Thankfully, being in the 2nd corral meant I didn't have to work around too many people the first mile. I wanted to make sure I didn't go out too quickly, but keep a good pace. Miles 1-5 went super fast. I reached the 5K mark I was feeling pretty solid and the pacing was good. Mile 5 had the only noticeable "hills" (inclines) that I had to work past. In the first 5 miles I passed several women with the "Military" tags on their backs. Didn't know if they were 1/2 or Full Marathoners, just picked them off. I had my speed belt with two bottles of NUUN. I took my first Roctane at 4.5 and my second one at 8.5. Mile 6 was a lot of downhill, and I took advantage of it, and all the downhills. Flat and fast for the most part. Lots of spectators at various locations. I was feeling really great and often had to slow a little cause I knew holding 6:50's wasn't going to get me to the finish without some significant slow down in the last few miles. But, I was feeling great. Never needed anything from the aide stations with what I had. I wore a short sleeve shirt with arm warmers and my BT shorts and throw away gloves and my Newton racing flats. I threw my gloves at around 3 miles. When I hit the 10 mile mark at 1:11/12 something, I knew I could finish strong. All race I knew it was going to be a PR, I just didn't know how much. From 8 forward I kept telling myself, keep the pace, keep the cadence, good form, good turnover. And I just kept going. Mile 12 was actually a little tough and I could feel some of the juice going, but then I saw another military gal ahead of me, and I was going to pass her. In the last 1/4 of a mile, I did. There was a hill going up to the last turn for the last 200m and I was afraid she'd catch me on it, but she didn't and when I saw the finish I pushed it in pretty hard and I was done!

Nothing...there is nothing that I think I could've done to be faster. I really pushed it well, hard, and think I left it all on the course. No collapsing at the end, but more sore now than I've been in a long time after this distance.

Military Division: 2/305 women
Age (F25-29): 11/1739
Sex: 38/11389
Overall: 254/17033

Slowly walked through food area and picked up some snacks; made my way to the bad drop, no one was around and thought it'd be fast. Not so much so...waited, and waited, then went to find friends at our meeting spot, found, then more waiting, then trying to find if any results would be available, still more waiting for bag...yeah, took 2+ hours to get the bag. Thankfully they finally found it. Got a picture with the HEB Buddy just for my brother...he is a big HEB fan!


Umm, I don't know, slimming down some more would be the only thing I could point the finger at.


Expo was too crowded--they had more space to open it up some. Pre-race on site, no worries, lots of porta potties. They did pick up the gear bags by last name, yet everything else we had was by #'s, #'s were even by corral. Why not bag pick up? Would've been MUCH better organized as such. Post-race: didn't stay for the big concert, but the area was SO packed, and the UPS gear bags were so utterly disorganized, not to mention the shuttle pick up area had no organized line of getting to it. This was very disappointing and frustrating due to the fact that this RD does this in mutliple locations across the US. Even though it's an inagural for San Antonio, I'd definitely give it several more years to mature before doing it again.

Race course was great, no concerns at all...fast and the weather was great, but the immediate post-race organization made me insane.