David Taylor Gonzales

My next race is April 11th. Rock the Parkway. Kansas City, Missouri. I am really looking forward to this one.

In April 2024, Rock the Parkway was only my second race ever (my first race being the Lakeway Turkey Trot in November 2023, a race I did not train for). It was my first race at the half-marathon distance. Lane and I drove up to Kansas City the day before after a 3ish month training block. Neither of us had run the distance and neither of us had a time goal. The night before, we decided to shoot for breaking 10 minute average pace (2:11:06). It was perfect. Conditions were cold but not frigid. I was wearing just my t shirt and shorts in 41 degree weather at the start. It was uncomfortable but by mile 6, with the sun shining overhead, I was thankful for the light breeze and temperatures in the mid 40s and climbing. Lane hit the wall at mile 7 but rebounded and felt really good around mile 10 for the remainder of the race. I hit the wall at mile 11 but we held on and completed our first half-marathon, crossing the line within seconds of each other. 2 hours 9 minutes 2 seconds. It was a great day.

This time around, Lane and I will run it together again. I’m really excited to race with her. It’s been a long time since we’ve done that together. In 2024, she could’ve easily outran me and set a much more impressive finishing time but being the loving and supportive wife she is, she held back and ran with her slow, chubby husband. This time around, especially since she’s not much for winter running, I will be slowing myself down a bit to run with my wife. I am more than happy to do so and I’m so excited to start in the same corral together.

This first week of training is a bit of a mess. In case you live under a rock (or at least not in the United States), we have a winter storm of god-like proportions coming in. The forecast is showing 2 feet of snow. The temperatures this weekend in Missouri are as follows:
Friday: high of 28, low of 11
Saturday: high of 14 low of 7
Sunday: high of 13 low of 0
Monday: high of 27 low of -7

I have a rule about not running in temperatures below 20 degrees because of a frostbite scare in January of ’25. With the temperatures plus the snow, this is going to be a very inconsistent week of training. I plan on replacing all missed runs with strength training and mobility. To make up for some of the missed days coming up, I ran twice yesterday: 5 miles in the morning, 2 in the evening. I was hoping to run Friday morning to get my mileage up a bit more but the wind chill put the “feels like” temperature at 3 degrees. It was unfortunate, but I kept to my personal boundary of not running in unsafe conditions.

I worked out on Saturday, I did high volume on Workout A but I also mixed in some cardio and some bow practice. With the weather as cold as it is, I am just trying to not lose fitness. It’s frustrating but to be expected with sub 0 temperatures and almost 15 inches of snow in 24 hours.

It’s unfortunate that the first week of training for this half-marathon was derailed but I know that my success on race day isn’t determined by performance in January. It’s consistency throughout late February and March. I just gotta keep showing up.

Keep Going!