Austin Marathon: I did my best, but.....

......the cramps still came.

I carbo-loaded, downing  800 carbs the day before the race. I hydrated during the Austin Marathon, drinking two cups of water and a little gatorade every three miles.

I ran the first half as slow as possible, not one mile faster than marathon pace, and most of them 30 seconds slower.

....and yet my quads still tightened, calves spasmed, and a dream of a respectable marathon time already dead by Mile 15. That's when the wheels began to fall off. At Mile 15. I started sucking down a GU and like an allergic reaction or something, my inner quads start spasming. I was like, "Are you friggin kidding me?" I wasnt breathing hard. Was just cruising. And to have that feeling was just depressing.

The other weird thing is that in the first 10 miles, when I'd drink water and/or gatorade, it made feel worse. But at the end, when I wasnt sweating AT ALL, drinking water and the downhill portion of the course absolutely saved me.

My final time for my eighth marathon was 4:10:10, with my first half split being 1:51 and my second half being 2:19.

I'll go into more details later, but I remain at a total loss. Was it hot? Very, not as bad as Chicago, but 60s and high humidity at the start and high 70s at the end. And so, maybe, I just cant perform in the heat. Still, I seem to perform worse than others. I was in 980th place or so at Mile 20 and near 1,500th place at the end. EVERYBODY WAS PASSING ME.

And as I said in an earlier post, I've run that same Austin Marathon course in training, posting two 22-mile runs in an average pace of about 7:50. I think Sunday I only had two miles that were that fast.

But again, its back to the drawing board. Again, a search to figure out why this happens in races. I'm starting to see how Susan Lucci felt.

All I can say is I'm glad I finished and got a medal.