• Our marathon photos
• The photos from the professionals
• My stats (see below too)

The marathon is over. I ran it in 4hrs 24 min and 43 secs. A bit slower than I had hoped, but not too bad considering my very limited running experience. The race was hard (both physically and mentally) and frustrating at times. But it was also fun (at least parts of the first 20 miles). As you can see from the table below I started a little slow, picked up speed (though still not as fast as I would have liked) and then pretty much sucked it from miles 20 through 26. The last .2 I actually ran rather quickly (at least compared to the previous six) and passed a good number of people.

My troubles began when I first got to downtown. It was chilly and I was glad I brought my sweatshirt. I stood in line for about 40 minutes to use the bathroom. I’m glad I did I seriously needed to settle my self down if you know what I mean. From the number of men I saw peeing along side the course (as early as 2 miles in) I’m guessing they needed more bathrooms. Just a little tip: If you can hold it 10 miles or so the lines pretty much disappear. After the “settling down” I headed up to drop off my sweatshirt at the clothing drop. But I didn’t have a bag. Apparently you have to have a bag. Another lesson learned. Luckily among the 13,000 folks getting ready to run I bumped into Bill (one of the two people I know who ran) and he through my stuff in with his.

My next problem was really kind of big. At first it didn’t seem to make any difference where I started as my time was counted until I crossed the line, not when they fired the gun. But as I got stuck behind and between a bunch of folks running much slower than me (about 5:30) it dawned on me how everyone lines up. Fast runners near the front, slower runners progressively further back. The first several miles were spent trying to maneuver around people who were going quite a bit slower than I wanted to run. I was amazed by the numbers of people just throwing their gear (gloves, hats, shirts) on the road as they got warmed up. One note to the marathon folks: Don’t fire off fireworks (lots and lots and lots, they were still going off when I crossed the line at just over 4 minutes) at the start. I was hacking sucking in gobs of smoke and I wasn’t the only one. Good way to start a 26.2 mile run, inhale smoke, have asthma attack, cough and hack.

At about 5 miles I had a good blister going. By 7 miles it hurt bad enough I pulled over and took my shoe and sock off, readjusted both and got back to running. It was frustrating to see the 4:15 pace group go by after I had passed them a few miles back. It took me another 5 miles to catch up to them again. I stayed ahead of them until about mile 22. That pretty much broke my spirit. But I’ll get to that later.

Along the way I was surprised by the number of folks cheering. More than that I was surprised by how much better it felt and how much energy it gave me. Even better was when someone would cheer you by name. Each runner’s first name is printed on the bib in about 1″ high letters. If I were to do this again I’d probably put my name in 2″ high letters it felt so good to have someone cheer me on personally. Of course the french fry guy, who was holding a sign saying “don’t worry you’ll ketchup” along with hordes of other dressed up spectators were a big help too. I saw a lot of the same people every 3-5 miles as they hopped up the course as the person they were cheering passed.

I had a big surprise at about 15.5 miles. My family. They didn’t need my bib to cheer me by name. And Wesley was the only person on the whole course to give me a kiss. It gave me a huge boost seeing them there. Next time (yeah, there’ll be a next time) I’m hoping that with the kids a bit older Amber will be able to hop around the course to see me more than once. If not, I’ll need them more at say 21 miles instead of 15.5.

Miles 21 to 26 were not good. Up until that point I had been feeling pretty good, but I really lost my momentum then. I started getting water just to have the excuse to walk for 25 or 30 steps. Sometimes I’d have two cups at a station. Thats 50-60 steps. When the 4:15 group passed me (I could hear the crowd cheering them on as they approached) I slowed even more. Clearly I was losing time at this point and wasn’t going to make my goal. My pacing had been off since the start because my gps was way off (by a mile at mile 10) and I had pressed too hard (the gps said I was going slower than I was) and now I was out of steam. Next time I’ll use a pace card instead of the gps.

By the time I got up the last hill and I hit that 26 mile mark my mind just clicked in. I’m not sure where it was before, but it wasn’t thinking “I can run this thing and fast”. It was thinking more “I can’t stop or people will make fun of me. Boy this hurts. Where is that water station? This is a long way. Ow!” Even writing this I realize I’m using referring to my brain as it, as if it were separate from me. I should be saying “I was thinking”. But that isn’t how it felt. I felt like my mind and body were separated. It was all I could do to keep my body going and didn’t have time to keep my mind attached and doing what I wanted. But I digress. By mile 26 I realized I was going to finish. I kicked it up and passed about 40 people on my way to the finish. I was actually sprinting. Clearly I had more in me that I wasn’t getting during miles 21-26. Keeping your mind and body working together is critical. Next time. Any way, it felt good to run fast again after 5 slogging miles.

It will be a while before I run another marathon. I think I’ll need two years of regular running to really be able to do my best. I’d like to be able to qualify for Boston. To do that I’ll need to cut more than an hour off my time. I think I’ll be able to do it, assuming I keep up the running (not at training level), run a few more long runs (to get used to “the wall”), and remember a few of the things I learned:

• Write your name in big letters so the crowd can cheer you “personally”.
• Use a pace chart rather than gps. Your stopwatch can’t get blocked by tall buildings or trees.
• Lineup ahead of the pace group running your goal time.
• Stay focused, don’t let your mind get the best of you
• Use the bathroom before the race regardless of how long the lines are

I’d put off writing this post for a couple of reasons. The marathon has taken up so much of my time over the last 5 months that it seemed like I needed to write something important. Plus I had heard from others that finishing their first marathon was a transformative moment. I certainly didn’t feel that way. When I was finished, I just didn’t have to run any more. It didn’t give me the resolve or self confidence to do anything new in my life. For me I guess it really was about the learning to do. The regular, disciplined training schedule meant more to me than the race itself. So I was having a hard time writing something that didn’t seem negative, that had the right weight about it and gave all the people that have been supporting me that “good for him” feeling I thought they deserved. I even made a mind map (be glad I didn’t use it, a post using all that information would have been at least twice as long as this.

What’s next? I hear that a lot. Well one of my friends that ran the race with me thinks we should do a triathlon. It appeals to me. The nice thing about a triathlon is that you can actually practice the full length of each leg. You can practice by doing a 15 mile bike ride or 800m swim for example whereas running a full marathon distance is too risky for most runners (due to high injury rates above 20 miles). I probably won’t be doing a triathlon this summer, due to the bloody high cost of bikes, but I am going to start swimming. I picked up some goggles and swim jammers (think boxer briefs only made out of spandex) and now I just need to get up the guts to go down to the pool and look like I’m drowning. For now I’m just resting. The rule of thumb is to rest 1 day for each mile you raced. So for me that is almost 4 weeks. Then I’ll work in slowly with some short runs until I work back up to a comfortable mileage (I like 8 miles personally) a couple times a week. I’m hoping to add to the runs a couple swims a week and maybe lifting weights 2 times a week or so. Why so much? I like to eat candy.

 

The TV down here isn’t really helping any.  They have been running commercials about the race for a few days (mostly calling for volunteers) and I get just a wee bit queasy when I see them.  Plus the weather is looking a bit iffy.  You should have seen the weather folks on each of the local news stations last night.  They were giddy, positively giddy I tell you, at the prospect that it might rain on the runners.  Rain itself can be a big deal down here, but add to the fact that it is raining on 13,000 idiots running and you’ve got news.

Then the marathon website keeps adding more content.  Things like a course map and most recently course videos. The videos show the view out the window of a car driving the course.  The videos are very, very sped up.  They still take 14 minutes to watch.  I started watching these things and even at driving speed, faster than you could actually drive it because the video is sped up so much and because they have cut out all the waiting at lights, I still got bored and couldn’t watch the whole thing.  Now I have to run it in real time.  Go ahead and try to watch them.  Tell me if by the 2nd minute you aren’t bored out of your mind and thinking, man this is a really, really long way.

 

As I write this there are 6 days 13 hours 13 minutes and 9 seconds until the marathon.  Less as you read this very post.  Wish me luck, I’m going to need it.

 

I haven’t run at all since the 5 miles I did last Sunday and in general I’ve been laying off doing much of anything too physical.  I’ll just keep stretching and keep doing nothing until the marathon if I have to.  I’ll definitely run the race regardless of how it feels.  I haven’t been doing this since October to have to quit.  It hurt for 18 miles last time, I guess hurting for another 8 won’t be too bad.  One bummer is that I bought a new pair of shoes to race in (and to have afterwards as mine are pretty much run out), but it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to put enough miles on them to break them in before the marathon.  So I’ll probably stick with my old worn out ones.  They may not have much cushion left, but they fit my feet and I know they don’t give me major blisters or rub in a bad spot.

 

Using the McMillan Running Calculator this time gives me an estimated marathon time of 4 hours, 17 minutes, 43 seconds.  I’d really like my time to be under four hours even if it is 3 hours, 59 minutes, 59 seconds and 99/100s.  I think I can do it.  A number of factors should help me out.  First is I won’t have to stop at any lights or wait for any traffic (or trains).  Second, I’ll have plenty of water.  Today I ran with just one bottle holding 3 cups of water.  This is just about 1/3 of what I’d like to be drinking.  Third, my new shoes arrived along with new insoles.  They are exactly the same model I have now.  I’ll break them in over the next couple of weeks.  It will be nice to have shoes with some padding again.  I’ve literally put hundreds of miles on my current pair and they don’t really have the same level of cushion they once did.  Fourth, I’m planning on trying out some of those little gel packs.  It is supposed to help provide some energy and electrolytes while you run.  Lastly, and maybe as important as anything else is that it will be a race.  I’ll have adrenaline pumping and I always get a boost running near other runners.  Hopefully it will all add up.

Nearing 20 miles runners talk about “the wall”.  Basically “the wall” is the point at which your body has used up its glycogen stores.  Without available glycogen the body has to burn fat which it doesn’t do very efficiently and can only do aerobically.  Your body starts to give out.  You lose the will to keep going and your basically in bad shape.  In a marathon you still have 6 miles to go, more or less.  I was supposed to hit it today.  I’m not sure if I did or not.  I was certainly tired and I was definitely hurting, but I’m not sure I really hit the wall.  My muscles hurt in a different way than they did after my 18 mile run.  More deep down and at the bone, but I’m not sure that was “the wall”.  I guess I’ll find out for sure during the marathon.  Hopefully things like the energy gels, plenty of water, and ample sports drink will minimize the effects.

From here until the marathon I enter the taper.  I run less and less until the week before the marathon where I only run nine miles.  My longest run is only 12 miles and I don’t do anything for several days before the race.  My plan is to stretch religiously, eat lots of carbs and try not to overdo it.  After the race I plan to do something like what I did today.  Drink a lot, eat a lot, shower (very important) and then go take a short nap.  After that I plan to get up and eat a lot of bbq.  After all 26 miles should burn roughly 3100 calories so I can pretty much eat anything and as much of it as I like.

 

I ran by Lake Pflugerville. I had no idea there even was a lake. Neither did Google Maps. Turns out they built the thing in 2005/6. It has a nice path around it, I’m guessing we’ll go for a walk there sometime soon. There isn’t a single large tree so it won’t be any fun at all this Summer. All in all it was a nice surprise.

On my run I once again saw my favorite road warning sign of all time. It is a very common sign here in Texas :

“Observe Warning Signs
State Law”
Yes, a warning sign telling you that it is State Law to observe warning signs. Seems to me that if you were planning on ignoring warning signs, you’d just ignore this one too. Maybe they have some minimum number of signs per mile they have to meet and this seemed as good as any. They’ve got signs reminding you to do regular maintenance to your car too. Big state, nothing else to look at, means lots of room for road signs I guess.

Another 8 miles and it’ll be a marathon.

 

1. The place where whiskey bottles go to die.  About 150, maybe more, whiskey bottles under a tree. I wish I had my camera.
2. The ugliest house I have ever seen.  It wasn’t dilapidated and there wasn’t anything wrong with it, but it was just the least architecturally attractive house I have ever seen.  If I had built that house I would say knock it down.  Try again.
3. Smells.  I smell a lot of things when I run.  Normally I don’t much notice what the air smells like, but when I run I notice.  Maybe because I’m breathing so much, maybe because I’m crazy bored.  Today it was pancakes followed by flowers followed by car exhaust followed by BBQ.  Then it hit me.  McDonald’s french fries.  I was so close to running in there and demanding all their fries and eating until my heart burst from all the greasy goodness.
4. A house with a printed notice on their door stating “No Flyers”.  So they put up a flyer to tell people not to put up flyers.  They live in our neighborhood.  We get a few, maybe 2 a month, but not enough to have that ugly thing permanently affixed to our front door.

 

I’ve learned a few things so far:

• Even though they’ve already charged $100 to run the marathon they’ll still charge a $7.50 processing fee (which they don’t tell you about until the last page of the registration process).
• Don’t run if you’ve eaten Chuy’s Tex-Mex that day or the day before.
• Don’t run after eating if when you finished you think “wow I’m full” or “I wish I was wearing sweat pants”.
• Rabbits will scare the dickens out of you in the dark (and you them).
• Synthetic running socks are worth $8 a pair for fighting blisters (they cost $9 a pair, but what are you going to do?).

The stats so far:

•  I’ve run 192.48 miles (out of a planned 177)
•  My average time per mile is 9:18 (week 9)
•  My longest run was 15.8 miles which I wrote about here.
•  My average weight for week 9 was 152.3 lbs (down 4.3 lbs from the start)
•  My average body fat for week 9 was 15.2% (down 1.9 percentage points from the start)

I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, but my goal is to stretch every single day.  My stretching has become almost nonexistent.  I’ve only stretched 3 times in the last two weeks and I think it is starting to take a toll.  I’m more sore and have had a few small muscle pulls.  If I can’t keep on top of it I’m afraid that my gait and stride will be affected and it is all downhill from there.  Plus, running tight and sore just isn’t as much fun (and it isn’t that much fun to start with).

 

Last Saturday I had a 10 mile run scheduled. I was a little nervous because the week before I had barely completed a 9 mile run. I decided to go down to Lady Bird Lake (Town Lake) and run the trail there with the rest of the runners in Austin. I’d never been before, but I found a route on MapMyRun that looked good and was just about the right length. I took some route notes about where to turn and landmarks and what not and taped the list to my water bottle.

I got there about 8:30 in the morning and started to run. I set out with a goal of ten, 9:30 minute miles. I started to run and felt pretty good. I quickly realized that at the lake you run counterclockwise (which is how you run a track). Almost everyone was going the other direction and I hate to admit it, but I was tempted to turn around just so I’d fit in. But running against the grain has its advantages, mainly I didn’t get stuck behind groups of people I couldn’t pass.

The Town Lake trail in near the Congress Avenue bridge is apparently the place to see and be seen. There were more girls in impractically tiny running outfits strutting around than I have seen in a long, long time. They ran fast, they ran slow, but it didn’t appear that they ran very far. By the time I had gone five or six miles there weren’t any more girls. Just men and women (wearing much more appropriate clothing) running the stretches of trail where no one was watching.

My notes did me pretty well for most of the run. I was actually feeling really good at about eight miles and telling myself that at nine miles I could pick up the pace and finish hard. Then things went wrong. Not that I knew it at the time, but at about 8.5 miles I missed a critical turn.  I was supposed to cross a footbridge over a creek that feeds the lake.  But my notes didn’t mention it.  When I had looked at the route crossing the bridge looked inevitable to me.  I thought I would stay on the trail and it would lead over the bridge.  So I left it out of the notes.  My notes said that the next thing I was to do was turn onto the bridge at MoPac.  This definitely wasn’t MoPac so I kept on running down the trail.

It wasn’t too much longer that I started to worry that I had made a mistake.  But I rationalized that my gps watch was off (it happens sometimes in the woods) or that my notes were off.  I also kept thinking “I haven’t seen MoPac yet.  So I must be going the right way.  I’m not blind, I didn’t miss MoPac”.  So like Forrest Gump I ran.  I just ran and ran.  I knew I was off course, but I didn’t have a whole lot of options.  If I was off track and I went back would I be able to figure out how to get back on track?  I didn’t think so.  I figured there must be another way across the water so I would keep running until I found it.

A few miles more and I found myself in a nice mid-70s residential area.  Ramblers, good sized trees.  Nice.  Hilly, but nice.  I approached a gentleman who was blowing leaves from his driveway.  He had one arm and used his hook to turn off the leaf blower.  Not that this is at all relevant, but whenever a story involves a one-armed man in any way I believe it is your obligation to share it.  It wasn’t one of those Cap’n Hook hooks, but one of the ones that can open and close.  Anyway…I asked him how to get across the lake and he looked confused.  He asked if I wanted to get to the greenbelt and I looked confused.  He told me how to get to the park and trail system and I thanked him and ran off.

You see, it turns out that I had run some distance away from the lake.  He didn’t understand my question because it didn’t make any sense.  He was near the Barton Creek greenbelt and I had unknowingly turned ninety degrees from the lake and had been running south along the creek for some time.  I followed his instructions and ran down the ravine into the creek bed and across what was fortunately a dry creek.  Had it rained heavily I’m not sure what I would have done.

I followed the trail system back toward the car.  It was rough going.  Not a running trail, but a hiking trail.  The difference is rocks.  Hiking trails are allowed to have large ankle-twisting rocks in them.  Plus they can have loose rocks and uneven surfaces.  It was slow going and I wasn’t sure at all how far I had to go to get back to the car.  The map at the trailhead before I went down the ravine didn’t cover a large enough area to show me where I wanted to go.  It was a big map, but I was that far off.  I didn’t see many people on this portion of the trail.  Which was nice, but not a comforting feeling when you know you are lost.  I think I’ll go back on purpose some time.

More running and I congratulated myself on having run a half-marathon (13.1 miles).  I kept running.  More people now as I got back near the more popular trails.  After consulting a few more maps I realized I was close and found a route home.  It was nice to know that I was actually going the right way again.  I kept running, even passing a few people and made it back to the car.  15.8 miles!  At that point I was pretty tired, but felt like I could keep running at least for a while more.

So now that I’ve survived I’ve added my route to mapmyrun.com.  And I’ve added a note about the bridge to the turn notes so maybe other runners won’t get quite as lost as I did.  My confidence is definitely boosted now.  If I can run almost 16 miles with 14 weeks of training left I might actually make it to the end of this marathon thing.