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Comments: My goal for this race was based on the results leading up to it and several calculators that all basically said I was good for 3:35 or 8:13 miles. I waffled back and forth on whether or not that was realistic and decided to trust my training and those who came before me that came up with the calcs. Since the course has a quick uphill/downhill over the first 6 miles, and then climbs steadily from 7 to 18, I figured I would get behind my goal pace and that I should go ahead and let it happen. To that end, I started the race with the 3:40 pace group. It's not like there was a 3:35 group anyway. I planned on sticking with the group until a little past halfway and then evaluating how I felt. When we finished mile 16, we had about 40 seconds or so in the bank for the 3:40 time, the weather was perfect, and I felt great. I told the pacer that hopefully I wouldn't see her again and started to pick up the pace. It's pretty obvious from looking at my mile splits when I took off. The next 2 miles were still relatively uphill (hence the 8:13 for 18), but once you hit that marker, the course trended down significantly: nearly 30 feet per mile the rest of the way. There were a couple of short steep hills left to navigate, but for the most part it was a very fast finish. I let my heart rate come up a bit and just pushed steady all the way through the finish. I don't think I could have covered that back 1/3 any fast than I did. What would you do differently?: I'm pretty certain that I could crack 3:30. If I had gone out with the 3:30 group, I may have been able to hang on. There was a big mental difference between my goal of 8:13 and that pace of 8:00, though. Live and learn. I'm still thrilled with my result.  Post race
Warm down: Waited in the finish chute for a little while for the 3:40 group so I could congratulate them, got my medal and finisher's shirt, then headed back over to City Hall to pick up my finisher's jacket for the Distance Challenge. What limited your ability to perform faster: Not too much other than genetics. If I had started this cycle of training with a larger base, I could have probably gone faster. I don't think I've quite hit my best performance yet, but I'm getting close. Event comments: I didn't stick around for the marathon activities, but they looked decent. The free food selection was pretty limited, though the chicken noodle soup was a nice touch. Still, it's a well run race with lots of volunteers and a fairly pretty course that winds through a variety of Austin neighborhoods. 10th largest marathon in the country now, apparently. Last updated: 2007-10-22 12:00 AM
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The Austin Marathon Foundation, Inc.
Sunny
Overall Rank = 584/5134
Age Group = M35-39
Age Group Rank = 90/508
I wanted to be sure and get downtown early so I wasn't stressed over parking. I got up around 5, ate a bagel, and toasted another one. I had a couple of glasses of water as well. I took the other bagel and a bottle of Gatorade in the car and headed out. I parked a couple of blocks from City Hall, which is where the Austin Distance Challenge participants could store clothing and where we'd meet back to get our finisher's prize when we were done.
It wasn't open yet, so I stood outside with a few other folks for about 15 minutes. It was chilly this morning, but not unbearable. It was very nice to be able to get inside and sit down, stretch, etc.
It's a marathon, so there's not a lot of warming up to do. From the time I got up, while waiting outside, and once I was inside, I didn't stretch so much as try to consistently increase my range of motion to work out the kinks from overnight.
About 10 minutes before the race, I headed the two blocks over to the start.