Well my race weekend started off by getting sick Wednesday evening just before I went home from work. I ended up calling in Thursday and got in to a minute clinic at CVS bright and early. I ended up having a ear and upper respiratory infection and the Dr. put me on an antibotics and gave me some flo-nase. I stayed home and packed the rest of the day and just took it real easy.
J-Hat and I took off bright and early Friday Morning and I felt much better with all the rest I got 2 days in a row. I figured with a couple more days of going easy this might be doable. We got down to Jakes place about 4 Friday evening and got a nice little jog with Jake on switch back mountain and a few striders to top it off.
Saturday we slept in and waited for Ean and Marlynn to get there before we did a small 5 mile shake out and then headed to the expo for a bit.
J-Hat and I got a selfie with Meb who actually took the pic. with my phone.
Race morning I woke up and felt pretty good. Jake, J-Hat and I all loaded up in my car and Ean and Marylynn drove down themselves because they were planning on heading out after the race.
We got down there and I found a spot close to the start line to park and we got out and started looking for a place to hit the restroom. We ended up going to a Hotel just around the corner form the start line. We got down to the start line with about 15 min to go and I started seeing a lot of really big name elites that were running the 1/2. Mostly women but Aaron Braun (the winner) was there too. I talked with him for a second and also with Kellyn Taylor and wished them luck.
We lined up and took off and I had a beanie on and it got toasty real quick. I ended up taking it off and throwing it at the Alamo as I ran by. We had a really nice sized pack of runners for the first 1/2, a few of those being the elite women for the 1/2 and then things split up. I thought I was in 3rd from what I could tell and then we had a longer straight and I saw a few more dudes ahead of me that actually put me at 5th. At mile 18.5 we had a small turn around and I could see who all was up there and i picked off 1 dude at the turn. About a mile later i heard Ean holler my name from across the river. I gave him a wave and continued on. I could see the guy ahead of me catching the other 2 guys and then I lost contact with them until we got up on the road. A spectator told me the next guy was just about 30 seconds ahead of me and looked awful. We had about 2 miles to go and I tried to do little pickups as I watched him coming closer and closer to me. It help to have the 1/2 marathoners cheering as I went by. I fell a little short of catching #3.... seconds out of the money but a Master victory and a PR on that course by 3 minutes was a win in my eyes.
I felt like I fixed my fueling problem that I had at TCM. I ended up taking 3 gels.
gel #1 - @ mile 4-5 key lime
gel # 2 - @ mile 9-10 key lime
gel # 3 - @ miles 16-19 mango
each gel was nursed on an as needed basis.
I took several water and gatorades. More when the sun got up and out.
Had a nice surprise at the end of the race when as I was greeted by a woman that I went to Church with when i was a kid hollered my name.. she used to date one of my cousins and she had just finished her first 1/2.
The whole Crew. REMEMBER THE ALAMO! It has no basement.
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