Miracle Match Marathon 10K - The Lieutenant - Race Report

If you put a bib on, regardless of how fast you go, you've said to yourself, "I think I'm going to run this one for fun."

Yeah right.

Unless you're pacing somebody or running with another runner that might be doing their first race or one at a specific distance, it is hard to deny that part of your DNA.

After running a strong 10K in Lumberton on Saturday, that was my mentality going into today's 10K at the Miracle Match Marathon in Waco.

In fact, I was even going to reach out to Nancy Goodnight, the race director, to see if I could switch to the half marathon.  (There would not have been any Jacob's Ladder if I did as I would have tried to have raced it as much as I could have.)

Nevertheless, I remained at the 10K distance.

I had seen some pre-race messaging from about 10 days ago that the course was going to have to be re-routed because the Brazos River has been so high, but it turned out not to be needed.  More on that later.

After I arrived, I saw Hung Hoang from Houston, got my race packet and then a pre-race hug from the race director, I went back out to my car to warm-up for a little bit.

I watched Bill and Mindy Schroeder arrive and get out of their car.  Bill and Mindy were Houston Striders when I was first starting to run 15-16 years ago.

They lived in Kingwood at the time, but have called the Austin area home for many, many years.

We talked for a little bit and it is always good to see them both.

I finally decided to head back in the Waco Convention Center to await the start and stay warm.

I saw Iram Leon, his wife, Elaine, daughter Kiana and his parents.

They combined to win the marathon relay in 2:56:45 while his parents - Ascencion and Martha - both finished third in their age group in the 10K.

Pre-race, I was resting on a couch that had been brought in by an exhibitor that was hosting some type of honeymoon vacation expo.

I was rather relaxed and wishing I could have such a luxury at every race I participated in.

As I was waiting, I had a chance to see and visit with Andrew Wolfe with PhotoWolfe.com.

He and his wife, Megan, who call Round Rock home, shot a number of Run In Texas races for Bill Gardner and his wife, Karen.

We had a great conversation and he told me that he had recently taken up running and ran 3M last week.  (I just looked it up and he - and his wife - ran a nice time of 2:07:12.)

The weather wasn't terribly cold, but it was a little damp.

I decided to stay inside the Convention Center until I started to see runners move across the start line -- an even better perk than Houston!

It was 58 seconds after the gun went off before I was one of the last ones to cross the start line.  How did I know that it was 58?  Well, the official results display gun time, which differ from my watch which is "chip time".

The first mile is pancake flat.  We run east about half way to the Ferrell Center before we take a hard right and start to make our way through the Baylor University campus.

Mile 1 was 9:30.80.

I ran steady - through and around a lot of people - and I wasn't really racing, so I was pleased thinking that this was my new normal or baseline.

Just after crossing underneath I-35, I saw Breanna Waldrup and Andrew Olson.  They had run the Texas Marathon three weeks ago in Kingwood.

As mile two started, the racing adrenaline started to kick in a little.

It is always nice to run through the Baylor campus.

It made me think about the struggles that my good friends Richard and Amie James are having with the city of Beaumont in that the city should be doing everything possible to showcase their town for people that decide to come and run it.

I knew that I probably wasn't going to have everything that I had the day before, but by the time we made it to mile two - back out on University Parks Drive - I had posted a mile of 9:16.65.

Hmmm.

The water station was right in front of the Mayborn Museum Complex before we turned right and headed over a foot bridge that led over to McLane Stadium, which was ensconced in fog.

Wearing my Liberty running shirt (one of three of them, I should say), I was a little fired up, of course, still from the 48-45 win over Baylor from late August 2017.

Around the stadium we went, and then made a left just before the pedestrian bridge, and headed to the Clyde Hart Track and Field Stadium.

At some point, we passed mile three and it was 10:39.09.

I was a little discouraged in that even though we came over the bridge, I didn't think that I trailed off that bad - including walking through the water station.

Remember, Jon, you said that you were going to run this for fun, right?

After passing the Track and Field Stadium with it on your left, we headed back toward the Pedestrian Bridge.

Was it right that I kept teasing the volunteers with, "Go Flames!  Beat Baylor!"?

Nonetheless, after coming off the bridge, I could see the mile four marker and I finished off that mile in 9:10.29.

Then it is where things get fun.

If Nancy Goodnight ever puts on a race that is completely devoid of any type of incline, hill, ramp or bridge, somebody have her head examined!

So you go down a short incline only to immediately bear to the left towards the Brazos up another one and then you begin to run along the Riverwalk, heading west back towards the start/finish area.

The degree of difficulty was a little greater than in two years ago when it was just clear, cold and sunny.

Since the Brazos River had receded enough to allow for all participants to run on the Riverwalk, there were sections that were muddy so much so that you had to focus on picking your feet up - as if you were avoiding the trail roots at Huntsville State Park.

The mile five marker was up closer than it probably should have been as that mile came through at 7:49.39.

Ah, no way.  Not from my legs.

Then after you get through all of the mud, well, you have to get back up to ground level.

Well, that's five back-to-back inclines up, then cross over the bridge, do a U-turn to the left to go back down to the river level, turn to the right for a short out and back and then head back east to the next bridge - the famous Suspension Bridge - that takes you into the finish.

When we passed the mile six marker, my watch said 11:11.23.

Post-race, looking at the course certification map, I think that the mile marker was set on the west side of bridge where the instructions on the map says, "Trail under Waco Suspension Bridge -- even with E edge of bridge support."

On the west side of the bridge, you do a little bit of an upside down "U" facing the river, cross under the bridge, and then run up a ramp before turning left on to the Bridge to head into the finish.

The last two tenths of a mile was 2:59.65 (even if I'm slow I don't take anymore than 2:20, let's say) -- for an overall finish time of 1:00:37.10.

I charged hard at the end hoping that Andrew would get a good shot of me finishing.

When I finished, I was actually blowing steam as it seemed to have gotten colder from when we started.

While my time wasn't the 56:30 that I had put down 24 hours sooner, it was a two-minute improvement over the 1:02:46.87 that I had run two years before.

A race then that came a day after running the Lake Grapevine Runners and Walkers Bold In The Cold 15K in Grapevine.

I'll take that kind of improvement any day.

I ran the half here in 2015, the 10K in 2017 and I was all set to do the 10K last year but agreed late in the game to finish line announce the inaugural Hot Chocolate 15K and 5K in Houston.

I had asked Nancy to give that entry to maybe one of the first responders - or a volunteer - so they could run/race that day.

And if you're one to plan ahead, there are dates for the next three years of the Miracle Match Marathon.  They are as follows:

January 25 and 26, 2020

January 23 and 24, 2021

January 29 and 30, 2022

Might as well start building out the tabs on my spreadsheet.  You should too.