This past Sunday I found myself in a pretty interesting situation. I was scheduled to run a 1/2 Marathon in San Antonio with my good friend Jeremy Zenon. We had been discussing this race for a while and been training just as long. I have been training for a sub 2 hr, specifically 1:59:59 which meant I had to find a 9:09 pace per mile. I trained within those perimeters yet failed to take into account the hills that San Antonio had to offer. The whistle went off and Jeremy and I took off. I felt great, first mile was a 7:59, I scaled back to a 8:54 for mile 2. I felt really good running a sub 9 minute split for the first 8 miles. Then the hills really picked up, and after mile 11 I started charlie horsing, badly. I had to stop twice. My pace suffered, I was psychologically spent, my feet felt smashed to bits from the up hill running. One hill was over 500 feet with an 8% grade (guessing with possible embellishment). There was no end in sight for me, I gave myself 1,000 reasons why I should stop. Then a woman ran along side me, put her hand on my shoulder and said, "Son, you made it this far, I saw your speed back there, this is your race." She smiled and jogged away, I committed to myself that I was going to finish and finish strong. With 1 mile to go I was approached by an older woman named Patty, she asked if she could pace my heels for the finish because she felt like quiting, I smiled in agreement because an audible answer was outside of my human capabilities at this point. We worked, for the next 1.2 miles we worked. I crossed the line at a clock time of 2:19:45, my watch said 2:11:36. All was good in the end, until I drove home and later discovered my chip time is officially a 2:03:17. I AM FREAKIN PUMPED. I never imagined that I could pull off such a time in such a hilly terrain with minimal training. I am in quite a lot of pain, but I am expecting a quick recovery and I look forward to the Houston 1/2 Marathon in January, thinking of setting a new PR.
Special thanks to Jeremy for his lodging assistance and race knowledge on Friday night. The ride to San Antonio Saturday was brilliant, weather was ideal. Had some great food and scenery on day 1, photos to come. Also, race pics to come as well. The pics above are of me in recovery mode...I'm sleepy, I'll post to you guys later. Cheers. Thanks to everyone for your support.
Lap Times:
Mile 1 7:59
Mile 2 8:53
Mile 3 8:56
Mile 4 8:39
Mile 5 8:54
Mile 6 8:40
Mile 7 8:37
Mile 8 8:59
Mile 9 8:59
Mile 10 9:51 (tried to rest here...)
Mile 11 10:49 (first big climb)
Mile 12 11:29 (second half of first big climb + Cramps)
Mile 13.1 9:54
Right at the end, there was a huge climb for about 150 feet, not a very long climb if you haven't just completed 13 miles of running, good weekend.
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