Rock And Roll San Antonio Marathon [11/16/2008]
This past Sunday I headed to San Antonio to take on the inaugural Rock and Roll San Antonio Marathon with my whole crew (Shelley, Christopher, Vance and Marilyn). We would be meeting Scott in San Antonio. Scott and I would be taking on the marathon and Vance would be going for his half marathon PR. Christopher was looking to break his record for bed jumping and Nintendo playing.
We got into town and it was really windy, but we heard the wind would be gone on Sunday. Whew!
We headed to a sports bar, Buffalo Wild Wings, where we drank some beer, and ate bad pub food and watched the Texas Longhorns roll to victory. I would come to regret this decision about 17 miles into Sunday’s race, but for now the beer was nice and cold.
We got up early and headed over to the start. I was pushing for leaving as late as possible and Vance played the role of Paul Williams this time and we wound up leaving at a reasonable time. Traffic was pretty bad as we headed to the start (this was in fact, the major complaint I heard from people afterwards). We got within about a mile of the start and were stuck in stop-n-go traffic, so we just bailed out on an overpass and used our ninja like reflexes to climb down the embankment without killing ourselves. Shelley’s mom drove the getaway van and no one was the wiser. I have to smile if I think about my mom letting us out on an overpass. She would have done it but it would have made her super nervous.
We head down to the start and its basically time to drop off our bags and get into the corals (my kind of start). I said goodbye to the boys, dropped my bag off at the UPS trucks and went looking for a nice tree to avoid the lines. Business taken care of I headed into my coral. San Antonio is very close to Austin, and this felt like a local race. Apparently it also felt like a local race to our Governor Rick Perry who welcomed everyone to Austin for the race. The crowd then booed him. Hahaha.
He can be excused a little for thinking he was in Austin as Austinities were everywhere. I saw 15-20 people that I knew and hooked up with Donnie O’Neal and Bill Schroeder who were planning on running a 1:25 first half and then hanging on. I was hoping for a 1:28-1:30 first half, so I figured I’d go with them for the first 5-6 miles and see what happened. Steve Schermerhorn was going for sub 3 again, but didn’t want to risk the fast first few miles. He is probably the smarter one. But oh well, I live by the “fly and die” method and it’s working so far.
Vance would beat all of us and he cruised to a PR looking like an 80s basketball player in his white longhorn headband. No word on if he was kicking or trying to catch the lady in front of him.
This was a pretty nice course but it had too many turns for my liking. The weather was near perfect at the start and it while it would warm up a little more than I’d have liked it was still pretty sweet. There was a slight delay for some reason they never announced and then we were off.
I camped out on Bill’s shoulder for the first couple miles and we just cruised through downtown.
0-1 6:44
1-2 6:35
2-3 6:36
They have Cytomax instead of PowerAde or GatorAde and this was pretty cool. It was nice to get a change of pace flavor. The first few miles felt super easy, but then we backed off a little as the course kept winding around.
3-4 6:43
4-5 6:53
Then we must have gone through a downhill, although I don’t remember it but we clocked the fastest mile of the day for me.
5-6 6:30
I ran into Jim Cleary, who is way faster than me, and we ran together for a little while until he just pulled away never to be seen again. I also lost Bill at this point and would run the rest of the race pretty much solo.
6-7 6:47
7-8 6:47
8-9 6:48
I knew I was about on pace for a 1:29 – 1:30 which is all I was hoping for today. My legs started to feel a little heavy and I probably went out a little too fast given the state of my legs, but it was fun.
9-10 6:58
10-11 6:58
Around 11 miles I come up on the Ship of Fools and see some crazy people (Al, Sandy, Allegra, Ryan) calling my name and holding signs. It was pretty sweet. I was able to keep going at a decent pace after seeing then for a few miles.
11-12 6:53
12-13 7:02
I passed the halfway point right at 1:29 and so I felt confident of getting a Boston Qualifier but knew anything faster than 3:08-3:09 was out of the questions. I seem to be getting slower in each Rock and Roll Race. My first one in Phoenix was a 3:01, San Diego was a 3:07 and I’d just squeak under 3:10 here.
13-14 7:11
14-15 7:06
I’ve been needing to make a pit stop and pay for all the beer and pub food for the last couple miles, and now it’s clear I won’t be able to make it the whole race. I slow down a little to see if that helps.
15-16 7:22
16-17 7:34
It doesn’t. Dash into a porta-potty and waste over 3 minutes, but come out feeling a lot better.
17-18 10:15
18-19 7:12
That last mile went by pretty good, the benefits of Gallow-pooping I guess. But now I am totally beat and will just be hanging on. My goal will to try and stay under 8:00/miles and if I can do that I should be able to get a sub 3:10:59.
19-20 7:33
20-21 7:36
21-22 7:39
Around mile 22 Meg comes up on me and then does her Nancy Dasso impersonation and just drops me like a bad habit. Way to run meg. The last few miles I am pretty beat and just want to finish and get my free beer at the end. I know Al would be proud.
22-23 7:41
23-24 7:37
Somewhere along the way I see Al and crew but I have forgotten where, I was so tired 
24-25 7:41
25-26 7:29
26.2 1:33
==========
3:09:51
I was pretty happy with my time, it was much better than the 3:21 two weeks ago at New York and I felt better at the end. I think I really need 3-4 weeks between marathons to run my best.
After finishing I met up with Vance and we had a post-race beer and watched the remainder of the race.
Christopher told his mom and I what he thinks of all these marathons:
So I was forced to track him down and give him a bear hug.
I thought this was a pretty great first marathon. I’ve been to many worse organized events in the past. My GPS read about a half mile long, but I don’t think it was because of the course, I think it was just all the turns confused the Garmin. The distance felt about right to me and no miles struck me as being long.The only complaint I heard a lot was with the transportation to the start via the shuttles and buses, but when you have to move 33,000 people that takes time.
So if you’d like a pretty easy course and well supported one, head down to San Antonio next year.
Afterwards I hung out with my lovely wife.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Did you already DO Texas? Or have you knocked off another one!!!
Mizfit linked to you today and I have to say that I am in awe of your marathon map.
Awesome. I imagine, with extended build time and rest, you’d be a regular at the sub-3 party.
Ms. V, I think this was my 16th marathon in Texas. Since Austin is home, doing Texas races is much easier typically.
Nitmos, I’d like to think so. Maybe after I knock out the 50 states, I’ll give a go at training for a specific marathon for a couple months and see what I can do.