When I first started looking at the Houston Marathon, I was super excited to see Dallas was right at the half-way point. Ever since reading books about the Kennedys, I've really wanted to visit Dealy Plaza and see the 6th Floor Museum. I didn't look into it much before we left, but when we made it to Dallas, I wondered if it would be closed for MLK Day on Monday when we came back through. I wasn't sure we'd have time to do anything in Dallas on Saturday before heading to Houston, but figured we'd have time to do something on the way back. The 6th Floor Museum was closed on Mondays and didn't open until 10am on Saturdays. We talked about it and decided to go ahead and go on Saturday morning. I had signed up for a 4:00 packet pick up just in case we were late getting around. The hotel had a pool so I figured the kids would want to swim. It turned out the pool was closed so after getting around, we headed to Dealy Plaza. We got there a little before 9:30. We walked around and saw the monuments and the grassy knoll. The spots where the car was when JFK was shot were marked with an x on the road. Carter has a friend who is really interested in presidential trivia so he Facetimed him to show him everything, which was cute. We went into the museum right at 10:00 and got tickets. It was fairy busy so it took a while to walk through. At 11:30 I started to get a little bit nervous because we would need to stop to eat lunch and we still had a 4ish hour drive to Houston. We skipped through the last portion of the museum a little bit faster than everything else and then checked out the gift shop before heading on our way. We stopped for lunch and a couple restroom stops on the way so we didn't make it to the race expo until 4:15. Dad dropped me off and went to park. They ended up paying $30 to park for that short expo visit which was ridiculous! Had we arrived at 3:00 and checked in, we could have walked from our hotel to the expo, but it was definitely worth it to see the museum. Since I had a later expo spot and the expo closed at 5:00, we didn't have time to see much. They had a place to make signs so mom and the kids made signs. They also had a place where they were pressing shirt designs, but by the time we got there they only had XL and XXL shirts left. I went ahead and got an XL to wear as a nightgown.
Sunday was the race and after we checked out of the hotel we visited one of Thomas' friends on our way out of town. Monday morning I read some activity options to everyone and the Dallas World Aquarium was the unanimous choice. It was interesting, more of a combination of a zoo and aquarium together. We saw axolotls which the kids were thrilled about. There was also a manatee which I was excited to see, but it was just hanging out with it's face hidden and never moved. There were penguins which the kids also loved and, of course, flamingoes for Opa! Both the kids wanted stuffed axolotls as their souvenir in the gift shop. Elise looked for a patch for her Girl Scout vest and even asked the cashier, but they were out. She did get one from the 6th Floor Museum.
Posing with the sloth.
Carter said, "This is my friend Bald Benjamin."
Super excited about the axolotls!
Elise with her axolotl from the gift shop.
On the way home we talked about what a fun trip it was and how having mom and dad go with me made it so much fun. I told them I'd like to slowly work on completing all 6 of the Marathon Majors. They said they would come along to all of them! It was an amazing trip and as my friend, Sara, has always said, making a race into a racecation is the best way to go! This one worked out so nicely because it was only 8 hours away and I already had Monday off, so I didn't take any time off work for the trip. We still got a lot in even with all the driving and visiting friends. The hotels not having a swimming pool helped with that, otherwise the kids would have wanted to swim instead of sightsee! This trip was everything I hoped for, visiting Dealy Plaza and getting my BQ.
Last spring I planned to run a marathon and attempt a BQ so I could get back to Boston to run the race in-person after the mess that was my 2018 BQ and 2020 acceptance. I got the flu and then Covid less than a month later and scrapped the spring marathon plan. This fall I was ready to try again. I hadn't decided on a race yet when my friend, April, asked me to run Houston with her. She planned to shoot for 3:30 and that was my goal so I was in. We figured we'd run the first half or so together and then I'd pick it up and she'd try to hang on. She ended up in a different corral than me and it was supposed to be hot, so I talked her into running with the 3:40 pacer rather than the 3:30 since her BQ was 3:40. She ended up running 3:48 after being on pace through about 16 miles, so I'm glad she decided to run with the 3:40 pacer or it could have been really rough! The race build was perfect because I didn't start my training cycle until September which gave me flexibility and lower mileage during the first month of school when I'm exhausted. Everything was going wonderfully with my training, but the closer I got to race day, the more worried I was that I would get sick and not get to run the race. I got Covid the weekend of this race last year. One of my co-workers got Covid in September 2021 and then the same time this school year. I knew it was silly, but I was so worried I would get Covid again the weekend of the race. We discussed different options for travel and decided Ty should save his days off and my parents would travel with me so we could take the kids.
Another selling point for this marathon was that I already had the Monday following it off work for Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. That meant the kids had it off too and I wanted them with me. I'm so glad my parents wanted to go because having them and the kids with me really made the trip! I worked Friday and then picked the kids up from school instead of having them ride the bus so we could leave a half-hour earlier. We drove to Dallas Friday evening, then on to Houston on Saturday, then back to Dallas after the race on Sunday, and on home on Monday. Breaking the drive up to 4 hours a day was really nice! We did some sight seeing, a post on that to follow, and didn't make it to Houston until 4pm which was when I was scheduled to pick up my packet. Everything was a bit rushed and I ended up doing my 2 mile shake out run pretty late at 6:00 and didn't eat dinner until 8:00. I was pretty go with the flow and chill about things for the day before a marathon. That came down to my complete belief in my ability to hit my BQ. I knew the training was in the bank and any little mistakes leading up to the race wouldn't effect me enough to keep me from hitting my goal. Now that I'm over 35 my qualifying time was 3:35. All my training had been geared toward a 3:30 marathon. I felt confident I could break 3:30, but even if things went poorly, I knew a 3:35 should be there. Race day temperatures were predicted to be warm with 57 degrees at the start and 70 degrees by the finish. All my long run workouts had been in below freezing temps, but I told myself if I could run sub-8:00 pace in 10 degrees, I could do it in 60! My plan was to go out conservatively for the first half and run it in 1:44-1:45. I figured even if I didn't negative split (which I knew would be more difficult to do in the heat) I could run 1:44/1:44 and felt strongly I had a 3:28 in me. I was open to surprises, but that was my estimated finish time. I told Ty a PR wasn't out of the realm of possibility with a flat course, but I thought I would run a 3:28.
I was a little bit nervous about getting to my corral before it closed at 6:45am. This was by far the biggest race I had ever run. Dad and I ran from our hotel to the start area (it was less than a quarter-mile) on our shake out run and scoped it out. I pulled the corral map up on my phone and we figured it out. They even had the pace signs already hung up on street poles to I knew exactly where I would go. That really helped me relax the night before the race. I wasn't feeling nerves or worry, I was just feeling excited! I did have a dream that I turned my alarm off and fell back to sleep, not waking until Ty surprised me by arriving in Houston and ringing our hotel room's doorbell at 6:45. I woke up from that dream and it was 5:38. My alarm was set for 5:40 so I went ahead and got up. I got ready, ate a Zbar, drank some Nuun, and did a pre-run yoga video. Dad was up when I came out into the shared area of our room and Carter came out, saying he wanted to go with us. Elise woke up before we left and wanted to come so she and mom quickly got dressed and we all headed out together. We walked to the start no problem and I headed into my corral. I got a bit emotional standing in the corral. I had spent the whole training cycle thinking in the back of my head that I would get sick and not get to run this race. I was so thankful I was at the starting line and getting to run the race. I started to tear up a little bit. Dad noticed I didn't have my sunglasses on (it was still dark out) and asked if I wanted them. I did so he and Carter went back to the hotel to get them. Ty surprised me with new Goodr sunglasses with a note attached in my duffle bag. I had planned to wear my Boston Goodrs Thomas got me for Christmas in 2019 so I could wear my Boston Goodrs while qualifying for Boston. Dad accidentally grabbed the wrong pair, so I ran in the white ones instead. He got back to the start area right after they started walking us up to the start line so I went back to get them. There were some last chance porta potties right there and outdoor urinals for men which I had never seen before. They were weird but a lot of guys were using them! Walking up, I ended up a bit ahead of the 3:30 pace group. I had planned to go out with them but decided I'd just do my own thing since I wasn't positioned with them.
The race took off and it took me about 3 minutes to walk to the start. Once we got going, it was congested and slow going for a bit, but got better really quickly! I could see the 3:25 pace group ahead of me and was tempted to run with them and shoot for a PR, but I knew with the heat I really needed to be conservative at the start and run smart to set myself up for success later. I spent most of the first miles just so darn thankful to be there and getting to run my first marathon in-person since November 2018. I kept thinking, I get to do this, I am here! My first mile was 8:02 which was perfect, I was hoping to be around 8:00 for the first few miles. Miles 2-4 were 7:56, 7:54, and 7:48. I focused on reading the signs spectators had made and trying to run the tangents. It was pretty hard to do with so many people around me, but I did pretty well. It was overcast which really helped with the heat and I didn't put my sunglasses on until mile 8 when the sun came out. I didn't eat as much for dinner the night before as I should have so I planned to eat a Gu every 4 miles which is more than I usually do. I figured I'd do 4, 8, 12, 16, 20, and 23 if I felt like I could get it down. I had packed 6 Gus in case I could get them all down. I was wearing my Oiselle running shorts which have tons of pockets to I carried them all in my pockets. I ate a Gu at 4 miles. Then went through miles 5-7 in 7:58, 7:53, and 7:47. I checked my watch at the mile markers and I was hitting them about 0.05 after my watch beeped. Then that lengthened to 0.1 and later to 0.2.
Eating my first Gu.
I was running side by side with a woman who I was hoping I could work with for a while, but I realized she was in the half-marathon when they turned off at 7 miles. Then I got passed by a 3:05 pace group which must have started in the B Corral. A while later I got passed by a 3:10 pace group. I heard someone behind me say they weren't going to worry until they got passed by a 4:00 pacer. Miles 8-13 were 7:56, 7:53, 7:36, 7:54, 7:44, 7:51. I was a little worried when I saw my 7:36 mile split but I was back to 7:54 the next mile, so I let it go. Right before the 13 mile mark there was a hill. It was pretty minimal and there were people ahead of me walking up the hill. I laughed inwardly at them walking up such a measly hill when there were dozens of hills much more difficult than it in the Route 66 Marathon. I went through the half-marathon in 1:43:51. I knew that was a smidge faster than I went through the first half of my PR marathon and I got excited. I told myself it would be easier to negative split because it was flatter, but harder to negative split because it was hotter. At all the water stations I took water and when I was able to get over early enough to get a cup from a person at the front of the station, I also took one from someone at the end so I could drink 2. There were a couple stations where they filled the cups all the way up. At one I ended up with water all over my sock and shoe, at the other I ended up with water all down my front. Overall, I did much better drinking water on the run than I had in the Tulsa Run.
Most of the race I had been telling myself, this is a half-marathon warm up and then a half-marathon race. When I hit the half-way point I gave myself permission to start picking up the pace. Miles 14-16 were 7:48, 7:44, and 7:45. I wasn't intentionally running 7:45 pace, but that was what I ended up picking it up to. I decided when I hit 16, if I felt good, I'd drop a little more to maybe 7:40ish. I knew a PR probably wasn't going to happen because I'd have to close in 7:30 pace like I did in my PR race and I was feeling the heat, but I wanted to get as much under 3:30 as I could. The sun came out really strongly at mile 15 and there was a decent amount of shade, but I could feel myself getting really hot. The clouds came back out at mile 20 and that was a welcome relief! There was a guy pushing an Ainsley's Angels wheelchair who kept yelling out, "It's so hot!" and "It's getting really hot." It was annoying me because it just made me feel hotter. I really wanted to get away from him! I don't remember which mile it was but there was a huge group of people with signs that said, "Boston or bust!" and the girl they were cheering for behind me told those around her that they were her friends and she was trying to qualify for Boston. They told her, "You're doing it!" I smiled and thought, "I'm doing it too!" One of my favorite signs during the race said, "Save a Gu. Eat a doughnut."
I was still feeling great and miles 17-20 were 7:44, 7:43, 7:50, and 7:41. I told myself it was go time and to take off that last 10k. I just didn't have another gear and ran miles 21-23 in 7:40, 7:54, and 7:53. I knew a fast last 10k wasn't happening and was bummed I was back into the 7:50's. I saw a sign around in here that said, "Humpty Dumpty had trouble with a wall too". I wouldn't say I hit a wall per-se, but I started to really struggle. I was hot and tired and I didn't want to run anymore. I kept telling myself I just had a 5k to go, but I couldn't find another gear and I knew I was slowing. I started losing contact with people I'd been running with for most of the race which was disheartening. There were some underpasses and overpasses in the last 5k which were little hills and they didn't bother me. Other people mentioned the "hills" at the end and I didn't notice them. We went through a tunnel at some point and there was a section playing music which I was loving and then they switched to country which dampened my mood. That was not what I was needing right then! I started telling myself, you don't have to do this again for another 15 months (that's how long until Boston 2024). My last 3 miles were 8:14, 8:26, and 8:20. Looking back at the race I'm bummed my last 5k sucked so much and it makes me want to run a marathon right now to redeem myself, but I gave it all I had on race day. I didn't give up and kept fighting, that's just all I had. It kills me a little bit that I lost so much time at the end and could have run a high 3:26 or low 3:27, but either way that wouldn't have been a PR so I'm doing my best to let it go. I saw 3:20 on a clock at some point and told myself just 10 minutes of hard running to go. I wanted to pick it up so badly, but I couldn't. Then I hit the last half-mile and people were cheering that we just had 5 minutes to go. That was a long 5 minutes! Some lady came running past me and elbowed me and knocked into me, making me a bit off balance. After the race I saw her in a wheelchair so I think she was just really out of it. The finishing stretch of this race seemed to go on forever. I was dying and still couldn't see the finish line. At mile 26 I heard my mom cheering and then looked over and saw Elise's face pressed to the fence while she yelled, "GO MOMMY!!!!" and looked over to see Elise looking through the fence at me. That was what I desperately needed and I was finally able to kick it in a bit. My last 0.47 was in 6:48 pace which beats my finishing kick from my PR marathon by a smidge and that was all Elise! I saw the finish line clock said 3:31 as I crossed and knew it took me about 3 minutes to start the race so figured I finished in 3:28.
Mile 26
I walked for a bit through the chute and then stopped to rest against the fence for a moment. There was a volunteer on me immediately, encouraging me to keep moving, so I did. The chute was pretty packed and slow moving. My legs were toast and it was hard to walk once we got congested and started moving slower. As we neared the Expo center there was a guy with a bull horn and he yelled, "When you see someone in a Runner's World Tulsa shirt say, awww yeah!" The spectators around him looked at me and yelled, "awww, yeah!" I pumped my fists in the air. I think we got our medals at some point outside but it's all a bit hazy to me at this point. We got into the building and there was more walking. You had to get into line to get your finisher shirt and mug. It turned out a lot of the people in the chute around me were in the half so I didn't have to wait in line, but man walking was not fun. I knew the walking would help, but I did not want to do it. I wanted to lay down on the ground. I saw the sign for the family reunion area and it looked so far away. At that point my calf had started cramping up and twitching and half out of it thought thought, "I want my mommy," which I found incredibly entertaining after the fact. I didn't want food so I passed the warm food area but did grab chocolate milk and a banana earlier in the Expo center. I was finally able to drink a bit of my chocolate milk as I finished walking to the reunion area. I didn't see anyone in my family and figured it might take them a while to get there from where they were so I went to the wall and found a guy with a phone who kindly let me borrow it so I could tell them where I was. Neither of my parents answered so I laid on the floor and put my feet up the wall to wait. I laid with my head to the side to watch for anyone coming through the doors. After waiting about 20 minutes, I found someone else with a phone and tried calling again with no luck. I sat to wait some more. Finally after waiting for about 45 minutes I realized we were going to miss checkout time at the hotel if we didn't leave soon so I again borrowed a phone and called Ty (who I knew would answer a strange number) and asked him to call my parents and tell them I was walking back to the hotel. Ty congratulated me and I told him I ran 3:28 just like I thought I would and got my BQ. When I passed the phone back, the lady congratulated me. It seemed silly to sit around waiting when I knew how to get back to the hotel and it was only a quarter-mile walk. Ty was able to get ahold of my parents and on my walk back to the hotel dad finally found me. Not sure how he made it to the reunion area without ever finding me in my bright yellow top. I was watching for the kids and focused on looking at every child who walked by, not the adults, so I easily could have missed him. I was so thankful to make it back to the hotel and get showered. All the walking definitely helped!
After the race, back at the hotel.
My official finishing time was 3:28:18 which put me 58th out of 361 in my age group, 255th out of 2,179 women, and 1,03rd out of 6,101 overall. My average pace according to the results was 7:57 which was the exact pace I ran my marathon pace miles in during my 20 mile long run workout at 10 degrees! My distance on my Garmin ended up being 26.47 so my pace was 7:52. I estimated my pace on my Garmin would be about 4 seconds per mile faster than my official pace due to the added distance so that was as expected. My recovery has been amazing. The only flat marathon I've run before this was OKC when the wind was 20 mph with gusts up to 40 mph, so I don't know that I got the full effect of the flat marathon on my legs as far as recovery went. I figured recovery would be easier with this one with 100-200 feet of elevation compared to Route 66 with 900, but I didn't expect it to be quite as drastic of a difference as it has been. When I compared my recovery from the Aquarium Run Half (100ish feet of elevation gain, if that) to Route 66 Half (400 feet of gain), the flatter half I'm running the next day and already not sore on the 2nd day. Route 66 I am often still sore for almost a week. I felt like I could run the day after the marathon but knew it was a bad idea. I took 2 days off even though I didn't quite feel like I needed it. I ran on Wednesday and felt amazing. I was already back to full form by Friday, running low 8:00 pace for my 4 miler. I never understood how people could run more than one marathon off one training cycle, but now that I've run a flat marathon, I can see how it could be done. April is planning to run another marathon in July to attempt a BQ and I'm so tempted to go with her, but I'm worried if I do, I'll get burned out before Boston. I've had the best experience with marathons when I run one a year. I ran a fall/spring/fall back in the day and then didn't run another marathon for 8 years if that tells you anything. So I'm planning to stick to half marathons until Boston 2024, assuming 6:42 under the standard will be enough to get in! You can watch the finish line video of me crossing here:
Reading continues to enrich my life in so many ways. It brings me joy. It stretches my mind by teaching me new information and letting me see the world through the eyes of someone who looks and sounds different than myself. It helps me build empathy for others and, at times, helps me see myself in a different light. I continue to discover niches withing genres I didn't think were for me that I absolutely love. This year I got really into dark and creepy books, not necessarily horror, but dark. I laughed after a trip to the bookstore when I realized all the books I picked out were dark. Then the next time I went to a bookstore I ended up with all books with library or book in the title. I go through phases with my reading and it's fun to see where they lead me. Read past recaps here: 2021, 2020, 2019, and 2018.
This year I read 51,272 pages across 171 books. Last year I read 47,845 across 157 books.
In 2020 I read 56,782 pages across 186 books.
In 2019 I read 41,911 pages across 132 books.
In 2018 I read 38,074 pages across 128 books.
My shortest book was The Grownup by Gillian Flynn at 64 pages.
My longest book was The Winners by Fredrik Backman at 671 pages.
The average length of book was 299 pages. I was surprised by this, my average book length the last couple years was 305. I read a few novellas this year which I think brought it down.
The most popular book I read was The Book Thief by Markus Zusak with 4,445,833 other people reading it.
The least popular book I read was Days Are Beautiful by Andrea C. Neil with 78 other people reading it.
My favorite fiction book was Our Missing Hearts by Celeste Ng.
My favorite nonfiction book was The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row by Anthony Ray Hinton.
My favorite fiction audiobook was The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams.
My favorite nonfiction audiobook was Arrival Stories: Women Share Their Experiences of Becoming Mothers by Amy Schumer and Christy Turlington Burns (editors)
My favorite YA book was The First to Die at the End by Adam Silvera.
My favorite YA audiobook was The Firekeeper's Daughter by Angeline Boulley
Honorable Mention (how I read them in parantheses):
The Winners by Fredrik Backman (book)
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (audiobook)
What Happened to You?: Conversations on Trauma, Resilience, and Healing by Bruce D. Perry and Oprah Winfrey (audiobook)
The House in the Cerulean Sea by T.J. Klune (ebook)
Devolution: A Firsthand Account of the Rainier Sasquatch Massacre by Max Brooks (audiobooks)
Miracle Creek by Angie Kim (book)
Three Sisters by Heather Morris (book)
How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior (book)
Lore Olympus Series by Rachel Smythe (books, first graphic novel I have read on my own)
The Emma Project by Sonali Dev (book, from the Rajes series and I loved all of them!)
Circe by Madeline Miller (audiobook)
The Only Good Indians by Stephen Graham Jones (audiobook)
The Book Thief by Markus Zusak (book)
We Are Never Meeting in Real Life by Samantha Irby (audiobook)
The Rose Code by Kate Quinn (audiobook)
The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid (audiobook)
The Book Woman's Daughter by Kim Michele Richardson (audiobook)
Favorite Children's Chapter Books:
Willodeen by Katherine Applegate (book)
From the Desk of Zoe Washington by Janae Marks (ebook)
Feathers by Jacqueline Woodson (book)
The Endling Series by Katherine Applegate (book, ebook, audiobook)
Pax, Journey Home by Sara Pennypacker (ebook, I liked this even more than the first book)
