Houston Marathon - RunMarathon


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Houston, Texas
United States
Houston Marathon Committee
62F / 17C
Precipitation
 		Total Time = 3h 30m 8s
Overall Rank = 531/7342
Age Group = Men 35-39
Age Group Rank = 84/790
Pre-race routine:

Up at 4:00. Ate a banana and had 4 scoops of Perpetuem in 20 oz water. Got to venue early, tried to warm up legs and streath a little. Sipped on water a bit. Had a Roctane Gu at 6:15 with some water. No more water after that. Got stuck in porta potty line and wasn't able to make it throught he crowd afterwards to find the 3:25 pace group.
Run
  • 3h 30m 8s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 08m 01s  min/mile
Comments:

Executed the run perfectly with essentially negative splits the whole way, finishing with a 7:02/mi pace over the last 1.4 mi:

5K: 27:53 (9:17/mi)
10K: 25:36 (8:14/mi)
15K: 24:23 (7:50/mi)
20K: 24:42 (7:57/mi)
25K: 24:50 (7:59/mi)
30K: 24:10 (7:47/mi)
35K: 24:05 (7:45/mi)
40K: 23:54 (7:42/mi)
Last 1.36 mi: 9:35 (7:02/mi)

Used 7 Gus diluted in water in bike bottle that I carried along with me along with a water cup and a half at ever station. Took one salt stick capsule every 30 minutes. Didn't have to stop to pee, and no cramping, and I had good energy up until the end so I guess it was perfect.
What would you do differently?:

Get up to the pace group before the start so I won't get caught behind much slower runners.
Post race
Warm down:

Stretch, drink some chocoloate milk and water. Ate a banana. Got out of wet shoes and socks.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

Wasn't able to get up to my preferred speed after a short warmup due to the large crowd and starting behind my pace group. could have maybe used an additional caffeine surge or simple sugar with about 30 minutes to go, but otherwise, felt great.

Event comments:

Wanted to find some chocolate milk to drink for recovery. Finally found some after walking around a bit. Asked a girl at the gatorade station right after the finish line where I could find some and she looked at me like I had something growing out of my forehead.




Last updated: 2011-02-01 12:00 AM
Running
03:30:08 | 26.2 miles | 08m 01s  min/mile
Age Group: 84/790
Overall: 531/7342
Performance: Good
Felt very comfortable running at 168 bpm most of hte way...even up to 172 at times without even really feeling it. I didn't ahve the monitor beeping at me, because I just wanted to run comfortably. I would forget about it for awhile and would just be enjoying things and then realize I hadn't checked in a while. Then I would look down and see that I was right about 168 or so.
Course: Once I passed the 15.5 mi mark where I bonked last year and passed the lightpole that I had to hold onto to stretch last year, I just got a big smile on my face as I realized just how good I felt compared to last year, and decided that I was going to increase the pace just a bit and then finish strong.
Keeping cool Good Drinking Just right
Post race
Weight change: %1%
Overall: Good
Mental exertion [1-5] 5
Physical exertion [1-5] 5
Good race? Yes
Evaluation
Course challenge Just right
Organized? Yes
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? Yes
Plenty of drinks? Yes
Post race activities: Good
Race evaluation [1-5] 5