I am in so much better shape this time around than I was at the same point during my last marathon training, its not even funny. I could be better, of course, but I’m certainly not complaining.

My pre-run prep was right on target until Friday afternoon. I’d had a solid pasta meal on Thursday night, followed by a moderate balanced meal for Friday lunch; then for dinner some of my wife’s family came into town and I had a large amount of curry at an unfamiliar Vietnamese place. Luckily there were no issues. This morning I got up at 4:20 to shower and change, and made it out to RunTex by 5:15 to hook up with a carpool to the Gateway shopping center and the traditional start of the Freescale marathon. The plan was to do the first 20 miles, a well designed fairly easy course, and end up back at RunTex for the group stretch.

I have to admit it was an odd feeling to be back on the course again. We all noticed the hills in the first half mile, something that’s normally ignored due to the press of people and the adrenaline caused by the marathon start. I ended up running with a small group of folk most of the way - not the slowest group, which was a pleasant change; but probably spent more time chatting with Mike than anyone else. Its too bad that he’s doing Chicago and I’m doing NYC really, we have a very compatible running style.

We had a slight confusion at around the three mile marker as to which way we were going to run; our run had been laid out to follow a “simplified” route but we ended up doing an extra half mile or so by following the actual race course. Shortly after that we were rounding the 183 U-turn and I had to duck behind a pillar for a “bio-break,” I’m still trying to figure out the hydration balance that will let me run well without needing a single stop for the whole 26.2. Gilbert had said that he’d meet us every four and a half miles, and sure enough we met up with him just after we turned onto Shoal Creek; he had a PowerAde/Endurox combo waiting for us and offered us compliments, Gu, and encouragement.

The next section of the run took us down Shoal Creek. It really didn’t feel like another 5 miles, but it was. There were a few spots where we really sped up faster than we should have done, but they all happened accidentally and whenever I would notice that we’d done so (thanks to my trusty 301) I’d pull us back. I guess we were just all warmed up and feeling our oats. This time, when we saw Gilbert, he motioned me aside and told me to drop my shoulders; apparently I’m holding them a little too high which is causing my upper body to stiffen up, and contributing to my continued too-hard-footstrike issues. Its never fun to be singled out for improvement, but I’m glad to know when my form slips nonetheless.

Next it was time to take a left turn onto 45th, and a right to Duval, to get us heading through Campus. Gilbert was meeting us again shortly after what would have been the half marathon finish line. There was one stretch in particular here that was a nice long downhill where we really picked up the pace more than necessary; remember, we’re going for a 9:00-9:30 run here, all the more so because this is a 20 miler. I had taken my first Gu at the previous waterstop, I took my second of three this time.

Leg four was relatively short and would take us to the 16.4 mile point, just West of Magnolia Cafe on Lake Austin Blvd. We had been warned before heading off that this was the point after which we had to pick it up a bit. No problem. We ran down San Jacinto to 7th where Gilbert caught up with us and told us we should have turned on 11th; this way was probably easier with the traffic anyway, even if we did have a couple of bonus hills. Right on 7th, left onto Congress, then an immediate right onto 6th Street. The sidewalks were a little annoying, filled with curbs to negotiate, but the early morning bakery smells coming from Sweetish Hill more than made up for it. Taking it easy, we finished out by coming up the hill under MoPac, and pulled in for the last stop of the day.

That last mile may look a little odd, normal pace but a faster HR; that’s due to the fact that after our last stop we did indeed pick it up a bit. Mike and I were running together, and we settled in at a remarkably comfortable 8:00 pace after a pretty lengthy waterstop where we discussed exactly where the turnaround should be. We did slow down a bit when we were looking for it in mile 18, just out of habit, but after the loop around we picked it up some more to compensate. Heading towards Veterans blvd we discussed our strategy and decided to run the North side of the trail; it looked like we’d hit mile 20 before RunTex due to our earlier extension at the beginning, so we agreed to slow back down at that point and do a cooldown run to the finish.

I was having a pretty good time until somewhere between 19.25 and 19.5. We’d sped up to right around a 7:30 pace, and I’m not sure why but I just started feeling faint and queasy. I was probably dehydrated from the feel of it, even though I thought I’d been taking care of myself. I pushed on anyway but it was a really hard slog; when we got near the Lamar bridge we agreed to cut over to the South side and as I hit the ramp to go up I just felt like crap. I really slowed down going around that ramp and even over the bridge, but we hit mile 20 just the other side and I was able to stop and drink some much appreciated water.

After that, we took it nice and easy heading back for the last half mile. Well, it was nice and easy in comparison; we still managed a 9:30 pace. I’m not sure if that includes our pause to take a drink or if that’s included in the 8:10 final mile above, either way I’m not complaining. Five minutes of cooldown, water, and a quick dunk under the shower later, and I was feeling good enough to do five 100M strides before heading up the hill to RunTex. That got us back in time for most of the normal stretching class, we had to make up about 1/3 of it to cover everything but that’s alright.

I worked out that this was only my 6th time to hit that 20 mile point and, really, I felt pretty good about it. Our overall time was right around 3:00 for the twenty, for a 9:00 average pace including waterstops. The fact that a sub four hour marathon would have been in the bag, especially if I hadn’t tried to go sub-8:00 at the end, is definately a good confidence booster. How was your weekend?

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