Houston Marathon

After ten weeks of training and preparing, racing weekend was finally here.  All of the long runs, speed sessions, and easy runs were about to pay off.  Me and my parents left for Houston, TX early on Friday morning.  Unfortunately Matt has been really busy at work and wasn’t able to come, but he was providing prayer and encouragement from afar. 

Ryan and Abdi

We pulled into our hotel around 4 o’clock on Friday afternoon, checked in, and then headed over to race headquarters.  When we got down there, we realized that the opening ceremony for the Olympic trials was about to take place, so we quickly picked up our packets and then found a spot right next to the stage to watch the opening ceremony. We heard several past Olympians speak including Bill Rodgers, Frank Shorter, Joan Benoit Samuelson, Meb Keflezghi, and Deena Kastor and saw many of the athletes that would be competing the next day for a spot on the Olympic team march in. 

The top four men (Ritz was fourth)

I got up Saturday morning and went on a short run to keep the legs loosened up and then we headed out to watch the Olympic marathon trials. Our hotel was right on the course, so we didn’t have to go far to watch. Their were about 100 men and 150 women competing for the three Olympic spots, the men started first and the women started 15 min. later.  Their course was several loops, so they passed us at miles 1,3,11, and 19.   It was pretty cool to see some of the runners that you always read about competing head to head.  After the runners passed us at mile 19, we walked down to the finish line to see who would end up on top.  The men’s race had four guys who were battling it out with the fourth place guy finishing just 7 seconds behind third place. It was a pretty painful place for him to be, so close to making the team.  On the women’s side there were three women who had pulled away from everyone else so it was more like just waiting to see what order they would finish in.  In the end, Meb Keflezghi (2:09:08), Ryan Hall (2:09:30), and Abdi Abdirahman (2:09:47) made the men’s Olympic team and Shalane Flanagan (2:25:38), Desiree Davila (2:25:55), and Kara Goucher (2:26:06) made the women’s team. Watching that race was pretty inspiring and started getting me excited about my race the next day.

The top four women (the one on the far left was fourth)

After a rough night’s sleep, I never seem to be able to sleep very well in hotels, I got up a little anxious with a hint of excitement for what lay ahead.  I ate a Cliff Bar just to get something in my stomach and then got ready to go.  Our hotel was close enough to where we could just walk to the race start which was great.  We walked out of the hotel and joined the masses making their way in the dark down to the start line.  My corral closed at 6:40am and I got there with just a few minutes to spare after giving and getting last minute encouragement from my parents (my mom also ran). Ready or not it was go time.

Coming down the finish chute

I knew I was in shape to run this race, and that my biggest challenge was going to be holding back the pace when I felt good at the beginning since I’m more used to races where I’m going pretty hard from the beginning and then just trying to hold that pace as long as I can. Not a very good strategy for a marathon.  I started out at what felt like a pretty comfortable pace (~7:48) and was able to hold onto that through most of the first 18-20 miles. Now, anyone who has ever run a marathon will tell you that you’re not really halfway through until you’ve hit the 20 mile mark and that is so true. Those last six miles were killer. My quads were screaming and I wanted so bad to walk, but I knew that if I stopped running I probably wouldn’t start again, so I kept going. I just had to take it one mile at a time, telling myself just make it to mile 23, okay now just make it to mile 24, etc.  The marathon is not only a test of extreme endurance, but mental toughness.

The race course wasn’t particularly scenic or anything, but the crowd support was incredible with hardly a section without people cheering. There were also lots of creative signs along the way such as “you trained for this race longer than Kim Kardashian was married” or “26.2 because 26.3 is just crazy” and George Bush Sr. was even out shaking hands around mile 19.. It was one big loop and pretty flat, but there were a few dips in the last few miles which would have been no problem at the beginning of the race, but after being out for 22 miles the last thing my aching quads wanted to do was run downhill. I really had no idea where I was throughout the race until we passed our hotel. I was so relieved because I knew I had less than a mile to go.  My goal going into the race was to run sub 3:30, so I was more than happy to run a 3:28:56 which ended up being about a 7:58 average pace. My mom finished a little while later and we were able to enjoy the post race festivities together. 

Houston Marathon finishers