Bright orange reflective safety vest... $20
Hearing protection ear muffs... $24
Two black flashlights, two bright orange flashlights, 4 batteries and some black electrical tape... $11
ABIA Runway 5K race entry fee... $15

Running down the runway,
Directing runners to the finish line,
Running in circles around my sister with my arms out,
Eliciting hundreds of smiles out of even the fastest runners...

Priceless.




Friday October 25, 2002 - 7:00 PM
Under the Stars
Sunday November 24, 2002 - 8:00 AM
In the Fog


Background

I absolutely love running. The highlights of the year for me have been completing the Distance Challenge and the Portland Marathon. For as many miles as I run, I fly even more. Two days before the race, I earned my one millionth mile on American Airlines, and not one mile was achieved through the purchase of pudding!

It makes sense that combining my two favorite activities would be an incredible experience. I've long given up the dream of being able to run on a treadmill while flying across the country; I think our president is the only guy that lucky. One sunny day while sitting on the tarmac of DFW daydreaming out the window, the thought came to me that running a race on an airport runway would be the coolest thing ever. You can imagine my delight when I saw a teaser on the RunTex website for a 5K race at the Austin-Bergstrom International Airport. I now had the chance to realize a dream.

Flight Preparations

As soon as I heard about the race, I knew I had to dress up. I would be a passenger, flight attendant, pilot, airplane... something! The winning idea was to dress up as a ramp services employee in the role of directing airplanes around the terminal. Since I would be walking with my sister, it was the perfect opportunity to wear my Distance Challenge jacket and my newest Mizuno hat and gloves. I just needed an orange safety vest, hearing protection of some sort, and those orange directional flashlights. Unfortunately this great costume idea didn't hit me until Friday evening, so I didn't start my hunt until late Saturday. I knew I could get a good vest at RunTex. At RunTex, I ran into my runner friend Phil who suggested Academy for the flashlights. Academy had quite the selection of hearing protection in their hunting section. I found a whole aisle of flashlights, but nothing close to what I wanted. After some creative thinking, I figured out that I could buy two black flashlights, two bright orange flashlights and tape them together. Even though the orange part wouldn't light up, it wouldn't matter since we were running during the day. Later that night, after a midnight run to Wal-Mart for black electrical tape, my sister, Catherine, had the brilliant idea of removing the insides of the orange flashlights. We tried it, put batteries in the black flashlights, and the orange flashlights lit up perfectly! At last, my outfit was better than I could have ever imagined and I was far, far too excited to get any sleep.

Flight Check-in

Instead of the clear cloudless skies of the previous days, we awoke to outdoor conditions of thick pea soup. Catherine and I found the parking for the race, quite sure it would be the only time we got to park over 20 minutes at the airport for free. We went to the registration building to get timing chips, get warm and get laughed at by my friend Phil. As we stood in the building, many runners mistook me for a volunteer. I directed their questions to Phil who was volunteering. I met a guy who had on a t-shirt from a DFW runway race many years ago. More runners passed by and someone I barely knew recognized me from the women's TriTex program this spring. It was amazing that I was so recognizable in my goofy headgear.

Julia knows her runway signals. Catherine and I are preparing for the race. I did not use this one during the actual race; I was just doing some warm-up signaling. Photo courtesy Phil McDuffee

Airport Security

As the passengers walked out to the runway, the eyes of the security personnel were scrutinizing our boarding passes, (race-issued ChampionChips located on our shoes) so that made it easy to sneak in the nail clippers. I was so thrilled when I wasn't chosen for additional random pre-race course screening. At no time did I remain seated with my seatbelt fastened. However, I did feel secure knowing that in case of oxygen deprivation, little yellow masks would fall from above.

Boarding

Seating was pretty dynamic for this flight. If you didn't like who you were seated next to, you could just get up and move! I could swear each passenger I saw was on a different flight. Everyone had their flight number pinned to their chest. I was AA Flight 648 - San Juan to New York JFK, two airports I've never visited.

Departure and Take-Off

We waited until the last minute to board. We had no desire in boarding early because one feels like an anxious sardine packed into such a small space. As we were waiting for the flight to take off, I looked around for the only other person I expected to recognize on the plane. My triathlete friend Mike should have been easy to spot due to his incredible height, but sadly, I did not see him. A vaguely familiar looking man turned around and looked at me. "Were you at the last Austin Triathlete meeting?" Indeed I was. Finally, the signal was given and we took off!

In-Flight Entertainment

In all the excitement, I forgot to walk. Once the initial flock of runners flew by, Catherine and I slowed down to a fast walk. After a quick taxi, we arrived to the actual runway. This was so incredible to be running on the runway!! Like magic, my buddy Mike appeared at my side. He wasn't running too fast, so I figured I'd run a little ways with him and chat, then return to Catherine's side. He laughed in disbelief at my costume. We ran. We saw lights on a truck coming towards us and the lead runner just behind it. I cheered him on!! I made Mike scoot over closer to the center line where the action was. Since we turned right to get on the runway, many people were still off to the far right. As a couple more runners flew by, I recognized MY COACH!!! "GO BARRY!!" He is amazingly fast. He's the RunTex Gateway Tuesday/Thursday coach and a pilot. He was very excited about this race, too. Many runners who train in his group joined him in the race.

We watched the lead runners go by, including the first woman! Yahoo!!! It was so great to hear the cheering follow her down the line of runners in front of and behind me. I could certainly hear them better than see them due to the heavy fog. With the smiles generated from my rowdiness, I began elaborating on simple cheering and excitement. With my lights, I started to direct the runners on the other side to the finish line behind me. "The finish line is that way!" Hey, in this fog, it could have been difficult to find! "Yahoo! We're running on the runway!" So many fast runners on the other side were smiling, I kept going. Hey it's Paul Carrozza. Wow and he's looking at me... and smiling! Cool! I cheered on one of my TriTex coaches. Then I saw "the first stroller!!!! Yeah!"

Out and backs are fun, and it made this race especially so. Every single runner and walker got to see my irrational exuberance. I also got to cheer on every single runner and walker. How often do you get to do that as a runner? The faster runners are always inspirational to me. Nearing the turnaround, the runners on the other side were more and more appreciative. I fired them up with "Yahoo!! You guys are so fast! You're running faster than me!" Whenever I cheered on a child, very often running up from behind me, they'd take off like a rocket. I'm not so sure their parents appreciated having to keep up with an even faster kid.

By now I had disgracefully abandoned my younger sister and planned to catch up with her after the turnaround, which I did. Catherine later told me she could hear me long before she could see me. Now all the people in between us got to see me going around again and their initial assumptions about my insanity were confirmed. I heard whispers of "drinking", "crazy", and shouts of "I want whatever she's on!" I just replied with the truth "This is me on one hour of sleep!" Whew, I was starting to feel wiped out. I consider myself a back of the pack runner, but the truth is... I'm just barely ahead of the walkers. This was my first time in an event hanging out with the walkers. They seemed far more calm and composed, but just as determined and quite appreciative of the support. I'm sure they were all highly amused when I ran circles around my sister with my arms out like a 777.

Beverage Service

Due to recent cost-cutting measures, there were no meals served on board. Beverage service consisted of small cups with water. I took a cup as I ran around the turn with Mike. Then when I returned I asked if it'd be cheating to take a second cup. The flight attendants were so eager to serve their water, I ended up with a cup in each hand! The post flight meal service consisted of bottled water, Schlotzsky's chips, orange slices, and your choice of steak, chicken or veggie Chipotle burritos. Since they were running low on veggie and chicken, I volunteered to eat steak! (yikes. read meat. I suppose I deserved it after sitting in the back when my flight number is 648.) It was an excellent post race meal.

Turbulence

Being an Executive Platinum flyer, I'm quite familiar with this type of travel. For such a short flight, it's not quite as necessary to load up on carbs, slurp up blue Gatorade and pack some GU. However I did not expect to spend so much fuel flying all over the place, jumping up and down, and yelling out to passengers across the aisle. Yes, I'm a Flight Attendant's worst nightmare. After 30 minutes of this, my stomach started to hurt and I felt just a little light-headed. Unfortunately, I was still only halfway to my destination. Who knew I'd need GU for a 5K?

Although it was difficult to tell with the fog, I believe this is the course map. Runners started near the center of the airport running along the red highlighted area west, then north, turning around halfway to go south and then finish east.

The Runway

The most amazing thing of the day was the runway. As much as I see runways, the closest I have ever been to a runway is knowing someone who inspects runways looking for cracks. It was such an exciting experience to run on the runway that I spent the first 45 minutes having as much fun as possible. I wasn't really paying much attention to the runway. As my trip neared the end, I realized my neglect. I ripped off one of my gloves and bent over to touch the runway. (If you think that's looney, there's people who make a big deal out of touching the ocean even though most of the earth is covered in it! Runways are far more rare.)

I was sad to see signs of less respect towards such a monument. Can you believe airport security let people spit on the runway? Up and down the runway, the tire marks varied. I noticed a few tire marks waaaaay off to the right and pointed towards them. "You gotta wonder about that pilot!" The most interesting tire marks took me a second to figure out... the dotted marks were caused by the tires bouncing. Just as we were turning off of the runway, I realized I didn't notice any lights on the runway. Surely they were there and not lit. I don't remember running over some pothole cover-looking things. I think the cones may have covered up the ones in the center line.

This is me with my RunTex coach, Barry. He runs nearly as fast as he flies; he got third place overall! Notice we are both styling the latest Mizuno gear - hat, gloves, jacket and singlet. Photo courtesy Phil McDuffee

Landing and Arrival

At last, I could hear Captain Evil announcing for the flight attendants to prepare the cabin for landing. Due to the low visibility, we still couldn't see the finish line. As we started our descent, we suddenly came across a little girl walking in the other direction with tears falling down her face. No one wants an in-flight emergency! I talked to her and found out that Haley had lost her mommy. A race as fun as this should only cause tears of joy, not sadness. So I handed her one of my cool flashlights which stopped the tears, and we continued walking towards the finish line. I really really wanted to finish with my sister and we weren't sure where her mom was. Upon arrival, Captain Evil greeted us by name... except for Catherine who we later discovered was "Unknown Passenger" due to registering on Friday.

At the finish line, we tried to go around and look for Haley's mother, but you know how airport security can be. We took an alternative route where Haley saw her mom somewhat close to finishing and was then reunited with her.

We arrived at quite the friendly destination. There was food, airplane awards and the feeling that I was a celebrity. Runners introduced themselves just to find out who I was and let me know what a great attitude I had. Some people wanted to have their picture taken with me!! Phil (who was not allowed near the finish line or race course because he had no chip despite being a volunteer) continued to make fun of me... or rather, encouraged me in making fun of myself. I met the Public Relations director of the airport and she took a picture of me. When people asked if I worked at the airport, I'd point to my Proud to fly American button and say I was just a frequent-flying over-enthusiastic runner. The woman who won the race told me I should have gotten an award for the most spirited or best costume. An airplane trophy would have been so cool but I do have these cool orange flashlight things! and as many people point out... a Halloween costume for next year.

Overall flying time was 57:14.10 with a cruising speed of 18:28 min/mile. Although I only earned 3.1 frequent flier miles for this flight, the extra distance spent circling added another mile. I expect at my next race, someone's going to recognize me from this race and say "Hey you're the one who works at the airport, right?" It may be a second career... but for now, I'll just live at the airport.

This race report was most appropriately written from seat 11F on a 757 headed to California. The author's race t-shirt did not escape the expert all-seeing eyes of airport security who were curious as to how the race went.

It was promised that this race will be held again next year, so I hope to see you there!

Frequent flyers... Are you wondering what GU is? Check out the RunTex forum.
Runners... Do you want to fly to Boston using pudding? You're a little late, but check out the forum at FlyerTalk.
Friends... Are you lost and terribly frightened? Return to the safety of my training journal.

If you want this translated into English or, even better, if you actually understood everything I said, find me at any of the above links or email Julia (julia at weatherby dot info).