The races
30K – Sugar Land 30K December 11, 2011
I ran again in my Kinarvas. I took the pace out real easy. I was running about an 8:15 to 8:20 pace. The weather was perfect. For some reason, my right leg was very stiff. About mile 5, it started to feel OK. I was able to transition to an 8 minute mile with some under an 8. The pace was going good and it looked like a 2:30 was feasible. Then. I got a stomach attack. I wound up with about 6 minutes in the porta pot. The last mile or so, I did slow to an 8:45 pace. It was an OK race with an OK result
Chevron Houston Marathon – January 15, 2012
I got to volunteer at the Olympic Marathon trials. I actually enjoyed the Friday check-in and the Saturdaywork at the Elite Fluids station. It was cold on Saturday, but I had plenty of clothes to stay warm. Everything went well. It was fun to watch the elites pass on by.
As for Sunday, it was another tough race for me. I went in with hopes of just running a 3:40 to 3:50 marathon. I ran the early miles easy. But, after mile 7 or so, my pace started to erode. I was really stunned. For all the training I do, I have no idea why after 7 miles my body was slowing. I hit the half point at 1:50. Not bad and truly, I was on course for a high 3:40s finish. I ran with Julie some, but an 8:20 to 8:30 pace was feeling like work at mile 17. I let her go and went to the porta-pot. Ouch, I wasdehydrated. I have no idea how I could have been de-hydrated. From there, I kept on slowing down. I did manage to sneak in under four hours. So, it was an improvement over NYC. And, it’s far from my worse efforts at Houston. But with ideal weather,I was disappointed that I could not take advantage of it.
