The first challenge of the year was a success! With everyone's help a little over $500 has been raised for PtR already. That's more than double my original estimate of $250/month or $3000 for the year long campaign! Thank you to everyone who donated and helped get this campaign off to a great start!
So getting to Houston was a bit of experience on its own. I tentatively watched the temperature slowly tick down towards 32F as I rode the 28X to the airport in the pouring rain. Fortunately the weather didn't get really bad until late Friday night. Those of you who live in Pittsburgh likely remember that all too well. Bathtub, need I say more?
With the exception of some minor delays for de-icing my flights went just fine. Getting into my AirBnB was a little more difficult than it should have been since my host's friend that was supposed to let me into the building didn't show. Fortunately my host took the time to guide me in over the phone.
The next day was spent primarily at the Expo checking out all the usual vendors, catching some inspirational words from Meb Keflizghi and Carl Lewis, and manning the pacer booth for a couple hours. I did go for a short shakeout run around the Buffalo Bayou where evidence of hurricane Harvey was still quite obvious. I grabbed some excellent breakfast at a trendy coffee shop called Tout Suite just a short walk from my apartment. For dinner I opted for food from an upscale Mediterranean grocery store and a quiet evening at my accommodations.
Race morning I fueled up with a hearty breakfast (purchased at Phoenecia the night before) and walked over to the Convention Center where they had a massive indoor area for staying warm prior to the race start. It was particularly nice that morning since it was actually in the low 30s! All the locals were quite stunned by the cold but having just come from Pittsburgh I was quite pleased with the forecast. Perfect running weather!
After the pace team photo we headed over to the corrals. I was placed into corral B to help any runners that may not have had or submitted a qualifying time. The other two pacers headed to corral A. One slight problem, one of the other runners had a B corral bib. We talked about it previously and even discussed switching but ultimately decided not to since he had a good friend wanting to run 3 hours in corral A. However, the corral marshals wouldn't budge, despite the pacer uniform, etc. So corral B ended up with two 3 hour pacers.
The corral transition was handled quite well and the progression up through the back of corral A wasn't as bad as I had expected to be. We ended up hitting mile one right on target and stayed within a few seconds of the target 6:52/mile the entire race. The course is incredibly flat! There's the "hill" at mile 12 that folks from Pittsburgh would scoff at and a couple small dips on underpasses in the later miles but that is it. The last 5 miles or so featured bluetooth or wireless speakers mounted on the light poles blasting music which helped fill in the gaps between water stops and other crowds.
Ultimately out of the three or four runners that were hanging onto us, none of them finished under 3 hours. One did at least finish in 3:01 and change which should get him into Boston 2019! Another runner that was fading a bit as I approached him in the final couple of miles perked up and finished strong with me.
The race overall was very well executed and the conditions were about as good as they can get! I recommend this race as an early winter option as well as a nice getaway from harsher climates in January. I also recommend the two breweries I visited after the race, 8th Wonder and Sigma. 8th Wonder has a regular food truck, Eastie Boys, and a massive outdoor seating area with various lawn games and a 30 foot tall sculpture of the Beatles. Their Vietnamese coffee porter, Rocket Fuel, is excellent and absolutely amazing on nitro! Sigma brewing was more up alley though since it is owned and operated by a couple metal heads! \m/ \m/ And their imperial porter aged on cacao nibs and cinnamon in Bulleit Rye and 10 Year rum barrels, Murry Fuggin Chrimmus, was heavenly! They even have a run club every Thursday!
The return home was a breeze and I even got upgraded to economy comfort plus which offered some much appreciated extra leg room. Thanks again everyone and keep your eyes open for updates on the next #Sub3forPtR event in Birmingham, AL on February 11th!
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