Run for the Rose 5K

Every year, the Dr. Marnie Rose foundation host the the Run for the Rose 5K to benefit brain cancer research. It has grown every year, and it is now hosted at Reliant Center. They had over 4,000 participants this year. Since Reliant is only a short 15 minute drive from my house, I decided to sign up.

I ran as part of Team Brandi's Memory Rocks On! in memory of my good friend Brandi Ward. Brandi and I were friends from the time we were in elementary school, up through high school, and onto Texas A&M. She was diagnosed with glioblastoma (a very aggressive form of brain cancer) on Christmas Eve 2003. Over the next two years, Brandi would fight the disease with many ups and downs. She would inspire us all with her courage and faith. She even had gone back to her dream job, teaching kindergarten, but in early 2006, God called Brandi home. It was the same weekend she made her national TV debut on Extreme Makeover Home Edition. Now, her mom and sister organize a team in her memory every year to help find a cure for this horrible disease. I believe this year the team was 60 members strong.



I did not have high expectations for the race. I had been taking it easy for the past month, and I had only been running for the two weeks up to the race. I set my goal for the race at 21:00. I kept questioning it though and thought it might be kind of fast. Friday morning, I woke up with what I thought were bad allergies. These continued throughout the weekend. Sunday morning when I woke up, I had a slight headache, and I was pretty stuffed up. I took some Claritin, and I was happy to readjust my race goal to 22:00. I thought 21:00 was kind of fast anyway.

The race started at 8:00AM. I went out at a comfortable pace, but I thought it might be a little fast. I looked at my Garmin around the 1/2 mile mark, and I was running at a 6:30 pace. HOLY COW!! I had to ease off, or so I thought. I slowed down, but my speed must have crept back up. I went past mile 1 in 6:35. I panicked. I've got to slow down. Mile 2 was 6:37. By this point, I decided to try to hang on and see what happened. There was only 1.1 miles left, and I could still finish with a respectable time even if I ran out of gas. With a half mile to go, I continued to feel good. I looked at my watch and saw I would have no problem hitting my original 21:00 goal so I put it on cruise control. I wish I would have looked a little harder. Mile 3 was 6:33. I finished with an official time of 20:01. I could have easily finished under 20:00 if I hadn't packed it in. Total shocker. I had never dreamed I was capable of running under 20:00 in a 5K this weekend, especially, with the way I was feeling. I hadn't done that since high schoool. Let's just say I was more than pleased with my performance.

I went home, and slept on the couch for pretty much all of Sunday afternoon. I also stayed home from work on Monday and a half day on Tuesday. What I thought was allergies, turned out to be a sinus infection that I'm still trying to kill the last of.

Texas Independence Relay

The first weekend in March, I did the craziest race I have ever done. Texas Independence Relay is a 203 mile relay race from Gonzales, TX, to the San Jacinto Monument on the Houston Ship Channel. Teams can have anywhere from 8-12 runners, and the 40 legs were anywhere from 2.3 miles to 8.78 miles. Most legs were between four and six miles.

I had not been expecting to run this race. I knew several people that had run it in previous years, but never thought I would be doing it. I got recruited by my friend Carlos to run about two weeks before the race. The team he was running on had some spots open up, and they need a couple of runners. Carlos was the only person I knew on the team, and I met two of the other runners two weeks before the race at a Pearland Area Runners Club happy hour. That's how I became a member of the Professional Pavement Pounders.



Our team of ten runners started in Gonzales at 11:12AM on March 5. Over the next day and night, we ran the roads of Texas throughout the light and dark hours. It took us 26 hours, 39 minutes, and 24 seconds to cover the 203 miles. We arrived at the Monument in the early afternoon on March 6, dirty, sweaty, tired, hungry, and not smelling so great, but we all had a blast. I was nervous going into the race because I didn't know what to expect, but I hope there's a spot open on the team for me next year.

Surfside Beach Half Marathon

After my rough outing at the Chevron Houston Marathon, I decided I needed a little bit of redemption. The Surfside Beach Half Marathon was four weeks after the big race in Houston so it provided the perfect opportunity. The only thing that had me a little concerned about this race was that it is run completely on the beach. Over the next four weeks, I took two weeks of easy runs to recover. Then, the next two weeks I stepped it up and did a little bit tougher runs, but still pretty easy compared to what I had been doing the past couple of months. I knew I could finish, but I didn't really know what to expect since I had concentrated more on the recovery aspect the past four weeks.

Saturday morning, I woke up early to head down to the beach to pick up my packet and race. I got there plenty early, and it was a good thing. The later you arrived, the farther you had to park from the start line. I made the ten minute walk to pick up my packet, and the walk to put my stuff in my car and back. I felt like I was warm and ready to race just from all of that.

The race started right on time. I had planned to run a nice easy 8:00/mile pace since I didn't know what it would be like running on the sand. It turned out the sand was packed except right at around 2.4 miles. After that, I began to pick up the pace a little bit. My goal for the race was 1:45:00. It began to be obvious that I would have no problem hitting this mark. With about 3 miles left, I did the math, and I would be a lot closer to 1:40:00 than 1:45:00. However, there was no way I could get under 1:40:00 so I let off the gas a little to conserve some energy for Texas Independence Relay the next weekend.

I finished with a new personal best time of 1:42:39. This wasn't too hard considering my resume only includes one other half marathon, and conditions that day were horrible. These were nearly perfect conditions. I had a great time running on the beach, and I will definitely plan to do this race again. I've even considered going back down to Surfside for a weekend run sometime. Hopefully, next year, I can stick around for the post race meal. It looked and smelled delicious.

Race Pictures

Yesterday, I realized that I never posted any pictures from the big race. Here's a few pictures from along the course.

Tanner and I at Mile 7.

In the rain by the Galleria.

The final home stretch.

Crossing the finish line.

Tanner, Uncle Stephen, Uncle Danny, and me in the GRB after the race.

Tanner, me, and Andrew in the GRB.

Sarah with Tanner and Jennie's baby Lyla all dressed up in her marathon clothes after the race.

Chevron Houston Marathon: Full Race Report

Well, I've had five days to analyze my race. I've thought about what went wrong, where I made mistakes, and what actually went right. It was a tough day for a marathon. The warm, humid weather just magnified the mistakes that you made. Race officials said the medical people had to help more than double the people they did last year.

Race morning started out smoothly. I woke up, ate breakfast, got dressed, and picked up Tanner without incident. We went downtown to the George R. Brown and went inside to meet up with Andrew. We used the port-a-potties, grabbed some water, and went to check my bag. The bag check line was really long so we decided just to go put it back in the car. From the parking garage, we made our way over to the starting line. While we were waiting for the start of the race, it started to mist/drizzle, and I could tell the temperature was kind of warm. My stomach was also feeling a little weird, but I just figured it was nerves.

We found the 3:30:00 pace group a few minutes before the start. This was mistake #1 for the day. With the warm conditions and high humidity, I should have adjusted my goal and fallen back to the 3:40 group. You'll find out later, why that wouldn't have really mattered. Finally, we were off. We hit the first mile at about 8:35. A little slower than our pace, but I figured it would actually be slower with the massive amount of people. We ran the next four miles at a 7:50-7:55 pace, and we were back on schedule by mile 5. I just settled into cruise control with the pace group, and I took in all the sights and people along the course. We passed my parents, sister, and brother-in-law at the corner of Memorial and Studemont. Then, disaster #1 hit. My stomach started feeling pretty rough, and I had to hit the port-a-potties at mile 7.

Now, I was back on the course, and I could actually still see my pace group. However, they were quite a way in front of me. I was feeling better, and I had put so much emphasis on trying to run a 3:30 marathon. This lead to the worst decision I made all day. Of all the things that went wrong, this is the one I created all by myself. I decided to catch my pace group so I ran the next 5-1/2 miles at a 7:25-7:30 pace. I caught the group at Rice Village, only to have my stomach act up again. Stop #2.

After my second stop, I was feeling pretty drained. It was probably a combination of my stomach problems and running harder than I should have. I saw my wife, Sarah, and Jennifer at the village, and I felt energized for a half mile, or so. I hit the half way point in West U at 1:47:49. I was almost 3 minutes behind my goal pace. I decided to reevaluate at this point. I calculated in my head what pace I needed to keep to finish in 3:40, and I continued on. From West U, we hit what felt like the hardest 1/4 mile of the course that day, the Westpark Hill. It's not really a hill. It's actually an overpass, but we live in Houston. We don't naturally have hills on the Texas Gulf Coast. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that this is where it quit misting/drizzling and started to rain. Awesome, just what I needed. Not really, I know sarcasm doesn't come through type.

Next, we hit the Galleria. I was feeling incredibly drained at this point. My stomach problems lead to a major nutrition failure, and my stomach was growling. I was starving. I took my first walk break at mile 16. Post Oak Boulevard is where I officially started to unravel. I stepped in a huge puddle that I didn't see so now I had completely soaked feet. In Tanglewood, the 3:40 pace group caught up to me, and I decided to jump in with them. I ran with them for a whole 1/2 mile. Then, the leader ran off to the side, threw his balloons and visor on the ground, and started walking. The group immediately fell apart. This did not help my mental state any, but I continued on.

The two mile stretch from the 18th mile marker to mile 20 was the roughest stretch for me. I felt weak and hungry. I took orange slices from every person handing them out, and I took my extra Hammer Gel I had packed. At mile 20, I felt a little better and decided I was going to run for 10 minutes. Then, I would let myself walk for a minute. My pace was pretty slow (9:30), and I felt good so I decided to make it 20 minutes. I felt better, but not good. I saw Sarah, Jennifer, and my cousin, Christopher, on Memorial at mile 22. I waived to them. I decided to take another walk break on the bridge from Memorial to Allen Parkway. I ate some more orange slices from spectators, and started running again about 100 yards after the bridge. I saw my parents, sister, and brother-in-law again at Allen Parkway and Studemont.

At mile 24, I found myself running beside a guy I met at the 30K in December. He's a much better runner than me, and he finished last year in 3:16 so I realized I wasn't the only one struggling today. We ran the last 2-1/2 miles together, and we picked my friend, Tanner, up with 3/4 mile left to go. It really helped running with other people. We could see the GRB. We passed the sign saying 1/4 mile left, and we picked it up as much as we could. I crossed the line with an official time of 4:00:35, and I never felt so good about missing a goal time by so much. I fought through some demons and finished.

Over the next couple days, I talked to more people, and I began to realize everybody struggled with the weather. Overall, I feel I'm capable of running a faster marathon, but I think I did pretty well considering my stomach problems, nutrition issues, and the weather. I was not happy with my time, at all, but it is a new PR for the marathon. I bested my previous marathon time of 4:07:13 by almost 7 minutes. One good thing for the race is that I think taking electrolytes helped. I didn't catch cramps. I just didn't have any energy to make my legs move.

The next four weeks are dedicated to recovery. Then, I'm going to start working on getting better for next year.

Chevron Houston Marathon: Quick Summary

One word describes everything today, BRUTAL. I'll type up a full race report and explain later.

The Countdown has Started

Well, we are a little over 3-1/2 days away from the start of the marathon. I'm feeling pretty excited. It's been one of the few things I've been able to focus on all week. I'm also feeling kind of nervous, but I've decided there isn't anything I can do about it now so I'll just take whatever happens.

I can't believe how far I have come in the past since months. I'll be happy with the journey no matter what happens on Sunday. I've lost 25 pounds since I started training, I've met some new people, and I just feel better when I wake up in the morning. I've managed to stay injury free, except for a freak deal the week of New Year's. Missing the last hard week of training with a foot injury is the only reason I'm feeling any nerves.

I'll spend the next couple of days making sure I get plenty of protein and carbohydrates. I'll also be staying hydrated so I don't have any nutrition issues. Saturday, I'll go get my race packet at the expo and get all my clothes ready. Then, Sunday is race day. I'll be sure to give a race report next week on how everything goes.