Rough Creek Marathon

As my training for my upcoming StumpJump 50k was coming to a peak a couple weeks ago, I decided to register for trail marathon to get in a solid, long training run while enjoying the camaraderie of a race setting.  I registered and ran the Rough Creek Marathon two weeks ago on September 14th.

The Marathon was directed by Endurance Buzz Adventures which also put on the Whispering Pines 50k that I ran in June.  The race was at the Rough Creek Lodge in Glen Rose, TX which is about an hour and a half southwest of Dallas.  It was an early morning waking up and driving to Glen Rose to get to the start line for the 7am start.

My training plan called for a 5 hour run so that was roughly my goal to finish in.  I wanted to run a smart race and not push it too hard and tire myself out for the last couple of weeks of training.  The race was 27 miles total, two 13.5 miles loops.  After the first couple of miles of the race, I settled in the front group with 3-4 guys.  I stayed with the lead group for about the first 10 miles of the race.  I felt comfortable with the pace most for the first lap.  The temperature was great, as the sun was just coming up.  There was an area on the course called the Rusty Crown that involved some very steep, technical and rocky ups and downs (as seen on the profile map below) which required walking and sometimes scrambling.  Other than these sections, the course was very runnable.  Before I knew it, I had finished the first lap in just under 2 hours (which would have been enough to win the half marathon race).

As lap 2 started, things started to go down hill.  The sun started to heat course up very quickly.  There are very few trees in this area of the Texas hill country and therefore no shade to hide from the sun in.  I made it about 3 miles into lap 2 and began to walk...a lot.  It became very obvious that I had pushed way to hard in the first lap.  As it heated up, it became tougher and tougher to take in calories and my energy levels started to decrease rapidly.  The last 10 miles of the race were brutal.  The sun was blistering, my entire body was cramping, and just walking was very uncomfortable.  I considering dropping out a few times but ultimately carried on to the finish.  After finishing the first lap in 2 hours or so, I finished the race in 5:44.  My second lap took almost twice as long as the first which is awful.  Lots of lessons learned for StumpJump which is my ultimate goal.  The trails and elevation gain in Chattanooga will be a significant challenge for me with almost 5000' of gain and 5000' of descent.  Dallas doesn't allow for much elevation change in training.  I will take my lessons learned from training and prior races and hopefully have a great race in Chattanooga...in much cooler temperatures!

Shout out to Sara for enduring all my long training runs and waking up very early to come out and support me for my races!  One week from today we will be in Chattanooga for the StumpJump 50k.

Totals:
January:  61.66 miles
February:  76.42 miles
March:  113.26 miles
April:  121.5 miles
May: 130.7 miles
June: 46.51 miles
July:  101 miles
August:  122.2 miles

Year: 773.25 miles

Home Is Wherever I'm With Youuuuu

Hello from the Jacobson residence! We have been MIA for a while as many of you have let us know. I guess that means that someone is actually reading this then? Maybe. Who knows. We have been busy around here recently with work and extracurricular activities. I am pleased to inform that Kyle and I both seem to be finding our "nitch" here in Dallas a little more. We have met more great people (in addition to the ones that we already knew) and have been more involved! As some of you may or may not know... we moved within Dallas in June. We have had some requests to see the new pad, but as you also may or may not know... setting up a house can take time! It doesn't just happen over night! That being said, we have decided to give a sneak peek. If you want to see more, well...you are just going to have to come and visit. Follow the picture tour below!

View from outside...

Welcome into our living room...where we spend most of our evenings winding down from the day. 

View 1

Aaaaand view 2

From the living room, you can see that you enter our dining room...

** FUN FACT comin at ya ** Some of our great friends down here (shout out to Chelsey and Daniel) donated this table and chairs, Kyle stained the table and painted the chairs like the good handy man that he is. 

Now, continue walking through the dining room and you will find yourself in the kitchen!

View 1 (with an additional view of the laundry room)

 View 2

**ANOTHER FUN FACT comin at ya ** We found this large piece below at a thrift store. Kyle sanded and painted this beauty also, with minimal assist from me.

 Aaaaand walking back out you get the long view! 

Go through the door on the left and you will find the bedrooms and bathroom.

Our room.

Part of the bathroom, for those of you who may be interested?

Now, we also have a guest bedroom. But I have decided to leave that room a mystery to entice everyone to come and visit. My sister Jenni and Uncle Pete have been the only ones to take advantage of this offer so far... but we need more! We are just a hop, skip, and a jump away! Ok, maybe more like a plane ride... but it is totally worth it! Some other hidden gems in our new place are the glass door knobs and a covered front porch. That is all for now... Hope you enjoyed!!!