Aramco Houston Half Marathon
January 14, 2008:
Yesterday, Pam and I finished the Aramco Houston Half Marathon in 3 hours, 14 minutes, and 51 seconds.
It was something else. We had already done half-marathon length prior to the race in our training, but this was completely different. There were spectators. There were crazy spectators. There were 18,998 other people running with us. We saw Elvis, a high school band, lots of people with dogs, people with foam blonde beehive hair, and some amazing Houston scenery.
There were 19,000 racers, and an estimated 250,000 spectators throughout the day. Every state in the US was represented except North Dakota. That's quite a change from the first Houston marathon in 1972 which had 113 runners with 200 people, 5 cats and 3 dogs cheering them on. I think I had more fun watching the spectators than they did watching us!
My dad dropped us off near the convention center at 6am, and we checked our bag and hung out until race time. When the call was made, we went to the starting line and waited. It was pretty cold for a Texan, at around 45 degrees. Luckily, we were dressed for the part.
Before the race
The half marathon website has an interactive map (flash and a fast computer required): http://map.mapnetwork.com/event/chevronhoustonmarathon/
And for the rest of us, here's a PDF map: http://www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com/Assets/2008+Course+map.pdf
My parents were great support, and met us with snacks at mile 5 and 8.5. My friend Sven also gave us each a banana just before mile 9 :)
Enjoying snacks
More snack enjoyment
My knee did give me problems during the run, but it was off and on, rather than persistent like our 13.6 mile practice run, so I was able run on it most of the time. Luckily when I felt it starting to hurt around mile 3, I asked my parents at mile 5 to bring ibuprofen the next time the see us, which helped immensely.
When we finished, it was a great feeling. They gave us our medals and Pam a finisher T-shirt (mine will come in the mail in 3 weeks because they were out).
We did it!
Our final time was 3 hours, 14 minutes and 51 seconds (both of us). I placed 7,429 and Pam placed 7,430, out of 8,283. So we were faster than 10% of the participants, so I accomplished my only goal for the race: to not be last.
I think next year we're going to run the half again, but we will definitely be bringing a small camera to take photos of some of the great stuff we see along the way. I think our next goal for the following year is to finish in under 3 hours.
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