Chevron Houston Marathon By Gokuflip

Chevron Houston Marathon
By Gokuflip
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MILES 5 - 10

Still feeling good just taking it all in, giving high fives to the crowds, and hearing a lots of them shout out my name or comment about my GoproCam like. "Look! He's got a "(webcam/lil camera/GoPro) on his head," which really got me pumped. Sometime around these miles, Dinh, another DMer comes up and runs besides me and asks, "Are you Jeremy?" I tell him yes, and he introduces himself and runs besides me for a bit before I tell him I'm gonna slow it down as I'm running faster than planned. I also ended up seeing a barefoot runner and chatting him up to let the miles go by. Once the half marathoners split off around Rice University, theroads open, and it's not so congested anymore, so most of the weaving is done with. During this point, I start grabbing food from the crowd bananas/oranges/pretzels. I'm not sure if it was the crowd's food or just my stomach, but I started to feel the need to go #2. It was probably a good thing people were holding up signs that said, "Don't POOP your pants," because that gave me the motivation to go ahead and stop and take care of business. I won't go into details, but I was in the port-o-john for a good 5 to 7 minutes, but if felt like forever! Knowing I had lost some time but also feeling better, I start picking up my pace to make up for that lost time by passing many people and finally reaching some of the familiar runners I had been running with previously before the stop.





Running alongside Dinh



MILES 11 - 13.1

Getting back to my planned marathon pace, everything is feeling pretty good until about mile 13.1. I start getting the feelings of the beginnings of a cramp on my right calf. If you've followed any of my training you know that I've suffered through some tough calf strains, so I slowed it down a notch until that pain went away, and luckily the pain subsided, and I was able to run at a strong pace again. 13.1 more miles to go!!!



Messing with the GoPro Cam,probably making sure its on



MILES 14 - 17

These are tough miles. The crowds are a bit thinned out, as we go down Westpark, but there is also this little hill that we have to go up. People start groaning, others are pumping themselves up by screaming, "Hills are our friends," "They make you stronger." I love it when other runners try to pump everyone up. So I go up and down the thing and finally make it back to some crowds down Post Oak Blvd. where the Galleria is. Whenever I'm tired and see the crowds, I make my way to the right or left, so I can get some motivation from them. I loved reading the signs like, "Chuck Norris never ran a Marathon," "Worst Parade Ever,""Run like a Kenyan and quit after 2 hours."





MILES 18 - 20

This was my first marathon. Two years ago and back then along Woodway street, I saw President George H. W. Bush but didn't have a camera to document it. I thought to myself as I was passing that same area, "Wouldn't it be cool if he was back here again?" As I'm passing St. Martin'sEpiscopal Church, I see him there again. So I take the time to stop and get not just one pic but two because I had to make sure I had a picture of me shaking hands with this great American President. Talk about flying high, I was excited about meeting and taking the pic with the ex-pres that I had once again picked up my pace and was just running along crossing 610 and into the Memorial Park area.





MILES 21 - 24

Still chugging along, my feet hurt, my legs were hurting, my whole body was hurting, but this is a marathon, and that's how it's suppose to feel, right?! Lots of people are slowing down their paces to walking at this point, but I was trying my best to keep myself running at my goal pace. It's rougher roads here as the cement is mixed in with some pebbles, so I decided to run on the grass for a bit, but then I step on a rock, which sucked, so I go ahead and just run on the roads. I see a beer truck, I forget what the brand was, and I decide I'd get a cup. Talk about the best beer ever! It tasted great, and I was chatting with some other runners and cheering them as we drank and ran together.





MILES 25 - 26

Entering downtown, you can see the George R. Brown Convention Center, which meant the finish line is RIGHT THERE! I pick up my pace probably too much as I soon tire out and start walking for a bit but motivate myself to run again as I knew a PR would be mine today. I'm passing runners left and right. I see one of my friends from Beaumont, and I try to motivate her to run with me. My legs have found new energy, and I'm flying. I'm in celebration mode.

[video=youtube_share;on4dlCX78Uk]http://youtu.be/on4dlCX78Uk[/video]
Part II: [video=youtube_share;f83I_omW7zY]http://youtu.be/f83I_omW7zY[/video]
Part III: [video=youtube_share;MWvvVqxE2IY]http://youtu.be/MWvvVqxE2IY[/video]
Part IV: [video=youtube_share;VPc2GbCHLaQ]http://youtu.be/VPc2GbCHLaQ[/video]



http://keepingthepace1.blogspot.com/2012/01/houston-chevron-marathon-2012-race.html
 
Great job and a fine report!

You made it sound almost like fun.

I used to live there way back in the 80's and even ran the grandpa of your marathon, which was called the Houston Tenneco back then. I nearly killed myself doing it and didn't run again for a couple months as I recall. I promised myself never to do that to my body again. I think I'm going to break my promise this May and give her a shot. You're inspiring me! (If by inspiring you understand me to mean "...well, if he can do it...."
 
I had a blast running the marathon and enjoyed every minute of it. "If HE can do it so can you?" seriously? thats like a compliment and a slap in the face at the same time but whatever man glad you can find inspiration in someone like me. You should have just stopped at "You're inspring me!"