Saturday, October 28, 2017

The Colony Half Marathon and Green Dragon 5 milers

The big day for local running community was here, October 28th, 2017, The Colony Half Marathon and Green Dragon 5 milers. It would be a clear but cold day due to a strong cold front moving to North Texas the previous day.

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!!






Sunday, October 8, 2017

Visiting Dallas Cowboys HQ

Last Thursday I got a chance to visit Dallas Cowboys HQ at Frisco Texas in lieu of a UNT social event Stars at Star. Nicholas was my guest for this event. Star is the name of Cowboys's HQ, Stars are selected UNT faculty and the guests of the event.

The Star has a grand atrium which has  beautiful Italian marble floors with engraved names and quotes of Dallas Cowboys players and coaches, hangs artist Leo Villareal LED sculpture titled “Volume Frisco" (2016). This dancing LED display includes more than 19,200 white LED lights embedded in 160, 40-foot-long, stainless steel mirrored rods hanging from the ceiling.

LED Sculpture 
On the right hand side of the atrium is the Super Bowl station where Cowboys' past glories are on display on one side - 5 super bowl trophies - the most recent one dated 1995,  giant super bowl rings on the otherside . At the end of the station is the Helmet wall - with all 32 NFL teams' helmet hanging on the wall. Paying a bit more attention, I noticed that there were two helmets lit up - Cowboys' and Packers' - the lit helmets are indicative of Cowboys upcoming game - which is, for this Sunday, Green Bay Packers vs. Dallas Cowboys.

The glass wall on north end of the atrium faces Cowboys' full size practice field.

Walking down a stairway, and passing the walk of stars, we arrived at the event venue.

Cowboys' Super Bowl Trophies
Helmet Wall - 1 - NFC team helmets

Helmet Wall - 2 - AFC team helmets
outdoor Practice Football field
Star Walk
Cowboys Helmets and Uniforms

The Stars at Star was a social event to entertain UNT's partners from local communities - companies, government officials and etc. It featured a progressive dinner (a.k.a Buffet type dinner) and a keynote speaker of Charlotte Jones Anderson, Cowboys EVP and chief branding officer, daughter of Dallas Cowboys' owner. It was a great speech about pillars for business success. Our self paced tour of the facility was curtailed at the Cowboys' Hall of Fame - the names pro-bowlers, stories of Super Bowls.

We stepped onto the lit-up practice field before leaving.

As we drove home, a huge yellowish Moon was just above horizon in the eastern sky at the end Warren Parkway, in front of us.

Stars at Star

the Featured Speaker







Dallas Cowboys' football field in the dusk
End Zone