Sarah and I didn't quite get to the runner's coral as early as I would have liked. We missed the national anthem and an other announcements since we only got in the coral with about 3 minutes left, and boy did they start on time. Sarah didn't mind this as she later said "There was just less time to get nervous". I like to feel those jitters for some reason though. Oh well.

Fireworks were pretty cool at the start, but I had a little bit of a tough time keeping the pace I wanted b/c of the crowds. My first 2-3 miles were slower than I wanted, but it was also uphill.

Miles 4-6 were fun as they were mostly downhill. I passed the 3:30 pace group at about mile 6, and that felt good.

As I predicted, mile 9-11 had the worst hills. The constant up and down and down and up was tough, but my pace didn't degrade too much thru this stretch; ~8:05 from about 7:40. From the course profile, I thought 11-13 could be hilly and tough as well, but it was much flatter than 9-11.

After the hills from 9-11, I felt great and very mentally fresh. I clocked in a few miles in the 7:30s, and that quick pace gave me confidence that was doing well. I vividly remember thinking how surprised at how mentally fresh I felt. I keep using the word "fresh" b/c that is what I was actually thinking during the race. My legs and ankles were definitely started to hurt some, but my mind and will power was still very strong at this point in the race, and that was encouraging! I knew that if I could just keep my mind "in the game" I could keep up a decent pace!

By mile 18, I wasn't quite so fresh any more, but I got a little boost from knowing that 18 was the "summit" of the course, and it was "all downhill from here". I managed to push on and clock 3 more quick miles from 19-21 (7:31,7:42,7:36).

All this changed just before mile 22. I wouldn't really say I hit the "wall" as I never have and never hope to, but this is clearly the point where things start to go bad for me. I didn't collapse mentally, but I definitely broke down a bit. It was so tough and discouraging to have to turn back North on Ave. H as I knew that meant we were heading away from the finish. This stretch was also uphill, and I thought "IT WAS ALL DOWNHILL FROM 18!"

Man, this broke me for sure, and I started to fade and slow down quite a bit. I averaged 7:42 over the first 22, and 8:20 over the last 4.2. Almost 40 seconds slower per mile. I don't know if that's considered "blowing up" or not, but it's definitely not what I wanted to do. My ankles, calves, and quads were killing me. Plus, I got a painful side stitch which I never get anymore. I pressed on it for 15-30 seconds and thankfully that seemed to help.

Ideally I would have loved to push thru this pain and try to maintain sub 8 miles, but it was sharp and I just didn't have the mental strength left to deal with it. I didn't actually consciously slow down, but I didn't push to maintain my pace either, so I slowed by default. I didn't really want to end it this way, but I knew I had probably done enough earlier to make my goal of 3:28.

The hills on San Jacinto were definitely tough, but I knew I was close to the finish. Rounding the corner onto Congress definitely felt good. I started looking in the crowd to spot Sarah and I saw her early enough to go by and give her a high 5. Some guy passed me right before the finish, but I didn't care. I was running my own race and I beat my goal time by 3.5 minutes!

Most of all, I'm proud of taking 1:03:52 off my PR of 4:28 that I set at the end of my first IM in 2006. My previous stand-alone marathon PR was 4:31 that I ran at the downhill, point-to-point 2004 Austin Marathon. So, to run 3:24:26 on a challenging course was something special. I couldn't be happier!



I probably should learn to actually develop a real race plan for change instead of just "winging it". I would love to learn how to finish strong. I don't know if my muscular endurance is my true limiter or if it's my poor bio-mechanics attributed to at least in part to my extremely flat feet. (I wear custom orthotics though)

My splits

1 8:10
2 8:01
3 7:46
4 7:10
5 7:24
6 7:38
7 7:26
8 7:49
9 7:46
10 7:46
11 7:46
12 8:06
13 7:39
14 7:32
15 7:33
16 7:51
17 7:29
18 7:49
19 7:31
20 7:42
21 7:36
22 7:45 7:42 pace up till here
23 8:00
24 8:16
25 8:16
26.2 8:47 8:20 pace last 4.2! Ouch!



Good race overall. Plenty of aid stations, although I don't really think there were quite as many bands playing on the course as advertised. Not a big deal though. Race started right on time, and the finish chute and area was very well organized. Would have liked better food, but I know that's tough to provide at race this size.