Austin Marathon Race Report

In the days leading up to the Austin Marathon, I was very anxious for race day knowing I tapered well, felt rested, and was in good enough shape to PR, but at the same time, worried that my right knee would flare up and possibly cause a DNF.  Turns out my knee was the least of my worries.

Austin Marathon/Half Marathon Expo	My family went with me to the marathon's expo on Saturday.  It was packed.  To keep it short, the expo was fun, but we stayed a bit too long for our 2 year old daughter Lacey, and she let us know it.  Between her tantrums, I ran into Bart Yasso.  As a long time subscriber to Runner's World Magazine, I've read a lot about him, and was hoping I would get the chance to say 'hi'.  We talked for a good few minutes, but I had to break off the conversation due to the aforementioned 2 year old.  So what happens when your 2 year old has a melt down in a public place?  If you're my wife or I, you take lots of pictures of the act for posterity.  I've included one below.
Bart Yasso and I at Expo.	Lacey going Postal,  and me trying to hang on.
My wife, Lora, and our friend Keri from California pictured at our hotel.	The whole idea to run Austin came from a childhood friend of my wife's named Keri.  Her and her husband flew out from the San Fransisco area, and we hung out for the weekend together.  She reads my blog, so to Keri I'd like to say, "It was great to see you again after 9 years.  You rocked the marathon.  Hope to run another with you in a couple years.  Maybe next time you'll babysit our little ones so Lora and I can hit the clubs. :-)"
Blogger meet up with Jim pre-race with Texas Capitol in background.	As planned, I was able to meet fellow blogger Jim from 50 After 40 for the first time before the race.  He posted a very detailed review of the course and the city on his blog.  Although we didn't start the race off together, it took us over 4 minutes to cross the starting line once the gun went off.  We then spent the first couple miles wasting energy trying to get around all the slower runners who didn't line up according to pace.  We both agreed the next crowded marathon we do, we'll line up more toward the front.  Our expectations before the race was that I would be running a faster pace than him, but he caught up to me after mile 13, and we ran the next 4 miles together before I told him to go on.  We spent most of our time on the run together talking about blogging and marathoning.  It's kinda ironic we live about 3 hours from each other, but he drove 12 hours, and I drove almost 10 hours to make our rendezvous possible.
Mid race.  Feeling pretty good at this point.	As far as how the race went down for me...  It was an up and down race just like the course.  I started off feeling good, but my pace was off a little due to the crowd of runners and the first 5 miles going uphill into the wind.  After mile 5, we turned around and ran a few miles downhill and with the wind.  Not suprisingly, my best splits came at this point (about 30-45 seconds below MP), and my heartrate actually went down.  However, I was starting to work up a real sweat from the heat/humidity, and the worst hills were coming up.  I wish I took some pics of the hills on this course.  They weren't long, but they were over a 10% grade and right after you finished one, another wasn't too far behind.  I finally bonked around mile 20 where the race starts a gradual decline toward the finish.  Despite having the easy part of the course on my side, I was still slowed by the headwind which totally cancelled out any benefit I had from the downhill part of the course.  After mile 22, any hill I got to larger than a speed bump, I resorted to a brisk walk to get to the top.
Jim and I tearing up the road.	Finished in front of the Texas Capitol. Nice photo op.
Jim and I now BFFs	Keri has a determined look as she's about to chick a guy 40 yards from the finish.
Austin Elevation Chart from my Garmin
2Slow4Boston Austin Marathon Stats Chip Time 3:40:36 Overall Place 550/4820 Age Group 89/490 Average Pace 8:25	One year ago, a 3:40 would've been a PR by 5 minutes.  Now, it is a bit of a disappointment being 5 minutes below my current PR, and PRing (BQing) is one thing that drives me to train hard.  However, my finish time is only on paper and doesn't take into account the hills and the adverse weather conditions (60 degree temps, 90% humidity, headwind from South).  On a different course on a different day, I have little doubt of narrowing my BQ margin and running a sub 3:30.  Looking at my overall place, 550th, is in the top 11%, and that is probably the highest ranking I've achieved for a marathon.
Bart Yasso deja vu	I saw Bart Yasso all over the place on race day.  Here is a random pic from the finish line area, but I saw him a couple times along the course, and he was at the finish line to greet the runners as they completed their race.  Right after I took this picture, we shook hands.  Not only did he remember me from the expo, but he remembered my name too.
Shrinkage	Kinda hard to see from the picture to the left but I'm taking an ice bath.  I guess my hotel had pretty good water for the ice cubes to be clear.  I stayed in the ice water a little over 10 minutes.
	While I'm on the topic of the bathtub, check out the shower head in our hotel room.  I swear it's the shortest one I've ever seen/used.  Did they have midget plumbers plumb the rooms?  Maybe a rookie plumber, or maybe they were trying to save on copper pipe.  There is obviously room to spare towards the ceiling.
I leave you with a couple pictures of a cave we toured while vacationing in Austin.	Almost pretty enough to be wallpaper.