Monday, January 19, 2009

Houston Marathon Report/My Half-Marathon Run...

First, there's Sabrina. She's my running bud who has turned into QUITE the celebrity! I'm surprised she even hangs out with me anymore. It seems she wrote a really great story about how she found running after the death of her mother and how she's since elevated her performance. Yesterday, she ran a GREAT marathon with a finishing time of 3:52. Her celebrity is enormous! In this pic, she's shown in a television interview:


If you've kept up with my ramblings here, you know that blistered toes have been the #1 show-stopper for me in the past couple of half-marathons. Because my training bites, and my mileage base is quite low, my toes don't have the requisite callouses. Per Roger Soler's advice, I was going to tape them up. At the running expo, I saw Mick at the Luke's Locker Exhibit. He showed me these great socks and LaErica sold 'em to me! What a GREAT IDEA/INVENTION...I wish I'd thought of it first! In the first couple of miles they were awkward and irritating. I thought they might be a show-stopper. Then my socks and I really got into the groove!! I love my new socks, ZERO blisters!:


Here, moments before the race, I got a pic with Stephen Smith:


I carried my camera and cell phone. I called my MOM at mile 7 and it just about derailed my run. Turning the fanny pack around and unzipping it to get the phone took more energy than I'd have liked...talked to MOM after crossing over Allen Parkway. I was pretty brief with MOM, sorry.


The Houston Marathon is a GREAT VENUE!! And inside the GRB Convention Center, HEB spared no expense or effort. Fantastic spread! Bananas, bagels, cookies, muffins, coffee, hot scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits, hot sauce, the works! Here, having some breakfast with some of my running buds:




After stretching and packing it up to go, I went outside and there was a festival-like PARTY going on! Sausage-on-a-stick, free beer, lots of fun stuff everywhere:


I've always thought I'm so clever to take a mountain bike to marathons. Parking stress is nonexistent, stress-free. Park a mile or two away and just roll into and out of the race. Finding a place to pee is easy. Chain the bike near the start/finish line. Great idea, right? Well yesterday, for the 1st time, I goofed! I LOST MY FREAKING BIKE!! I was sure that it hadn't been stolen, as there are people everywhere. I'll be damned if I didn't walk around for OVER an hour, looking for my bike! Geez. The scenery of the race venue changes A LOT from the time you take off until the time you finish! Where there were massive scaffolds covered with huge banners for the 2 starting lines, there were none! And it appears they built up a huge finish line while we were running. Quite the feat. So it confused me. I ended up walking all the way back to the car, a long way away, AFTER walking for over an hour looking for the bike. Recall that the very premise of the bike trick is to REDUCE walking. I drove the approximate route that I rode to the starting line. Well, THERE'S my bike!! I'll try to pay attention next year!

There were some GREAT performances out there yesterday! GREAT RACE!

Sheesh, the whole bunch enjoyed PR's (personal record), except me!Adrienne just ran a STELLAR 3:05 PR! My friends Sabrina and Carolyn both ran fantastic 3:52 PR's! My friend Pam ran a fantastic 3:28! Very stout! Cassie and her husband Manny, ran super impressive 2:05's, despite being uninspired by the race beforehand! She bested her previous record by 5 minutes! Way to go, girl! Lots of great running out there, thanks folks! I had planned on running a 1:40 half-marathon, although I don't deserve such a number at the present time. I ended up with a 1:39! I THUNDERED in Houston! I'll take it!

10 comments:

LaErica said...

Hey,
Glad to hear the race went well and the bike thing is pretty darn funny! Even more happy to hear the socks worked out! ;) see ya soon!

K said...

Injinji Socks Rule!

Great report! I'd love to read Sabrina's article. I started running after my mom's death as well.

Evan Guy said...

Sabrina's article is in the latest issue of "Deer Tracks" newsletter...lemme know if you don't find it.

Thanks ladies! :)

Adrienne Langelier, MA said...

Dude, where's my bike?!! That is too funny. Congrats on the time! Houston sure put together a well-oiled machine this weekend.

I wish I could say the same about the blisters...

Anonymous said...

nice times, sorry the bike didn't turn out to be a timesaver for ya!

Unknown said...

Evan, you ROCKED the race. Congrats on a fabulous time. I believe when I saw you on the sidelines there was an entourage following you.... :)

Sabrina

L said...

Very impressive. Realize this is a top 5% finish overall? However I am sure you could have done it a lot faster on the 250. Love the toe socks. Think of all the time you have now to train for next year.

Membership Required said...

next year place a gps tracker on the bike and link it to a phone. Also didnt the other marathons have spreads like this one for after the race? You sound very impressed? Good job on doing it. I may run in the Rockets 5k on the 31st with some girls from MOPS. ML

Evan Guy said...

Thanks, y'all! The Houston venue is THE best of any I've been to, as far as the post-race accommodations go...HEB really knows how to do this.

L: Well golly, 95th percentile, eh? I'll take it! Running fast is fun if you can do it without passing out or throwing up! I was pretty well high-as-a-kite the last 5 miles...it's that runners' high kinda delirium...

Viv said...

Congrats Evan on a great finish!