My son ran Grandma's Marathon. As usual, we left about 2:00 PM Friday and had delays due to construction and traffic. We arrived just before 6:00 PM, checked into the hotel, and then headed to the expo. It was rather crowded, and we ate the Michelena’s grandma's feast. It was not very good, and the food was heavily commercialized! We only did it for the atmosphere.
Earlier this week, the forecast indicated a possible cancellation due to the weather. As usual, the forecast can't be trusted. It was forecasted colder (54 degrees), with a tailwind for much of the race.
When we woke, it was cold, and there was no rain! His day started a little rough as the train was late. As a result, he started at the rear of the pack. It took him approximately nine minutes to cross the start line. As a result, he passed 2471 runners in the first 5K and 865 runners in the next 5K. He was feeling pretty good, holding approximately 7:45 pace until about mile 12, when he started to feel a cramp coming on! I saw him for the first time just past the halfway mark, and he ran the half marathon in 1:43:46, just 7 minutes off my PR pace. He would be close to my PR if he could maintain it, but the cramps jeopardized that.
His split for Mile 14 was 9:21, followed by 14:19 and 12:25 before he shook off the cramp and could run a few 9-minute miles to reach mile 23. He was hobbling along at 11:33 and 12:20 miles before getting a hop-like shuttle to an average 9-minute mile to finish in 4:07:27. This was a PR for him, putting him in the top half of his age and gender group.
After the race, we had a late checkout for the hotel, so my son showered, and we headed home. The 1.75-hour drive was through one heavy thunderstorm, but overall, it was uneventful. We were both exhausted, so we went to bed early.
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