American Bank Half Marathon

This half is a great race, it's great fun, and it's important.

It's an great race. Only about 75 run the full half, about another 40 relay teams. So you can park your car 100 yards from the start, walk down, visit 5 minutes, and go. It's flat and straight out and back starting at the T-Head dock and stretching out to about a mile from the university.

This year, they made it even better. Previously, runners had to hug the 5 foot shoulder along Ocean Drive, which exposes you to two lanes of 40-45 mi/hr traffic, and moderate road roughness. This year they coned-off, really well, one full lane. With only 130 or so runners, it's like having your own lane.

It's fun because the who's-who of the running community are there. There's a great post race gathering inside the American Bank meeting room with food, sodas, and yes beer. So it's fun to spend an hour post race catching up.

It's important because the race is a perfect baseline gauge for those planning to do the full marathon in Houston or Austin the following 8-10 weeks. However, like any race, especially in Texas, the weather is unpredictable.

Last year it was perfect and I ran a 1:29:50 PR. This year, not good at all. At gun time it was 64 degrees, moderately humid, and a strong south wind. Standing behind the start-line, I asked McAllister if he would try to match his 1:23 from last year (he's 53-amazing, he ran in college). He replied, "not in this weather." I still thought I could PR; in some ways I was in worse shape from last year, no real speed work, and having just come off San Antonio full marathon four weeks early. But my weight was pretty good and I'd been running well, but a little inconsistently.

I decided to run totally on feel; I wore a regular watch (no GPS), and no pace tats. Really, the watch was for aesthetic reasons, I wasn't even planning to look at it. The gun fired and we were off.

The first 4 miles headed south was against a strong wind; I didn't even look at my watch knowing I was probably off a 1:30 pace. As usual, I wasn't feeling all that smooth. At mile four the course slightly bends southeast, which did abate the wind some. By mile 5 I was feeling better.

I checked my time at the turn around, 46:20 (1:32:40 pace). With the wind at my back, I lengthened my stride, and started to look for someone to catch, but there was nobody. I was in the top ten and the other nine were spread out over 400 yards to a mile in front; there were two other guys about 10 yards behind me.

At mile 8 I shook the two behind me, but one was still within 100 yards, when I saw another runner ahead and caught him at 9. He wasn't looking very good. "Hey partner, how you do'in?" I asked. "Just shooting for a 1:40," he replied. "Awe, you can cruise to a 1:35 at this point," I encouraged. That seem to do the trick; he fell in stride next to me.

We exchanged names (Brent), he was a third year medical student from San Antonio doing a rotation at a local hospital. We chatted for about a mile, and then I picked it up to see if he would hang; he did no problem matching me stride for stride. I told him he looked strong, he was equally encouraging. He did note that his small frame and lightness was an advantage, but he hadn't really trained much either. He mentioned something about running competitively, but I don't recall if it was high school or college as the weather was turning hot and I was really trying to focus on my stride.

As we came into the last mile I could tell he was a bit stronger than I. As we were about to make our move I said, "OK, I expect your best." He replied, "I expect the same." We pushed each other in 150-200 meter strides over the last mile. With 200 yards left I told him to make his move. He sprinted ahead to finish about 20 yards ahead of me.

I finished the back side of the course in 45:35, finishing in 1:31:54 and placing 9th out of 75 half marathoners and 12th out of all including the 40 or so relay teams, 1st in my division. Was hoping for sub 130, really about 1:26-1:27, but given the weather and it was only 4 weeks post San Antonio marathon, not bad.