Houston Half-Marathon Race Report

For the record let me state I really didn’t mean to run this as a race.  In reality I didn’t, yet I still got a PR baby!  Albeit only by 16 seconds.  You would think with a PR I would have written the race report sooner, but I got distracted by a woman.  What can I say, potential love comes first.

I realized after the Space City 10 miler that even when I claim I’m not going to race a particular race, I end up racing it anyways.  So to restrain myself I ran the highest mileage week (51 miles) I’ve had since April.  Complete with two 10 milers, one of which was Friday evening.  Saturday morning my legs were D-E-A-D!  Great!  That was what I was going for.  I’d force myself to slow down by having dead legs on race day (Sunday).  (I know that’s seriously messed up thinking.)  This race I ran in my Brooks and not my Vibrams.  I need my legs to recover in time for the next race, plus I haven’t run that long in them yet.  This is my first race in "regular" shoes in a long time.  They felt quite heavy but the cushioning was nice. 

I have my race day morning routine down, parking was close and I arrived a bit early.  I still have not become accustomed to living so close to downtown.   I always think it’s a half hour away.  It was cold and I was in shorts and short sleeve shirt so I sat in my car a bit to stay warm.  As I’m heading into the race I ran into an old running buddy from the good ole Houston Fit assistant coaching days.  Clark!  I’ve run probably close to a thousand miles with Clark, and as old friends do, we picked up just where we left off.  Just like old times.  Clark and I head to the start line with some other people he knows from HF.  The start gun rings out and a minute later we cross the start line. 

The first 3 miles are in downtown which really messes with the Garmin.  I have no idea how fast (or slow) we are going as the Garmin alternates between low 6 minute mile and 16 minute mile pace.  We weave in and out of the traffic trying to get into our groove.  Normally I don’t bob and weave too much in the early part of a race.  It wastes a ton of energy.  Hey isn’t that Lisa’s (from improv) husband, Randy, up ahead?  Yep, so I sprint up and say hi and he introduces me to his neighbor’s son who is also running the half.  Kid can’t be in his teens yet.  Man I’m getting old.  They seem to be in a hurry so I fall back and rejoin Clark.  We come out of downtown and the Garmin say 7:08 pace.  I’m not buying that I’m running faster than my 5K pace from a month ago, while easily being able to hold a conversation with Clark.  Then Clark turns to me and says “I’m not going to be able to hold this pace, my watch say that we’re at a 7:05 pace”.  Hmmm :-/ Clark tells me he’ll be lucky to hold an 8 minute pace and he knows that is my goal pace so he gives me permission to race my race and ditch him.  Semi-reluctantly I do.  I really want to catch up with Clark and I know I’ll start running a bit harder.  We come out of downtown to the first water station.  I do my usual grab a Gatorade and drink it, grab water and dump it over my head (you only make the mistake not to check once, well maybe twice). 

Not much exciting or memorable happened between coming out of downtown up to the turnaround (mile 8).  I remember passing Randy and “the kid” at one of the water stops.  They were walking the water stops and I run through them.  The Garmin keeps reading 8 to 8:15 pace when I check it, but when it beeps at each mile it says 7:45ish pace.  At the turnaround I start doing race math.  What’s my overall pace?  If I run at such and such pace going forward what will my final time be?  Can I predict where I’ll be at the 10 mile mark?  At the first water station after the turnaround I get my first comment from a race volunteer.  “Can you believe he just dumped that water on his head?”  (it had warmed up to the upper 40’s).  I start to realize I may beat my Space City time at the 10 mile mark.  I'm usually really good at race math.  In fact it's one of the metrics I use to figure out if I'm still with it mentally.  With that said, of course my race math is bad, but I’m only a minute off my Space City time.  The finish was tough for that race and I was exhausted at the end, I guess the cold weather was making a huge difference.  I feel great at this point. 

At about the 10 mile mark I put it in cruise control.  My internal dialogue went like this: “No use running the end hard and killing yourself.  I have two races next weekend, one of which is 31 miles.  You can't fake 31 miles.  Let’s just coast on in, collect our finishers’ medal, and get warmed up.  Oh yeah, they have St. Arnold's at the end.”   Then Randy passed me.  He told me I’m looking strong and hitting a good pace.  I chat with him for about 30 seconds, saying that I feel good but I’m not really racing this thing, and beside my hamstring feels like it might cramp.  Then he ups it a notch and starts to pull away.  “Let him go.  Cruise on in.  Talk to him afterwards.  I bet you could catch him?  What?  Stop thinking like that, cruise on in.  Play it smart.  F@&K it, time to chase him down, let's have a bit of fun today.”  It’s on like Donkey Kong!  Mile 11, 7:41 pace.  Mile 12, 7:39 pace, Mile 13 7:35 pace.  I catch him just before the 13 mile banner.  He realized I just chased him down and ups it another notch.  We run in step until just before the finish line.  I’ve never developed a finishers kick, he has an awesome one and crosses a second or so ahead.  (Officially he beat me by 4 seconds).  I look down at my watch and 1:42:50.  Wasn’t my previous best 1:43 something?  Did I really just PR on dead legs, without making this a target race, and feel like I could have gone a couple more miles at my finishing pace?   Randy and I congratulate each other as we both get a PR.

The post-race festivities are always great when St. Arnolds is handing out free beer.  This is when I really wish I had taken the time to put a drop bag together.  Randy introduces me to some people he knows and we all share a beer.  I run into Chris from the Icehouse Runners who I used to run with when I first moved back to Houston.  We chat a bit, but I’m getting cold standing around in wet race clothes.  So I head out.  

It was great to finally run a race and see people I know.  I’m starting to get back into it and running is becoming a social activity again for me.  Can never complain about a PR, but now I’m really thinking about a winter goal race, either a half or maybe full marathon.  I’m pretty sure I could break 1:40 for a half and 3:45 for a full.  We’ll see how I feel after this next set of races.  Final time 1:42:50, finishing 52nd in my age group (out of 288) and 372nd place overall (out of 2879).  Next up: Rocky Raccoon 50K and Firefly 5K.