Austin Marathon

Time: 160:00?
Distance: 27 mi.

Target: run a smart race; sub-2:30, hopefully sub-2:28
Race: 2:36.02 for 4th (on a very uncompetitive day)
Splits: 5:55.5, 5:59.0, 5:38.8, 5:42.4, 5:37.4, 5:40.5, 5:43.3, 6:01.3, 5:48.0, 5:44.6, 5:51.1, 6:01.0, 5:45.6, 5:37.3, 6:01.0, 5:58.2, 5:54.9, 5:52.1, 5:37.3, 5:40.6, 5:24.0, 6:23.2, 6:26.5, 6:25.0, 7:06.4, 6:57.9, 1:10.0 (last 0.2 mi.)
Course Map
Full Results

Start of the marathon on South Congress
With my shadow through about 10 miles	Final stretch... ouch

This was certainly not the marathon debut I was hoping for, but I learned a lot and it kicked off a great week in Austin. In lieu of a long blow-by-blow recap, I will summarize what I took from my first marathon experience.

1. Eat, eat, eat: One Pop-Tart before the race and GU at 13 and 20 miles is not enough energy. You NEED it for the last 10k, stomach be damned. It was all I could do in the last 5 miles to finish the race.
   
2. Don't be lonely: It is so much easier to let the tempo slip when you are alone or don't have someone to share the pace with. The lesson here? Find a competitive race, or at least an injured friend to bike along with you.
   
3. Make a day of it: Having a good plan for the rest of the day of the race and have some friends around to help lessen the sting of a sub-par performance.
   
4. Run through it: I have never had a major race that didn't come along with one niggle or another. I was frustrated by the tendonitis in my right foot for two weeks leading up to this, but I barely felt it in the race.
   
5. Train better: While my training was perfectly fine (particularly given that I was running solo almost exclusively leading up to this) and probably would have prepared me for a 2:30ish race if I had done some of the other things better, I could have been more reliable on the workouts.
   

Wednesday-Saturday

I wanted to stop over-thinking everything I could the week of the race, so I stopped really paying much attention to recording or worrying about exactly how much running I could get in. In this span, I ran twice or three times, including a nice pre-race run in Austin the day before with the crew in town for the race.

Morris Williams Miles

Time: 81:00
Distance: 12 mi.

Target: 4 x 1 mile starting around 5:00 and dropping, 3:00 rest
Workout: 5:02.6, 4:53.2, 4:50.0, 4:51.5

Luckily my flight out of Austin wasn't until late morning, so I had time to meet the Texas team for another workout. Coach Hayes had the guys doing mile repeats over at the Morris Williams golf course, which was in the realm of what I wanted to do this week and definitely better than doing something on my own. He mapped out a hilly mile loop on the course and I was surprised how good I felt in general hitting all of these intervals. I ran with Jake, Victor, Kyle who ran six miles and Jacob who did four.

Warming up my right hamstring was very tight again and I felt it right away in the workout. I would've liked to get after it and see if I could run the last two (which the guys hit in 4:47, 4:43) but my stride was starting to get off as my leg and hip got pretty tight. A flatter loop would've been more ideal for this, but I like the idea of running hilly miles.

Town Lake

Time: 42:20
Distance: 6 mi.


Town Lake from my flight out of Austin on Tuesday

Evening run with Brian, Carmody and Ring. We ran from Barton Springs out on Town Lake so that we could finish and jump in the water. We grabbed burritos at Freebirds beforehand, so that we could enjoy dinner after the swim. It was a really nice evening, even though it was dark by the time we were finished. This was a great way to spend my last night in town. My hamstring was a little tight by the end, but running in the evening definitely gave it time to warm up.

Town Lake, Downtown

Time: 80:00
Distance: 11.5 mi.

Brian and I started running with John Ring down at Town Lake. Ring went about 5 miles and Brian and I continued around Town Lake and back up Trinity through campus and back to Larry Lane. My hamstring and legs in general felt much, much better than Thursday, so taking the two days off may have been a good call. Despite being a mild morning, by the time we were done it had gotten fairly hot and we were pretty tired.

East Side, Town Lake

Time: 60:00
Distance: 8.5 mi.

A very easy morning run from Brian, Carmody and Ring's place on the East Side with Burnham, Carmody and Joe. We weaved down the streets on the East Side to Town Lake and then back up. It wasn't the prettiest run, and my legs are totally shot. I probably haven't recovered properly and am dehydrated, but I'm not sure why they feel quite this bad. I think tomorrow will be a day off.

Greenbelt

Time: 83:00
Distance: 12 mi.

Fairly easy morning run with Jake. We were supposed to meet the whole team, but we missed them by about 3 minutes. They took a different route back somehow and we didn't see them until we were back in the Barton Springs parking lot. My legs were tired the whole way and my right hamstring and hip flexor are both fairly sore. The next few days should be fairly easy, and I may skip working out until the beginning of next week.

Longhorn Fartlek

Time: 84:00
Distance: 12.5 mi.

Target: 6-8 x 1k or 3:00 fartlek, w/3:00 jogging rest
Workout: 6 x 3:00 w/3:00 jogging rest

I met the guys at the track to crash their workout. My options this week were to run something with a little less recovery than I would've liked, or to do it alone. I opted for the former, as I'm sick of working out by myself. The original plan was to hit Morris Williams for measured 1ks, but there was a golf tournament (?!) so we headed to a trail near a housing development across the street and turned it into a fartlek. We worked into it, and by the 3rd and 4th ones, we were running fairly hard. I was beat and dehydrated from the heat and travel yesterday. Some of the guys went all the way through 8 of them, but I was definitely ready to be done at 6.

Greenbelt

Time: 50:00
Distance: 7 mi.



Brian met me at the Austin airport and we headed straight out to the Greenbelt. We had fun catching up and bitching about being sore and tired. I was fairly dehydrated and beat in general, and Brian pushed the pace on the way out (and by pushed the pace I mean dropped us to maybe 6:50). It was warmer than most of my runs recently, but not too bad. We started at the 360 entrance, which I haven't run from before.

Driving back into town it was funny to think how easy it would be to just fall back into the routine here... in a way it feels like I never left.

Week of May 12 – May 18

Distance: ~35 mi.

My last week in Austin was another easy one running-wise. I finished school by turning in a paper early last Friday, but had to pull together my life and try to enjoy the city for one last week. Taylor got in late Wednesday night and we got in a couple fun easy runs on IF. Sunday morning, I hit the road… Goodbye Texas.

Week of May 5 - May 11

Distance: ~35 mi.

I started to try to get back into running, but was dealing with a significant amount of schoolwork and a general lack of motivation to get going again. I’m pretty much fine with that, as this is the first serious break I think I’ve taken in about 18 months. I finished up the week with a good run with Tom, Barry and Brian on the Greenbelt.

Week of April 28 - May 4

Distance: ~4.5 mi.

After the half marathon, I took this week almost completely off. The exception was a run with LBJ School dean and professor Jim Steinberg on Friday morning. He’s an active runner, having done most of the major marathons on the east coast.

Run

Time: 40:00
Distance: 6 mi.

Run

Time: 45:00
Distance: 6.5 mi.

Play Ball

Time: 50:00
Distance: 7.5 mi.
Map

Easy run up Shoal Creek Boulevard to the baseball fields at Northwest District Park and back. It is getting hot and humid here. I ran at 2:30 because I just really needed a break from work then. The day off was good... despite being just generally tired, my legs felt great.

Town Lake, Greenbelt

Time: 92:00
Distance: 13.5 mi.

Fairly easy longish run with Joe from his house. We headed down to Town Lake and the Greenbelt, just going out and back. My legs (and body in general) feels pretty tired, but the run went well.

Shoal Creek Loop

Time: 46:20
Distance: 7 mi.

Brian and I ran between events at the Texas Twilight meet. My legs are beat from volleyball last night.

Notable performances at the meet included Jacob's 1:47.36 and Stanley getting second in the 1500 in 3:45.76 off a slow pace. Rob busted out a 9:38 in his first-ever steeple. I still wish I had been able to give that a shot...

Town Lake, Track, Greenbelt

Time: 62:00
Distance: 9 mi.

Easy afternoon run with Brian. We started at Barton Springs and ran over to the Austin High track so that he could do a 10 minute tempo. He's basing his getting back into shape plan on the idea that you run at a reasonable tempo pace from the get-go and then just increase the length until you are doing some solid work. I like the idea... get the legs used to running fast off the bat. After that we ran back to Barton Springs and did a short out-and-back on the Greenbelt.

After the run we hopped in the water, got some BBQ, and played beach volleyball for four hours.

IF Long Intervals

Time: 82:00
Distance: 13 mi.

Target: alternating 1 miles and 2 miles, 3 x 1 mile and 2 x 2 mile; 1 miles in 5:00 w/2:00 rest, 2 miles in 10:30 w/3:00 rest
Workout: 5:06, 10:20, 4:59, 10:22, 4:58

Morning workout on this loop around IF. I felt fairly good, though the humidity started to get to me in the second half of the workout. I was able to stay focused throughout the workout, but I haven't run that hard in a few weeks. My legs felt good, but I will definitely be sore tomorrow. This is the last hard effort before the OKC Half a week from Sunday.

The loop appears to actually be about 40 meters long, according to the GMap Pedometer at least, which would mean that each mile was ~8 seconds long. That would be dandy.

Greenbelt

Time: 43:00
Distance: 6 mi.

Easy run after class down on the Greenbelt. It felt good just to shake my legs out a little bit, and I love getting out into the woods.