I PR'd at Houston today.

Detals later, but the short story is I"m very pleased. My time was 5:45:11 for a 13:09 pace. This is a 12 minute PR from 2007 and a 27 minute improvement over last year on the same course. My target was 5:40. For me, conditions were 80% ideal as the sun came out and was sapping me to some degree. You see, I'm a nocturnal runner. Something to adjust for next year.

More details after some prime rib and a shower.

Congrats!

Congrats Ounce! Can't wait to read the details!!!

Way to go Ounce! Look forward to the details.

Woot! Congrats, Ounce! Can't wait for the report.

Nicely done Oz! Now, go do a few 12 oz. curls. You deserve it!

Woohoo Oz! Great job! Can't wait to read more!

--Reina

super - looking forward to the report!!

I talked to Doug after his race and he was extremely pleased with his performance. I just wish that a fast half marathon did not kick my butt so much that I could go out an enjoy a good meal with him after, but we will save that for next time I come to Houston. Thanks too to Doug for putting me in contact with the right people so that I could "man" a water stop during the trials on Saturday morning - awesome experience!

Nice improvement, way to go!

Thanks y'all. Here's the wordy, detailed, no popcorn included race report. Use it to go to sleep by. Thanks for your indulgence.

This Sunday morning was a bit warmer than the Saturday morning of the Olympic Trials, 40 degrees versus 33 degrees. Dewpoints were higher, as well, with the humidity at near 100%. But for Houstonians, we don’t factor in a high humidity when it’s below 50 degrees. We’re just happy it’s cool.

My stated and advertised goal was 5 hours and 40 minutes. The plan was to run 13 minute miles for 20 miles, then see how I felt. Kevin gave me some great tips at the 365 lunch on Saturday afternoon after the Trials on how to assess “how I felt.” Thanks, Kevin!

As an aside, we had 8 people attend the 365Runners lunch at Mia Bella. I met Tim & Wendy Miller, Sara Jane, Michele “1L” Keane for the first time, Kevin for the second time (first time was 2008 Chicago) and JoelH for the 3^rd time, plus his son Matthew who was playing the part of Michael Mitchell who cancelled at the last minute because he was probably going to pass out if he had to wait until 1 p.m. to eat. Kevin still thinks Michael is a virtual person and does not actually exist. We had a great time and the food was good.

So my concerns going into the race were keeping the peeing to a minimum (as this takes time away from my goal), too much sun, speeding up unnecessarily causing the heart rate to spike, running the tangents, and monitoring how the body is doing.

I had done some warming up before going to the inside area where the runners get ready, so I could warm up the legs a bit and pee out what I could before the race. The legs were doing well. I went inside the convention center to get race readier, lube up and turn in my bag. I went to the 4:30 pace group, because it’s an old habit of starting up in the field to give me a buffer from the 6 hour bunch. Once we start, I hug the curb, so I don’t become an obstruction.

Remember…13 minute pace and watch your heart rate to keep it under 70% at the start.

BANG!

It’s an immediate double rise on Elysian (note I didn’t say ‘hill’) that is good to get the legs awakened. Things were going well and a check of the watch had me around 12:47 pace before mile 1 and a heart rate in the 130’s. I usually go out too fast, which was why I checked.

The first 5 miles had me averaging a 12:55 pace and a 70% heart rate. There were a lot of people around me that I never see at a 13:15 pace or slower. This concerned me from a tangent running perspective, since my watch hit mile 1 before the mile 1 marker by about 30 feet. It only got worse as the day unfolded.

Before mile 6, I needed to pee which took 34 seconds and gave me a 13:05 mile time. I was monitoring in my head whether my cumulative time was less or more than a 13 minute pace. Yeah, a bit obsessive, but I didn’t want any surprises.

Mile 7 was a strange mile in that I ran it in 11:47, the fastest of the day. My only explanation would be attacking an underpass and a net downhill going over Buffalo Bayou. Also, the sun was being obstructed by clouds, which cooled me down. It was the best weather of the day for me.

Mile 8 begins the flat part of the course and where the Half runners turn around before mile 9 to go back downtown. When that happens, you can run tangents and there are a few miles of just straight roads. By mile 9 mile marker, I was at 9.2 miles. I’ll leave you to extrapolate that yourself to the rest of the race.

I was just humming along on miles 7-13 on heart rate staying between 71-73% bpm for that whole distance. Life was good. Or was it? My times were beginning to slow down at mile 12 for the same heart rate. The clouds were drying up and the sun was going to be unobstructed at mile 14. Cardiac creep was occurring. At the end of mile 12, I was 2 minutes ahead of schedule. At the end of mile 14, I was only 44 seconds ahead of schedule. At mile 9, my time was 12:44 and 73% bpm. At mile 13, my time was 13:44 and 73% bpm.

STRATEGY CHANGE!

So now, I had to increase my effort to maintain a 13 minute split. Mile 16 – 13:05 & 81%, mile 17 – 12:51 & 80%. At this point, the sun was beating down on me. The temperature was probably in the high 50’s with a light wind, but the sun’s rays weren’t being kind to this nocturnal runner. I never really looked forward to the mile 15-18 stretch because it’s the place where the wheels started to fall off in past marathons. But not this year, as I dispelled those past memories as just that…the past. New memories were being created.

Just after mile 18 is the point where marathoners head back to downtown and the finish line. Upon turning onto Woodway Drive, a 10 mph wind smacks you in the face. Oh, crap. It doesn’t last long, but it acts like an insurgent for the rest of the race. Causing mayhem at inopportune times. The road was starting to begin its slow declines and rises, with a few underpasses mixed in until you arrived in downtown proper, just past mile 25. Miles 19 and 20 were almost identical at 12:39 & 12:37 splits at 84% bpm and 91 seconds ahead of schedule.

The first underpass to master was just after mile 20. I attacked the incline and just barely beat it. Woo, boy, I’ve got another couple of rises and 2 underpasses to whip. Oh, boy. The wind whipped up and the sun was beating me. Mile 21 came in at 12:53 at 84%. It would only take another mile to realize that I was on a downward trend with the toughest part of the course to come. Mile 22 was 13:00 at 84%. There wasn’t another flat piece of concrete for 3 miles.

Since mile 17, there were more walkers than runners. Everyone had their story, but I wasn’t curious as to why. I just trudged on. In past marathons, I probably would’ve started walking/running at mile 22 in hopes of keeping the course-opening police cars at bay. But, again, that’s in the past. I just kept trudging along.

When I saw my heart rate hit 88%, I told myself to get to the mile 23 water station and walk through it. It was the only walking I did the whole course. I let it get down to 80% and I continued on to the double underpasses. I attacked the incline of the first double underpass, in a last ditch effort to get back on track. My right calf cramped up as if to say, “Not today.”

I made a deal with my calf that if I didn’t attack the 2^nd underpass incline, my calf would let me run in the final 2.2 miles at whatever speed I could muster. Mile 24 was at 13:48 at 82% and I was still 15 seconds under my goal pace, but that was the last time I would stay under. Mile 25 was at 14:08 and 82% and mile 26 was at 14:20 81%. Did you notice a trend for those three miles? My time was slowing at the same heart rate. To me (and I could be wrong), but this shows my legs were worn out and my heart wasn’t having to work as hard. It really started trending that way at mile 21, but was a cold slap in the face from 24-26.

I managed to run the final four-tenths of a mile at a less than 12 minute pace. That was not a misprint. I ended up running 26.41 miles that day. Now, I know we generally can’t run exactly how it’s measured and that downtown buildings skew things. Most of the difference happened outside of downtown.

But it added 5 seconds per mile to my average pace. I ran 26.41 miles at a 13:04 pace on my Garmin, but I ended up running 26.2 miles at a 13:09 pace, officially. Now I know how much to add to a projected time on a marathon course.

Epilogue—

I had a great race. No question. My training was head and shoulders ahead of any prior year, both in design and execution. It was basically Hal’s Marathon 3 plan in mileage, but with my own spin on how to execute it.

I thank y’all for the answers to some of my off-base questions, as I challenged conventional wisdom. I lost 30 pounds, last year. THAT made a big difference. Doing cross training (CrossFit), yoga, doing a 5K speed clinic in the Fall that REALLY got my competitive juices flowing, having a 90 second 5K PR in the Fall, running my long runs in negative splits and, finally, running my last 20 mile long run at marathon pace made yesterday’s PR-setting race so very sweet for me.

I was so focused the entire race, that when I got within 50 yards of the finished I saw the gun-time on the clock was 5:58:34. That set me back and dissolved my focus to allow emotion to sneak in. I’ve NEVER finished a marathon with the gun time being less than 6 hours. It was always 6 hours plus the time it took me to cross the start line. This year, I crossed the start line at 13 minutes after the gun (10 minutes for the 2^nd corral plus 3 minutes to cross the mat.

Elation came over me. I did it. I finally did it.

Thanks for your time. Here are my splits and HR. 200 is my heart rate max. Comments are appreciated.

1 12:54 137

2 12:52 139

3 13:12 138

4 12:44 145

5 12:51 141

6 13:05 139 the only potty break

7 11:47 143

8 12:41 142

9 12:44 144

10 12:58 144

11 12:57 144

12 13:18 146

13 13:44 144

14 13:29 147

15 13:06 140

16 13:05 161

17 12:51 159

18 13:02 164

19 12:39 167

20 12:37 168

21 12:53 168

22 13:00 167

23 13:28 165

24 13:48 164

25 14:08 164

26 14:20 163

.4 4:53 164

Oz you the man! Congrats on such a wonderful day out there on the roads, it was well overdue. Keep it rolling buddy.

Congrats on the PR!

ounce wrote:Comments are appreciated.

Here's one - congratulations!!! I'm proud of you - it shows that you really busted butt to the end there and your slowing pace with the same HR looks like you timed yourself well enough to not drop much time but were just starting to show the effects of the day at mile 24. Excellent job and another

Great race, Doug. Those splits are very impressive. If I come back next year to run the marathon, will you order the same weather?

Congratulations Doug, you ran a great race and set a fantastic new PR. It was great to meet you and I thank you for planning our post trials get together. Sorry we didn't make it down to see you after your race. Keep up the good work and with any luck we'll meet up again in the near future.

Great job, oz! Jerry should've been there and would've PR'd too.

Congrats Ounce! (for the PR & the weight loss.)

Michele "1L" Keane wrote:Great race, Doug. Those splits are very impressive. If I come back next year to run the marathon, will you order the same weather?

Thanks, Michele.

I will order the weather, but I want it a little cooler or a little cloudier or both. Just no wet stuff. Good thing the marathon hadn't happened yesterday, with morning temperatures 20 degrees warmer.

Go ahead and make your hotel reservations.

How did you like Mia Bella, now that a few days have passed by?

Schuey wrote:Oz you the man! Congrats on such a wonderful day out there on the roads, it was well overdue. Keep it rolling buddy.

Thanks much, Martin. I still have room to improve. Please give my best to the Mrs.

Dave-O wrote:Congrats on the PR!

Thanks, Dave. Sorry you couldn't be here that weekend. Is that a beard in that avatar?

John Kilpatrick wrote:

ounce wrote:Comments are appreciated.

Here's one - congratulations!!! I'm proud of you - it shows that you really busted butt to the end there and your slowing pace with the same HR looks like you timed yourself well enough to not drop much time but were just starting to show the effects of the day at mile 24. Excellent job and another

Thanks, John. Yea, me! Is it usual for y'all of the faster times to see some time erosion in the last couple of miles, like I did?

T Miller wrote:Congratulations Doug, you ran a great race and set a fantastic new PR. It was great to meet you and I thank you for planning our post trials get together. Sorry we didn't make it down to see you after your race. Keep up the good work and with any luck we'll meet up again in the near future.

Much obliged, Tim. We all had a good weekend racing, didn't we!? It was a pleasure to meet you and your lovely wife Wendy at the lunch. No worries on not seeing me after the race. Heck, it was only 4 hours after you finished! That's a long time.

Did the food at Mia Bella work for y'all or should I find another place? Thanks again.

Jerry wrote:Great job, oz! Jerry should've been there and would've PR'd too.

Oz thinks Jerry should fire whomever arranges Jerry's schedule. Jerry would've PR'd, but mark your calendar now for Sunday, January 13, 2013 for the 41st Houston Marathon.

And thanks, too!

Dave P wrote:Congrats Ounce! (for the PR & the weight loss.)

Thanks, Dave. I hope 2012 will get me faster and lighter, still.