It’s nice not to have the pressure of qualifying breathing down your neck for 26.2 miles when I ran the 2009 Houston Marathon. I ran my personal best in the 2006 Houston Marathon, 3:02:04, and really haven’t come close since. I trained the next 2 months preparing to run 6:40 pace to finish in 2:55:00. My first mile split was 6:46. The second mile had the first water station. I crossed it at 41:29, perfect pacing! I still had fresh legs under me, but after 5 marathons of running experience, I know how hard the marathon gets after 20 miles, so I kept with my strategy of running a steady pace. I ran past some of the Lamar High School cross-country runners (around the 6.5 mile mark. Mom and Marie were cheering for me at the 8 mile mark.

Mom and Marie made a superb supporting cast.

A little fast but still around the pace I needed to run. After running through West University I came to the half-marathon mark in 1:27:39. After going over the Westpark Bridge (the highest point on the course) I ran with someone wearing yellow racing flats. I picked up the pace after the water station around mile 15. I came through the 16 mile mark in 1:47:08. I ran the next two mile splits at 6:33 pace and crossed the 30k timing mat at 2:04:18. I had run a pair of sub 6:30 miles and was now 12 seconds ahead of race pace! I took advantage of this second wind and ran a 6:20 mile to put me 30 seconds ahead at mile 21. With a 6:25 mile my lead had grown to 44 seconds at 21 miles. I ran another quick mile at 6:33 to increase my lead to 51 seconds. I kind of felt like that having run my next mile in 7:17.

Read the full report at the following link,

2009 Houston