houston marathon

On January 30, 2011, Chris ran his 11th marathon!! We are so proud of him and all of his hard work.


Chris, at the Expo the day before the race...

Sunday morning, we woke up at 4:30 and left for downtown by 5:20...and even that early, we ran into quite a back up of traffic waiting to exit. After we finally got off the highway and found a place to park, Chris began warming up for the 7:00 start. Here he is stretching in his starting corral...

Aspen and I were able to see Chris 5 times along the course. It was pretty easy getting around, since I had my detailed notes on where to go. We saw him at the start, mile 8, mile 12, mile 16, and mile 23. We decided this race we would see him at a later mile and not at the finish, in case he needed a boost of support in the final miles. Only, after mile 23, we got stuck within the race course and it took longer than expected to find a way out to get to downtown again.

This was the first time we saw him, at mile 8...you can see him in the pace group for 3:00 (see the balloons?) It was a pretty large group trying to break three hours...it was the pace leader's 16th Houston marathon...

Two thumbs up from Chris...a good start!

At mile 12...still going strong. The rain didn't seem to be slowing him down or affecting him much...he was picking up the pace a bit...

At mile 16, he had broken away from the pace group and was crusing...he was on pace for a 2:58 finish time!! We began to get excited, but I was really hoping that he'd be able to keep that pace throughout the rest of the race...

At mile 23, there was a hill...we saw, from the top of the hill, when he started on his way up. And our hearts hurt when we saw that he was walking. His tank was empty...he'd hit the wall, and even though he didn't have any pains or problems, he just couldn't make him legs turn over any faster. It broke my heart that after all his dedication and intense hard work, he wasn't going to break his goal. I was so proud of him, but my heart broke FOR him.

HOWEVER!

He ran his best time ever! In the rain, and with an empty tank, he still shaved two minutes from his personal best!!!! He ran a 3:07!!! He was so happy to get a PR, and we were so happy for him! So the day ended just fine, and our marathon runner was a happy boy.

He is still quite sore and moving slow...and though he claimed right after the race that he was hanging up his running shoes, not 36 hours later he decided to register for the Chicago marathon. He is too funny! Like anyone believed for one second he would ever stop running :)

#11 is complete, and with a personal record!!!! All in all, it was a great race! So proud of you Chris...I love you so much...