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| Fireworks at the start line. |
I've watched my girlfriend Noelle train her ass off on the treadmill and around Town Lake, week after week, for 10 weeks. She had found a training guide in Runner's World to bust 2 hours on your first half Marathon. I was going to do it with her but after getting out of training to do some overtime, and then getting some kind of week long fever illness at one point, I admit it, I whiffed.
Noelle? Not so much. I don't know if she missed more than one run. She certainly kept herself on track even when I bailed.
Last night while non-marathoners partied and made noise Noelle went to bed around 9 in anticipation of an early wake up. When the noise outside was bothersome she jumped on the couch to get some precious Z's.
We woke up and she conducted her pre-race routine, I got my spectator gear ready. Around 6:10 AM we jumped in the car and I drove us as close to the starting point as I could get. Noelle jumped out and I swung around to park.
I drove up to Ali's house west of Campus, parked and rode my bike back down to the start line and watched the opening ceremonies.
20,000 runners crossed the line, Lance Armstrong and friends started it off followed by some of the most devoted people of Austin, surrounding cities and states, Mexico and other nations as well I'm sure.
I started my watch when I saw Noey cross the start line. I tweeted that her adventure started and undid my lock to start biking around for a place to shoot some pics from.
Navigating the city during an event is hard! more of that below. I fought my way to the 10 mile mark which is quite a steep hill just 2 miles from the end. I can't say I was ever really afraid, but a boyfriend has his concerns. It's a hard event and Noelle had never done it before.
As the minutes ticked by I got the point where started doing mental math. I knew in order for Noelle to finish in her 2 hour goal would be if she had held her 9 minute mile pace. Having thought I was at the 10 mile marker, I watched 90 minutes tick by and started trying to see every face in the crowd to find her expecting little Nobi at any minute.
At 97 minutes I thought about muscle cramps, fatigue, blood sugar bottoming out, vomiting, falling, oh no! Falling! What if she fell!
At 99 minutes I saw an extra set of arms come out of a guys back and flap like he was flying. As he passed I saw Noey running strong behind him signaling to me with her arms that she had found me!
I sprinted up the steep hill taking pictures and video. It dawned on me that I was at mile 11, not ten. The course splits around 10 and the marathon goes north and the half comes back to the capitol to finish. She was right on target for a 2 hour finish after all!
Then she fell... and immediately got back up. No damage and still on track. Hey, you should have seen the hill.
I jumped on my bike and headed to the last corner near the finish line and watched her cross at 1:58:27! Over a minute and a half under goal.
Final stats, 6.6 MPH average, 9 minute 2 second mile pace.
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| Pre Race Noey! |
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| Lance Armstrong. See below for a funny story about this guy. |
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| Runner's High,, as a kite! |
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| WOOT WOOT! 1st spotting of Noey after the start. This is at the bottom of the hill, next pic. |
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| It doesn't look so bad from here, but after 11 miles is looks like this>. |  |
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| Last turn before the finish chute. |
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| After getting her medal! |
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| I told her to pose how she felt and stop being modest. |
So my sporting accomplishments are now overshadowed. She has a faster 5k, a 13.1 under the belt, a she's done the last event, and the next two events she is going to do with me. I have quite the hole to dig myself out of.
Lance Armstrong.
So I dropped Noey near the start and then parked in west campus. I mounted my bike and rode back over to the race to get a spot at the start.
Where 11th meets Congress there is a parking lot. While rolling through it to get to the start line I had the sensation of 'hey, I know that car,' and I looked to try and remember whose it was. Mind you it's still dark out and I have a 250 lumen head lamp on my helmet.
So my headlight is illuminating the car and I see it's an electric Nissan Leaf with California plates and a factory installed one-of-a-kind Livestrong edition placard on the rear. I have seen this car up close and personal since Noelle did the Livestrong 5k and I went to packet pickup with her. That car was on display and I grilled the Nissan peron about it since the Chevy Volt is coming out soon and I wanted to compare notes.
So this morning I spotlight the car with my head lamp and I say aloud to myself "oh yeah, Lance Armstrong," because I remember that Livestrong is his organization, Nissan is a sponsor of his racing team and that's his personal car. Then I start rolling past the car and see two men stretching. My bright ass beam catches their attention and I see Lance Armstrong whince at me like "cut it out you fuck."
Mind you I had a muffin and about 2 sips of coffee, and maybe 3 hours of sleep before this morning and was not in full swing yet. So I double take him and hit him with the light again. Yep, still Lance Armstrong. Sorry dude.
Biking around during an event is a challenge! Unfortunately the south congress area isn't very grid-ey and side streets don't go straight. You can't ride on the race course unless you are an official pace bike or ref etc, you can't tear up the sidewalk without killing spectators, so you try to get a view of the racers by taking side streets and then coming back to the course.
I tried to find a place near the south end of the event to shoot pics but then it seemed like I'd get stuck there. I was going up south First (going south) and saw Lance coming down. There was one vehicle lane going south that I was using. When I saw him I thought I should get a photo of him and I turned around and realized there was a vehicle lane to go up hill but not one to come down. I didn't want to get pulled over for crashing the course so I took side streets and tried to get lance at Riverside and just missed him.
Then I went under the city to the hike and bike trail and came up at the pedestrian bridge's new extension over Cesar Chavez which is part of the course. Just missed him again. I'm biking a total zig zag at 15 mph avg speed and he's running the course straight at 10 MPH ish. He's beating me.
Finally I said "ok, i understand," and just went from there to mile marker 11 at the hill to wait it out. Lucky for me he did the Half and not the full marathon so I got the picture above of him climbing the steep hill with his pacer. I stayed posted to see Noelle climb the hill and got to meet up with friendo's (Alexis and Justin) after she passed! From there I got a short cut to the finish to see her run to glory.
Now to make a tri-athlete out of her.
