60F, 90% humidity, wind SE 15 mph. Really nice running weather today, but I admit it got a little warm by the end. Wade and I drove to Beaumont last night, got our hotel room, got registered, watched the Jimmer show, went foraging for food at gas stations, then retired early, at midnight, satisfied that the thermometer had dropped to 50F. Arose in the 5:30 range, noted with alarm that the temperature was back up to 60F, took in a few calories and drove to the start line, about 10 miles away. This kind of weather always feels cool and refreshing until you try to run in it.
Wade’s brother was running his first marathon and his sister-in-law was running the half as well. Also, my nephew’s father-in-law, Mike, is a local and he was running in the same age group as me. I warmed up for a mile and lined up almost at the front, didn’t want to be fighting for running room. I noticed a guy with Mike on his bib, but didn’t feel like chatting before the race to see if he was the right Mike. There were several other old guys in the same area, most wearing half-marathon bibs. I remembered that a 54-year old won this race last year and figured I would have some good age-group competition. The race counted down and we were off exactly on time at 7:30, was very glad they didn’t wait until 8.
About a hundred yards in I checked my watch and I was running at a 6:35 pace. It felt plenty smooth but I immediately reeled it in. It was toucg finding my target 7:15 pace. First mile was 7:10, second was 7:24. After that I got into the groove until I started to fade a little bit past the halfway point.
The old guys formed our own group almost immediately, together with the first place woman, and we held together for a while, surging back and forth. We dropped the first-place woman after about 3 miles, dropped a few younger guys that went out too fast, then gradually started dropping the old, steady guys. Finally they all fell off except for me and Mike, then at about mile 6 or 7, can’t remember exactly, I put on a last surge and kind of dropped Mike but he never went away. Then there was nobody. About then we made the turn back into the wind. It was hotter and there was some up-hill to the road as well. Previously we had been twisting and turning through the city but coming back it was a long, lonely straightaway, very tough. A couple of younger marathoners were ahead of me but they kept increasing their lead and eventually I had the road all to myself, and it stayed that way for the duration. I found myself asking for directions frequently, but never had trouble getting the right advice about which way the course turned. Whenever I would pass a group of spectators they would encourage me and then fall silent. I could tell how far back Mike was by the following shouts of encouragement. Didn’t seem to me like he was all that far back.
At mile 12 there was a u-turn and sure enough, Mike was within 30 yards but working very hard. By this time I was struggling to maintain any pace at all and my heart rate was already in the 180s. I had done a mile earlier this week in the 190s so I did it again. When I made the next to final turn I had 150 yards on Mike and that was it. Splits were 7:10, 7:24, 7:15 (172), 7:16 (171), 7:19 (171), 7:15 (175), 7:12 (178), 7:22 (178), 7:27 (180), 7:37 (179), 7:38 (179), 7:47 (184), 7:30 (191), then .11 at 6:55, (188). Finished in 1:37:04, average pace 7:24 per mile.
After I finished the first thing I did was introduce myself to Mike and sure enough he was the one, 59 years old, a very good runner. One of the other old guys was 70, and he broke 1:40 and sounded disappointed. I hope I can do that when I am 70. (Actually, I probably won’t be doing this when I am 70.) Turns out Mike and I had met at my nephew’s wedding. After finishing I immediately tried to find out my overall place but they were coy about it, asking me to “stick around”. So we did, even though we wanted to get back to the hotel and shower in order to get back for Wade’s brother’s marathon finish. But we stuck around. It takes a while to get to my age group. Wade’s sister-in-law got second out of 37 in her age group and was ecstatic. Finally they announced us. Mike was third, so I knew that meant I was second. The age group winner ran 1:27, way out of my league, so I had no regrets. Catching somebody like that is going to have to wait for next year. I worked hard and got a good time considering the conditions. The overall winner ran 1:11, so thankfully a 1:27 didn’t win it again this year, that would have been embarrassing. I got 14th overall out of 507 half-marathon finishers, Mike got 15th, and we had a grand time racing through the oil town on a warm Saturday morning.
After showering, we got back just in time to see Wade’s brother run past the parking lot with 2 miles to go. He finished his first marathon in about 4:12, running 2:04 and 2:08. Very steady runner. He seemed happy when I told him my time for my first marathon. And my second. And my third. | 