2014 Aramco Houston Half Marathon

Nine Januarys of collectibles from Marathon Sunday in Houston

Yesterday morning felt like a fresh start to this "running thing." I ran the revised Aramco Houston Half Marathon course with a surprising energy, with a finish time the likes of which I had not seen in five years. Let's go ahead and get the split data out of the way:

Mile 01 - 11:18
Mile 02 - 10:43
Mile 03 - 10:28
Mile 04 - 10:27
Mile 05 - 10:15
Mile 06 - 10:21
Mile 07 - 10:08
Mile 08 - 10:29
Mile 09 - 10:53
Mile 10 - 11:01
Mile 11 - 11:12
Mile 12 - 11:26
Mile 13 - 12:15
Last .1  -   2:23
half marathon elapsed time per Garmin 110 - 2:23:20
half marathon elapsed time per chip scan - - 2:23:22

Start conditions were close to ideal for a strong run -- upper 40s and humid with a light north breeze. By midday, the bright sun likely made things a little too toasty for the full marathoners, but I was already back at the convention center by then.

Despite starting in Caroline Street's "D" -- the last of four corrals -- I didn't have a difficult time establishing a pace early and often throughout. There was significantly less bottlenecking in the early portion of the course than in previous years, especially on five- or seven-lane roads like Washington Avenue, Waugh Drive and Kirby Drive. I would occasionally catch myself uttering a steady cadence under my breath -- "1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and-5-and-6-and-seven-8....1-and-2-and-3-and-4-and-5-and-6-and-seven-8."

Somewhere around mile 4, I was surprised that I was carrying a sub-11 pace so easily and wondered if I had suckered myself into going too fast. By mile 8, I was positive I had not. I could see that I had passed a lot of folks from the A, B, and C corrals. I did interact with some of the wonderful spectators cheering us on, but mostly I was focusing inwardly, because in the midst of this race I realized that I wanted to run like I had something to prove.

I did hit a "wall-ish" feeling going into the 12-mile mark near the edge of downtown, to the point where I felt I was losing some feeling in my legs. I was able to regroup after about a block of walk/jog in reverse.

Passing The Grove restaurant at Discovery Green, I was suddenly mindful of an aroma in the air. "I smell bacon," I called out. "Who has the bacon?" And a spectator answered perfectly, "You got to finish before you can have bacon!"

My packet pickup at the preceding expo was largely unremarkable, although I feel I should close this blog post by making a note to myself here to make a batch of the chocolate avocado muffins that I sampled from the Luby's booth.

Doesn't that recipe sound delectable?