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Cowtown passes out running shoes

The Cowtown has begun delivering shoes to members of school teams that will participate in the Cook Children's' 5K on Feb. 25. Above are students from Lucyle Collins Middle School and below are students from J.P. Elder Middle School. The shoes are donated by New Balance. The Cowtown also helps defray the cost of the entry fees for the participating students.

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The Cowtown grants swell to 1,500

The Cowtown is donating almost 1,500 grants to students for the February event in Fort Worth. The grant includes underwriting part of the students' entry fees and donating shoes. Cowtown Executive Director Heidi Swartz said the total of donations has risen to almost 1,500 from a previously announced 1,400. Read the news release for more details.

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Cowtown Kids 5K receives award

The Cowtown Kids 5K has been selected the Top Kids Running Event of the year by Running USA, a national running organization. Many of the youngsters who compete receive discounted fees, shoes, training guides, finishers medals and certificates. Read about the honor and about the Cowtown program for students.

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Here's a weighty challenge

Lewis George, owner of Mellew Productions, has devised several promotions to inject something new and interesting for runners/walkers. One such is the ongoing Four Seasons Challenge and his newest is the Mellew Weight Challenge, which he announced Jan. 4. This one is personal for Lewis, too, and he and his wife's weight-loss progress can be followed on Facebook and Twitter. If you'd like to join the challenge, follow this link. To read about why Lewis started this, read his story.

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The run-walk-run method might be something worth trying

By Bill Richardson

Most of you are familiar with Jeff Galloway, the running guru and former Olympian. He has authored several running books and promotes the “ run then walk”  method for competing in the longer distance events such as half marathons and full marathons. An example would be to run eight minutes, then walk one minute and repeat. The idea being you delay the onset of fatigue, which would normally really slow you down. Unless you are an elite runner, during the last 6 miles of a marathon, when your body is depleted of glycogen, fatigue sets in and your pace slows drastically. Most marathoners end up walking part of the last 10K. Galloway’s method delays this fatigue so your running pace is not altered so much. Also, your recovery is a lot faster.

The biggest challenge is getting runners to think it is okay to walk during the event. Several years ago I participated in the Oklahoma City Marathon and experimented with this method. At every mile marker I walked 30-45 seconds. At first it felt too ridiculously easy. But after about two hours, in the wind and heat, I began looking forward to the walk breaks. The result was a podium finish and easy recovery.

Recently,  I was working with a couple of newer runners to try this program for their first half marathon. The plan was to run five minutes then walk for 30 seconds for the first 10 miles. Then they could continually run the last 3.1 miles without walking if they felt like it. Neither was able to continually run without walking the last 3.1 miles, but both beat their original goal pace because of delayed fatigue.

Overall, I just don’t think you lose that much time taking walk breaks during the longer distance events. I highly recommend this program for runners attempting their first half marathons or full marathons. I also recommend it for older runners, like myself, that want a faster recovery. These days there are plenty of marathons and half marathons from which to choose. Just try one and see what you think!  Happy Running in 2012.

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In a previous My View column, I had asked other runners to comment on some of their favorite defunct races. Among the replies were from Chris Stewart and Jose Castro. Not all their reflections were good memories (the mis-measured Tortuous 20, for example), but some were funny. Both lament that several years ago, it seemed runners needed to be faster than they are today to carry off an age-group trophy. Read Chris' comments and read Jose's comments.

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Check out the runners' aids

The Runners' Tools page has been part of this website for a long time, and it's visited quite often. However, it understandably lags far behind the Calendar and Results pages in number of visitors. You might want to visit the Runners Tools page because it has several helpful tools, such as pace calculator, target heart calculator, body mass index calculator, caloric needs calculator, nutritional needs calculator, ideal weight calculator and body fat calculator. Also, the links to each has been fixed so that each goes to the correct calculator.

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*-Note: If you've participated in a marathon and/or ultra and would like to have your name, time and finish noted here, please fill out this form and submit it.

Notes: Sixty-four participants completed the New Year's Double Marathon on Dec. 31-Jan. 1 in Allen. Preliminary results showed that Ian Campbell, 28, of Edmond, Okla., and Penny Palumbo, 43, of Dallas winning the back-to-back marathon male and female series. Campbell's combined times were 6:33:30 and Palumbo's were 7:27:25. Campbell's times were 3:08:19 and 3:25:11. Palumbo's times were 3:45:19 and 3:42:06. She was fourth overall of the 64 marathon participants who ran both days. In the combined half marathon, the first five finishers were female with Shizuko Watanabe, 32, of Dallas leading with a 3:06:46 total. The first male was Luc Dewailly, 30, of Allen with a 3:36:28 total. There were 170 half marathon double-dippers....Well, OK, age is all relative, so masters runners (40 and older) are old when compared to the younger set, but that doesn't mean they have lost their running abilities. Several races were won by masters runners in 2011 and it only took two days into 2012 for them to emerge to the top again. At Jeph Abara's New Year Renewal Race II 5K on Jan. 2 at River Legacy Park in Arlington, the first three male and female finishers were masters runners. Overall male and female winners were Todd Reynolds (44) in 19:15 and Fiona Green (47) in 21:21. The second female and masters winner was Elizabeth Rudy (54) in 22:29. The third female finisher was Kim Andres (58) in 24:49. The male runner-up was masters winner Jeff Dorrill (50) in 19:22 and third was Jesus Lopez (45) in 19:32. Helping usher out the old year was masters runner Laura Nelson, 46. She won the female overall title at the New Year's Eve Run at Trinity Park with a 20:14. Laura, a prolific competitor, won at least 17 masters titles and 37 overall titles last year....Congratulations to Maria Martinez of Fort Worth and Kim Gray of Arlington. Maria, who won the Fort Worth Marathom female title in November, won the second day (Jan. 1) of the New Year's Double in Allen with a 3:19:17. Kim, 37, was runner-up at the Texas Marathon in Kingwood with a 3:35:58. Maria's and Kim's times are gun times. Maria beat her PR of 3:20:27 that she had set in Fort Worth....The Sendai Half Marathon in Japan on May 13th added an open division this year to boost tourism to the region. The race was capped at 10,000 but so far only 8,000 gave registered, so registration has reopened until 10,000 cap is reached. Anyone looking for an international race, this might be a good one. Runners have a time limit of 2:30 to finish. Cost is roughly $60 (5,000 yen). Registration is through a Japanese site similar to active.com, so most likely people will need help to register. Visit the website....Cook Children's Health Care System has joined The Cowtown in a multi-year deal to be the title sponsor for the Kids 5K, the Board of Directors announced on Oct. 25. The race will be The Cook Children's 5K. The run is scheduled Feb. 25 along with the Adult 5K and 10K. The marathon, half marathon and ultra are on Feb. 26. All races are at the Will Rogers Memorial Center....LIVESTRONG announced on Dec. 15 that it has extended its partnership with the Austin Marathon and Half Marathon to 2020. The economic impact of the partnership is projected to bring $120 million to Austin over 10 years.  The 2012 LIVESTRONG Austin Marathon and Half Marathon is  Feb. 19. "I am looking forward to participating in the LIVESTRONG Austin Marathon and Half Marathon again in 2012," said Lance Armstrong, LIVESTRONG founder and chairman.  "This is a great race with a challenging course and an even bigger purpose - raising awareness and funds for cancer.  I am especially proud to run with so many of my fellow cancer survivors who are showing cancer whose boss by not just surviving the disease, but thriving in the wake of adversity."...