1000 Miles in 2022

I think 2021 was the first year since I started Triathlons in 2015 that I hit 1000 miles.  I was more a 750-850 mile triathlete runner. 

I am preparing to do The Woodlands Marathon in April.  It shares a lot of the same course at IM Texas.  This will be my 4th Marathon.  I tried to run the first two for time in 2008 and 2010.  After training 6 days a week for two years and still bonking in 2010 I swore off marathons, but I ran one with three of my siblings for moral support two years ago and it was actually enjoyable so I said I would try another one.   

Running is going well.  Now I need to work on Cycling and Swimming.

James,

 I will definitely scope out the IM Texas course.  I got my first taste of those streets at the 10-for-Texas run in The Woodlands in September.  I plan to do part of the IM Texas course with my running group next month too.  I will have to get the maps out and compare courses so I can give a detailed report.

Chris,

I hope it goes well too.  I don't know if I will run it for time or just run it to gain some experience for future marathons.  I have a bit of pressure to do well though.  The Chevron Houston Marathon was on Sunday and 6 guys and 2 gals from my running group raced it.  All eight of them set lifetime marathon PR's.  So if I could drop a PR that would make me fit in the with cool kids.  I beat all of them at the New Years Day 5K run though so even though they can beat me by 20 minutes in a marathon they still let me hang out with them.

I live in Cypress, TX about 30 minutes from The Woodlands. When I moved here 10 months ago my average elevation stat on runs dropped from 45 ft/mi to less than 1 ft/mi.  I assumed that the Woodlands would also be flat as a pancake, which it basically was, but the elevation was more like 2-3 feet a mile.  So if you are expecting zero elevation you will be surprised, but other than that the course should be flat. 

The end of the 10-mile run went through The Water District.  This is a canal with walking/running paths on both sides of it.  During the summer people rent swan-shaped paddle boats here and is it a nice area for recreation.  I am pretty sure that the end of the IM Texas Swim is in the canals and I remember for the little that I read about IM Texas last year that there are two loops of the run and that the two paces through the Water District are an iconic part of the race.  The 10-mile run did miles 4-6 along the north side of the canal and then we took a pedestrian bridge over the canal and did miles 7-9 on the Southside.  That ramp up the pedestrian bridge accounted for 80% of the elevation in the race.  I was starting to fade by mile 5 of the race and with every mile was going slower and slower and slower.  So I don't have any love for The Water District.  It was all on concrete sidewalks which I don't like as much as running on asphalt or on wider streets.  Most of the Houston area has Concrete Streets as opposed to asphalt everywhere else I have lived in the country.  The concrete is a harder surface and results in more stress than asphalt roads do on running legs.  I think that a significate portion of the IM Texas race goes through parks though where the surfaces are nicer for running than the concrete roads.  I  will know more when I get up there to do some more running and find maps though.    

So...I did The Woodlands Marathon yesterday.  Before I get to the course I have to toot my own horn and give myself a pat on the back.  I had the race of my life and took home the award for 1st place overall Masters.  My time was a 2:54:06.  It wasn't a PR day for very many people due to it being one of the first hot days of the year and due to 85% humidity.  The guy I ran with from mile 1-18 crashed at mile 18 because he got over heated.  The two guys in my running group who did the marathon did 2:50's and 2:52's at their last marathons but finished at 3:00's and 3:07"s yesterday.  So I was pretty exhilarating to hit mile 20 and to be feeling great and being able to push the pace a bit for the second half of the race rather than dying like I am used to after mile 20.  

The course: 

Most of the race for the Woodlands and for IM-Texas is on the road.

Streets were closed and officers were at every intersection so there was plenty of space to run. 

On all the roads we were either running uphill or down hill.  We would run uphill for 2-3 miles, make a turn in the course, then go down hill for 2-3 miles, make a turn in the course, and go up-hill for 2-3 miles.  The hills were NOT steep though.  I think the most elevation gain that my GPS recorded in a mile was 8 feet.  It was just enough to give your muscles a little variation but not enough to really increase the stress.  So the course feels great to run on. 

True to its name, The Woodlands has a lot of mature trees and so I assume there was some shade, but I really didn't notice at all.  It was not hot enough to work to stay in shady spots and I was going too fast for it to make much difference. 

Most of the roads were concrete, but I was surprised to find that the shoulder was asphalt for some of the streets.  I don't remember which ones had asphalt but think it was along Panther Creek which is on the IM-Texas run loop.  I did move over to the shoulder to run on asphalt where I could.  It didn't feel any different than running on the concrete but that was just because i had on brand new carbon plate shoes with the bouncy foam.

We only ran 4-5 miles on the water way.  IM-TX will do a lot more than that on the Water way.  The water way is a sidewalk.  So passing people could get crowed.  My slowest mile of the Marathon was where the 1/2 marathon and 10K all merging together on the water way.  There was spectators and the normal Saturday morning traffic out there too and I had to wait to get around people at one really congested junction. 

As a sidewalk, the waterway is concrete. I think there were some bricked section too (or was that just the Tempe Town lake where I was running in Arizona last week at the Kiwami Tri Team Camp?).  Anyways the bridges were different material (non-concrete).

The water way, unlike the streets, are flat.  That is the only part of the course that was not moving up or down.  Running on the streets felt better than running on the water way, but there is more to look at on the water way so it is a nice way to break up the mental monotony that you would get if running the whole way on the roads.  So, over all the course is really ideal for fast times and really nice. 

Keep ahead of the heat through.  It was only 65 degs F yesterday but with 85% humidity it was affecting a lot of the runners.  I poured water over my head at every aid station.  One guy, who I ran with from mile 1-18, over heated at mile 18 and blew up.  I told him at the first aid station I was stopping to pour water over my head.  I was happy to see he did the same thing, but I didn't see him stick with it after the first aid station and he paid for it later.  We didn't have ice, but you should at IM-TX.  Put Ice down the back of your kit at every aid station.  The heat can either kill you or you can kill the heat. Triathlete probably know this.  It is the runners we have to watch out for.

I got a pair of Hoka Bondi's a few years ago.  They gave me blisters the first two weeks, but after that, they were fun to run in.  They felt like I had a mini rocking horse strapped to each foot because the foot would rock from heel to toe.  On long runs I would sync my stride to the roll of the shoe and let them carry me through the run.  

IM-TX will be a big race.  I put a pull-up to the local Triathlon Club to see what races they were doing and like 26 people were training for IM-TX.  I was surprised because I don't think I have even met 26 people from the local club over the 6-7 events I have been to.  I know a half dozen people from the Kiwami race team that are coming in from out of town too.  I think I will be volunteering in some capacity at the race.  I haven't signed up yet, but the local tri club said they have got a desperate call the week of the last 3 races asking for volunteers so I instead of signing up early we are waiting to see were the last-minute needs will be.  :-) 

I was back to The Woodlands on Saturday for the UMR (Underground Marathon Relay).  It is a 10-man relay.  Each person runs the same 2.6-mile loop (out-and-back this year due to a community event).  It was organized in 2020 by a running group in the Woodlands as an off-the-books race during Covid when all the regular races were canceled.  The host group won the relay in 2020.  In 2021 my club was invited and they socked the hosts taking the win.  I guess the host group's impression of the running club was that it had a ton of people but not any really fast people.  There were a few move-outs from the 2021 team and I moved in so we have another good team this year and won with the time of 2 hours 24 minutes.  The host group recruited four (4) high schoolers to improve their performance this year.  They finished in a faster time than the winning time for the past two years but were at 2 hours 25 minutes.  It was really close with multiple lead changes.   It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning.

Anyways, I looked at the running surface along the waterway again.  There are two paths.  The inside path along the water is the concrete sideway.  It is wide enough for two-way traffic if people are running single file, but if you have someone walking a dog or people walking two wide then things get tight.  I assume that is the path the IM-TX will run on since that is where I ran for the 10-for-Texas, The Woodlands Marathon, and the UGR.  There however is an outside path too that is wide enough for cars to drive on it.  That path has concrete down the middle with shoulders of terra cotta colored bricks.  So there were bricks on the path down along the waterway.  I wasn't confusing the Tempe Town Lake path in AZ.  It looks like the outer path is where spectators will set up which should make for a lot of good crowd support on the run.  It is possible that they will use the outer path for runners at IM-TX but I think you will be in the inner path.