Houston Marathon - RunMarathon

After last year's marathon, I couldn't wait to run again and had an initial goal of breaking 3 hours. As training continued, I re-set the goal to 2:55. I averaged 67 miles/week for the 24 weeks before the race and was pretty happy with the way training went. The only thing I would change is to try and hit a higher percentage of the workouts, as I skipped an average of one workout every couple weeks.

I did a couple of races in December and realized that a 2:50 might be within reach, but it would take ideal conditions and a bit of good luck. I struggled with revising my goal time for the last 2-3 weeks before the race, but ultimatly decided to shoot for the 2:50...even though it scared the he!! out of me. I figured with the first kid on the way, this may be my last chance for some time to put in some quality, consistent training. Also, with Boston already scheduled, I figured I could shoot for a strong race there if things fell apart during Houston.

After deciding to shoot for the 2:50, I started thinking sabout pacing strategies and settled on trying to hit 1:25 for the half and assessing the conditions at that point. If I was feeling alright, I would try ot keep the pace, but if things weren't going to well, I could ease off a bit and still try for the 2:55.

I started about 5 yards back from the starting line and got to the timing pad about 4-5 seconds after the gun went off. The first few miles felt pretty good (as they should) and I settled into a 6:27 - 6:30 pace. HR was right around 160, so things were going pretty good at this point. I could tell that this pace was right on the edge of what I could maintain and I had quite a few more self-doubt conversations with myself than I would have liked during the first half. Having my friends and family waiting for me around mile 12 was great, and gave me a bit of a boost right when I needed it. I was taking gels every 40 minutes and drinking fairly regularly.

Hit the half at 1:25:08 and thought that my chance for 2:50 was slowly fading away as I wasn't too convinced that I could negative split at that point. However, I kept plugging away and was hitting every mile right around 6:27 - 6:30 so things were still going well.

Once we made the turn on Woodway to head back towards downtown, I started noticing that my pace had increased slightly and I was gaining on some folks in front of me. Pace dropped down into the low 6:20's and I felt like the 2:50 could actually happen. The next few miles are a bit of a blur, but I do distinctly remember getting some decent stomach cramps as soon as I took a gel at 2:00. These cramps would eventually subside slightly, but stuck with me until the last mile or so. I think I passed about 10 folks during the final 7-8 miles so that kept me motiviated and reassured that things were on track.

Around mile 24.5, I was feeling pretty rough and staretd wondering if I had enough to keep it up. Once we got back to downtown and got in the last mile, things started to change as I could sense the finish. I pushed with anyhting I had left and kept checking the watch during the last 1/3 mile.

As I got within 100 yards of the line, I was on cloud nine and couldn't believe I was going to break 2:50. The roar of the crowd and feeling of accomplishment was awesome! Crossed the line in 2:49:10 and couldn't have been happier!

not much...

went inside GRB and finally found my family