Wow, they finally posted the results on the San Antonio Marathon web site and it turns out I took 1st place in my age group out of 22 runners. So out of my last 3 individual races (2 5K's and now this marathon) I took 1st place in each of them. Unexpected. All I did was run my guts out in each one. And in the middle of all these races Karen F and Karen H and I took 2nd place in the coed division of the Austin Oyster Adventure race. Too much. I honestly can't believe it.
Boston qualified for consecutive number 8 and 9 Boston. That was the primary goal and and I made it with a 6 minute cushion, thank goodness. This was the hottest marathon "race" that I have ever run. The race started at 7:00 AM in San Antonio, TX with a temperature already in the 70's at the start. We were lined up for the start and already had sweat beginning to drip. By the finish of the race the temperature was in the mid-80's.
I had a great support group at the race as Tam, Karen F and Karen H all drove down to San Antonio from Austin. Tam ran the entire marathon but I only saw him at the start and a little during the first couple of miles. Karen H ran the first 4 miles with me and did a good job of holding me back as we paced with the 3:45 pace group. Karen F had her bike and joined me later in the race.
After Karen H peeled off at the 4 mile mark I picked up the pace just a little and joined the 3:40 pace group and stayed with them up to mile 10. By then the temperature continued to rise and I was careful to get hydrated at the water stations by pouring water on my head and by drinking Gatorade. As I would take these walk breaks through the water stations after mile 10 the 3:40 pacers didn't do any slow downs and I started to have a gap between me and them.
Then about mile 12 the 3:45 pacers caught me which was a surprise so I just locked into them and stayed on their back to the halfway 13.1 mark. At the halfway mark I had about an 8 minute cushion on the imaginary Boston Qualifier Runner. I was sure glad that he was that far behind me.
After the 13.1 mile mark as I would do the water stop hydration routine the 3:45 pacers began to get a gap away from me. I wanted to stay close to them out to mile 20, but by mile 15 the gap kept widening and I decided that I had to just set my own pace and lock into it.
Karen F on her bike had joined me somewhere in this area and she told me that Tam was still in the race but was falling behind. She chatted and gave encouragement until I entered a park where they would not let the bikers go. Then as I looped the park for a couple of miles by the time I rejoined Karen F the 3:45 pace group was basically out of sight, somewhere about mile 18 or 19. I started focusing mentally on that illusive 20 mile mark and calculating the buffer of time I had on the imaginary Boston Qualifier Runner. I wanted to get to mile 20 with at least a 60 minute window to use for the last 10K of the race. Good news I arrived at mile 20 with a 64 minute 33 second buffer. I was convinced that a Boston Qualifier was in the books if I could just hold a strong effort for the last 10K.
The heat was taking a nice toll on all the runners and my good news was that I was keeping a pretty consistent pace and was passing runners. Most of the runners through this part of the race were pretty much holding their pace but there were some who had started suffering enough that they were falling back. Karen F was still there on her bike giving good encouragement and asking if she was being a nuisance or not. I thought it was fun for her to be able to see me struggle in the heat, yet still pass other suffering runners.
Karen F rode ahead as we approached mile 22 and joined Karen H who had run out to that mile marker to join us. So, the K's switched and KH got on the bike and KF joined me running the last 4.2 miles. Now I had two witnesses of my suffering and determination to hold the pace. This last 4.2 miles was hard, hot, and fun as we now found many runners who were falling off their pace and fortunately I was able hold my pace and somewhere as we approached mile 25 Karen F reminded me of the race we had done in Dallas a few years ago to get her qualified for her 9th and 10th consecutive Bostons. This race today had many similarities to that one, but this time it was me running the race and suffering and pushing the effort. And I had two wonderful witnesses of my ordeal which made this one real fun.
As we reached the mile 25 marker and got into the last mile Karen H reminded me of how the last mile of a marathon is the greatest mile you ever get to run. By now I was flying by runners who could not hold the pace and it really made me feel sorry for their suffering. This last mile was a fun one because I had such a large buffer on the imaginary Boston Qualifier Runner who was 6 minutes behind me. We finished the race with K&K peeling off just before I entered the Alamodome. I expected us to run around the inside of the Alamodome, but instead they had the finish line right there just as we entered the arena so I pushed and passed a couple of runners just before the finish line, a great race.
Sunday afternoon and evening they didn't have the results or placeings on the San Antonio Marathon web page so I didn't know how the age group placeings had gone. The finish time on my watch was 3:54:43. I needed to beat 4 hours 59 seconds to qualify for Boston. A few years ago I would have been extremely disappointed with a time like this, but because I'm almost 2 years into this Polymyalsia Rheumatica business of muscle disorder and still on 5mg daily Prednisone medication, so I just have to respect the length of a 26.2 mile marathon race and reflect on the level of effort it took to accomplish getting re-qualified for Boston. The official posted finish time was 3:54:45 so the time on my watch was off by 2 seconds. I'll live with that. A great race after all. My overall placing of 198th out of a total of 1,112 runners puts me in the top 18% of all runners, not quite as good as I like but good enough today.
Tam struggled in the heat and finished in 4:15:58, but he did finish and was happy to do that.
Run4fun, Run4Life, Run-in-the-heat,
Paul
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