Sunday, January 18, 2009

Houston Marathon - 11-minute P.R. and B.Q.!!!

I qualified for the Boston marathon on this race by running 3:32:17!!! This SMASHED MY PRIOR P.R. BY 11-MINUTES!! I thank my support team (wife, daughter, friends) for supplying me much-needed eGels, Succeed Electrolyte Caps and water at miles 4, 16, 18, 22 and 25!!

Summary of my pace, by mile:
Mile Avg. Pace Delta Pac
6.21 0:07:56 0:07:56 Ran with Karen - a bit too fast, and ahead of 3:30's (0:49:20)
13.11 0:08:03 0:08:09 Slowed down nicely to run behind 3:30s as I'd planned (1:45:31)
18.64 0:08:02 0:08:01 Maintained pace nicely (2:29:54)
26.22 0:08:06 0:08:14 Started to lose pace due to muscle weakness in right upper leg. Nevertheless, I passed FAR more people than passed me. Passing weakness in right thigh muscle, which worked out (Net 3:32:17, Gun 3:33:04)

Factoid - Between mile 18.6 and the finish I passed 177 runners, and only 9 passed me!! This confirms my intuition, but it is great to see the numbers.

Official Race Results: Time: 03:32:17; Age 50-54: 44/480 (top 9%); Male: 488/3509 (top 14%); Overall: 571/5406 (top 11%)