Houston Marathon. Round 3. And the old adage applies: third time's a charm! Here's how it all went down:
Drove in Saturday morning. Picked Mom up from Bush before heading to La Madeleine. Learned that Houston La Mad is not equal to the fireplace atmosphere of the Dallas La Mad. First world problems... Still managed an amazing blueberry muffin.
After that, en route to Les Miserables! I'd been holding out to see it, even after everyone I knew had already been a minimum of 10 times, but sooo worth it. Loved the truth and redemptive themes in the story. Trying to psych myself up to read the book now. Still have the music stuck in my head.
Expo time! I have now been fully converted into a race-detail-planning-how-did-they-handle-that-stalking nerd. Thankfully Mom put up with my constant stream of "we did this" and "look how they did that" as I snapped many-many-photos of various signage, banners, stands, barricade fencing... Picked up my bib, ran into my friend Erin, picked up my shirt, snapped a picture of Mom with the Geico gecko, ran into Mark, Chris, and Ken on the way out, and made it out in under an hour. Success.
Hotel time: pasta, debated race morning clothes, checked weather, what time should we leave?, debated clothes again, planned Mom's spectator route, laid out clothes, what time should we leave?, and checked the weather one more time just in case the weatherman really did make up 50 degrees at the start with 1000% chance of rain. He didn't. What time should we leave again?
Alarm. 4:45am. Game on. Throw everything together and hand off the keys to Mom. Here we go. Perfect timing on arrival at the convention center. A little after 6:00 I am standing outside the bag drop area to meet Chris, realizing in 2 seconds that we should've been a bit clearer regarding the exact meet-up locale. Wait a bit, and when the poor planning really sinks in along with the fact that I'm very close to running in the rain without a pacer sidekick for 26.2 miles, search for two girls trying to take a picture with the holding-out-the-phone-in-front-of-them-trick. "Hi, would you like me to take a picture for you?" (They are elated.) "Also, do you mind if I send a quick text? Trying to locate my training friend." (Sure, no problem!) "Saints." 10 minutes later, bag is dropped, and Chris and I head out of the nice warm convention center into.... cold rain.
After 5 minutes, wish for the rain cover I left in the car. Genius. Luckily, there were plenty to choose from once the gun went off and runners started shedding clothes. First 2 miles of rain, directly into the wind, but finally turned out of it and settled in. My friend Erin described the early portion of the race well in her Houston recap, but it's easily the coolest part of the course: a very eclectic, low-economic neighborhood with fantastic spectators – even in the rain.
And so the morning went. Saw Mom about every 4 miles along the way, saw the Field crew and Lindsey at 13. Started the "I'm over this phase" around 16-18, but stayed on track and logged the miles. Chris graciously (and entertainingly) paced me to mile 20, and then we split ways for the remaining miles. Perfectly set-up with plenty of room to PR as long as I could stick pace a little longer. My GPS didn't kick on for the first several miles and then went haywire after mile 23 (as did my mental state), so just hoped to hold on at that point, but for the first time in quite a few marathons, met my time goal with a 7:00 PR at the finish. Wohoo! Such a good feeling. I suppose the average person likely wouldn't choose a marathon as a primary source of confidence boosting, but I've not ever really been average so... I'll take it!
Met up with Mom, chowed down on Smashburger and made our way back to the hotel for me to clean up and relax a bit. Headed to IKEA to play walk around and then on to Outback for a celebratory steak dinner (thanks, M!). Ordered dessert, and though they were out of their chocolate-ice-cream-goodness, topped things off with a bit of cheesecake. Yum!
Made an Einstein bagel run (yes, all we did was eat) early the next morning and dropped Mom at the airport before driving back to CS for work on Monday. Whew! The weekend flew by but it was such a fun time. So grateful for lots of support over the weekend. #7 in the books, and I may or may not be planning #8 already...
Post a Comment