Race Report * Tyler Rose Half Marathon

I couldn't wait to finish my last half marathon in the Four Seasons Half Marathon Challenge.  The weather for this race would obviously be better for running than the Hottest Half, but I heard from a fellow Half Marathon challenger that the hills on the Tyler Rose course never stop. As a true lazy runner I had definitely not done the proper hill training!

After a long drive to Tyler I picked up my race packet and scoped out the rose garden where the races start and finish. It may not have been the best time of year for the roses, but the gardens made for a beautiful finish line and post race party zone.

I had booked a room at an adorable b&b fairly close to the race. The stiffness of the bed had me worried at first, but I ended up getting a good amount of sleep anyway. It felt like I was staying with the weird texan grandma I never had. The innkeeper left out bananas and protein bars and made a nice vegetarian breakfast for me even tho I told them I wouldn't be needing breakfast before the race.

Got to the race bright and early. I'm always worried about having to park far away, but here was plenty of parking right next to the start line. There was some concern in the crowd when the race didn't start at the scheduled time. I heard a rumor that the person with the race timing equipment had been mugged earlier that morning. Not quite sure what actually happened, but the Half Marathon started later than expected, and we all funneled through a very unusual chip timing sensor. This was the the first race that I've run where the timing chip is in the bib, and not meant to be worn on your shoe.

The course ran through a lot of pretty neighborhoods. We ran on pavement as well as some more difficult brick roads. I normally listen to music during my races (or training for that matter) but this time I ended up meeting and running with an ICU nurse from Brownsville, TX named Wayne. It was good to run and chat with someone and he pushed me to run much faster than I normally would have. The hills were even worse than expected. None of them were too long, but they just kept coming one after the other. I'm not sure there was a flat spot in the entire race!

  

This might be the largest race that takes place in Tyler, but it still felt like a good medium sized crowd. The water stops were well placed and a few people came out of their houses to cheer the runners. I was tracking my run with my Nike+ foot pod as well as the WalkJogRun gps app on my phone. Around mile 9 or so I started noticing that the distance recorded on my phone was VERY different from the mile markers set out on the course. I'm used to my phone being slightly off, but this was crazy- at one point they were almost 1 mile off. When I get tired towards the end of a race I really use those mile markers to keep me going, so it was definitely messing with my head. Maybe my apps were malfunctioning? Maybe they screwed up the distance of the course and we were all running 14.1 miles instead of 13.1? After being exhausted by hills and confused by markers I finally finished. The finish line is great at the Tyler Rose because you take your last few strides across a beautiful green lawn in the rose garden (makes for great race photos.)

The race bling. Its a great relief to have the Four Seasons medal, if you don't complete the 4 consecutive races you don't finish the challenge. I also got a Four Seasons and Tyler Rose tech shirt, but all of the shirts in the Mellew series have been pretty boring (some may say ugly.) I often wish I could have designed them, because my closet runneth over with ugly race shirts!

All in all it was a good race experience. Even with the hills I had a half marathon PR by about 6 minutes thanks to Wayne making me run faster. I'm a super slow runner so my time is still unimpressive, but at least I'm shaving off some minutes here and there! Since the Tyler Rose is so far from where I live I may not run it again, but I definitely enjoyed it & met a new running friend along the way.Check out the TYLER ROSE site.