What a great event!! The Houston Marathon/and Half Marathon have almost 25,000 participants, which makes for such a fantastic race. So many runners from the Woodlands came out to run today-- a nice warm Houston January day. Thanks to Karen for driving me down to the race and being such a great friend! She ran a great race today, as did most everyone I know. Congrats to Tim Monk and Ed York for qualifying for Boston. Ed's smile at the end said it all! Congrats to Cindy Weller, Cindy Cardone (did I see Alyssa out there?), Katie Gustafson, Jen Perkins, David Wallace, Alex Gajewski, and Jason Rice for finishing strong in the Half. Congrats to Kyle Mays, Jim Harrington, Stacey Almond, and Jack McClintic for great marathons. Jack flew by me so fast he didn't even have time to say hello!
I was pretty pleased with my time--1:23:02. I haven't run an open marathon in a decade, so I really had no clue what kind of pace to run. Most of my aerobic runs are 7 minute pace, so I knew it would be faster than that. But, 13.1 miles is a lot farther than 6.2 miles!! I held back until about mile 7, and then figured I was past the point of crashing and burning. My tight soleus forced me to keep my pace a little slower than I might have otherwise. Once you've pulled a calf in a race, it makes you a little more nervous about pushing through the pain. As I came through mile 10 and started to really wish the race was over, I realized how good I felt (relatively speaking) and what a blessing it was for me to be able to be here, at this race, uninjured, and feeling good. I love to run, and don't take it for granted that I can run. That thought put a smile on my face :)
Next up is a solid 9 weeks of base training. Lots of swimming, biking, and running. Then, the season begins at New Orleans 70.3.
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