After the Turkey Trot and two Bachman Lake races last week going right into another race week seems like it might be a little crazy but when we took over IDB from Dave Hannenburg three years ago that was the timeline he’d built by tradition. runDallas is next week and it always fell on the week before Dallas, something we didn’t really think about as we built out our event. This year was by far one of the strongest from an event standpoint, things were smooth and all the pieces were fitting together the way that they should, enough that we could start looking for small things that we could do better rather than a huge list to take care of.

Before we took the race over, Endurance Buzz Adventures had put the race on for probably 4 or 5 years starting from a different point in the park and that is when I ran the race. I remember running two loops so it was probably something like 14 miles at the time and I was still suffering from some cracked/bruised ribs from the Fossil Valley run that Dave put on as well down at CRP. I remember having my ass handed to me pretty much from the get-go as the trail was much more technical than I remember. Ben was out there that year too running a shorter distance and I can’t quite remember who else since it was far enough back that I hadn’t really gelled with the running club at that point. I remember that my family was supposed to come out to the finish and when I rolled through, they weren’t there. Not trying to dig up old shit here, just recognizing that it is, indeed, old shit. Anytime I’m at a race and there are families waiting, I have a hard time but it is getting better.

When we took the race over, we found a way to start from the DORBA trailhead rather than the other part of the park, we may move it again in the near future, and so we’ve set up the last three years under the pavilion and surrounding parking lot. I’ve become the club’s packet pickup and registration guy and now that I’m timing as well there is a lot riding on me being present and focused. I got things settled with the kids the night before, the could sleep in and my dad would be at the house before breakfast so they wouldn’t be spending too much time on their own. I left around 5:12 in the morning and headed to the park up the back way which turned out to be much faster, especially now that I live on this side of town. I got to the park and set up timing and then headed over to the pavilion to get packet pickup started. I didn’t know that Ben was dealing with the loss of his brother’s dog at the time, that came out later, but somehow our little team of four organizers were able to pull off the race.

It was pretty chilly in the morning, I never dress for the weather and so the packet pickup crew was very supportive and Maria let me borrow one of these amazing long coats she uses when she watches her kids play soccer. Marisol and I had a chat for the first time, first person who is affiliated with the running club who asked about what happened and happened to be going through something similar (although much different) and was supportive and kind. After we wrapped packed pickup, we got things rolling around the aid station and start/finish and people started pouring in. Our 18k has become the biggest field of the race, we must have had 60 or so that went out for a full loop, and it is fun to see them really go for it. We had a couple of injuries but we had a medic on site for the first time and it was pretty funny how that worked out.

I worked with Liz most of the day, she’s been around the club for a while and works with NTTR as an organizer as well. We seem to work well together in the couple of races that we’ve been either volunteering or working and it was nice to see her after a month or so. We were talking about how people aren’t their trauma (physical or mental/emotional) and that was a really profound thing for me to finally be able to articulate. Whatever has happened in the past, and I’m throwing that way back, it isn’t what defines you. Ann Marie was out there too and mentioned that she’d been dealing with lost motivation after the death of her mother but simply getting out and doing is the first step to healing. And I’m trying to do more, which sounds ludicrous, with the time that I have.

My dad brought the kids out around 11:30 and it was really their first chance, and his, to see what goes on at a race for an extended period of time. They hung out until around 3 helping hand out medals and eating aid station food and playing with the volunteers. After a rough night at the tree lighting, Sam and I had a breakthrough when he started pouting about being bored and wanting to play on my phone. He’s never been able to play games on my phone, I don’t have any, but he was tired of not having access to his screens and was ready to tell me about it. I finally got through to him that we were outside and it was a beautiful day and he should go run around. He found a small kid, maybe 2 years old, and they started playing chase and hide and seek and they ran around for about an hour before it was time for them to head back to Denton.

The rest of the race was pretty chill and we are excited to do it again in a bout six weeks out at Knob Hills.

Side note, we did get Sam a dresser finally, my dad took him over to Ruth’s room across the road and I happened to be able to make it back in town before they closed for the weekend.