My second Houston Marathon is now in the books. You could not have asked for better weather for this race, and all four race winners clearly showed that since all records for the course were broken. They all deserve a big congratulations on their great achievements. The crowd support for the Houston Marathon never disappoints, and this year was no exception. Tens of thousands of people lined the streets calling out your name with encouragement and my favorite part, the kids wanting a high five from the racers. Finally, a big thanks is needed for the volunteers. These kinds of events are not able to occur without you. Hopefully you will be a participant one day!
I went into this race wanting to use it as a gauge for IMTX in May. I had two goals set for this race:
1) Pace well
2) Sub 4 hours
I had a little pre-race anxiety the weeks before the race, as I came down with a case of pneumonia around Christmas. This prevented me from completing my last long run of ~18 miles, along with several tempo runs/speedwork sessions. However, I got well soon after and was ready to go on race day.
The weather was a little humid, but a nice temperature of 47 degrees greeted us at the start of the race. I anchored myself with the 3:50 pace group in hopes of staying with them for the entire race. The race began and we held a steady pace through the first half of the marathon, landing us a 1:52 half. I was feeling terrific at this point and was feeling confident that I would be able to sustain that pace the remainder of the race. We approached the 20 mile marker at Memorial Park and I still felt reasonably well at this point, but I did notice that I was starting to 'run on fumes'. Mile 22-23 came and that is where I had to let the group go on ahead. From this point forward, I ran as hard as I could, but allowing myself enough to run through the finish line.
A finishing time of 3:54 is something that I am proud of, as it gave me a great deal of confidence heading into Lonestar 70.3/Ironman Texas training that starts in two weeks. It still catches me off guard that I will be competing in an Ironman in less than 5 months.
I also want to say how proud I am of my wife who ran her first marathon. She ran an incredible race and deserves a huge congratulations.
