Four Is Enough For Us: Austin Half Marathon

Well, I finished... and it was HARD! The only harder races I've done were the San Francisco Half Marathon and the Houston Full Marathon.

To narrate the weekend, I'd better start with Saturday night. I NEVER sleep well the night before races. I didn't fall asleep until about 12:30 am, woke up at 2am for about 15 min, then fell asleep until 3:30. That was it... a little less than 3hours of sleep. Yikes!

We left Christine's apartment at 5:30 am and were parked 4 blocks from the start line (also Texas state capital) at 5:36 am. Hmmm... okay, that didn't take nearly as long as we expected.

We chatted for a few minutes about the race then I pumped and we headed to the start at about 6:10 am. I needed to use the restroom so we stood in line with the other racers at the port-a-potties then headed to the start line at about 6:40. It was 66 degrees and 95% humidity. Yuck!

Christine was doing the 5k, so at that point we parted ways. I walk into the mass of 18,000 runners and find my position on the mob by the pace signs. The wheelchair racers were leaving at 6:50 am and right as the announcers were saying... "Ready, Set, Go!" I realized I FORGOT MY iPOD!!!!!

I freaked out and didn't know what to do. I made a quick decision to race back to the car to get it. With the actual marathon/half marathon starting in just 10 min I had to be quick! My Garmin was turned on and for the 4 blocks I ran a 7:30 - 8:00 min/mile pace. It's always great to sprint 2/3 of a mile before a race even begins. Yikes!

I made it back to my position at the start line at about 6:57 am... whew.

Three minutes later, the race starts!! The scenery was gorgeous, but I can't fully express how crazy the hills were. They weren't long, but incredibly steep. I felt like every 1/2 a mile I was running up the Kemah bridge. Miles 3-6 were a continuous uphill climb, but it wasn't steep so didn't feel that bad. Miles 1-3 and 9-13 were really tough. I had studied the elevation chart before the race so I thought I knew what I should expect, but I didn't fully appreciate it.

To make it worse, the sun came out at mile 10. Now it was hot, humid, hilly and sunny!!

I ran a 2:08:55 at Houston 3 weeks earlier and I was hoping for a 2:05 in Austin (I ran a 2:02 last weekend... but no hills). Until about mile 10, I was on pace to do a 2:05, but really slowed down towards the end as the hills just kept rolling.

My final time was 2:06:42. I didn't make my goal time, but I'm not disappointed since the hills were much worse than I expected.

All together a fun time! Here are a few pictures I took on my phone.

Christine and I pre-race. Texas state capital in the background.