an 18:18 pace...plus buffer time). I made a point to text that information to Dwayne to figure out the pace we'd have to have in order to make that cutoff point in time if we were to start at 8...

text to Dwayne

TriCalc app info

Based on that information, and talking with my friend, we decided we had plenty of time to make the 12:45 cutoff starting at 8 and we'd make sure we had a sub 6 hour finish.

Here's the thing about Little Rock-the first maybe 15 miles are mostly flat (flat-ish). Then there's a hill that is literally like a mile long--and NOT a gradual climb, and there are several hills after that until mile 19. But at mile 19 there's a LONG out and back that is super flat, there's one hill and then the finish. So you will likely lose time between 15 and 19 but you can make up a good bit of time from 19-26 if you have properly paced the first 15 and don't kill yourself on the hills. Armed with the 12;45 cutoff I figured we'd have no problems at all.

Well...I was right, but... (cue sinister music)

To Be Continued.... stick around for my race report....

When Expectations are Too High...

After Mercedes Half Marathon I planned to run the Cowtown Marathon in Ft Worth. I had heard so many great things about this race that I had built up my expectations for what it might be. The biggest expectation I had was for the medal. When I signed up there weren't any pictures of the medal on their website. Because of that I didn't sign up for the marathon, nor did I sign up for one of the extra races (5 or 10K) to make it a "challenge". The medals from their previous races that had really caught my eye were like giant charms of a cowboy hat, and a cowboy boot.  I can't even express to you how much I wanted THESE medals. I would have paid extra for either of THESE medals.

See...when I say I run for the medal, I'm not joking. I LOVE really awesome medals. In ADDITION, I would like to have a great registration shirt, SWAG is nice and an interesting course is ranked among the top reasons I will do a race. 

I was apprehensive when there was no photo of the medal at Cowtown, but I figured it had to be special given the boot and hat the years before...

I was WRONG. SO WRONG.

Cowtown apparently does "series" events where if you sign up for each year in the series you get a medal that fits into a series....this year was a puzzle piece. It had a photo of some iconic building on the course (I really didn't look too closely at it to even know what the building is...it's not special to me in any way). Getting more puzzle pieces is not NEARLY enough motivation for me to go back again in this series. To say I was disappointed is a SERIOUS understatement. That factor aside, the course was pretty fun. You run through the Stockyards and by the river and downtown. It's not flat but it wasn't soul-crushing hilly either. 

Before starting I was looking at the finisher area map and saw a place where we were supposed to pick up our "Finisher jacket". As I was running in what had to be the hottest half marathon I've ever been in* I kept thinking "finisher jacket".

Let me take a side step here...back in 2019 when we were trying to figure out what we were going to give away at the Rocket City Marathon for our finisher gift we got a sample of a finisher jacket from a company called Leslie Jordan...it was a quarter zip jacket that is one of my all time favorite long sleeve running "shirts". It has a multi-colored bull on the front and it says "Cowtown Marathon" on the back. This is one of the first things that made me even look into Cowtown in the first place. We gave the same type of jacket away for our finisher gift that year based on how much I love that "shirt" (jacket? ...it's not really what I would call a jacket). Well....we also got a "rally jacket" sample from Cowtown that I had seen at several races. It's a "one size fits most" full zip hooded jacket with knit cuffs. It looks awesome, but it's really kind of what I call a "prop"...it looks good from afar, but it's not really impressive up close. It seems as though you wouldn't be able to wash it (I've never tried). I saw maybe 50-75 at the start line and the first mile as "throw aways"...items people will wear to a start line and then toss away. (Many races, ours included, will collect these items, wash them, and donate them to homeless shelters.) It's a fair amount of money to spend on a throw away item IMO.

Well...they did give a rally jacket...which I found myself being disappointed with. Not just because I had one already but because of my expectation was really high and I had already been let down by the puzzle piece medal. They did give a finisher shirt which I have worn a couple of times. It's a soft short sleeve shirt. It's a v-neck which I don't care for...I won't wear it out to advertise the race...honestly I thought their registration shirt was better than their finisher shirt....but that falls under "you can't please everyone".

I can't even tell you what their post-race food was like. I know they had ice cream sandwiches (couldn't eat them because of the dairy and gluten), fruit (standard bananas and tangerines) and beer (2 beers for a half marathoner) which I gave away and little bags of chips. Maybe that was different from pre-covid post-race food?

I left Ft Worth with an overall feeling of let down....except we LOVED the food (we ate BBQ twice and freakishly good tacos) and I did enjoy the course (I could have done without running on brick roads, but that's required in order to run through the Stockyards so it's a good trade!).

However, even saying I felt let down, I would certainly recommend the race with one little caveat...take your own gels. I went to the pre-race meeting where they told where aid stations would be and when Gu would be given...they did NOT have Gu where they said they would and I was NOT properly prepared because I trusted them to do what they said they would do. But, honestly, that alone isn't enough for me to not recommend doing a race.

My letdown was 100% a case of having expectations that were too high. The fact was they didn't advertise anything they didn't give (well, okay, they didn't have Gu where they said they would at the pre-race meeting....). Overall it was a fun race-TONS OF PEOPLE which is always fun. I think the very best part of the race was the finish...I was DRAINED by then (too little fuel and it was HOT)...for about the last .2 miles there were SO MANY spectators along the route I felt like I was running into the finish at Boston!!

Bottom line for me and the biggest lessons learned for our race is to clearly advertise what we are giving and then go above and beyond--under promise and over deliver. And, you can't go backwards-once you have some amazing thing (medal, finisher gift) you can't give some sub-standard thing!!

Thanks for stopping by and sticking around. Next up I'll tell you about how WRONG my race went at the Little Rock Marathon... :(