HP Houston Marathon 2004
Jan 18, 2004
(Personal Best Time on Marathon Distance 2:54:57)
Wow, it really feels great to have accomplished my goal of breaking 3 hours for the Houston marathon.
PRE-RACE: Woke up feeling great. I was pumped up with adrenaline but a little nervous ready to break 3 hours. My breakfast consisted of a new energy bar called a Snickers Marathon Bar. Power bars just taste so damn bland and basically provide the same stuff all energy bars provide which is simple sugar before a race. Drank a bottle of gatorade and also took 3 pills of endurolytes (a sample that I had recieved in the race packet at Sunmart). With this working its way throught my system, I was off to the race start in Houston - a 30 minute drive. I like taking some caffeine before a race, so I had a regular coke on the drive in for the caffeine boost and the extra sugar. For energy during the race, I placed my three jolly rancher candies in my pocket of my racing shorts. The temperature outside was a cool 52 degrees F. Would have liked a little bit cooler temperatures but as long as no rain was predicted this was fine. Did a about a mile warmup prior to race start and hit the porta potty for the last time before the race.
RACE START: I lined up on the front row at the race start behind the Elite/Invited runners. Some guy who was planning on running a 4 hour + marathon was right next to me. (What's it going to take to get these guys to position themselves correctly on the race start?) Before I knew it the gun sounded and we were off. I ran the first mile at a decent pace around 6:35. I did not want to start off too fast as I had previously done in several marathons. I slowly eased into a 6:42 pace and pretty much stayed there until the half way point. I ran along side Jeff Eisele from our running club (www.tornadosrunningclub.com). We managed to stay very consistent in our pace for the first 13 miles. My shin muscles seemed kind of sore for the first couple of miles but eventually the soreness went away. I took gatorade at every water stand and felt fully hydrated the entire marathon.
RACE FINISH: Right around mile 20, along memorial drive, I had Victor pace me for a couple of miles. He eventually dropped off to pick up other Tornados buddies. I was able to keep my pace and even pick it up a little. The last few miles are pure endurance and very tough to get through. I managed to finish with a 6: 30 pace and an overall pace of 6:39 for a new PR Time.
It takes a lot of hard work and dedication to put in the miles. Incorporating speed work and tempo runs into your schedule is key. The warm-up series races (20K, 25K and 30K) help gauge your progress and help to determine what race pace you can maintain. The Boston Marathon training program seemed more challenging and allowed more variety in the speed work sessions. If interested it can be found on the Boston marathon website or just e-mail me and I will send it to you. Please also e-mail me if you have any questions on what it takes to break 3 hours for a marathon.
