Today is the day after the 2013 Houston Marathon. And boy am I sore. It's been over a year since my last marathon and forgot how sore I get after these.
The Houston Marathon is one of the larger marathons in the US. A total of over 25,000 people in the marathon and half marathon. The weather was not ideal, but the temperature was close to ideal (upper 40s). Standing in the starting corral with the rain coming down and winds blowing from the north was not too pleasant. Finally after the greetings, opening remarks, Star Spangled Banner, and prayer, we finally started. I was wearing a trash bag (with holes cut out for my head and arms) over my shorts, t-shirt and running singlet (tank top). On my head a wore a cheap ball cap that I had waterproofed. Shortly after the start we crossed a long overpass. Rather cold as the wind was really blowing. I ran the first few miles with my arms inside my trash bag. Finally after the first 30 to 45 minutes the rain stopped. A few sprinkles after that but nothing much. Also running through tree lined streets helped with the wind. The course is nice. Mostly homes, small businesses and shopping areas. The course also passes Rice University and goes through Memorial Park. A group of the Marching Owl Band was playing near the entrance to Rice. I yelled out to them as I passed, "The MOB rocks!". They seemed to appreciate the praise. Overall pretty good crowd support considering the cold, windy, rainy weather. Lots of cheering folks with signs, one garage band, a group of belly dancers and some Bolivian dancers as well. The course finishes downtown with a long straightaway toward the convention center. Downtown both sides were mostly full with a number of folks in interesting costumes. The finish area was nice with blue bleachers on each side. A large group of friendly volunteers gave out the medals. The medal design was attractive. Good size, not too small.
The finisher t-shirt was ok. Nothing outstanding or unusual but nice. Plenty of food was available after the race. Eggs, sausage and biscuits as well as yoghurt, provided by HEB grocery stores. All complementary for the runners so no need to purchase anything. And as it was inside the convention center I didn't have to worry about staying warm.
Still trying to figure out what went wrong with my marathon plan. My training seemed to go well the last couple of months. Just didn't have it on Sunday. Lost my mojo. Something. Looking back at my last 20 mile training run that I did back on December 22nd, my last 3 mile splits that day were 7:41, 7:38, 7:31. Not bad at all. Maybe my goal was just a little too ambitious. Maybe I would have been ok with running 7:26 mile splits instead of 7:23 that I tried to run in Houston. The shoes I wore were the same model that I had trained in so no change there. Maybe I need just a little bit more padding underfoot. Anyway I struggled to the finish Sunday. Lots of periods of walking over the last few miles. My calf muscles kept threatening to cramp up, but they never did completely do so. After 20 miles, my feet and ankles were definitely beat as were my quads. Made running very difficult the final three or four miles and more so as I got closer to the end. Anyway finished 87th out of 593 in my age group. Not bad. Not good. But OK. I did manage to beat George Bush's Houston Marathon time of 3:44:52 (in 1993). He was two years younger and I beat him by more than 10 minutes. So maybe not so bad after all.
Till next time. Happy Trails!
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