And, they're off...Aramco Houston Half and Chevron Houston Marathon

From Danielle: 13.1 miles 2:18. Finished in top 33% of women ages 30-34. I was happy with my performance. Usually I start breaking down around mile 10 or 11, but I was able to hold my pace the entire time. While it wasn't a PR, it really was the smartest race that I've run. And, it was just 3 min off from my PR. I felt much better in this race, too. I'm sure you've all already heard about the humidity and rain. The spectators were fabulous though as was the organization of the race. You definitely missed something if you wore headphones for this one. I'm looking forward to maybe running Houston again next year. They really did a fabulous job of making all of the runners feel like superstars. I don't know how all of the volunteers were able to keep up their enthusiasm for hours like that. Even through the post-race breakfast line, they were congratulating and cheering for us.

The only thing that was frustrating was the start. Even with the two starting times, it was congested in the beginning, enough to slow me down for more than I would have wanted. Actually, even the end was pretty bad for me. I was trying to sprint in to the finish and was having to dodge people to the finish line. But, I don't know really what they could do about that. I guess I just need to run faster, so I can be where it's more thinned out. Ha!

I made some friends along the way, too. Joe likes to make fun of me, but I tend to chat with my fellow runners along the course. I tried to run while drinking the water and gatorade, and I think it was the right decision. I did walk through the stops where I took my Gu though, which was twice.

It was so great to meet April, one of super fast Joe's running friends. Aside from finishing the race without much of an annoyance from the hip, my favorite part was watching April & Joe finish the marathon. April got 3:16 for the 26.2 miles, which is insanely fast to me.

Next year, I'm not letting Joe pick up our packets at the Expo though. I apparently missed a lot of fun and free stuff.

To give you an idea of the spectator support, here's a fun article about a runner whose friends surprised him and every runner with a message at each mile. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/sports/run/7420702.html
My favorites were:
Mile 6 - You're not slow. You're enjoying the course.
Mile 7 - Relax. You're not going to win.
Mile 9 - 26.2, because 26.3 would be crazy.

From Joe: I'm posting Joe's race report because it is so thorough and there's no way I could ever beat his report.

Weather predictions were all doom and gloom the night before, but the thunder and lightning stayed away on race day. It rained off and on the entire race, soaking us to the bone, but at least we had a race. The bad part was the unseasonable warmth. The temps were in the mid-60s the whole time, with about 90% humidity. I decided I better start slower; I even told Mark last night I would run 7:40s and 7:50s in the first half because of the heat. I guess I lied. Miraculously, we bumped into April before the race among the 20,000 participants and made our way to the starting line. The mile splits below are from Garmin.

Miles 1-5: 8:02, 7:34, 7:36, 7:42, 7:42. The gun went off and April and I started together. I ran with her for about 3 steps and she was gone, picking her way through the crowd. The first mile was really clogged up. I noticed about an 8:30 pace about halfway into that first mile, but didn’t panic, and used it as a nice warmup. Obviously it opened up a bit after that because I was in the 7:30s pretty quick. 5K was 24:04. I focused on shortening my stride to keep the pace slower but I felt really great.

Miles 6-10: 7:33, 7:30, 7:39, 7:37, 7:36. Whoops. I started running by feel. It felt so very easy, so I threw the conservative plan out the window and listened to my body. That probably would’ve worked if it was 20 degrees cooler, but not today. 10K was 47:55. I saw my dad around mile 8, which was awesome. The crowd support was unreal – people lining the streets in the rain all 26 miles.

Miles 11-15: 7:28, 7:35, 7:35, 7:38, 7:40. Still feeling ridiculously great. My plan was to hang around 3:20 pace just in case, and I was still right on it. In mile 13, I ran right by my childhood best friend’s house and saw his mom out there – pretty cool. I went through the half in 1:40:22 (nearly a PR) but was still breathing really easy and didn’t feel a big toll on my legs yet.

Miles 16-20: 7:37, 7:36, 7:50, 7:35, 7:49. Ok, doubts started to creep in mile 18. 30K was still a great split, 2:22:51 (7:40 average so far). I slowed down as the legs were starting to burn a bit in 18. Then I inexplicably sped up in mile 19, feeling strong again – maybe I shouldn’t have done that. By mile 20, I was giving more effort but the pace was starting to bleed out for good.

Miles 21-26.2: 7:55, 8:04, 8:19, 8:39, 8:58, 8:43, 2:27 (0.33 miles on garmin). Cue death march. Looking at the splits now, I thought it would be worse (wasn’t looking at my watch much at this point, but every time I did I thought I saw 9-something). I saw my dad, brother and his fiancée at mile 23 (brother lives in an apartment right on the course). I faked a smile for them, and then went back to pathetically staring at the cement 3 feet in front of me. My lovely wife had finished her half marathon and was there cheering for me with about a tenth of a mile to go! I saw the clock, and put on a furious sprint (8:00 pace was a sprint) and officially beat 3:26 by a second to get a 3:25:59! I think the bonk should be mostly attributed to going too fast in the early miles on a hot, muggy day. Still, it wasn’t an aerobic wall – I actually caught my breath a little but just could not will myself to pick up the pace. So, I gotta think part of it was also mental, but maybe part fueling? I had a total of 5 gu and took Gatorade pretty much every stop. Weird to think that wasn’t enough, but my stomach felt fine and I could probably tolerate more; I really think I was burning fats at the end, but I’m not experienced enough to know for sure. A real learning experience, but I’m still really, really happy with the time given the conditions.

Some stats from runpix – I finished top 6% overall, top 8% of men and top 12% of my age group. That also feels pretty good, because it lets me know everyone struggled as well. First half was 1:40:22 (7:39 pace), second half was 1:45:37 (8:03 pace). My first 20 miles was 2:32:54 (7:39 pace). Last 10K was 53:05 (8:32 pace). So there it is.