There were a lot of people so it took us just over 5 mins to cross the start line. The beginning of the run was great. Here is a map of the course:
Note: I am not sure why the map says the course is 26.75 miles.
A lot of people cheering for you and it was nice running down S. Congress. Once we crossed the congress bridge the hills started. I felt bad seeing some people already huffing and puffing 2 miles into the race, especially knowing what I know now about the course. All and all this short part of the course was great. It was definitely on the crowded side but given the hills, I was able to move around the people. It was really great having Lindsey and Cara at the beginning as we worked into our strides.
As we started heading towards mile seven I had gotten into a good pace and separated from Lindsey and Cara. After mile seven, it seemed like we were almost constantly heading up hills. Only a few, really seemed steep but I could feel the almost constant climb. At around mile 10 or 11, the marathoners split from the halfers and that’s when the course got much harder but the crowd support in this area was really great and it was fantastic to hear the encouragement from the crowd. Thinking that there was going to be a Gu stop at around mile marker 20, I decided to take my cliff shots at around mile 13. It was a good thing that I did because I had not realized that the whole back side of my shorts had crept down and was practically below my butt.
I think the worst stretch of the route was miles 15 through 17 and this was because we were primarily running along a highway. At mile 18, we finally got to start heading down hill again. I felt incredible for the run and was actually surprised when the 20 mile marker came around. Worse part, I NEVER saw the Gu station so did not get the needed energy boost. At this point I had settled somewhere between the 3:40:00 pace group and the 3:35:00 pace group and told myself that I was going to step it up when I hit the 23 mile marker. I was suprised at how good I was feeling but then my floor suddenly dropped out at mile 25 and it became a mental struggle to keep up the pace. I had been running a 8:01 min pace between miles 13 and 20, but the last 10K it dropped to 8:22.
I rounded the Texas capital and started going down a hill and the crowd support just erupted. It was amazing, everyone was screaming for each runner coming down. I looked up at the clock as I crossed the finish and it said 3:40 ish. I collected my medal and shirt and ate some food. Not shortly after I found both Lindsey and Cara and they were super happy with their times.
We hobbled back the mile back to the hotel and I went to check my name on the race results and … my name did not show up. I thought well maybe it was not ready yet so I checked Lindsey’s and Cara’s times and both of them showed up. It turned out that the chip never triggered my finish time. Has that ever happened to anyone before? Cara said it had happened to her at the Little Rock half marathon. I was super bummed because I had just PR’ed this race and it seemed like something between 5 and 10 minutes. I emailed the race people and he said all my splits showed up but he did not have a finish time so we would have to wait for the finish photos. Well those came out last evening and we were able to get the proper finish time. It was great that I got to start side-by-side with Cara and Lindsey because we were able to use the difference between their gun times and chip times as mine. So to put a conclusion on this long, long story I finished in 3:35:09, slightly off of my goal of 3:30:00 but given how hard this course and that I PR’ed by 8.5 minutes and was I was super happy.
Here were my standings:
This was such a great experience, and although very stressful and hard, it was great to experience this with two great friends. Now I am finishing my week break and will start running again this weekend (two short runs). The Lincoln marathon is not far away!
As we started heading towards mile seven I had gotten into a good pace and separated from Lindsey and Cara. After mile seven, it seemed like we were almost constantly heading up hills. Only a few, really seemed steep but I could feel the almost constant climb. At around mile 10 or 11, the marathoners split from the halfers and that’s when the course got much harder but the crowd support in this area was really great and it was fantastic to hear the encouragement from the crowd. Thinking that there was going to be a Gu stop at around mile marker 20, I decided to take my cliff shots at around mile 13. It was a good thing that I did because I had not realized that the whole back side of my shorts had crept down and was practically below my butt.
I think the worst stretch of the route was miles 15 through 17 and this was because we were primarily running along a highway. At mile 18, we finally got to start heading down hill again. I felt incredible for the run and was actually surprised when the 20 mile marker came around. Worse part, I NEVER saw the Gu station so did not get the needed energy boost. At this point I had settled somewhere between the 3:40:00 pace group and the 3:35:00 pace group and told myself that I was going to step it up when I hit the 23 mile marker. I was suprised at how good I was feeling but then my floor suddenly dropped out at mile 25 and it became a mental struggle to keep up the pace. I had been running a 8:01 min pace between miles 13 and 20, but the last 10K it dropped to 8:22.
I rounded the Texas capital and started going down a hill and the crowd support just erupted. It was amazing, everyone was screaming for each runner coming down. I looked up at the clock as I crossed the finish and it said 3:40 ish. I collected my medal and shirt and ate some food. Not shortly after I found both Lindsey and Cara and they were super happy with their times.
We hobbled back the mile back to the hotel and I went to check my name on the race results and … my name did not show up. I thought well maybe it was not ready yet so I checked Lindsey’s and Cara’s times and both of them showed up. It turned out that the chip never triggered my finish time. Has that ever happened to anyone before? Cara said it had happened to her at the Little Rock half marathon. I was super bummed because I had just PR’ed this race and it seemed like something between 5 and 10 minutes. I emailed the race people and he said all my splits showed up but he did not have a finish time so we would have to wait for the finish photos. Well those came out last evening and we were able to get the proper finish time. It was great that I got to start side-by-side with Cara and Lindsey because we were able to use the difference between their gun times and chip times as mine. So to put a conclusion on this long, long story I finished in 3:35:09, slightly off of my goal of 3:30:00 but given how hard this course and that I PR’ed by 8.5 minutes and was I was super happy.
Here were my standings:
| Clock time | 3:40:35 |
| Chip time | 3:35:09 |
| Overall place | 488/4045 |
| Gender place | 423/2467 |
| Division Place | 64/353 |
| Age grade | 58.1 |
Oh my goodness, congrats on your PR!!!! That is so awesome and you look so happy:) Good job Honky...you deserved this! Thanks for sharing the wonderful pictures:)
ReplyDeleteI just signed up for the Lucky 7 that you were talking about. Now I am running something in March:) Hopefully I will see you there!!
Congrats again Chris...I am proud of you!!
Great job! Congratulations on a great PR. You blew your old one away! It sounds like it was a difficult course, too, so that is cause for extra celebration. Very cute pictures, too. I'm sorry you had the stress about your chip. Someone stepped on my husband's foot and ripped off his chip at the TC marathon. They did end up fixing it after he wrote a letter. I'm so glad that you got your proper time. Great job and enjoy some recovery time!
ReplyDeleteCongrats on a killer PR!!! That is awesome! Loved the recap! I can't believe your chip didn't register, I would've seriously been stressing the eff out!!!!!!! OMG! Good thing you were able to figure it all out! Congrats again! :)
ReplyDelete