Houston Marathon

A beautiful day for running today! We started at 42 and finished around 50. My day wasn’t quite that perfect. I realized halfway to downtown that I left my Clif Bar breakfast at home. Not a good omen. Then, when I was pulling into my parking space, I heard the crunch of glass and realized I had run over a bottle. All this before 545am. Things did get better. A friend of one of my running buddies had an extra Clif Bar that she brought but since she had never had one before running before, didn’t want to eat. And when I got back to my car at the end, it didn’t look like my tire lost air or had been punctured.

I ended up only doing the half. I could feel a twinge in my left hip flexor as I approached the turnoff at mile 9, and I figured that 40 minutes more running was a better idea than 2 hours and 40 minutes. I stopped by the Hash Mile at mile 11/24 to hang out and wait for some of my friends to come by. 20 minutes later, when they came by, I was off to the finish with them. It felt kind of odd inside the finish area when the volunteers kept insisting on giving me the full medal and the full finisher shirt. They must have thought I looked really good to have just finished in 2.5 hours.

After I finished, I drove back out to mile 24 to wait for my marathon friends. Some of them had asked me to make sure I found them in case they needed help at the end of the race. Jenny and Bianca were the first two to come by, looking strong and well on their way to a sub-4 finish. Shelley was next, was cramping a bit, but had a smile on her face and after running with her for a bit, she said she had it from there. I missed Sandy but saw her fiance Tim. He was doing fine, so that left just Stephanie to come by. She showed up later than expected. She was doing okay, but looked and sounded like she could use some company to get her mind focused again. I ran the rest of the way in with her, which probably sent the timing system haywire when I crossed the line for a second time.

Now that I’ve run two halves and a full in the span of eight days, I’m even more in awe of those crazy people that do a marathon a day for a month or a marathon a week for a year. I probably could have gotten through the full today, but I’m sure it would have more than erased the elation I’m still feeling from Goofy last week. That was the best I’ve ever felt all the way through and after a full, and I still can’t believe it. Today would not have felt nearly as good. The half was definitely the better choice.

Now it’s time for beer, lunch, and a nap.