Crazy Weekend Austin-Houston-Austin!

It is about 3 a.m. Central time Monday morning and I'm here in Vancouver. It has been a crazy weekend and, as you'll be able to see, I'm exhausted - physically and mentally.

Saturday morning, Waverly and I drove to Austin. We left Spring at 7 a.m., got to the Palmer Special Events Center before the doors opened, registered for the full, visited with Lance Phegley of Inside Texas Running/Runner Triathlete News and Jay Hilscher with the Texas Independence Relay. We left late, at about 11:40 a.m., got back to our house in Spring at 2:00 p.m. and was back out the door, showered and dressed, for Cassie and Manny's wedding at - no coincidence I'm sure - Palmer Episcopal Church.

The ceremony, spending some time at Starbucks with Vic, Keith and his girlfriend and Joe, and then the reception, which we left at 8:15 p.m., ended up putting me back home and in bed by 9:30 p.m.

A 2:15 a.m. wake-up call and out the door by 2:45 a.m. found us parked on 5th Street in downtown Austin by 5:35 a.m. I tried to take a short nap before meeting Bill Dwyer and George Roffe - who hit his half marathon goal time, right on the number, 2:00:57 - in the lobby of the Residence Inn near the finish by 6:30 a.m.

Bill and I were off at 7 a.m., stayed with him until the cutoff for the full/half before mile 10, finished the marathon, drove home (getting there at 4:30 p.m.), taking a 2-hour nap, getting packed and off to the airport by 7:45 p.m. All of this for an 8:50 p.m. flight that got me to Vancouver a short while ago.

Mile 1 -- 13:48.54
Mile 2 -- 15:11.85
Mile 3 -- 13:00.18
Mile 4 -- 14:12.91
Mile 5 -- 14:09.72
Mile 6 -- 13:42.17
10K -- 3:22.99
Mile 7 -- 12:09.09 (15:32.08)
Mile 8 -- 15:35.00
Mile 9 -- 15:35.68
15K -- 5:08.66
9.7M -- 8:35.61
Mile 10 -- 1:53.51 (15:38.78)
Mile 11 -- 10:48.17
Mile 12 -- 10:59.87
Mile 13 -- 10:55.16
Mile 14 -- 10:46.84
Mile 15 -- 11:26.71
25K -- 6:05.51
Mile 16 -- 5:13.51 (11:19.02)
Mile 17/18 -- 23:48.00 (stopped a little bit to walk and talk to Paula Boone and Victor Bhatt)
30K -- 7:41.78
Mile 19 -- 4:17.55 (11:59.77)
Mile 20 -- 11:46.53
Mile 21 -- 12:39.44
Mile 22 -- 13:34.34
Mile 23 -- 13:02.72
Mile 24 -- 13:27.28
Mile 25 -- 13:14.69
Last 1.2 -- 16:58.84 -- 5:43:12

Tough course. Completely unlike last year. Last year's course was a dream!

Of the 13 marathons that I've now done, that was one of the two most difficult - the other being New York City the November before last.

Bill finished the half in 3:18:31 and was troubled by shin problems the entire morning. He encouraged me to go on from the first mile! I went to run with him for 10 and I wasn't changing it. He was worried that he was going to hold me back and I said that I didn't come to run that one for time.

Since I had primarily walked the first 10 miles, I was able to pick off people and that is what kept me motivated. In the first mile (11), which was an uphill, I got 30 people alone! I stopped counting around mile 24 and that was approximately 332 or 334. That is when the death march started. By the time, I saw Waverly at the mile 25 marker - I was toast. (And now realized that I'm sunburnt pretty bad too. Sort of like Surfside from last February.)

Good day. Long day.

I checked out some other times. Not a lot. I saw that Desiree Ficker finished second and got her U.S. Olympic Trials qualifying time - "B standard" - of 2:40:28.

Fellow bloggers Christy Gonzales and Jan Poscovsky went 2:26:52 and 3:05:19, respectively, in the half marathon. Steve Bezner set a marathon PR with a 3:37:05. (Nice job on a tough course!)

The Woodlands Running Club's Casey Clark narrowly missed qualifying for Boston with a 3:17:05 showing (after struggling in Houston). The Woodlands TNT coach Dana-Sue Crews had an impressive 3:47:28 showing.

More later ...