Sunday, December 14 was the McAllen Marathon and Half Marathon and Relay Marathon. Over 1000 people signed up for the half. A very large crowd.
The plan was to run with John Rodriguez as we had been training together. He'd been itching to go faster but I'd been trying to rein him back. Our goal was to train for the Austin 26.2 in February after all.
John seemed nervous and preoccupied that morning. Not sure why. We got there early and milled around. I looked for the fellow Maniacs warming up but couldn't find anyone. We saw some usual marathoning faces, Randy and Michelle, Scott Crane, City Commissioner, Frank, Tammy and others. At 7:00 a.m the gun went off and we started.
Following our plan (generally) we had our walk breaks planned. John was walking fast. Running about the same. Weather was mild. At mile 5 John said he cramped up and fell behind. I of course thought he was ahead of me and started running faster. He caught up but then we separated again. I ran the last few miles with Tammy and then by myself.
I had expected my time to be between 2:15 and 2:20 and came in on that number. My results are here. John came in at 2:24. We were in the second half of the 40-49 age group. As expected.
I enjoyed the finish line and then headed off to church. One of the advantages of running in Houston is the 0545 church service there. But the 1100 service at St. John's did fine.
Very bad news later that day made for a dark end. Our friend Scott Crane pulled out of the full marathon at mile 17, feeling bad. He went home, collapsed and was rushed to the hospital where he died that afternoon - massive heart attack at age 50. Scott was an experienced runner so it was quite unusual that it happened. RIP Scott. You will not be forgotten.
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