We arrived at the Sparks Park at Colony by Lake Lewisville ~ 7:15am for the race; Lily for half Marathon, and I for the 5 milers. It was still dark and freezing cold (36F). I wore long running pants and long under shirt with gloves. Lily decided to wear shorts with added underwear.
For the race, my target was to complete the 5 miles in 50 minutes ( my average pace), and stretch goal was to reach 48 minute completion (a personal best), Lily's goal was to complete the half Marathon within 2 hours.
 |
| picture together before the race started |
Before the race, a high school student sang the national anthem, a volunteer carried the national flag by her side on the stage. People stood with a hand by the chest while she sang and cheered loudly as she completed the anthem.
 |
| national anthem |
The half marathon started ahead of the 5 milers at 8:06 am after a 6 minute delay due to the power outage to the inflated starting gate. The 5 milers started 10 minutes later. There were a lot more runners for the half marathon than for the 5 milers.
The first 5 miles of the both races used exactly the same route, in the neighborhood by the park. The half marathon added 8 miles by lake Lewisville.
 |
| The half marathon trail |
 |
| Half Marathon started |
I started the run at a relatively fast pace, 5:30m/km, but after 1 mile or so I started to feel discomfort in my right knee area, and slowed down substantially in my 2nd and 3 rd mile, many runners in the 5 miler group, young and old, slim and plump, passed me. During this tough section, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the cheers from 3 cheerleader teams lined at different sections of the 5 mile route. They did cheer me up!! And I stopped to take a picture of them.
As the discomfort eased, I picked up speed and started to pass runners, in fact many of the runners were walking then. I actually ran as fast for the last kilometer as my first,. I finished the 5 miles in 50 minutes! 55 minutes later Lily crossed the finish line in 1 hour 55 minutes. She achieved new personal records in 1 mile, 5km, 10km and half marathon
It was a beautiful day, and a great experience for our first long distance race.
 |
| local middle school cheerleaders cheering for the runners |
Lily crossing the finish line
 |
| picture together after the race |
 |
| a corner of lake Lewisville |
Note:
1. A colleague of mine lives by Lewisville lake along lake shore trail, he actually erected a sign to cheer me up!!
2. There were many Chinese-American participated the race - my estimated number 20 ~ 30, this compared with one in 2016 race (by reading online running record)
3. Lily found out that my official time was 1:06 minute - 16 minutes slower than my recorded time. It seems that when the inflated gate was down, I passed the chip reader (the black strip on the ground). Our guess was that my chip was read at that time, 6 minutes ahead of half marathon start time, 16 minutes ahead 5 miler start time!!
