Dallas Rock N Roll Half Marathon 2018 - Race Report

The Dalls RNR Half Marathon was a race that I've done many times due to me being on Team Chocolate Milk. I get a free bib, vip access, and Dallas is a great place to visit.

It is a long drive, 4 hours, which I'm not a big fan but we got to stop and eat at alot of places along the way. We found this cool BBQ stand on the side of the road and Ana and I shared a bbq chopped beef sandwhich which was excellent.

After another 2 hours we stopped at Bakers Street Bakery and got some cookies and rested up a little more before the hour drive to the expo.

The expo was kinda weird with me not being able to find the bib. They usually have it for me at the bib pick up but I instead got a sheet telling me to go to the Toyota booth for my bib. Headed to the toyota booth and they had no idea what I was talking about. We finally circled around to the solutions desk to wear they had it. After that everything else went smoothly and we headed over to check in to our hotel room and see what all I got at the expo.

Wanting to fill our bellies after the long drive and expo we headed over to Breakers Korean BBQ to get an all you can eat experience of KBBQ. If you've never been you definitely have to go cause this was absolutely delicious! 

With our bellies full and glycogen stores also full we headed to back to the hotel to get everything ready for the race.

THE RACE

Mile 1-3

Everything is feeling pretty good these first 3 miles. The weather is in the 60s and the humidity was probably about 60-70 percent. Although I wanted to get a time of less than 2:20 my comfortable pace was at a 11 min mile which meant I wouldnt reach it and I was OK with that. 

Miles 4-7

We hit the bridge and I started to walk but was still maintaining a 11 minute pace. It was pretty cool to see all the runners on the bridge and the fog was kinda mysteriously beautiful. 

Miles 7-10

Things start to fall off. I'm walking alot more and my pace has dropped to a 12-13 min mile pace. I'm not quite dying but I'm struggling

Mile 11-13.1

The 2:30 pacer paces me up and I'm thinking "WHAT THE HECK JEREMY" So I keep pace with the pacer and the group. Running with the pacer just makes everything easier. I don't have to think of my pace I just have to keep up and thats what I did. During the last mile I ask the pacer to let me know when I'm a half mile from the finish line and she tells me that I'm at that point now. I pick up the pace and finish strong only slowing down to get some video of the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders right at the end. 

Good race but I'm feeling a little out of shape running wise. I've been powerlifting ALOT recently and I feel alot more healthier. Hopefully my running will pick up some without losing too much strength. 

Check out my videos of the roadtrip and the race below.

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Dallas Rock N Roll Half Marathon 2014 - Race Report

Ever since I ran the Gusher marathon 2 weeks ago I've been feeling really good. I didn't know exactly how good until I ran the Dallas Rock N Roll Half Marathon. Lets start from the beginning.

Team Chocolate Milk has been good to me and I'm so lucky I was also able to get my friends on the team as now whenever there is a race that is reachable by car we all make the journey to it. Y'all know I love me some chocolate milk as a recovery drink and also as a tasty treat but more on that later.

We arrived in Dallas on Friday and the forecast kept calling for rain over the weekend and we had a 30% chance of rain with some crazy winds predicted. So we were all very worried about that. On Saturday night my friend Angela set up a carbo loading dinner at Neo's pizza in downtown Dallas. It was a great time with some good friends and yummy pizza.

GoPRO Video:  You can read my race report or watch my videos of the race. Enjoy

Part I

Part II

Race day

Woke up at 4 am and got ourselves ready to head over to the race. The Dallas RnR marathon like most RnR races is a point to point race so we had to park at the finish line and shuttle ourselves to the start line. We were rushed because we all had to meet our fellow Got Chocolate Milk Teammates at the start line for a photo before hand. But we made it just in time.

After the Team Chocolate milk photo we got together with all the locals and Golden Triangle Strutters running the race and took a team pic with all of us! Again it's so great to be running these races with friends!

Miles 1 - 4

So we get our countdown and we are off to start our 13.1 mile journey through Dallas, Texas. The only problem was my watch never found signal so I had no idea my pace. I've run a few races without a watch and I was running with my GoPro so I would be taking it easy to record my experience. The problem with the GoPro was that the record button was acting finicky. I had to stop multiple times to take out the battery to stop recording and then try just about anything to get it to start recording. Like blowing on it (nintendo cartridge style), pressing the button a million times until it recorded, and lastly pure luck. To say I was fed up with electronics that day would be an understatement. The first 4 miles did go by well and I felt strong running through downtown.

Miles 5 - 9

Although my watch isn't working I can see my pace as I pass each mile marker and I'm seeing that I'm running in the low 9's which is pretty good for me. Especially considering I'm stopping multiple times to record the funny signs and try to get my GoPro to work. We make our way through some really nice neighborhoods and the route is hilly but its really not too bad especially with all the cheering from the crowds. I also notice the wind which was suppose to be horrible that day really wasn't anything more than a light breeze. Perfect running temps in my opinion.

Miles 10 - 11

Still feeling great as I'm still doing the stop and go method of running to take pics and mess with the GoPro.  At about mile 11 I catch up to my friend Tara and then to a 12 y/o kid named Julius. They are both struggling a little bit so I go into pacer mode to try to help them get to the finish line. Julius actually tells me that he's seen my past GoPro videos online so that was a pretty neat for me, knowing that people actually watch my running videos!! I told him that if he ran ahead of us, he could finish under 2 hours. He then sprints ahead and then tires out. When Tara and I catch up to him again, I tell him to stay with us.

Miles 12 - 13.1

Feeling it a little bit more as now I'm pacing my peeps to the finish line. We enter the fair grounds and I tell them that we have less than 9 minutes of running left. Right before the finish line the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders are there cheering. I wanted to get them in the video so I tell Tara to finish ahead of me so I can stop to record the cheerleaders. She finishes strong and after I get the cheerleaders on my GoPro I cross the finish line in 2:03:30!

Woah I almost broke 2 hours! Thats with me stopping 10 or more times during the race and doing a lot more interviews than I usually do. This was my best half marathon this year by about 10 minutes!  I definitely found my running mojo during that race and especially after my last marathon.

So whats with the Team REFUEL gear in all my pics? Well I'm a Team Chocolate Milk member and I truly love the stuff not only for my recovery but also as my every day beverage of choice when I'm looking for a tasty drink. The benefits of it for your after is for hydration, it gets that perfect carb/protein ratio back in ya to rebuild your muscles, replenish your nutrients and electrolytes, and it taste great. Team Chocolate Milk is the perfect team for me because I believe in its benefits and with my experience I've recovered much better after drinking low-fat chocolate milk right after my workouts. Join me on the team and apply here: http://gotchocolatemilk.com/team-chocolate-milk/apply

Thanks for reading my race report.

Did you run the RnR Dallas Half marathon? How'ed you do? Write me a comment below telling me about your race.

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Dallas Rock N Roll Half Marathon 2014 - Trailer preview

Had a great time in Dallas with friends and even managed to get some of my running mojo back. I felt strong literally the whole race and might have even come close to PR'ing if I didn't bring the GoPro out. I'll write a full race report in the coming days but for now enjoy the trailer footage that I made. :)

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Dallas Rock n Roll Half Marathon 2013 race report

I had a blast helping my friend Buddy run his first half marathon in under 2 hours. I planned a strategy that would get us there and stuck to it. Check out the video to see how we did:

PART I:

PART II:

It was a freezing day to run but I do well in cold temps. I'll have to come back and run the race again.

Do you want to run a Rock n Roll race too? Find out if there is one coming to your area by checking out the Rock n Roll website : http://runrocknroll.competitor.com/san-diego

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Dallas Rock n Roll Half Marthon 2012: Race report

This race report really begins in January when my good friend Ivy started coming out to the Golden Triangle Strutter runs that I lead. She is an avid tennis player and wanted to get into running as another outlet for all her energy. We started out walk/running but pretty soon she was able to cut the walking out and just run the whole 3.5 mile course. During our runs she had asked me about the races I've done so I told her all my stories. She seemed to be interested in doing a half so I had told her if she wanted to do one I would pace her through the whole thing.  Once that seed was planted she got excited and agreed to start looking for one. She wanted to do a big race and we found the Dallas RnR Half Marathon on March 25.  3 months? Half marathon? Newbie runner? I told Ivy it could be done and she nervously agreed to it. Through the next 3 months I had trained  her to do a 5k then a 10k and then our longest run, 3 weeks before the race ,was a 9 miler. She did well on her 9 miles doing it in an average pace around a 11:50 and I had no doubt she could complete the 13.1 miles in Dallas.

Initially it was only going to be me pacing Ivy but my brother, William, decided last minute that he was going to join in on the fun. Race day had arrived and we all start getting dressed in our 80's workout gear! 80's workout gear??? Yup that's right Ivy wanted to dress up for for the race so we put on our head bands, bright sunglasses, short shorts and headed down to the race start. Ivy had signed up to be charity runner for the Susan G. Komen foundation and there was a VIP meetup and breakfast with pictures before hand. The organizer told me and Willie to join in the pics so we got in there and hammed it up for cameras. Ivy also ended up being the number 9 top running fundraiser out of the 100+ people fundraising so that was pretty awesome, congrats to her for that. After all the pre racing events we headed out to our corral and waited anxiously for the start of race.

My plan for Ivy was to get her across with a goal time of 2:40 - 2:50 but mainly to have fun and finish. The race is started in waves and since we were in corral 13 we had a good while to wait before our wave started. 

Miles 1-2 

We finally get our countdown and are off!! Willie and I initially have a little trouble finding the correct pacing but soon settle in. There is not one cloud in the sky and the sun and heat are bearing down on us it was going to be a tough day for a race. I notice Ivy is sweating a lot in her outfit so I tell her to make sure she gets adequate amount of hydration during all the water/Gatorade stops. Our outfits were a big hit during the run and we had lots of spectators cheering us on.

Miles 3 - 5

We start hitting some hills on the course and since Southeast Texas is flat as a pancake we had absolutely no hill training. She had a rough time but was powering through them. Around mile 5 Ivy tells me that she is starting to have some lower leg pain on her left leg. She's never had this pain before and I'm suspecting it might be her IT band acting up due to the hills. She says she can deal with it and we continue running strong during these miles.

Miles 6 - 8

Ivy's left leg is really starting to bother her and I tell her we should stop and try to stretch it out. It doesn't really help and she starts to tear up telling me she wanted to run the whole race and not stop or walk. Willie and I give her hugs and tell her not to worry about it and that we will get her across no matter what. Other runners also stop to console her telling her there is no shame in walking and that she can finish it. We start moving again and Ivy is giving it her all with every step trying her best to keep at a running pace. Around mile 8 I see Ivy writhing in pain with every step forward so we make the decision to stop at a medical tent to see if they can wrap up her knee to relieve some of the pain. We leave the medical tent and she tries to run again but all she can manage is a walk and we tell her its OK we will just walk until she can run again. Willie and I also tell her our own stories about our first half marathons and how it was a struggle for us to finish. We tell her how we walked many of the last miles in pain and that all the pain and struggling makes crossing that 13.1 mile line all the more sweeter.

Miles 9 - 12

Ivy smiling through the pain for the camera.

Ivy is really struggling during these miles. But one of my Dailymile friends, Tim Taggert, meets up with us at mile 9 to help pace Ivy which gave her a bit of a boost knowing that he is out there for her. He also joins in on motivating her to keep on moving with his race stories. Around mile 10 some runners offer her advil and with all the pain that she is in, she accepts their offer and take it. Still in pain not much after she takes the advil we stop at another medical tent to get her legged wrapped in ice. The ice seems to help and she is walking a bit faster and tells me she wants to run when she gets closer to the finish line. 

MILES 13 - 13.1

With the fair grounds in sight Ivy starts to run a bit and we are all there motivating her to keep it up. I tell her to give me 5 more minutes of running and she'll be done and be a half marathoner. She is in grimacing pain but keeps on moving forward. Other runners, who have finished, are cheering her on and telling her she's almost done. With the finish line in sight we are all yelling/motivating Ivy to finish strong. As we cross I'm pointing at her cause this moment isn't about me its about this first time half marathoner that we helped on her journey across these hilly Dallas streets for 13.1 miles. We all give her hugs, Ivy has tears in her eyes, its a great moment.  Ivy has become a half marathoner!!!

Pacing a half marathon rather than racing one was a totally different experience. Both are rewarding but pacing another runner to their goals was just as great a feeling as one can get. Congrats IVY!!

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