The Hot Pants Score Again

You know, if people hadn't sat around and told me that the AT&T half course is way harder than the 3M course and that it would be nearly impossible to better my 3M time at AT&T, I might not have had to nearly kill myself today to prove them wrong.

Today I achieved PR #7 since September. This one rivaled the Houston Marathon in difficulty as the top 2 of my PR list. However, I think the hot pants pulled me through today.

This race was pretty neat because the half and the full shared the same start line. I knew a handful of people aiming for 4:00 in the full, so that meant I could run with them for a while - definitely my first time to do so. I started off with my cousin Scott and his friend Charlie. Greyhound was also close by at the start. I introduced him to Scott because they are both doing IMCDA in June. Less than a mile or two into the race, I ran into Clea and we stuck together until mile 6 or 7. It was great to catch up with her and talk about many Sunmarts to come. The only problem was that she was running her marathon pace and I was running marathon pace. That meant she was able to spit out about twice as many words as I was!

Just past mile 9, I knew a pretty big hill was coming, right past Hula Hut. I was hurting pretty bad by this point and was just aiming to hit mile 10 at or before 1:30 so I could try to replicate or beat my 3M effort. I told myself I could walk that hill since I hadn't really walked yet. Not 3 steps into my lovely walk break, Greyhound comes from behind and tells me to grab his wheel and he'd pull me up. Grrrrr. I was totally content walking up the hill, but I'd been caught. Greyhound gave up his job as a Greyhound for close to 4 miles and became the rabbit instead - quite the encouraging one at that. He made me run up every hill and I nearly died at the end of each. The last 4 miles had far more hills than the first 9 miles. They just got harder and harder and harder. I came to mile 10 at 1:29:14 which was over a minute faster than I was at 3M. I was still unsure if I would PR though because I knew it certainly wasn't all downhill from there. Greyhound kept me cool and kept me going.

I recently purchased a new little gadget (in pink of course):

I worked hard Friday night to come up with the perfect half marathon playlist. I haven't raced with music any time in my recent memory, but since I have raced mostly by myself lately, I thought I'd go the music route this time. My 3M time was 1:57:51. My playlist today was 1:57:03, and ended with "Don't Stop Believin.'" I knew it was a risky move, but I hoped it would help motivate me to take at least 48 seconds off my previous PR. The funny thing is I was only by myself for about 2-3 miles today so I didn't really need the music afterall, but some good songs did come on about the right time.


After what seemed like countless huge ups and tiny downs, we were finally closing in on the finish line. Our turn south was severly dissapointing to see that we had yet another hill to climb. One more turn west and one more turn south and we could finally see the finish. During that turn I cheered "I'm going to beat my playlist!!" Greyhound and I picked it up and kept one-upping each other over the last 1/4-1/2 mile or so. I'm scared to see my pictures because I probably have the worst face anyone has ever seen me make. The pickup was painful yet extremely gratifying. Greyhound later said I was running sub-7:00 at that point which I later did verify on my Garmin. Holy cow!! As soon as we finished, I was all smiles and all coughs (Greyhound said we appeared to have contracted a case of tuberculosis somewhere along the way and I said it was in the last 3 miles and all his fault). Greyhound grabbed a medal and put it around my neck and we took a picture together. We were also excited to see TriBoomer and Tri To Be Funny right after the finish.


I think this PR might be the most real of the 7 I have had recently. I am not sure why, but maybe because I'm finally getting close to used to the idea of me being a faster runner. I am starting to take ownership of this new me and I like it. I'm proud of it. I ran hard today - way harder than I thought possible. I thought 3M was insane, then I come back 3 weeks later on a much harder course and run 1:47 faster? That is just crazy! I certainly couldn't have done it without Clea and Greyhound. They pushed me harder than I could have pushed myself. Too bad neither will be on the run course at IMAZ!
The weather today turned out to be absolutely beautiful, so hanging around the finish line afterwards was great. I saw the men's winner finish - I think it is my first time to ever see them finish. USA men were 1 and 2, just 4 seconds apart, with a Kenyan right behind. It was so neat to watch, it brought tears to my eyes. #1 finished and turned around immediately with open arms for a big hug for #2. All 3 grabbed their respective flags and did a victory lap through the finishers chute. I got to hi-five them as they ran past waving the flag. It was just so cool.

The day actually just kept getting better and better - I met up with Cameron and Lori, who both ran excellent half's as well. Cameron and I later met up with my cousin Stephanie (actually cousin's ex-wife, but I still like to claim her as family and will continue to do so) after she finished the full and went for lunch. We had a great time catching up and talking about her upcoming wedding to Mr. Bill (Mr. Bill is perfect for her...he ran a 2:58 at his first shot at the full last year and didn't run Austin today because it wasn't in his Boston training spreadsheet!). She dropped us back off at the hotel just in time for me to walk down to see Karen, Helen and Brent after they finished the full. Karen was on marathon #2 in 8 days. She's insane! I told her it was a beautiful day and I wanted to be outside before we went home, so I was taking her to Hula Hut to feed her. Robyn and her friend actually ended up there too so we had a great time. We finally decided to call it a day around 4 and headed back to Houston.
Wow - what a fabulous day. It was just perfect.(Yes, that is a Ding Dong in my hand on the way home. It was more than deserved!)
Now, for the numbers. I think they helped validate my performance today and showed me how much I really have improved.
Total Time: 1:56:04Avg Pace: 8:52
Age Group Place: 106/765 (WOW! I was proud of my 130/338 AG finish at 3M)
Last year's AG Place: 394/630 (time - 2:21:54)
Gender Place: 455/3513
OA Place: 1376/6034
Looking at my chip splits, I continually got faster during the race. I think this is my first negative split in a while for anything over a 10k, and is pretty impressive considering the hills at the end.
Garmin Info:
Avg HR: 182, Max 191 (surprised it wasn't WAY higher than that)
Mile 1: 9:27
Mile 2: 9:13
Mile 3: 8:50
Mile 4: 8:21

Mile 5: 8:28
Mile 6: 8:43
Mile 7: 8:40
Mile 8: 9:16
Mile 9: 8:53
Mile 10: 8:52
Mile 11: 8:29
Mile 12: 8:57
Mile 13: 8:38
Mile 13.1: 1:13 (6:49 pace) Wait - I guess that doesn't look right...my garmin had .18 for that segment, as opposed to .1, so it was off somewhere.