Road Dogs  ›  Austin

Freezescale Marathon Report 2006

Good morning racers,

Thanks for all the congrats (although some of you seemed a little too surprised).

Good ol’ Gordo said that he’d stay with me as long as he could, and on the drive he showed remarkable patience with (i) my need to stop an hour after every coffee stop, (ii) my navigation through Indianapolis the “scenic” way, and (iii) my insistence that Texarkana isn’t in Texas (it is, and to my credit I made an effort to keep my facts factual from that point on).

On the trip down (via Sarnia/Lansing/Indianapolis/Memphis/Waco) our conversation ranged the whole spectrum from “A” to “B” (which at times meant Austin and Boston, and other times meant Asphalt and Buses).

The expo was typical, but when I was getting a wrist band for the shuttle bus, I found myself next to the Clydesdale weigh-in. Just for fun I stepped on the scale (with shoes and jacket on, and a bag of race/expo goodies in my hand). It read 190.5 lbs., and the volunteer asked if I wanted to register as a Clyde. I did, but after consulting Gord, I decided that (i) I didn’t really qualify and (ii) I’d rather just be some guy in his early fifties.

Race morning saw freezing temperatures and a huge traffic tie-up that caused the start to be delayed 30 minutes.
We also saw several runners fall on the ice, some rather forcefully, including once when a cop ran after a runner she saw peeing in the bushes.

I have for years felt that trying for an approximately even split would produce the best result for me, but after seeing all the great performances of the other Dogs with faster first halves, I was convinced that was the way to go.

After an 8:45 first mile, we began to ‘bank’ about 30 sec/mile and went through the half at about 1:42:45.
By mile 15 I was banking about 20sec/mile, but Gord was still banking 30. It was only then that I discovered that “stay-with-you-as-long-as-I-can” didn’t mean “and then fall back”.
I banked a little more and by mile 20 was at 2:38:00 and ready to make some withdrawals.
20-23 were in the 8:30-8:40 range, leaving me over 32 minutes for 3.2 miles--YIPPEE.
It was then that the cramps began to seize my calves—every 2-3 minutes I had to walk or stop for 10-15 seconds to stretch.
24, 25,and 26 each took about 9:20. I’m sure it wasn’t pretty, but it was beautiful. And while he “couldn’t stay with me” waiting at the finish line (for 5 minutes) was Gord (most likely worried about how he was going to get back to Oshawa). 

Coming home (Dallas/Nashville/Louisville/Columbus/Detroit), we of course spent 25 hours talking about the race and our splits.