For Whom the Dogs Bark

Today was a big day, difficult to capture all of the flavor of this race.  The Texas Marathon is held on New Years Day every year in Kingwood, Texas, which is northeast of Houston.  It runs along a jogging parkway that leaves a community center and extends out to Lake Houston then back to the start.  The race is four laps, and even that is generous, as each “loop” is really an out and back with a small half-mile loop at the far end.  As a result many people pass on this race because they can’t fathom the mental stress of going out on the last out and back just as the bonk begins.  Nevertheless, in recent years this small race has sold out several months in advance.  About 2/3 of the 450 runners run the marathon and 1/3 run the half, which starts a few minutes later over the same course.  The course is mostly flat, my favorite kind.

Weather at the beginning was 42F and cloudy, with a 10 mph north wind that continued throughout the race.  By the end of the race the wind had blown out the clouds and it got sunny.  The forecast of 32 at race time never materialized, but it stayed cool enough throughout the race that temperatures were never a noticeable factor.

I decided to try for a 9:10 pace, which would put me at about 4 hours.  My other competing plan was 9:30 pace, which would put me at about 4:10.  While not out of the question, I knew that 9:10 was a long shot for me, but I decided to try it anyway for a couple of reasons.  This was a goal race but it was not going to be my Boston qualifier no matter how well things went, so I could afford to overextend myself and hopefully learn a lot more that way.  I also decided that I would be able to take my foot off the gas pedal and run slow if things started to fall apart.  Both assumptions turned out to be correct.

I drove to the course with a friend, my former bishop, who was running his first marathon.  He is more talented than I am but was apprehensive of what would happen after 20 miles.  I think it is good to be afraid of that.  He planned to run conservatively, opposite of me, planning to break 4 hours by a comfortable enough margin that he could still achieve it if the wheels fell off late in the race.  We discussed briefly running together for a couple of laps, but even with the differences in our approaches it was apparent that my aggressive strategy was still slower than his conservative plan.

The race is run on a walking trail, 4 abreast at best, so we edged our way up toward the front in order to avoid too much congestion at the start and lose 20 seconds in the first mile.  That worked well, I had to step around a few people but managed to get my first mile at 9:06.  My friend was long gone -- he ended up beating 4 hours by about 2 minutes, but I haven’t gotten the details from him yet.  The first couple of miles seemed a little hurried but I soon settled into a rhythm and the pace didn’t seem overly aggressive.  I noticed that my Garmin was measuring the course short (it is USATF certified and a Boston qualifier).  Before too many miles I was being greeted by runners coming back the other way.  Runners always have a high degree of sportsmanship, but I was amazed at the number of “nice bib number” type of compliments I was getting.  It wasn’t until halfway through the third lap that I realized the connection between bib number 262 and the marathon distance.  Boy did I feel dumb.  Even with my GPS measuring the course short, I was holding to a 9:10 pace or better through most of 3 laps without much trouble.  After two laps I had a 3-minute cushion on a 4-hour time.  Starting in the third lap it was harder to make the splits but I was still making them most of the time and had hopes through much of that lap for achieving 4 hours.  The first hint of trouble came at about mile 17 (last year’s bonk location) when I got a severe pain in my upper left groin.  I have never had any issues like that before and I was astounded at how debilitating it was.  I thought my race was over right there, but thankfully the pain subsided enough after a quarter of a mile that the overall effect on my time probably turned out to be minimal.   I knew Plan A wasn’t going to happen toward the end of the third lap when I popped a 9:27.  I “picked up the pace” and popped a 9:33.  I was hemorrhaging seconds at an alarming rate.  I kept going as best I could until halfway through the fourth lap but then intentionally slowed in order to be able to bring it in.  My pace ballooned to the 11s and the 12s.  I was hurting but I knew from a couple of my long runs that I could run through the pain.  I even picked up the pace a little bit in the last mile or two, hurting all the way but never getting worse.  A host of family and friends were there at the finish line and I’m telling you I was very emotional when I saw them. Here are my splits, without adjustment for measuring the course short: 9:07, 9:02, 9:20, 9:08, 9:06, 9:00, 9:10, 9:05, 9:11, 8:58, 9:06, 9:18, 9:11, 9:11, 9:10, 9:27, 9:33, 9:53, 9:42, 9:55, 10:09, 11:09, 11:46, 12:46, 12:33, 12:25

So Plan B worked.  I learned a lot and I only missed the 4:10 “safe” goal by less than 4 minutes -- and who knows, if I had run a 9:30 pace I might have bonked anyway.  A couple of bad things I noticed:  My speed was fine, at least for the speeds I am running right now, but I ran out of gas.  I need more stamina, which will only come through continued training.  I have to run 8:30s to qualify for Boston, but that now seems achievable.  The other bad thing relates to hydration and calories.  I drank only half a bottle of water through the whole race.  I was trying to avoid that sloshing feeling that has caused nausea in each of my first three marathons.  It worked but I had salt on my face after the race and my legs felt like logs through the last lap, probably because of no calories.  I still have to work on that one.

On the good side, I learned a ton and got a 45-minute PR off of 2-1/2 months of training.  (I threw up on the lawn at St. George, so I can’t be accused of dogging that race.)  I couldn’t be happier about how my training has gone this fall.  I am convinced, at least for now, that our bodies are happiest going hard for 6 days then taking a day off.  I did that every week beginning two weeks after St. George and coincidence or not I got a big PR.  For now, I see no reason to train any differently, legs permitting I plan to run lots of low heart rate miles to build endurance and continue working on speed to a lesser extent.  My next goal race will be St. George or some fall equivalent, which is where I hope to qualify for Boston.  I may run some other stuff in the meantime, but I won’t interrupt my training schedule to do it.  As we rotate into our Houston summer I will have lots of opportunities to work on hydration and calories.

39F, wind NNW at 8 mph.  Ran two easy ones to get circulation going, no stats.  I felt good but the groin pull from the marathon is still chirping a little bit.  I hope it doesn't amount to much.  Saturday was my first day off except Sundays since mid-October. 

My son's Texas open house was Saturday night, lots of good company and good food; one last blowout and the holidays are now over except for cleaning up.  My son-in-law got the fireworks assignment.  I couldn't resist "helping", though.  He built two cannister cases and we spent the week looking for fuses and just checking things out generally.  Buying fireworks is a good way to meet rednecks.  They sell some big ones down here to the general public (up to 2" in diameter for the big shells), but the really big 4" stuff isn't generally available.  There are legal restrictions, but they are fairly easy to meet (i.e., get around), the main hurdle is becoming a member of the inner circle, which is a traveling, carny-type crowd.  They love to talk, though.  I think if we ever did this again we would start a little earlier, practice our accents and bad grammar to get certified (formally and informally) and go for the big stuff.

As it was, the fireworks show was a huge success.  Everybody was talking about it at church yesterday morning.  Bride and groom are back in Utah starting classes this morning.

27F, wind NNW 3 mph wind chill 22F, long pants day.  Ran 4.17 miles in 48:58, average pace 11:45, low heart rate.

I feel pretty good today, my thigh is still pulling a little bit from the marathon but otherwise normal.  Given how hard I have been running on Saturdays, running this soon after a race is not all that different, at least that is how it seems right now.  They say you don't know until the next day whether you overdid it, so we'll see.

My daughter and granddaughters return home today.  My son-in-law has a couple of more interviews for his residency, then he is going home too, leaving the remainder of our family to rattle around in this house for the rest of the winter.  Decompression time, but slightly melancholy as well.  Nothing beats having a lot of family around.

35F, wind ENE 5 mph, 31F wind chill.  Ran 6.11 miles in 1:11:12, 11:39 pace, low heart rate.  Left groin no better or worse.  I dressed two layers deep top and bottom, thinking it was going to be in the low 20s.  I started shedding clothes almost immediately and by the end wasn't even wearing gloves.  We have a cold front coming in, but this morning was not it.  On the other hand, some winters this would be one of the coldest days, it's just a lot colder this winter.

I was thinking as I ran about what I might be able to accomplish this year (more training wise than race wise), but concluded that I just don't know.  It all depends on how well I adapt to increasing training loads, how well I balance between pushing the envelope and staying healthy. 

50F, wind NNW 13-25 mph.  8.03 miles in 1:31:54, average pace 11:27, low heart rate.  The next two mornings will be in the low 20s, high teens, so I didn't mind this run even with the high wind.  I got a personal best 11:06 on one of my splits, as well as my best overall average, each by a little bit.  My low heart rate speeds are getting just fast enough that I can feel it in my legs.  That never used to be an issue.

We will by hyping our cold weather down here for the next few days, so just bear with us.  All of the plumbing is in the attics here.  The soil is clay and shifts too much to bury the pipes under the slab.  Works reasonably well until the pipes freeze.  Usually anything over 20 is safe, but there will probably be a run on wrapping material at Home Depot today.  I wrapped mine when the house was being built, about to find out  how good of a job I did.  My contractor wouldn't do it, he had the nerve to say it never freezes in Houston.

25F, wind chill 16 at start, 24F, wind chill 13 at end.  10.04 miles in 1:58:44, 11:50 minutes per mile average pace, low heart rate.  The weather is a big deal today, but it wasn't quite as cold as predicted, never is.  My face was frozen, luckily into a smile, but otherwise it was pretty manageable.  I'll be out in similar temperatures tomorrow morning for about 3 hours, but I don't think there will be as much wind.

18F and calm, 14.96 miles in 2:28:46, average pace 9:57.  I "warmed" up for two miles then tried to run 10 miles at an 8:35 pace, which is what I have to run for a whole marathon to qualify for Boston.  I didn't make it, but I have lots of excuses.  My splits and average heart rate for the tempo part of the run were:  9:05 (154), 8:34 (164), 8:41 (166), 8:44 (169), 8:43 (170), 9:00 (170) (stopped to shed a layer, which promptly froze solid), 8:31 (168), 8:37 (172), 8:41 (169) and 8:57 (164).  I was looking real hard for a bathroom solution on the last split and lost concentration.  I jogged in the last three at a 12-minute pace.  My average pace for the tempo run was 8:45, so 10 seconds slow.  Plenty to work on.  I am going to earn every minute of marathon time from here on out.  My excuses are . . . never mind, I didn't make it.

Today is a record low for January 9, by one degree, breaking a record set in 1976.  It is by no means the coldest day ever, in fact it was warmer than yesterday because there was no wind this morning.  There was 3-day stretch in December, 1989 of  13, 7 and 11, which were three of the four coldest days on record here.  The all-time record for Houston is 5F, set on January 18, 1930, before plumbing.  So we are a ways from that and won't get close, thankfully.  My attic pipes which I wrapped myself 9 years ago held up just fine last night, unlike many of my neighbors, who have plumbing trucks in front of their houses this morning.

48F, 10.25 miles in 2:05:38, 12:15 pace, low heart rate. 

I had to start work early this morning, so I didn't get my run in until the lunch hour -- took my phone and blackberry with me but didn't have to use them.  Just like Mack's experience, running later in the day slows things down considerably for me, today it was about 45 seconds per mile.  I drove out to a bayou I used to run a lot last year.  Sure enough, same old speed.  Actually, this was a speed I would have welcomed only a couple of months ago for low heart rate running, so I'm not really complaining.  Got in some good base miles and my mood improved considerably as a result.  Didn't hurt that by noon it had warmed up a lot from this morning's 22F low.  No more cold mornings for a while at least, back to the old routine.  It was fun while it lasted.

30F, clear, calm and dry.  Also daylight.  10.63 miles in 2:04:39, average pace 11:43, low heart rate.  I finished up a work project at 2 a.m. and slept in a little before heading out.  It was pretty nice running in the bright sunlight without any heat.  My pace dropped quite a bit from yesterday as well.  Who needs sleep?  My legs are tired, though, should know in a day or two if I am ramping up the miles too quickly. 

33F, calm, wind E 4 mph, 91% humidity.  10.03 miles in 1:54:36, average pace 11:26 minutes per mile, low heart rate.  Finally back in the groove today.  As I was running I noticed the air traffic coming in low -- I live about 15 miles west of the airport and when the winds shift to the east we are in the glide path.  That's how I know the weather is changing, even though we are still 10 degrees below normal for these parts.  Much better to run here right now than in the Utah temperature inversion.  Y'all will get your revenge in a few months.

48F, light rain at start, steady rain at end.  10:03 miles in approximately 1:56, 11:34 average.  My Garmin went on the blink again, so I ran exactly the same route as yesterday and used the clock on my cell phone to get a time for the complete run.  I tried to keep it at low heart rate, so if my heart performed the same as yesterday I probably got it about right.  It actually felt a little harder for whatever reason, so I may have run too fast.  (I know that sounds funny at these turtle speeds, but I'm trying to stick with a program here.)

I will be running in Denver tomorrow, but it doesn't look like their temperature forecast for tomorrow is any colder than ours were over the weekend and early this week.  They expect 30F overnight, which for January must be warm for them.  Altitude is a different story, it always makes me work harder, and my wife has nixed turning the master suite into a hypobaric chamber.

26F, 21 wind chill, 8.54 miles in about 1:24:40, average pace 9:48 per mile.  (The Garmin lap counter got full about halfway through, I got an accurate distance but some of the timing is messed up on it.)  I ran in downtown Denver this morning, out the hotel door on Grant, down 19th to Sherman, then Sherman to a building that looked like the Capitol (?), then swung out on Lincoln a little less than a mile to a river and turned upstream for about 2.5 miles, then back the same way.  I ran past a golf course that said DCC, which I assume means Denver Country Club, then through an upscale shopping district and into an office park type area before turning around.  I was happy to find a good open route with not too many street crossings and in a safe area.  I had to get back early for a breakfaast meeting so couldn't go a full 10, but it was a good run anyway.  Felt strong, but I wasn't pushing myself very hard, still it is nice to have one of these every once in a while.  My left knee, an old friend, was hurting yesterday on the plane and I worried about it.  Still worried some, but it felt fine this morning.  Seems to feel better when I go faster for some reason, probably a difference in my stride.

48F, windy and rainy, wind chill 41F, out the door very early to run 20.23 in 3:31:29, a 10:27 overall pace.  It did this run a little differently.  I ran 5 miles at low heart rate, then thought I would try running 10 or 12 at a little faster than Boston pace, which is 8:35 per mile for me and faster than my last marathon pace by about a minute.  I kept up the pace for a while, but had to stop after 6.  Those splits and heart rates were 8:26 (157), 8:23 (166), 8:29 (171), 8:31 (172), 9:03 (172), 8:32 (173), for an average pace of 8:37, so I almost made it.  It was that 5th split that tanked my overall pace, and also the point where I knew this boy was not doing 10 of these today, much less 12.  I'll probably try it again in a week and go for 8 or 10, working up to this milestone a little more gradually.  Then maybe try for this pace for a entire half marathon which I am running in two weeks.  Whether I make it or not in the short term, I have enough time to get my time down this year.

So after bailing on the fast run at mile 11, I still had 9 to go.  Uh oh.  Death march to the end, starting out in the high 11s and ending up in the high 9s.  I'm not sure how much good I got out of those last miles, it was more a matter of principle.  I finished in just enough time to make some stake meetings at 9:00, but it was weird sitting in a suit and tie with quads still burning and a couple of sweat beads sliding down my back.  (Fully showered and hygenic, of course.)

P.S.  My son has a plan to get ready for the half marathon in Phoenix in two weeks.  Very simple, 8 miles today and 10 miles next Saturday.  His original plan was 8, 10 and 12, but last Saturday he got busy with a video game and then his friends called, so he revised his plan.  Disgusting, especially since it will probably work.  Last night he came home late under questionable circumstances, but I held back, something I am getting used to.  Instead I ran his 8 with him, it was actually 7.95 but close enough.  He thinks I am certifiable, but he was the one struggling.  We started out in the low 10s and ended up in the high 10s.  It wasn't like I was feeling good, but I could have held that pace for longer and he collapsed on the lawn.  Anyway, the point is that it was the thing to do, at his age parents don't get many chances to engage in memorable activities, and he won't soon forget this one.

38F at start, 48F at end, 10.02 miles in 1:57:11, 11:42 average, low heart rate.  Was short on sleep over the weekend so I took advantage of the holiday and slept in almost until sunrise this morning.  The cloud cover left just as the sun came out, great run in the crisp bright air.  I started out feeling awkward with Saturday's run still in my legs. (My first split was 13:20 and my heart rate was unstable, if I throw that one out my overall average pace would have been 11:31, not great but OK for a Monday.)  After a while things loosened up a bit and my pace sped up through most of the run.  My quads never stopped hurting, haven't really had that issue before.  Always something new.

I think it is important for the low heart rate pace to get faster.  Whatever the benefits, or not, of running at low heart rate, I'm guessing that keeping track of pace at a particular heart rate is a way of monitoring how much overall improvement is occurring.  I think at a particular baseline heart rate it is possible to improve to some extent in the higher speed zones, maybe even quite a bit, but I think if pace at that baseline rate isn't getting better then overall potential is going to max out pretty quickly.  A long way of saying that if I could get my low heart rate speed into the low 10s I might start to see some interesting race times. 

59F, 100% humidity, 10.05 miles in 1:59:37, 11:54 average pace per mile, low heart rate.  Slower than yesterday for some reason, not sure why.  The temperature was higher and that might have affected it.  The air is so wet that the streets are wet even though the weather is clear.  Can't complain about the boring weather this winter, something different every morning.

I'm already thinking about, maybe even dreading, running hot this summer.  Not because of the pain but because I will be slower.  I figured out this morning that I ran St. George about 12% faster than my best 20-mile pace in the heat here in Houston running up to the marathon date.  So maybe that translates, percentage-wise, to faster paces as well?  For instance, if I could run 20 miles in the heat at an 8:30 pace, would that mean 7:35 per mile at St. George?  Seems doubtful looking at it that way, but that is what happened to me at slower speeds last year.  I know the heat is a big factor, and of course it all goes out the window if St. George is hot as well.

63F, rainy, light wind.  Ran 10.07 in 2:00:44, 12:00 average right on the button, low heart rate.  Slower than yesterday, but at least my legs feel better today.

Must be addicted to this blog.  I wasn't quite sure what to do with myself this morning when it went down.  It's great to have a place to post runs and to read what everybody else is doing.

59F, blustery.  10.05 miles in 1:54:55, 11:38 minutes per mile average pace, low heart rate.  Better.  The weather this morning was very spring-like.  I have seen large flocks of birds the last couple of mornings, too dark to tell exactly what.  I could tell from their voices that they aren't local.  Spring is an interesting time of year, lots of stuff to see living on an avian migratory flyway, but I hope it doesn't stay warm.  I like spring but it is too early, we'll be in trouble next summer if it warms up too quickly.

So the good thing about this week, despite slower times, is that I seem to have recovered from Saturday's run, which was too long, doing it on the run without cutting my miles back.  That is good information to have and I am pretty sure the times will fall back into line as soon as the temperature drops a little bit.

I plan to drive to Utah this weekend to deliver wedding presents that my son and his wife acquired at the Texas open house about three weeks ago.  So I'll probably do my long run in the morning before I leave.  Too much hassle to try to deal with that on the road, but I'm wondering what it will be like to sit in a car all day after doing a big run.

45F, bright and clear.  17.11 miles in 2:48:58, average pace 9:53 per mile, average heart rate 152 bpm.  The goal was to run 10 miles in the middle at 8:30, didn't make that.  My threshold mile splits and heart rates were as follows:  8:50 (159), 8:38 (164), 8:38 (169), 8:31 (170), 9:00 (170) (same split where I screwed up last week), 8:43 (172), 8:49 (173) and 8:48 (173), 8 miles at average of 8:45, about the same pace as I ran 10 two weeks ago, so that was a bummer.  On the other hand, I'm pretty sure I could have made my marathon goal of 9:10 per mile from 3 weeks ago, the one I couldn't do then.

I'm off to Utah today. 

30F and snowing.  Ran 6.14 "recovery" miles in Albuquerque, NM in 1:10:30, average pace 11:52, low heart rate, but didn't try to target any particular heart rate and it was a little higher than normal.

It started snowing just as I exited the hotel and snowed the whole time.  I planned to go 10.  Bopping along, even stopped to take a picture of my virgin tracks on the sidewalk (Burt, stay away from this one), thinking how great it was to be out running in a new spot in new weather.  I tested a couple of places and determined that there was no ice under the snow, but then there was ice under the snow.  I did whatever is the opposite of a face plant.  Landed directly on my back and the back of my head, alone in the snow (sniff, sniff).  If a runner falls and no one sees, did it really happen?  (Sorry.)  I was miles from home, so I just got up and kept running, but I cut it short and I am going to be very sore for the next few days, hopefully no other consequences.  I am changing my name from flatlander to FLATLANDER.

Gotta go, trying to figure out a way to get to Utah this morning.  I am driving a small, sporty, rear-wheel drive vehicle that is great on corners and inoperable on ice.  Seemed like a good idea on the car lot.

40F, sunny.  Got in from Utah late last night, slept in and ran in the sunshine.  A very pretty morning.  Ran 6.14 miles in 1:00:24, average pace 9:50, no heart rate monitor.  Started slow and accelerated gradually throughout the run, slowest split 11:07, fastest 8:59.

When I woke up on Sunday morning after my "back-plant" on Saturday morning in Albuquerque, I could barely move, my body hurt almost everywhere, like I had been in a bad car wreck.  So I took yesterday off and the object this morning was to assess the damage.  At the beginning it felt like I was coming off my summer 2008 back injury, OK to walk but unable to run.  I pushed through and everything in the core area felt better after awhile.  My shoulder is apparently injured -- my arm felt like it wanted to be in a sling, but as long as I held my arms high I could run without too much trouble. 

Oh my goodness, all the snow in New Mexico and southeastern Utah!  Monticello at 7000+ elevation looks polar.  The snow is piled 8 to 12 feet alongside the road in town, and the fences outside of town are almost buried.  The red rock country is very beautiful covered in a white blanket.  My parents who live in the Arizona high country are also buried in the stuff -- the highest mountain in the area got 6 feet of new snow at the top, and there are a couple of feet in town.  I think this storm must be some kind of record for that area. 

If I still feel good I'll probably return to a regular running schedule tomorrow, and it looks like I can run the half-marathon with all of my siblings this weekend in Arizona, although I will probably be slower than originally planned.  I am very thankful to still be on the road.  Running is a gift, as they say.

48F, weather moving in.  Ran 10.1 at slow pace, but no heart rate monitor or GPS, which are on the fritz again.  Average pace about 10:40 per mile.  Still not feeling too great.  This morning it was my outside left hip, back again after bothering me some last week.  I almost stopped at 8, then decided to go on and it started feeling a little better.  Funny thing is, it disappeared immediately when I stopped, which indicates something like an ITB (doesn't the ITB band go the whole length of your leg?).  I'll have to do some internet sleuthing and see if I can figure out what it is.  My left groin also started out sore, but didn't bother me once I got going.  Neck and shoulder still sore from the fall and still have a little bit of a headache.  Other than that, everything is peachy.

I was accosted three separate times by dogs let out the front door by owners too lazy to walk them.  Incomprehensible to me why anybody would think that is OK, much less three different people on the same morning.  I am sure there must be something good to say about these particular dog owners.  Maybe no cavities?

56F, wind E 6 mph, cloudy and trying to rain.  10.10 miles in 2:00:01, average pace 11:53 per mile, low heart rate.

Despite the very average pace this morning I felt a lot better.  Hip pointer was still there but subdued, and shoulder and headache the same.  Almost my old self.

I've been running a month now since my last race and I don't think I've improved much.  The half marathon on Saturday will provide some feedback, but I suspect my time won't be as fast as I would have predicted a month ago.  Might be time to mix things up a little bit, but whatever I do, I need to make sure I can withstand running consistently at these distances.  The main thing is to stay on the road.

63F rain and lightning.  Ran 1.07 then ran for cover, rain is OK, not lightning.  Then it blew through and I went back out, 50F, wind NW 8 mph, still raining.  Total run was 10.11 in 2:03:43, average 12:14 per mile, low heart rate.  Not a good run, hoping for better ones to come.

Off to Arizona tonight to run London's Run tomorrow morning (1/2 marathon version) with my siblings.  Maybe I'll get to meet Burt. 

I ran London's Run today, the half-marathon version.  It wasn't quite a half-marathon.  They changed the course because of some serious mud and the new distance wasn't measured quite right, in fact it was short by a half mile, not that I was complaining by the time I finished.

Flew to Phoenix Friday night and met up with several siblings and nephews I had arm-twisted into running the race with me.  Turns out we are all over the map in terms of talent.  One nephew came in 5th overall, and one brother finished pretty late.  I was somewhere in between.

There were over 523 finishers in the half-marathon, and it was very crowded at the beginning on the narrow dirt track.  My goal was to get a Boston pace for the race (8:37 per mile) but when I saw the mud and the crowded conditions I quickly adjusted my expectations.  I was coming off a poor running week anyway.

I was a little encouraged when the first mile came in at 8:48, despite the conditions.  A couple of nephews who hadn't trained much took off like rockets and I figured I would be picking up body pieces at about mile 4, but I never saw them again until the finish.  Being smoked by untrained teenagers seems to be a common theme in my racing career.  I passed two brothers and eventually caught up to the third brother, who normally runs faster than me but has a bad hip right now.

I was struggling with the pace until I caught up with him, then all of a sudden everything clicked.  We talked and hit several splits below 8:30.  He stopped at an aid station and I told him to catch up with me.  Shortly after that the 10K and half courses split and he went the wrong way, running his own unique hybrid race.  (I did the same thing but corrected myself after a couple of steps -- didn't stop me from giving him considerable grief.)

Another theme of the day was pink.  Several women wearing pink passed me.  I was holding my own against every color but pink.  I managed to pass one of them and felt pretty good, but then she caught me at about mile 10, just like all the others.

But then just at that low point a runner coming upstream began yelling "Flatlander".  Yep, it was the one and only Burt, miraculously appearing to save the day.  We yapped away and before I knew it the race was over.  It was totally awesome for him to come out and pull me in, especially just after finishing a very fast 10K of his own.  Just a great guy, and got to meet his wife as well.  She took a picture of us which I hoped to post, but I am too lame to figure it out, so you'll just have to believe me when I tell you I really did meet Burt. 

I also got chicked by my sister, a fellow blogger who is making a surge this year.  We went back out for some cool-down miles after the race, which loosened up our legs and gave us a chance to look for lost siblings.

Here are my splits:  8:48, 8:39, 8:52, 8:16, 8:34, 8:26, 8:19, 8:27, 8:27, 8:45, 8:48, 8:51, 5:33 (8:48).  Average pace 8:37 per mile, which adjusted to a half-marathon distance comes out to 1:52:53.  That number is almost exactly half of 3:45:59, the age-adjusted marathon time I have to run to BQ.  So I was very happy to get this time despite my low expectations, and happier still to have improved since my last race, even though it didn't seem like I was making much progress this month.  This is my first half -- I didn't think I would like running this distance, but was surprised at how much fun it was.  I plan to run the Cowtown Half Marathon in Fort Worth at the end of February, and hopefully I can get my two teenagers to run that one with me.