DFW (Dallas Fort Worth) Perimeter Run

title edited to include map of run - 3/16/07

I have been largely silent for several days because my hotel in Los Colinas changed all the room modems, and can't seem to get the internet back up and running.

Saturday, after class, I departed the Simuflite center to run around the perimeter of the DFW airport, a run which I had mapped out and figured to be 18.9 miles. I brought one water bottle filled with Gatorade and some cash in case I needed food or more liquids along the way. The time of departure from the Simuflite parking lot was 5pm or so.

Heading south out of the drive, it wasn't long before I had to stop and tie my shoe....when I was bent down tying it, a moth landed right near me so I shot him. Here is the result.


When I go out on longer runs, it seems as if the hardest miles are always the first few, and maybe the last few...somewhere in the middle everything seems easy and I just float along. I motored on around the southern edge of the airport on Airfield Drive, listening to some tunes to help drown out all the airplane noise, and the noise of all the cars driving by. When I have been running around the airports it does make me wonder whether it would be safer taking my chances on the trails with the possibility of a bear encounter, or dodging some of the wacko drivers that I see out there. Now that I have made a friend who is an insurance underwriter (you know who you are) maybe that person can do an assessment for me and let me know what would be smarter! As I headed up the east side, on East Airfield Drive, I took this photo and.....

right about here is where I goofed up missed a turn. I went maybe a mile up East Airfield drive before I realized I was between the runways, and had to backtrack that mile if I wanted to be able to say I did the entire perimeter run. I stopped for maybe a minute and just stood there for a minute, just pondering whether I should turn back or just head on...but I turned back.

My plan had been from the beginning to carry one water bottle filled with Gatorade, and drink from it...about 9 miles in, which was halfways until I added the little sidetrip, there is a convenience store, where I was going to get another Gatorade and eat some food to keep me going. For some reason when I got to that store, I figured I wasn't too hungry yet, and kept going....there was another store I knew of about 3-4 miles down the road, so that would be an option.

I headed across the North end of the airport, with another minor sidetrip by accident, but not as much of a mileage addon as the first one, and when I got to the area on the other side of the field, I still wasn't too hungry, and I had found a water fountaing to fill up my water bottle, so I thought I would save my money and just run back to my car, and then eat back at the hotel. STUPID. From this point on, I had maybe 4-5 miles to the car, and it just got progressively harder....I wasn't really sore, but just kind of hit a spot where I didn't want to run...hard to explain. I wasn't out of breath, I wasn't hurting...I think I was just low on glycogen stores and my body was trying to tell me to cut it out. I ended up walking off and on for the rest of the journey. It actually felt better when I would run, but after a little while I would end up walking some more. I think the real solution here is when I go on runs longer the 8-10 miles, I need to be eating 500-750 calories per hour to keep my energy up so I can keep up the pace for the entire run. I made the circuit of the airport in around 3 hours and 30 minutes but am confident that without going the wrong way, and fueling myself properly I can go around this airport in maybe 2 hours and 45 minutes, so maybe I will have do another loop sometime soon.

I have another one to come soon, because I ran around the perimeter of White Rock Lake last night with a fellow pilot...it was beautiful...9 miles....I will write it up soon.