I took a risk

Today I ran the Houston marathon in 4:13:41 (chip time), 5 seconds faster than last year’s time. A stellar marathon PR. My gun time was 4:15:19.Until about mile 20 I was on pace to run under four hours. I knew I was taking a risk by trying to keep that pace because I really did not train to run any faster than I did last year. I ran more miles in training this year but not faster miles.

At mile 20.5 my quads started cramping and then by mile 22 muscles were cramping I didn’t even know I had. For the last 4.2 I mixed walking with running. The last mile ended up being almost as much walking as running.

I feel a sense of accomplishment completing another marathon. Now I’d like to train for and run one faster than four hours.