San Antonio Half Marathon - RunHalf Marathon

Arrived about 40 min before the race started and couldn't use the media parking passes which would have allowed us to park right at the start. Infiltrated the volunteer bus to take us to the start. Walked a mile to corral thirteen. Obscured the gate attendant while Pipes jumped the fence in order to run since he didn’t sign up. Pretty cold at the start and had two long sleeve throw aways on to stay warm. Pretty slow pace at the start due to the cold but warmed up at mile three. Took one of the shirts off and tried to toss it over the crowd to the sidewalk. The shirt was tangled around my arm and instead of a high toss over the crowd the shirt was now a swift projectile headed straight into the face of some unsuspecting girl. After the surprise faded she heard Pipes laughing hysterically as I apologized and pointed out that it could have been worse and hit her in the legs causing her to trip. She was cool and ran on. The crowd was awesome throughout the city and we passed the time flashing the GUNS UP sign to the hundreds of UT and A&M fans lining the streets. They were not pleased but we laughed our arses off at all the different reactions. Had a banana at mile 4 or 5 and grabbed Cytomax drinks at the first few water stations. No GU in sight and which made me bitter about forgetting mine. The bands were pretty spare with no eighties music to be found…I was awaiting St. Elmo’s fire but no dice. I hit mile 8 and finally found a GU station. I grabbed the first one only to hear the lady state, Carmel Macchiato which was immediately tossed back in her direction. I grabbed 2 tangerine flavored GUs and inhaled the first followed by a water. It kicked in at mile ten which was an amazing burst that got me to mile 11. I saw the alamodome and thought I was nearing the completion. No markers in sight but the course seemed to be longer than I expected at this point. They snuck a hill in at twelve but it wasn’t too bad. The motorcade passed and I saw the leaders of the marathon go by on the inside lane..pretty cool and they were flying. Finished the last ¾ at a tempo pace which felt good. Overall, pleased with the run and am looking forward to Dallas.

Additional tempos and a couple of hill workouts. Not a hilly track but there was one at mile 12 that would have been nice to have been prepared for.

Walked around the expo and hit the VIP tent for some coffee and tracked down the van to take us back to the car.


Overall, very well executed. Great scene but the course was relatively uneventful except passing the alamo at mile 2.2. Would have rather run Austin with the hills.