Freescale Marathon

Hooligan's View

A week ago I went to Austin to run my second marathon, the Freescale. Marie, my wife, and I stayed with our great friends Terry and Ann Cook. We flew down on Saturday early and returned on Sunday late. We had a great time, even though my race was a little disappointing.

On Saturday Marie and I went to Love Field to fly Southwest Air to Austin. This was the first time we had ever flow. It is very close so a drive is not too bad. I just did not want to dive back after the race. Terry picked us up and we headed for their new house in Bastrop, a small town about 20 miles from Austin. The house is beautiful and, my goodness, large. The Cooks took us through the house. The toip floor is a very large room which gives them about 3800 sq feet of living space. After we rested a couple of hours we all went to Buca de Pepi, an Italian restaurant, where my entire running group agreed to meet for a pre-race spaghetti dinner. I introduced Terry and Ann to all my running mates, and we had a grand time.

Race day came quickly after I had a fairly good night’s sleep. Terry dropped me off in the dark near the start. After I worked my way to the starting line in the drizzle, I found, amidst the 7000 runners, a couple of guys I knew before the race began. I hooked up with George, my coach, who was planning to run a 9 minute mile pace. I ran a pace of 9:30 in Chicago, in November, three months earlier, so I was worried about keeping up. After I started, I got the bright idea that maybe I could do it the whole way, and I kept it up with George for 20 miles, feeling good most of the way. After I saw Terry, who was waiting for me at the 20 mile point, I “hit the wall”. My legs would not move so I was reduced to walking portions of the remaining 6.2 miles. I finished the race averaging 10 minutes a mile. Many of my running mates, including George, experience this same problem that they quickly attributed to overly warm weather and dehydration. At end of the race I stopped to talk to Elaine, one of my training partners, and as I spoke to her my vision began to disappear into a white blur. I said a quick goodbye and left abruptly to walk some, hoping to have my legs pump some blood to my brain. It worked. When I met Terry and Cara, his daughter, he offered me a Gatorade that I immediately chugged. It helped my stamina tremendously.

We went back to the house where I showered, ate lunch, and had a short nap. After a great dinner, Terry dropped Marie and me off at the Airport and we arrived home not too late that night. It took me at least three days to recover from that race, but I really enjoyed spending time with the Cooks. I enjoyed most of the race too, especially the first 20.