Houston Marathon "Quickie" Scoop

Here's the quick version of the race. Yes I did start, yes I did finish...wooohooo!!!! My chip time was 5:45:55, gun time they say was 5:47:55. I don't understand the two because while I was on the course early on I saw that I was exactly 12 minutes off the gun time. But they did have two starts and I was a part of the second wave that started 10 minutes after the first. Sooooo, maybe it only took me 2 minutes to cross the start line when "our" gun was fired. I know the clock at the finish line was reading 5:57:XX when I crossed, so I think I just realized the clock time at the finish had to be for the overall time from the "first" gun. They have adjusted my gun time to reflect my second wave start I guess. Who cares, right? I finished, under my own power, in a vertical position, etc, etc....and I'm mostly ok today.

My knee did hurt some but not like in Honolulu. I wore a brace around it to help keep the knee cap in place and that turned out to be a big help. It's kind of funny but the most it would hurt was when I had to stop to take a potty break. Standing still on it seemed to make it hurt as I would start to move again, weird...maybe TMI...but that is the truth. And of course I set a course record for needing to pee during a marathon...at least for me...I can remember stopping 4 times, maybe 5, but normally it's one time and I'm good to go.

The weather was great, started out around 42, with a light breeze, then it warmed up to the low to mid 60's by the end of the race and it was bright and sunny no clouds anywhere. I heard that 7,000 started the marathon but I believe 5,594 finished, I finished 5,336 and was 3,368 out of 3,502 males. Not sure where I was in my age group, but definitely still back of the pack material here. I did not get my Maniacs yellow/gold shirt in the mail in time to wear it for this race, it was delivered apparently on Saturday.

Anyway, I hope the other runners from this weekend had great races, I know several were out doing the P.F. Chang in Phoenix....I'll have to wait till tomorrow night to catch up as I have to get re-packed to leave for Wyoming in the morning.....bbbbbrrrrrrrr.