On January 14, 2024, I had the opportunity to race in the 2024 Houston Marathon. It was a race I spent the better half of 2023 preparing for. I had been so invested in competing well at this marathon as the 2019 Houston Marathon was the first marathon I ever broke 3 hours in. I had very high hopes of being able to return to this marathon in sub-3-hour shape, but as the world would have it that was not the case.
T’was the morning of the 2024 Houston marathon. I woke up around 5 am to eat breakfast, my old faithful Jimmy Dean’s breakfast bowl, and drink a cup of coffee. I was the first one up. There is something very satisfying about being the first one up for the morning of a race. There is a certain calmness present in the morning before everyone wakes up that I like to sit in before a big race.
I eat and begin getting ready as my husband and co-worker roll out of bed. I braid my hair and get dressed methodically. I’ve done this pre-race routine a million times in college and grad school. It’s comforting.
I am ready by 6 am sitting on the edge of the bed waiting for my husband to finally get his life together so we can leave. We left nearly 5 minutes late to meet my best friend at our previously agreed rendezvous point. I was a little stressed at this point because I couldn’t get a hold of her because neither of us had our phone, but luckily she was still waiting for us when we got there.
Once joining forces with my best friend, the four of us continued walking to our starting corrals.
I’m not sure what I was even feeling anymore, probably more stressed than anything, but also nothing at all.
I remember thinking at one point, am I even ready for this?
My best friend and I get to our coral parting ways with my co-worker and husband as they continue to their corals. We used the restroom and ran into our coral with a minute to spare before the coral closed. Again, I was stressed. We begin weaving through the crowd of people looking for our paces. I found a 7:30 pace sign and wished my best friend luck as she moved forward to find the 3:00-hour pacer.
I immediately began applying Vaseline to every place I’ve ever chafed because chafing is the worst. I was maybe 10 minutes from the start of the race at this point. I discard my $6 XL boy’s sweatpants from Walmart and start moving my legs around. I had no room to perform a dynamic warm up so I did the best I could with the wiggle room I had. I still felt cold, but it’s a marathon. I had 26.2 miles to get warmed up, right?
Race volunteers give coral A the go-ahead to move forward as I start thinking, “What am I doing here right now? I don’t know if I’m ready.”
My watch is located so I guess I am ready to go. I have socks on my hands for gloves and sunglasses on despite it still being dark out because I am nervous that if they fall off during the start I will lose them.
We were herded to the start line like cattle. The walk became a jog and a jog became a run as we crossed the start line to the 2024 Houston Marathon.
Whelp, ready or not, here I come!
I take off with everyone else around me. My legs feel stiff, but they are moving.
The first four miles seemed to fly by as the adrenaline and crowds carried me forward, clicking off mile splits in 7:31 – 7:34 – 7:31 – 7:35. I was trying to find my groove, but my legs felt tight.
I reminded myself not to panic in between thoughts of self-doubt. I don’t know about anyone else, but the first 3-5 miles of a marathon are always the hardest for me mentally as I muster the patience, courage, and sheer determination required to compete in and finish the marathon at goal pace.
I only looked at my watch once or twice except checking the mile splits as I tried to let my legs warm up. I kept putting on and taking off my socks that I was using as gloves trying to keep my hands warm.
I was wearing socks for gloves because my mom-brain had kicked in the day before the race and I forgot to buy “throw away” gloves at Walmart. As funny as it looks, they worked well and kept my hands warm!
.Not to mention, I couldn’t figure out what to do with my sunglasses. I had started the race wearing them in the dark for fear they would fall off the top of my head and I would lose them in the crowd, but somewhere in the first 4-5 miles, my sunglasses started fogging up from my breath with how cold it was outside. I tried to wipe them off and try again, but they kept fogging up. It was a terrible conundrum to be in. I elected to flip them to the top of my head only to take them off a mile or two later as I felt I was stiffly holding my head out of fear they would fall off with how much I was sweating. So the search for my dad in the crowd began.
Mile five beeped at 7:26 as my legs started to relax and accept the pace with ease. Next thing I knew, mile six beeped at 7:16 with minimal effort as I thought to myself, “Okay, here we go. My legs are feeling good. Let’s start working these paces.” The next two miles (miles 7 and 8) were smooth at 7:14 and 7:22. I wasn’t conscientiously pushing the pace, but I was leaning into feeling good.
Mile 9 clicks away at 7:32 as I start to feel the tightness in my legs return. The tightness wasn’t painful or incredibly restricting, but it made my legs feel as if they only had one gear and that gear lived somewhere around 7:30 pace. As I battled the tightness, I made sure to take my Gu’s on time approximately every 45 minutes along with getting water or Gatorade at almost every aid station.
The next few miles become a blur ticking away at 7:24 – 7:35 – 7:36 – 7:33 for miles 10-13 respectively. I crossed the halfway point aka half-marathon (13.1) officially in 1:38:46 although my watch was close to 0.15 ahead of the official mile markers. Therefore, I was on pace for a 3:17:32 finish time.
I didn’t make any quick calculations during the race, but in hindsight, I wish I had. I would have been encouraged knowing I was on pace for 3:17, but at this point, all I could think was how tight and even tired my legs were feeling for only being halfway through the race.
Before the race, I knew a sub 3-hour marathon was an unattainable goal, but I had thought based on my 3:21:31 marathon in November 2023 along with the additional training I was in 3:15 shape on a normal day and 3:10 or faster on a great day. I thought running 3:21 would be the absolute slowest I could run and that’s if it was a mostly meh to bad day.
So it’s funny now reflecting on the race and dissecting my splits with how I felt during the race. All I could think about during the race was how tight my legs felt and how much effort it was taking to keep up with 7:30 pace. I wish I would have been more mentally disciplined to allow myself to see and focus on the positives. 3:17 pace through half was a great place to be. However, all I saw when coming through half was that I was a minute and 44 seconds slower through half than I was for the marathon in November.
I felt like a failure. I allowed myself to forget that I significantly slowed down during the second half of my November marathon to survive finishing in 3:21:31 so coming through more conservatively in 1:38:46 was a very smart decision, but I didn’t have the perspective or the mental capacity at the time to realize this.
It was also around this time, that I decided to quit looking for my dad in the crowd to throw my sunglasses to because if I hadn’t seen him yet he had probably elected to stay back with my stepmom to look after my oldest. I was a little sad, but by now I had tucked my sunglasses into my sports bra and was using the socks on and off as a buffer between the sunglasses and my skin to hopefully prevent any significant chafing.
So onward I go mile 14-17 in 7:31 – 7:28 – 7:37 – 7:44. I could feel my legs getting even tighter as mile 17 clicked off. Again, I continued to hold onto my glove socks, taking them on and off as my hands grew hot and cold. As mile 18 approached I could feel myself slowing even more, but I refused to look at the pace on my watch until it beeped at 7:55. Then as 18.5 approached I felt like I needed to use the restroom. It wasn’t terrible, but at the time I figured, “What do I have to lose, I am running slow anyway.”
I was coming up to another aid station when I finally decided to stop to use the restroom. I zeroed in on a port-a-potty just ahead of me. I ducked out of the way and off the course only to find the door unlocked and a guy inside presumably peeing. I half laughed and also apologized. I decided to wait outside the port-a-potty though because I had to go and I had already stopped. If I tried to run again without using the restroom I didn’t think it was going to go well.
Once he stepped out, I quickly used the restroom and ran back on the course, grabbed water from the aid station, and kept going. I figured the stop was anywhere from 30 seconds to a minute. According to my Strava, I had stopped one minute and 3 seconds. Not bad for a pit stop! Stopping then was the first time I had ever stopped to use the restroom during a big marathon. Mile 19 clicked off at 8:32 as I pushed forward to make up time for stopping and was shocked when I started to feel good again.
Mile 20 beeped at 7:37. I was shocked, to say the least, that I was able to get back into the 7:30s after dropping to 7:55 before the restroom break. This is the time in the race when most people start to break. Mile 21 beeps at 7:35 and I start to think I must be crazy, “ How am I getting faster?”
Mile 22 the fatigue starts to set in beeping at 7:40, but I buckle down for mile 23 coming in at 7:30. At this point, I am starting to get excited knowing the end of the race is so near! I can hear the crowd cheering on competitors around me encouraging them to go faster if they want to break 3:20. I think to myself, “I have to break 3:20.”
Mile 24 comes and goes at 7:34. I start to do some quick calculations for how much time I think it’s going to take me to get to the finish line with being nearly 0.20 ahead of the official mile markers on my watch. I know it’s going to be a stretch, but I hang on to a sliver of hope that I just might break 3:20.
Mile 25 beeps at 7:37. I remember begging my legs to keep pushing. Willing them to move any bit faster. At this point, I accept that breaking 3:20 is almost non-existent, but I was pushing myself to do everything I could to get my body to the finish line as quickly as possible. My legs are hurting, but I still have control over them. I push forward passing as many people as possible trying to run the tangents as perfectly as possible.
Mile 26 beeps at 7:11 as I think to myself, “ No fucking way I just ran a 7:11. My watch must be malfunctioning as we come back downtown. My legs are heavy and feel like I am running 8:30 pace with these molehills being thrown in at the end.
I push with everything I have left, willing myself to see the finish line and pushing even more when I see it. I finish the last 0.52 according to my watch at 7:40 pace. Officially covering 26.2 miles according to the Houston Marathon in 3:20:42 completing my 8th marathon ever.
I was so relieved to be done. I smiled as I crossed the finish line. I made it. There were many times, especially early on I felt so unsure that I would be able to finish the race. So I was relieved to have crossed the finish line. I was happy to have at least finished faster than my November marathon even if only by a minute.
I was happy, but as I made my way through the crowd getting my finishers medal I started to feel an overwhelming urge to cry. I was hit with the sadness that I had not met my A goal, my B goal, and had barely met my C goal. I let myself be sad for a couple of minutes, but I did not let a single tear fall.
I decided that I would hold my head high because training for Houston 2024 had been very hard. It had been my most unpredictable and inconsistent marathon build ever. It’s sad, but the reality is despite those obstacles, I was still able to run faster than my November and therefore, it is a win no matter how small.
It’s funny how much time you have to think during the marathon. It can truly make or break you. I had so many distractions during this marathon yet I let my mental state become a negative shade of blue. I allowed myself to be filled with so much doubt and disbelief. I was able to press forward and come out on top in a sense, but I will not make that mistake again. I am going to prioritize mental fortitude in my next training block. I am going to challenge myself to be better.
I am still in pursuit of a postpartum sub-3-hour marathon. It didn’t happen at the 2024 Houston Marathon, and It’s not going to happen tomorrow; but I crave becoming the runner I once was. Running these times now is disgusting in a way. I know I can be better because I have been better before. I am in a constant battle of needing to do more and not being able to add another task to my plate. I am trying very hard to give myself the patience and grace to mold my mind and body into the runner I once was, but damn it’s hard.
What marathon will I run next?
Any guesses?
Comment below!
For anyone who is curious, my husband ran his first marathon in 3:44:01. My co-worker ran a big PR for her second marathon in 3:46:01. Lastly, my best friend ran a sub-3-hour marathon in 2:59:43 for a massive PR completing her 3rd marathon.
