Marathon training for dummies: 2 Halfs down, 2 to go ~ Amarco Houston Half Recap

Amarco Houston Half Marathon ~ This had to be one race with the most drama involved. First of all, usually when you want to run an event, you just go online and pay for it and bam you are registered. Not so fast, Houston happens to be tremendously popular, too popular. Last year the race sold out in 2 days and there were thousands of unhappy people and locals that were not able to run it...so to alleviate all that, they chose to institute a lottery system. You had to go online, register and pay, then WAIT. Well, Roy and I happened to be lucky enough to WIN the lottery and get to run the race. This was poo pooed on by a lot of the running community, however, irritating it might have been at the time, we got in in August!

Flash forward to the week of the race in January. Houston is usually pretty mild and in the 40s-50s typically with low humidity. Well, just so happened that a front was coming in...it was supposed to hit sometime before the race or during. There was constant updates from the race with weather warnings with a flag system and a contingency plan in place. There was chatter about starting the race late, possibly stopping the race during bad weather and restarting, a lot of stuff to worry about. They were trying to plan in case of lightning. Well, as luck would have it, the rain held off until the race started. The first mile, it started, fortunately there was no lightning, just a light drizzle and 96% humidity and temps in the 60s. These are not optimal conditions for a PR. I know, it sounds like I am building up for all the excuses why my race sucked, well, maybe I am, a little. I ran the race, I finished the race. It wasn't a great race. I was miserable really, I was hot, it was hard to breathe and I was drenched. Good times.

Well, the one highlights of the race was seeing signs every mile for a man named Geoff. Geoff was running the full marathon and he had some really cool and witty friends. They stayed up until 2am making signs with his face on each one with a cool saying. Here are all the signs:

• 1. • Lookin' good! (So far. …)
• 2. • Adrenaline got you this far. All guts from here!
• 3. • Seriously, who fartleked?
• 4. • It's all uphill from here.
• 5. • Runner X-ing
• 6. • You're not slow, you're enjoying the course.
• 7. • Relax. You're not going to win.
• 8. • I love the smell of 22,000 runners in the morning.
• 9. • 26.2, because 26.3 would be CRAZY!
• 10. • When Chuck Norris hits walls, they fall down.
• 11. • Johnny Knoxville wouldn't even do this to himself.
• 12. • Only 5.3 miles to finish! (if you take the most direct route)
• 13. • You're already a winner. You won the lottery to get here.
• 14. • Nobody to blame but yourself.
• 15. • Toenails were made to fall off.
• 16. • If you were a Kenyan, you'd be done by now.
• 17. • Shirt, how do thou chafe me? Let me count the ways. ...
• 18. • You paid $115 for this?
• 19. • Sweating = fat cells crying.
• 20. • Your training runs ended here.
• 21. • At this point, it will hurt just as much to walk.
• 22. • Humpty Dumpty fell off the wall you just hit.
• 23. • Graveyard ahead. Look alive.
• 24. • Give me a high five!
• 25. • If pain is temporary, why does this feel like an eternity?
• 26. • Congratulations!!!! Almost. …

I of course, only saw them until mile 9, that was the split for the half...but I loved them. I wish I had HIS friends!!! They really kept everyone going. They were hilarious!