In the weeks leading up to the Austin Marathon I was feeling pretty good. I had a horrible time at Disney, the humidity just crushed me, but the plus side was I didn’t get sore. I would also have 6 weeks between running my Disney and Austin and only 3M in between (I can’t remember the last time I had that much time off), so in theory I should be rested and ready to go. I held off signing up for Boston this year because I knew I was going to go faster than my previous qualifying time. I just had to, the weather was supposed to be good, I was rested, so no more excuses. After a great pasta dinner at the Burrus’s, where I publicly stated my goal (3:05, hoping for a 1:28 first half followed by hopefully less than 1:37) so there would be no backing out, my brother in law and I went down to the expo. Talked to some of the pacers and ran into Paul Salazar who told me I was crazy for planning on a 9 minute positive split. I’m just comfortable that I’m not built for a negative-split race, no matter how fast or how slow I go, my second half is almost always about 10 minutes slower or more (except for Pike’s Peak which was a huge negative split. Hahha). After picking up our packets we headed home and get ready for the next day. Race morning I woke up an hour earlier than usual determined to try out Scott Tracy’s magic plan for not having bathroom issues during the marathon. Somehow it took us longer to get down to the race than we had expected and then we went looking for porta potties. We saw two over in a fenced off section that was for special people, after somehow talking our way into this secret area we waited in line. In hindsight we should have kept walking the extra 100 yards and seen the 100 porta potties around the corner. Its now getting very close to race time, I had wanted to run the first half with Jim Ryan to have him pace me to my 1:28 half, but I would never see him as we finally got out of the porta potty line with about 4 mins to spare. We jogged to the bridge and pushed our way past the smokers in the coral and past other spectators and then just gave up at about the 5:00 pace group people. Well I guess I would start from the back this year. Still not sure why the smokers wanted to be in the starting coral, but hopefully they wont be there next year. The fireworks go off and that was pretty cool, definitely a nice touch but now I just want to get started. The gun goes off and it takes me about four and half minutes to cross the starting line so I’ll be weaving around people for a few miles I’m sure. Mile 1 starts with nice little downhill and then starts climbing back to Oltorf. There are an amazing amount of walkers walking 5-6 across taking up huge section of real estate that were in the first wave of starts, so it’s a little crazy getting going. I move over to the sidewalk where possible and make up a little bit of time. My adrenaline kicks in for the rest of mile two going up hill and I’m under 7 minutes, good, that’s where I need to be. As we turn to go down south 1st street there is a nice downhill for the next two miles and I put some time into the bank. 0-1 7:21 1-2 6:43 2-3 6:20 3-4 6:27 We run down Barton Springs and I am feeling pretty good, all my splits are in the range I want them to be and so a 1:28 looks very doable. By this time I’ve caught the 4:30, 4:00, 3:30 pace groups and can see the 3:10 guys up ahead. As we’re coming up on Austin High I see the 3:10 group and they all look pretty solid, say hi to Marty and friends and keep on going. They tell me to slow down, but that won’t happen (hopefully) until mile 20. I like the section along Lake Austin blvd, but remember when I meant I was 10 miles farther. All systems are still good and the miles are rolling by. It is so much more pleasant to be running when you are hitting 6:30-6:40 miles because the mile markers come faster than when you’re falling apart and hitting 9:00 miles and they never seem to appear. I hope I can keep this going. The weather is amazing, it’s as close to ideal as I could have asked for. We head up Exposition for the first real hill, luckily I had run this part of the course a few weeks earlier with Scott Tracy and his fast friend Metro and so I knew what to expect. Mile 11 would be where I picked up my second 7:00 mile, but just barely. 4-5 6:25 5-6 6:29 6-7 6:41 7-8 6:56 8-9 6:55 9-10 6:55 10-11 7:00 Turn on to 35th street and let my heart rate go down a bit but am still able to keep pace, the next two miles pass fairly easily and I pull thru mile 13 at exactly 1:28:00, so that’s pretty cool, I’m right where I want to be give or take 30 seconds. 11-12 6:56 12-13 6:47 We head to shoal creek and I love running on this street the trees are beautiful and its shaded, it sure feels like there is a hill here but I don’t really see one, I just feel one. 13-14 6:44 14-15 7:09 As I turn onto Great Northern I still feel great. I was hoping to hook up with Scott Tracy at about mile 15 and have him bring me in the last 11, but he had a soccer game to go to and his kids obviously trump running with some jackass the last 11 miles. I see Steve Schermerhorn and he is still running a good time but says it’s not his day and that he is starting to apart. Mile 16,17 pass going by Northcross drive and mile 18 I would run my last sub 7:00 mile. I saw the Hill Country Trail Runners banner and give a quick shout out, and wonder if they have and PBJ sandwiches. 15-16 6:55 16-17 7:06 17-18 6:58 As I hit Arroyo Seca I am feeling mostly okay but my legs are getting a little heavy. My body is good for two to two and half hours and then all bets are off. I turn onto North Loop and start feeling a little tired, but push on. We come up on the Cliff Shot area and I see Mark Lindsey and this gives me some motivation, I grab a cliff shot and off we go. 18-19 7:01 19-20 7:08 At mile 20, I look down at my pace band see that thru 20 miles I’m only 10-15 seconds off of a 3:00 marathon, I glance at my right shoulder and then my left. Could this be the day the three hour monkey stays home and gets off my back? The next mile feels almost easy. 20-21 7:06 I check my back again, no monkey. This can’t be right. I look again and think I see furry patch off in the distance. Mile 22 comes up, if I can hang on this blasted uphill I might be able to vanquish the monkey. But now my back feels heavy, I hear snickering, what’s going on? 21-22 7:31 The monkey has finally arrived and started snickering even more. He pours salt into my eyes and cracks an evil grin. 7:31, Damnit, that pretty much knocks out the 3 hour marathon, because now I have doubt, the monkey is taunting me. I tell the monkey it doesn’t matter, this wasn’t my shot at 3 hours today anyway, I only wanted to go under 3:05 which I can still do. I poke the monkey in the eye and he starts screaming and falls off. 22-23 7:10 Take that monkey! This stretch down red river wasn’t that bad. All I need is a miracle for the last 3 miles and it’s possible. He jumps back on my back and says there will be no miracle today: you must have forgotten your math. I do a quick calculation with my befuddled brain trying to figure it out, and alas no! the monkey is right. I would need a 6 minute final mile I think and the monkey is now pulling out all the stops, covering my eyes, grabbing my shoe laces, kicking my shins. I take solace in the fact that I can still run a 10 minute mile and break 3:05, so I agree to disagree with the monkey today and head for home, hoping there is still something left. 23-24 7:18 24-25 7:14 Those last two miles took a lot out of me trying to fight the monkey, but now there is only 1.2 miles to and I am going to crush my PR. Go up to the capital is hillier than I’d like, I make the turn and wish I could just use my Congress Avenue mile time for this last mile, and then I might break three hours, but the monkey informs me this is against the rules and to stop being a sissy and just finish. I run down Congress and the crowd support this year is better than it has ever been, I do love running doing congress avenue. 25-26.2 8:40 ========= 3:02:09 This was almost a 5 minute PR for me, so I was feeling really good about. I think my gun time around 3:06 something, so when I find my family my father-in-law says congrats on the pr sorry you didn’t break 3:05. (I guess everyone knows normally I start as far to the front as possible, not 4 mins back). I inform him that I really ran a 3:02 and he is surprised. I was sore until Thursday after this race. I couldn’t remember being this sore at a race since Pike’s Peak, I think I was really pushing the downhills more than normal and it beat up my quads. I was so miserable on Tuesday and Wednesday I wasn’t sure if I was going to run the Cross Timbers marathon on Saturday, but luckily my body stopped bitching so much and I was able to run. I read that this course is supposed to be roughly 4 minutes slower than last years, but I think it’s a pretty fast course. If they could somehow get rid of the hill on 38th, it would be even faster. I can’t wait for next year!