I deserve some time off. After waking up at 3am MDT to fly to Austin on Saturday, then waking up at 4:30am CDT, which was my 3:30am MDT, on Sunday to race a marathon, then flying home a couple of hours after my race, I was exhausted by Monday. So, with the bitter cold this week, I took some time off. I’ll run this weekend, once the sun warms things up.

This was my 4th Austin Marathon. I ran my first in 2011, which was also my slowest at 4:23. This was the coldest though, by a mile. I saw a woman run the entire distance wearing a puff jacket. I found the weather to be ideal. Many runners wore tank tops – I had mine in my vest and nearly put it on in the final miles but I didn’t want to slow down for the maneuver. I was in race mode. I did wear gloves the first 10 miles.

The photo above was somewhere in the first ten miles because I still have my gloves on. I drank my two 500ml water bottles in the first half and relied on the aid stations, spaced apart every mile, for hydration in the second half. Their BNP electrolytes contained half the sodium of my LMNT’s 1000mg, but had 50mg of calcium whereas LMNT has zero. I would lose ground at aid stations trying to drink two cups. Something for me to work on.

The boy running behind me here looks pretty cold. That I still have my sleeves rolled down suggests it was probably still only 40° or so, as it was most of the run. With 70% humidity, 40° in Texas is cold but perfect for a marathon. The oddest thing during the race was that 3 pairs of women ran past me dressed identical. That’s not the strange part, that was adorable. They would be wearing the same shirt and shorts, but not socks and shoes. Apparently that would have made it weird for them. What was odd was that all 3 of them would pass me by coming behind me from both sides, as if I split them up. There must be something about running as a team.

All 3 pairs of women had attractive outfits, but the only one I can remember is the yellow. Those girls looked like the sunrise. I remember another pair for their hilarious banter. We passed each other back and forth for much of the second half of the race. I could hear them speak when they ran behind me. I don’t recall what they said now but they reminded me of the two women (Kristen Bell and Justine Lupe) in the Netflix series, “Nobody Wants This” as they conduct their podcast. These girls were performative. One of them would randomly shout out, “period” and it was just funny. I thought about taking photos of these girls and their outfits for my blog, but that would have been creepy. The period girls ended up finishing a bit ahead of me.

I don’t recall the last race where I felt like I was in fact racing. I felt strong and steady in the first half but would catch myself getting passed in each mile of the 2nd half and respond with a surge. It felt like racing and took me back to my youth. I was never winded, always running under my lactate threshold, but maintaining a strong pace for 4 hours takes effort. It was satisfying effort, like one feels from working hard. And my form felt good too. So satisfying.

No injuries to recover from but time is still an essential healer and I’m just gonna relax before I do hurt myself and reflect on having run my first marathon in 8 years under 4 hours. It feels good to turn back the clock 8 years. I credit learning how to properly fuel and hydrate from my ultra training for my strong performance. That’s knowledge that I’ll keep, although I’ll have to maintain the training on gels and drinking because it’s not just knowing what to do but training the stomach to handle it. It’s not at all easy fueling and hydrating that much while running. My stomach was full. But those carbs and electrolytes fueled me to a 3:54 finish, top 10 for my age, and feeling good afterward.