The Houston Marathon

Sunday I ran the Houston Marathon. I finally had some good luck at this event. Before I get into the details of the race I want to thank my family for coming out and watching me run. Thank you Alex, Jessica and Mary. It meant a lot to have you out there.

Now for the race. I woke up a little before 4am and I started fueling up for the race. Shortly after I woke up I stepped awkwardly on my left foot and my ankle and my Achilles tendon became very sore and I of course was very worried. This soreness would present some problems during the race.

We arrived to the race around 5:45am and as usual I was nervous. I was stretching inside the convention center and I just couldn't get my ankle feeling right. Around 6:45 am I headed out to the start line where I ran into Skyler who was running his first marathon. A little after 7am we were off. Initially Skyler pulled ahead of me and about a mile in he slowed because he felt his pace was a little too quick.

My ankle and Achilles were sore throughout the race but the pain was manageable initially. Skyler kept running at a good pace and were on target through 9 miles. At mile 11 which was around Rice University we ran into Dave Vega and he ran with us for a little bit. Skyler and I kept trucking along and at the halfway point we pacing at a time of 4:15:00. This was right where I wanted to be.

As we continued on from miles 13 to 20 the pain kept increasing but we seemed to be keeping our pace. My Achilles at this point felt like it was going to snap but I wanted to keep going. I knew I was going to make it when I reached Woodway because I knew that it was a straight shot to the finish line. As Skyler and I reached Memorial Park which was around mile 20 the pain really became intense and I really wanted to stop and walk. Thank God Skyler was there because I probably would have. This is also the point where the runners start to fall apart.

During the run up Memorial and through the park there were bodies everywhere. The heat was starting to increase and I know the pain was unbearable for most of the runners. As we continued up Memorial I pointed up the road to the Michelob Ultra stand I could not wait to get there. I downed a beer and it was the greatest beer I think I have ever had. Skyler and I motored on and we ran into Liz who gave us some Motrin that would have to get us through the race. I asked her why we did these things? She reminded that I am an Ironman. I accepted it and moved on. A few minutes later Skyler asked me the same question and my answer was because we are stupid.(sorry I was hurting) We kept moving along through mile 22, 23 and 24 walking for a minute here and there. We saw Dave again around mile 24 along with Heather and the rest of Skyler's family. At mile 25 we were walking and we ran into Nikki and Jonathan who ran the Half Marathon. At this point we started running again and Jonathan ran the rest of the way with us. We really picked up the pace at this point and the pain was excruciating. Skyler pulled ahead of me as we sprinted in to the finish.

My time was 4:24:59 which was around 3 minutes better than my previous PR. I am very happy that ankle held up and that I was finally able to have a good day at this event. I also want to thank Skyler for running with me. I don't think I would have done as well without him there.

As proud as I am of my own achievement I want to say that I am even more proud of all of the athletes that I coach that finished the event. With that said I want to give credit to Liz for getting most of these athletes started with endurance events but I had the honor of taking them to the next level. Nikki Vardeman just completed her second half marathon since joining the Lone Star Team and Skyler Moss just completed his first marathon. The Vellecas finished their first half marathon and even though they trained with the marathon team and our team I am sure our multi-sport training helped. Nikki Frank and Ashley Hester set PR's and Crystal had a great day as well. A week ago Lori Ivanoff finished her first half marathon and it was her longest run to date. And of course it was Norma's first half-marathon and I am very proud of her and this great accomplishment. I know she had a few injuries and she was still able to make it to the finish line. Congratulations to all who finished the event.

This is the first event of my 2009 schedule. I have a busy year and I am hoping that my body will hold up. Sunday I am riding the Frost Bike 50 so hopefully it will be another productive day.

Oh my here we go!

So I am just a couple of days from the Houston Marathon and the start of my 2009 season. I feel like I am ready for the race but I wish my weight was a little lower. I'm still struggling with my holiday weight but I know I will be able to take it off over the next couple months. I am looking forward to the race on Sunday for a few reasons. The main reason is that I have not had much luck at the Houston Marathon and I want to turn it around. In 2007, Houston was my very first marathon and it was a disaster due to improper training, improper diet and the wrong shoes. In 2008 I had to drop to the half-marathon and ended up walking most of that due to a severe hip and calf injury. I have a sore back but I have been running with it for the past few weeks and it hasn't slowed me too much. With all that said I am hoping to at least match my time in San Antonio and come out injury free.

I'll will send my race report and hopefully a few pictures by Monday.

Later Dudes!

Rage 2009

No this is not another post about my anger management issues. This is going to be my first 1/2 Ironman of 2009. This is a race in Las Vegas in April. I am going to Vegas for a meeting and there happens to be a 1/2 Ironman the day after our meeting ends and I thought it would be a great start to my triathlon season. I am not sure if I will get a tune up race prior to Rage 2009 but I am sure I will be OK. This works out well in my training for my IM Cozumel race and it should force me to get my act together.

On another note my daughter informed me recently that she is ready to tackle triathlons. I've asked twice if she is serious and I will probably ask her one more time before I start training her. I think it would be awesome if she gets involved in the sport and it be great to able to spend more time with her. I am also hoping that my son will want to join us as well. So needless to say I am pretty excited about the prospect of the three crossing the finish line at the same race. Hopefully they won't beat me by too much.

The Holidays

I've never been a big fan of the holidays. I seem to eat and drink way too much, put on too much weight and I just get lazy. Well I definitely am meeting two of the three screens. I have been eating and drinking too much and I am getting fat. The one good thing that is that I have still been training. The Houston Marathon is a little less than three weeks away so I just couldn't sit on the couch. My hope is to be a few pounds lighter for the race but I know I will not be at my normal race weight.

This week I plan to start riding and swimming more and basically settling back into my normal routine. In addition to the marathon I have my first ride of the season at the end of January. I have a pretty aggressive 2009 season planned and I need to get going now so I don't fall behind.

Dave Scott and Chicago

Well it seems I have time for two posts in one week. WOW!

Last Friday I traveled with Jay to California to go through the TNT Triathlon Tier 1 certification with Dave Scott. The actual certification was on Saturday and Sunday and it was packed with a lot of information. At one point I thought my head might explode. On Saturday we talked about expectations of a coach, running position and bike fitting. I particularly got a lot out of the running portion of the clinic. It was nice to have someone give you feedback on your running style and to give feedback as well. I think it should help me with my own participants. During the run portion of the clinic we actually got to run with Dave Scott and that was very cool as well. On Sunday the fun really got going. We started off with a little dip in the outdoor pool. It was heated but still cold. We swam around 2000 meters and it really helped my own technique and it gave me some things that I have already brought back to my team. After the swim clinic we went through nutrition in detail. Every endurance athlete knows how important nutrition is and I definitely picked up some information that will be useful. After lunch we did a strength training clinic that kicked my ass. Anyone who knows me knows I love to lift weights and I think I am pretty strong. We weren't even using weights and it really wore me out. I guess I have more work to do. At the end of the clinic I received my certificate took a picture with Dave and Jay and we headed to the airport only to find out that our flight back was delayed by an hour. But wait it only gets better.

Due to my crazy schedule I had another trip planned right after my trip to the Bay Area. I arrived in Houston around 1:30 am and got home around 2:30 only to have enough time to shower sleep for an hour and head back to the airport so I could catch a 7 am flight to Chicago. Needless to say I was dead. I managed to get myself to Chicago O.K. but around 4 pm my very exciting meeting almost put me to sleep. After my meeting it was off to dinner and then finally to bed around 9 pm. The next day we were supposed to get snow in the afternoon and I had a 9 mile run scheduled after my meeting. The weather did just as it was supposed to and it snowed and snowed. I still did my run but it was challenging. I stepped through some ice early in my run and my feet were very wet and cold but I pressed on. I finished my run in 1'22" and I felt pretty good. I would have kept going but I was meeting my friend Steven for dinner. On Wednesday I headed back to H-Town only to find the snow travelled back with me. It was neat to see the snow in Houston. I actually think it was colder here.

Long Road Out of Eden

I had the incredible opportunity to see the Eagles last week at the Toyota Center. This was the show I was supposed go to in September but our friend IKE got in the way of that. This was a very different scene from the Metallica concert a few weeks ago and was probably a good thing. The Eagles have always been known for their great harmonies, their song writing and their ability as musicians and they did not disappoint on this night. They opened up with 4 songs of the new album "Long Road Out of Eden" before getting into a long set with the classics. They did something I have never seen before and that was they put an intermission halfway through the set. After the break they performed a few more songs off the new album and then it was back to classics. The total time was around 3 hours and they were good for every second of it.

This was definitely one of the best shows I have been to. As I was sitting in the audience I was thinking about what great performers they were and how I had forgotten what a great guitar player Joe Walsh is. If you get a chance to see them it is well worth the money.

Ironman Cozumel

I meant to do this post on Saturday but I never got around to it. Saturday marked the one year countdown to Ironman Cozumel. I am still very excited to be competing in this event. I have already began preparing my plan for next year and I think its going to be a great event. I still would like to an Ironman event prior to Cozumel but I am not sure if that will be possible. We shall see.

I did make one decision this weekend and that was to skip the Dallas Marathon. I have done so many events this year and a lot of them have been out of town. I don't mind traveling but it does take me away from the kids and it has just been costing me so much money. I also think I am starting to experience a little burn out and I think I need a break from competitive events. I will still keep training as I am signed up for the Houston Marathon and I want have good day on January 18th.