Back in Austin. I had a hell of a time sleeping last night, I kept waking up wondering just how cold it would be and how I was going to deal with it. It was cold this morning, but not nearly the bitter freeze that we encountered at Freescale. I’m pleased with my clothing selection, it worked well. I chopped the legs off some sweatpants, making them knee length and wore those over my full tights. I wore a long sleeve technical shirt with my sleeveless cycling jersey over it. I didn’t even have to bother with a throwaway shirt. I put two small handwarmers each into my gloves, then two larger ones in the back jersey pockets. The handwarmers in the gloves worked very well, not only by keeping my hands warm, but while waiting around at the start I could cup my hands around my neck keeping the blood supply to my head warm.
Everyone seemed to be in a jovial mood. Somewhere at the head of the field a cannon went off to start the race. I was feeling good, yet I was surprised I ran a 10 minute mile right off (usually I’m a consistent 11:05). We left downtown, out to Southwest Blvd, down Riverside, through Brookside, then back to downtown. After 3 miles I shed the sweat “shorts” and handwarmers. By now the sun was making for a warm run. I kept the 5:00 pacer in view for a while, I entertained the thought that I could actually keep it up and come in at 2:30-ish, breaking my 3M time.
Right after the 7 mile turnaround, my stomach started cramping, I suspect from not eating enough before starting. Then my calves and quads started cramping, probably from the switch to walking. I couldn’t manage even the slowest jog so I just walked the remaining 6 miles in. Running north put us into a chilly headwind that made my glad I still had long sleeves and my gloves.
While we were in Brookside, the first marathon relayer passed me at 2:03. Then on the final stretch up Main the first marathon runner passed me somewhere around 2:30. The final quarter mile I started running again and summoned up the last of my strength to do an all out sprint to the finish. I remember seeing the chute, then somebody wrapped a blanket around me. Gun time was 2:50:13, chip time 2:47:19, 1012 out of 1199. 5k/10k/14k splits were 35:36, 1:12:25, 1:44:45.
I didn’t linger around, I did some cooldown stretching, hopped in the truck and started driving. At the border I took an hour long nap. My legs are pretty stiff, I’m going to have to run this out tomorrow.
