Houston Half Marathon 2:19:27

I like to call it the Big Oil Half.

I think the splits from the automatic update thing are a little screwy. The first two (10K and 9mi) are not really chiptime, but guntime, so I didn't have a nice negative split like it says. In fact, the last three miles were pretty ugly.

And this race is actually quite a bit off my PR (like more than 19 minutes), but I have a really really good excuse. It's not that it was too hot, because it wasn't that hot, at least not for the half marathoners. And it's not that my foot started hurting, because I had absolutely no trouble with my foot or with my calf, which had been bothering me earlier this week and last.

My excuse is that I'm in poor shape. That explains why it's so much slower than a year and a half ago, and why I couldn't keep the pace to the end. I'm fat and slow, it's that simple. But, in some ways, that's actually a good thing, compared to trying to recovery from mysterious foot problems. I know how to deal with a lack of fitness much better than lingering injuries, and the fact that my foot didn't give me any trouble, is something I'm pretty happy about. Hopefully now I can resume a decent training plan.

But I have to say, after this race, I'm very psyched up about my running. When I turned the corner and came up on mile marker 11, the two leaders, Ngetich and Cheruiyot, were passing their mile 24, and those guys are extremely impressive. I taped the marathon special and got to see the race in full, and it does seem a bit unfair to hang behind someone, for the entire race, and kick past him in the final 200 meters, but I guess, if you can get away with it, why not? It's really an error on Ngetich's part to let Cheruiyot hang back and not share the lead at all for the the whole race.

But in all honesty, the bloggers, and the folks at CLFC, are much more inspirational than the elites. You guys rocked, and you rocked while having jobs and responsibilities and some pretty formidable obstacles, like losing 150 pounds or kicking your nicotene addiciton or struggling with an unhealthy fixation on bicycles. And, I'm very proud to know people who can run a 3:02:29, or a 3:32:42, you're very inspirational. I didn't want to start the listing people who impress me because someone would get left out, because you all rock.

This is for you!

Rock on.
Keith.