Monday, January 15, 2007

02:06:23

2 hours, 6 minutes, and 23 seconds. That's all it took for me to run the Aramco Houston Half Marathon on Sunday. Meghan, my running partner/Bible study leader, and I ran arrived at the Marathon on Sunday at 6:45 am. Consequently, we did not have much time before the 7 am start. We barely had time to stretch. We did have time for a quick picture or two.Although we arrived in time, we did not get to start when the gun sounded. It took a couple minutes for us to even reach the starting line because of the huge amount of runners that turned out. There were 15,000 participants between the marathon and the half marathon. So, we started out slow but quickly made up time. Here are a some of our splits:
START10k9 MileFINISH
7:02:42 AM CST 1:02:26 1:28:22 02:06:23
This picture was taken at approximately mile nine. Mom and dad were driving from point to point to try and catch us and cheer us on. They actually did find us at three different spots. John and Kevin stayed behind at the finish line with Kaitlyn (Meghan's daugther).

A few more statistics from our race:
Pace: 9:38 per mile. That translates to 6.2 miles per hour.
Place: 2091
Distance: 13.1 miles
Money raised for HIV program: $1200 + plus some more to come this week.Here you see us after the race was over- one of us and one with our supportive husbands. Yes, we are smiling. Meghan and I were able to finish the race under our goal which was 2:10:00. There was one point during the race we had hoped to break 2 hours, but we gave up on that shortly after. We had a great time. We actually talked the whole time and enjoyed watching the other runners. Among other things, there were people in costumes, live bands, a sea of people running with us, and people the ENTIRE way cheering us on. Even though they did not know us. I am hooked. I loved it. I would love to try a full marathon next time (if my knee will have it).

I have included a couple of links to information about the Marathon if you are interested.
http://www.chevronhoustonmarathon.com/site3.aspx
http://www.runpix4.com/hou07/ge.php

5 comments:

aunteem said...

So cool...so proud of you! What an accomplishment. Had little sis at our house a couple of nights this weekend. It was great having her there!
Love to John and love you both!

Anonymous said...

Erika-
Great pictures! Thanks for including the links - they were so fun to look at . YOu two placed very well amongst all those runners! Way to go!!
It was great being there! Love -
Mom

Anonymous said...

Hi Erika! This is Elizabeth, your mom just showed me your blog and told me all about the marathon and everything! That is very cool that you ran in a marathon, I don't know how you (or all those other people) could do it!! I don't think I could even make the half mile! I read your blog and I like the picture of you at the bike rally with the hooter girls! haha. well i'll see you next time you're in the neighborhood. talk to you late
-Elizabeth

the fredin's said...

Hey!! I finally updated my blog:). WAy to go!!! Thats awesome Erika!! Under a 10 minute mile!! Impressive. I'm so glad that your knee was ok during the whole thing. We were praying for you! I decided not to call you the ACTUAL night before:). Since I already thought I had done that...Anyways...talk to you soon! Love you!

Anonymous said...

Erika and John,
What a great accomnplishment!! We are so proud of you. Trust your knee is better. I did enjoy seeing the actual thing. Maybe John will run with you another year!! I could be Grandpa down to run with you!!

I glad your folks got home safely. It is still slick up here. The ice melts and refreezes and that is very slick.

I started putting a puzzle together and should be cleaning my closets instead. That is not as much fun!!!

Love you both,
Grandma Butch