2007 ATT Austin Marathon

My 10th Marathon...to put it very simply, I wasn't prepared! I know I took a very non-chalant attitude for this race and it cost me at the end of the race with some painful miles. The conditions were perfect for a change with temps in the low 30s and very light wind. Everything went smoothly this morning as opposed to last year so I had very little stress. I got up at 4:45 and met the group at RunTex. A few of us blew off the warmup and walked over to the start area. I hit the bathroom, took off my warm stuff, grabbed my garbage bag/Gatorade bottle porta potty, and got in the chute with about 20 minutes to the start. There was only one pace group ahead of me so I was in a good position. I used my Gatorade bottle twice while standing there and was good to go when the gun went off.

I felt good through the first few miles having to weave through some of the dumb ass half marathoners who should have lined up in the back. Once I broke clear of them I was running in the clear at a good pace. Fletch came by with his 3:10 group and said hello. The southern part was really nice. It was a lot more scenic than previous courses and the hill up to Oltorf wasn't that bad. The downhill back toward the lake was nice and we hit the first flat area on Barton Springs down Lamar, and the loop on 5th street where we were blinded by the sun. Once we got onto Cesar Chavez, I caught up with Diana and we ran together for the next 10 miles. I stripped off my long sleeve shirt on that stretch and ran with just a singlet. I saw Carla and the girls at the Rock and gave them my shirt. The next stretch through Lake Austin Boulevard was nice I was still feeling good and actually running below my 8:00 goal pace with minimal effort. Once we hit the rolling hills on Enfield we started passing some folks and then made the turn onto Exposition. It was nice to run in the middle of the road, but near the end of this stretch I was feeling a bit tired which wasn't a good thing.

Miles 1- 10 Splits - 8:17, 7:50, 7:37, 7:36, 7:33, 7:21, 7:49, 8:02, 7:53, 8:06

Once we crossed over Mopac I wanted to get into a rhythm of 8:00 miles. I had some faster splits in the first 10 miles, but was feeling fatigued and wanted to conserve and finish feeling good. We ran up Bull Creek, Hancock, Shoal Creek, and up Great Northern. I was hoping this would be a place to relax, but we were still climbing. Although I was feeling tired, I was still hitting around my 8:00 pace marks. Once I turned onto Foster and headed toward the mall I thought of bailing and jumping off when I saw Carla and the girls again, but I have never DNF'd and I told myself I would walk it in if I had to. My conditioning felt great, my stomach felt great, and I was doing well with my CarbBooms and hydration. My legs just felt like shit. I think I beat myself up too much with the 20 mile Race and 3M which I knew would have an affect on me. I just didn't think it would be this much. I was still running around 8:00 pace through 17, but once we headed south I started to drop off at a rapid pace and really felt like walking. I dropped into the 9:00 range at mile 20 and at that point knew I was going to have a huge struggle the last 10k.

Miles 11-20 Splits - 7:53, 7:58, 8:02, 8:04, 8:15, 8:12, 8:11, 8:40, 8:41, 9:03

The last 10k just plain sucked. My mind and cardio were saying let's go, but my legs were toast. I made it through the neighborhood area and onto Red River, but had really slowed down. On Red River I finally had to walk and it was a painful walk. It hurt more to walk than run so I started to run/shuffle again. Joseph Kozusko patted me on the back and told me to keep going and Skud wished me well. I made it to 38th and ran down the hill. I was on fumes and walked up the hill to Duval. Once on Duval, it was downhill and I let gravity carry me down. I was kind of in a stupor around Double Dave's and Sean came out of nowhere and scared the crap out of me. He pushed me on with some kind words and a half a block later I hit a pack of Gazelles including Shannon and Patrick. Patrick made me take a small bottle of Accelerade and it was a life saver. I sipped on it through the campus and it gave me a good pick me up. I didn't walk from that point on and actually picked it up the last mile. I saw Carla and the girls for the last time at the Capitol building. Gilbert was there as well and yelled words of encouragement. I ran around Capitol and onto the awesome finish down Congress. There were tons of people lining the streets and I actually felt good for a bit down this stretch. I saw Brad and Richard yelling along Congress and finished strong.

Miles 21-26 splits - 9:06, 9:34, 9:51, 9:56, 9:52, 8:51

I got my medal and headed into the finish area. I didn't find any of my peeps so I got a bagel, my finisher's shirt and headed outside of the are to try and find Carla and the girls. I ran into Rich, who ran an awesome 2:58, and we hung out for a bit. We didn't see anyone else so we walked back to RunTex where we ran into Brian. We visited for a bit. Brian had a good race in spite of getting food poisoning on Monday night. I headed home after that and actually did a little yard work before I hopped in the shower. I took a brief nap and then met Jay, Alex, and Brad for some Mangia and beers. I got home and passed out in front of the TV.

Stats - 26.2 Miles/3:41:51/8:29 pace
Overall finish 913 (top 20%)
3rd place in Clydesdale 2 division