Aramco Houston Half Marathon 2011

I'm finally getting around to writing my race recap for the Aramco Houston Half Marathon on January 30, 2011. (Sorry about the delay - life just gets busy)

The morning started off pretty good. I slept fairly well and woke up quickly. I had laid out my clothes the night before, but I still hadn't quite decided what to wear. Why not? Because the weathermen said it was supposed to storm. The race directors had been emailing for the last several days discussing the procedures to vacate the course if lightning was in a 10 mile radius. They also kept changing their minds about the temperature and how warm it was going to be. So before I put my clothes on, I turned on the TV to check the weather. Was anyone else aware that at 5am there is no weather on TV? Not even on the weather channel? I finally just walked outside with the dogs and decided on capris, short sleeve shirt and a hat. It was around 55 degrees and no rain had dropped yet.

I picked up V on my way to the start to meet up with everyone else. C and I headed to the start line to line up in the first wave with 20 minutes to spare. For some reason, Houston never has had good directions to get to the respective waves. We found ourselves in the middle of the black wave when we needed to be in green. So we spent those 20 minutes cramming through people to get into the green wave just in time for the gun. Talk about a hectic start.

As per usual with a race this size (22,000 people), the start was crowded. Usually though, the crowd starts to disperse around mile 3-4. No such luck this year. It was super packed all the way till the Half turn around. C and I managed to stay together until around mile 4 where I lost her behind me in the crowd.

Great pic of me at mile 8. I had to dump the hat it was so hot, but then of course it really started raining as soon as I did that. We had a group of non-running friends come out to cheer us on. Really, they just wanted an excuse to drink early in the day. I said hi real quick and then took off again. I'd see them again in a little over 2 miles.

I'm now done with 10 miles and N and D have just made it to mile 8. Perfect timing for a meetup :)

A few goofy pics and they were off! At the turn around, I spotted C and she looked beat. I decided to wait at the spectating tent for her and help her to the finish line. Her legs were cramping and she was hurting. I just kept telling her we were getting closer and it'd be over soon. She was so happy when we finally made it.

Final time: 2:15:03

Definately not a PR for either of us, but I helped a friend and had a great time and that's what matters most.

D, N and I spectating at mile 25.5. We were cheering in all the marathoners that needed that extra push.

These girls were awesome. They were jumping on the course and running with the people that were walking. It made a lot of people laugh and smile and most of them started running to the finish. My marathon trainging buddy was running the full here and we cheered her onto the finish. She rocked it in 4:27!

We finished the day with an afternoon of beer, pizza and goofy pics. This one is definately getting framed!

All together now. New shirt and new medal! Half marathon #5 done and done.