13 January 2008First marathon jitters? Try six hours of tossing and turning before dragging myself to the kitchen for some early morning forced fueling: bagel, bannana, oatmeal, water - just like Hal Higdon or Alberto Salazar would do it. I found a parking spot downtown in plenty of time and thanked God for the perfect weather (48F clear and very calm) as I walked the four blocks to the convention center and start. Inside I ran into several friends and looked around for my brother Glen and his wife, Wendi who were running the half marathon. Glen was the main reason I was here this morning. He ran the Austin Marathon last February (07) with a time of 3:12 and qualified for Boston. Boston Qualification for our age group is 3:15:59. With that news, I started training for Houston, with an inkling of hope that I might be able to do as well as him - or at least finish the race.
In all the excitment and searching, I lost track of time and noticed the line for the bag check winding its way through the middle of the large hall. With only 30 minutes to the start and the line going nowhere, I dashed out of the convention center with my bag (that I really didn't need), found my car in the still dark parking lot and then raced back to the start with only about eight minutes to spare. I had read about getting a good 10-15 minute warmup jog in 20 minutes before the start, but this mad dash was probably not what they had in mind.
The starting area was filled with a sea of people. I tried to inch my way to the middle of the pack, but that's as far as I could get before the National Anthem and start gun sounded. Clock time was just under one minute when I stepped accross the start. The first mile was very slow as I tried to weave around the slower runners, but then began to thin at around 1.5. Note to self - next time arrive earlier to get a decent position. As many training partners had told me, the early miles are a breeze and it takes concentration to keep from going too fast. I glanced at my GPS periodically to make sure I was on track. I also hit each of the water stops and popped a gu (Cliff Shot) every half hour. Once on Main Street I felt really comfortable. Having run the Hermann Park and Rice U Loop regularly during the last six months, the sights were very familiar and the crowds along the way were very generous and encouraging. The crowds through West U were quite loud and charged up. At mile 18 (610 and San Felipe) I spotted my wife Shay and our two daughters with big posters in hand - what a rush to finally see some familiar faces. I weaved over, threw them my gloves, kissed Anna Kaye on the head, but ended up bowling over Laura Lee (our two year old) in the process. She was OK, but probably not sure what hit her. Under 610 and then into Memorial Park. This was also very familiar territory, but now was starting to feel some fatigue. I continued to take water and another Gu.
At just before mile 25 in the shadow of downtown, I really started to feel it and started to slow considerably. With one mile and 385 yards left, I knew I had to find some energy, somewhere deep, to keep up the pace. As I passed the 25-mile marker, I saw a blue shirted runner on the left dash from the crowd and run right up beside me. I looked over and saw it was my brother, Glen. He asked me how it was going and I answered "I'm struggling a bit". He had some more questions, but with 1 mile left, I had little energy to expend in conversation. I told him, "lets just run". He paced me all the way into the finish in what ended up being a pretty strong effort (7:20 pace). I can’t explain what a huge boost of energy I received from that. I saw Shay and the girls through the fence just on the the other side of the finish line. Somehow they had made it just in time. As we walked into the convention center, I fearfully glanced down at my watch: 3:15:51, but then joyfully showed Glen - We're going to Boston!
