What the...? With a Chip Time of 3:06:39, six minutes better than last time, I've completed my second half marathon. First off, the weather was so much nicer than it was in Waco last month. It was a little chilly to start with, mid 30's when we were headed to the start, but we hit a high near 70 by mid afternoon.
The biggest difference was the number of participants. Waco was a very small event, nice, but small. There were something like 20,000 people in Austin running either the full or the half. Amy I started out together, somewhere around the 5:00 pace folks, just because that was as high as they went. It was almost 15 minutes from the gun time that we finally crossed the start line,it was just that crowded.
We ran together for nearly the first mile, but I didn't want to hold her back so I told her to go on and settled into my pace. The start line was on Congress at Cesar Chavez. You start out by crossing the Congress Ave bridge and heading up Congress. And it is up. We followed Congress to 360, where we turned and came down 1st. That was my first challenge as 1st is full of little Mexican restaurants and they were all cranking out breakfast. It smelled so good, but I pressed on.
After getting back to Cesar Chavez, we turned left up alongside the lake. As we crossed over the lake again, we passed the 10K mark. I was feeling no pain, sticking with a 1 and 1. Sometimes running 5 or 6 minutes at a time as I felt like it. Rarely walking longer than the minute.
Around the 8 mile mark, we found the first steep hill, it ended up at the original Magnolia Cafe, I wanted to stop again. We continued down along Town Lake until around mile 10 where we turned down 15th and started heading for home. The race split at Mile 11, the marathoners turning off and heading out farther. From here to the end, the terrain became heavily undulated. I experienced lots of ups and downs and got pretty warn out. Then we get to mile 12. I swear that hill looked like a cliff. Straight up! The nice part is there was a ton of spectators really cheering us on and it really was all down hill from there.
As we approached the Capitol, we rejoined the marathon route. They rounded the Capitol on the East side, the half on the West, and it was straight on to finish. As I got down to the flat pavement of Congress again I felt like I had enough to give it a little kick and finish strong. And I did.
The previous race, I couldn't eat anything after the race. After this one, I couldn't get enough. Banana before I got out of the tent, then a bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos as I sat on the sidewalk catching my breath.
I hung out for a while waiting for Amy to come in from the full. My phone died so I started walking back up the marathon course. I spotted Amy coming up to the Capitol so I ran with her for a little bit, cheering her on to the finish. That was the only time I really hurt while running. She is much faster than me.
After cleaning up and resting a bit, we headed over to El Arroyo for a celebratory splurge and I enjoyed a Mexican martini. It was strong. I fell asleep about 5:30.
Three days later and I'm getting along pretty good, No pain. I played basketball Monday night, I walked last night and did 30 minutes on the treadmill today. All is well.
And that is how I spent my Valentine's Day with my Valentine.
Next race: Dallas Rock and Roll Half in about a month. It's the weekend we get back from a ski trip.
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