White Rock Marathon - I'll never forget this race

This morning I woke up, not sure how the race would end up. This race would conclude my 2009 marathon rally, I set a goal of running the "big 4" Texas marathons this year - Houston (January) Austin (February) San Antonio (November) Dallas (December). Houston was my best time, just under 4 hours (3:59:53). In Austin I ran with a few members of the TWC Running Club, I wanted to encourage them and be there when they needed me; I finished with Stephanie Vaughan in 4:46:42. San Antonio was exactly 4 weeks ago, I was coming off of completing the Longhorn Ironman 70.3 in Austin just 3 weeks prior (Oct 25) and possibly was not 100% recovered for the marathon because I felt like butt afterwards. It was a hard, hot and surprisingly hilly (for me) race. I finished in 4:03:27 and was a little disappointed in my performance because I really wanted to finish in 3 hrs 55 min or at least sub 4 hours.

This morning I ate my usual oatmeal with peanut butter, banana and honey (which sadly I'll have to say goodbye to beginning tomorrow because I am going to start eating paleo). I did something new though, about 30 minutes before the race started I ate a cliff bar, I tried it a few weeks ago on a long run and it seemed to work out well for me so I implemented it into this race. There were tons of people out there, everyone excited to take off. Some people were running the relay marathon, others the half and the rest were running the full 26.2 miles. The weather was awesome; it stayed around 45-50 degrees for the majority of the race. I started the race running 9 min 30 sec miles, finished the 10k (6.4 miles) right at one hour. I don't know what came over me but at about mile 8 or 9 I started running around 8 min 40 sec miles and shockingly I kept that pace comfortably for about the next 10 miles. Then, around mile 18 or 19, we hit some hills. They actually call these hills the "Dolly Parton Hills", haha, that gave me enough humor to push through them but my pace slowed down to about a 9 min mile. Then, around mile 22 I turned it back on, I said a prayer and felt a second wind....seriously, I'm not kidding. There was some guy at that point that was wearing a Luke's Locker shirt who told me I looked like I had a good stride and if I kept that pace I would definitely finish sub 4 hours. That right there fired me up, I just started running harder, I was at about an 8:15 min mile pace for the next few miles. Then, as I finished mile 25 going into my last mile, my Garmin (watch) spit out that I ran a 7:15 min mile on 25-26, WOW! I couldn't believe it. If you know me or have read my book, then you know that I am not a runner. And definitely not a fast runner, I usually train at a 9 1/2 to 10 min mile pace. I sprinted the last 800 meters as hard as I could and finished in 3:52:10. What a day.....what a race....