Another Half-Marathon

January is here, and that means another Houston Aramco Half-Marathon for me!! I look forward to this race every year, and love every minute of it. Now, that doesn’t mean that I actually train for this race, but I run it anyway. Here’s the report:

My dear friend Brian again drove down here from Hurst, Tx to support me during the race, and he showed up late Friday night. My other super-awesome bud, Larry, was here as well, and both of those guys acted as my pit crew for most of the weekend. Friday night, we just hung out and watched American Gladiators…man, I’m glad the new season finally started!

Saturday, I was still fighting off the allergies, sinus infection, or whatever it might have been that kept my head full of snot for most of the week. Brian came to my classes that morning, and we had a good bit of fun sparring once class time was over. He’s got a mean little Thai clinch going on, and I must say that I’m thrilled with his progress in martial arts. Now, if I could just get him to stop kicking me in the butt, rather than the thigh, he’ll be on his way to superstardom.

A quick note on Brian…he’s a much different man now that he’s had two years of martial arts training. He’s calmer, stronger, carries himself with much more authority, and seems to know who he is and what’s he’s about. Cool.

Anyhow, Larry came in just after we finished sparring, and then we all trotted off to Pho Mai for lunch. Man, I just can’t get enough pho! From there, we headed off to the George R. Brown to pick up my race packet, while Larry headed off to Wah Nan’s to pick up some kung fu stuff. I had my confirmation card tucked firmly in the passenger seat visor, right next to last year’s card. And you know, we almost made it to our destination without getting lost. Almost. Seems we forgot to take a left turn once we got downtown. Drat.

We pulled into a gas station and debated a new course when Larry pulled up next to us and offered to guide us back. Thanks Larry! After that, it wasn’t a problem. We strolled in and I picked up my race number and t-shirt, we wandered around looking at all the booths, and I picked up some orange Gu for the race. As we walked back out to the car, I remember thinking what a fabulous time I was having. I was excited about the race, the weather was perfect, I was feeling better after the long, snotty week, and I was spending time with close friends…wow, what a day.

Later that night, we had a nice dinner at Hasta La Pasta, and then I spent entirely too long making sure that my mp3 player was loaded properly, my clothes were laid out, and everything was in place for our early morning departure. Backpack with dry clothes, water bottle, fruit, Gu, gloves, hat, new headphones, new shoes (thanks, Amy!), timing chip, stopwatch, my list was complete. My darling Christina, saint that she is, stayed up until nearly midnight to make another race shirt for me. This one has my name on the front (so spectators can yell at me during the race), her and Monkey’s names on my sleeves (to remind me of their love and support) and NEVER GIVE UP on the back. It’s an official Jade Mountain shirt, so I had to REPRESENT! I thought I had covered everything this time. Really.

5am rolls around, and we’re up and out the door without a hitch. On time, feeling great. Then we go to pass a car on I-10, and I notice that it’s making a horribly loud noise. I wondered, “Now, why in the world would any fool buy a muffler that makes their car sound like THAT?” Then I discovered that it was MY car making the noise. My left front tire was apparently flat, and in the process of being shredded for recycling. We pulled over and whipped out the donut spare.

I really should check that spare more often. You know…in case it gets flat. Yeeargh!!!

We made it another 100 yards on the flat spare before pulling into parking lot of a Jason’s Deli. It was 6am. The race started at 7am. We were in trouble. I called my fabulous, amazing, spectacular wife and said, “You’ll have to come get us, or else I’ll miss the race.” She replied, “I’m on it!” Not a half-hour later, she buzzed up to get us with a sleepy Monkey in the back seat, and we were on our way again, still pretty much on time.

I was somewhat unceremoniously dumped near the starting line with about 10 minutes to spare…plenty of time to hit the Port-a-Pottie, get into the corral and wait for the start. Weather was perfect, I was surrounded by 17,000 excited, happy people, and I felt on top of the world.

The first wave left at 7am to the sound of the cannon. My wave left 10 minutes later, and as always, we ambled towards the starting line at a sort of walk-shuffle-jog. I recall hearing ‘These Are The Days’ by 10,000 Maniacs on my player, and I found it fitting…that’s one of my favorite happy songs. I started the race at an easy lope, running on the balls of my feet as usual, and just enjoying everything. So many people!!! It was pretty crowded, but not too much so. I had planned for a 12 minute mile pace, and was thrilled to discover that my ‘easy lope’ was actually closer to an 11 minute pace, so I kept it up. My music was good (a change from last year), and everything was great.

I’ll spare you the step-by-step of the entire 13.1 miles. Here are the salient points: I walked at the water stations so I wouldn’t drown myself. I switched to heel-to-toe running at mile 6. I chuckled at all the guys relieving themselves in full view of everyone at the giant bush just past the bridge. I started ‘seeing’ the finish line at mile 8, and imagined myself crossing it, feeling great. And at mile 9, I decided that I would not, could not, stop to walk again unless I was getting water. My shirt said ‘NEVER GIVE UP’, and to walk would be giving up. So I kept running, kept picking up my feet, and refused to give up. I only walked at the water stations this year, nowhere else.

When I finally turned that corner to see the finish line, it didn’t seem as far away as it did last year. I was moving better, feeling better, and for a change, I wanted to finish this race strongly. Last year, I was a wreck with 1.5 miles to go. This year, in spite of being sick, in spite of running a total of only 6 miles in the last month in preparation for this race, I felt like I still had something in the tank to get me across that line. I kept moving, picked up my pace as much as I could, and finished with a thrilled yell. Then I tried not to puke. My time: 2:19:05, which beat my times from 2007 and 2006.

By the way, I finished the race to Sir Mix-A-Lot’s ‘Baby Got Back’. Say what you will, it made me laugh.

It took me forever to find Brian after the race, and I was doing my best imitation of a zombie at that point, but I still felt better than I had for both of my last finishes, and wasn’t quite as bad walking to the car afterwards.

Larry showed up soon afterwards, and we all headed to Fuddrucker’s for a post-race burger before my massage that afternoon. Brian headed home, Larry did some shopping before hanging out with us that evening, and it was a great end to a great weekend.

Things I learned from this year’s Half-Marathon:

1. Check your tires. And your spare.

2. Good shoes are really, really, really important!

3. A shot of Gu at mile 8 was a great idea.

4. All the conditioning and strength work I’ve done this year has made a huge difference!

5. Nothing new in this, but my wife is the most spectacular and amazing woman. Wow!

6. I may run without tights next year. I loved my new race shirt, but I still looked like a dork. And I need a new, highly visible hat.

7. Next year, I’ll finish with a happy ‘WOOO-HOOOOOOO!!!’ rather than an angry-sounding ‘YEEAAARGH!!!” I sounded like the Sasquatch that folks are messin’ with lately.

8. I love my friends Brian and Larry very much. It means the world to me that they would come out and support me like they did.

It’s Wednesday now, and my legs are just starting to return to something resembling normal. I have a lacrosse game on Saturday, and I’m hoping to still be able to crush the opposition. That’ll be another story altogether….