Houston Marathon - Marathon #24

Despite the breakthroughs in the marathon distance in the first half of 2018, my fall marathon went poorly.  Partly because I tried to wing it, thinking that my improved fitness alone was enough (I been PRing left and right in shorter distances) and partly because I decided to skip breakfast (something new).  With the North Face 50 miler looming I decided against simply signing up for another marathon in a few weeks and decided on Houston marathon.  I enjoyed the marathon last year but my main motive was more that the timing seemed to work.  This made Houston the first marathon I returned to, my other 23 have been unique.
Training for Houston was mixed.  North Face got cancelled which provided a good opportunity to not worry about recovery and shift gears.  I did well on the 15k Ted Corbitt but for the two weeks afterwards, a final project and a final in a project management class took a lot of my time.  I had a week of work between the holidays which I used to build back up.  My longest run was about 17 miles and I feel like I didn't do enough marathon pace miles. 
I got something like the flu two weeks before Houston and that made sub 8 minute miles hard which affected my last few workouts in the sharpening phase.  It was also the first time doing a sharpening.  I realized that I didn't run enough mileage to do a standard taper.  I focused on running mostly easy with a few marathon miles here and there and a few short sprints in other runs.  I still felt the flue like thing the Thursday before the race.  This made me reassess my goals and lower them.  I aimed for a 3:25 which seemed like a reasonable pace that I could hold and then maybe try to break off at the last 5k.
Like last year I decided to fly to Dallas and then drive over to Houston.  On the way I would stop by Huntsville state park for a shakeout run.  My flight to Dallas got delayed by two hours and by the time I landed, the car rental locations had all closed.  This pretty much caused me to get to Huntsville state park the next morning pretty tired.  I choose Huntsvilled state park because I was curious to checking out some of Rocky Racoon 100's course.  Just as I started the shakeout, I went to take out my phone and go on Instagram and I then tripped on a slight downhill, landing on my face first.  After landing my face dragged a few inches down.  My cheek swelled and I got scratches close to my left eye with some minor on my arm and leg.  My legs were good however and I didn't think the fall would factor into the race the next day.  Bib pickup at the convention right after.  I stopped by the Geico booth to spin their wheel (didn't win), the Marathon Manaics (whom had a VIP tent for the finish line party) and grabbed some cowbells and 5k gloves.  Got some vegan pasta with vegan nachos at Sunshine vegetarian deli, desert at crumbville TX (vegan oreo cookie + vegan vanilla oreo cupcake), checked in and slept about an hour before going out for dinner at Green Seed vegan for a burger.
I ate 3 slices of white bread with peanut butter with a small glass of orange juice for breakfast.  Like last year I went for the free parking close to the convention center.  Easy to find a spot if you get there around 5 am.  I had to be at my corral by 6:45 so I had plenty of time to take a short nap, bag drop, bathroom, and warmup.  I love that the race starts in the convention which is convenient if it is cold (and it was in the morning).  Got my 5 minute jog and a few strides in to warmup.  Start was pretty smooth, national anthem and then started soon after.  Entries with a confirmed result of 4 hours or less are placed in the A corral. There are signs to self-sort.   I found the 3:25 pace group and started with them.  I found it interesting that there was no longer a 3:30 pace group, another indication that the reports of people BQing has not dropped.  You still need to beat your BQ time by 5 minutes to get in.  Temperature was the race started in high thirties and I thought were pretty ideal.  I took a gatorade gel a few minutes before the start. 
 The race starts downhill which leads to a fast feeling start.  The first few miles of the race felt pretty similar to last year.  The views, the scenery, I remembered it all.  I found that pace pretty comfortable and stuck with the pack.  I felt good, like I was flying and I thought how much I enjoyed going fast.  Around mile 8, the half marathon splits off.  It was about 50-50 from my position.  Around this time I started feeling my right leg IT band flare up.  It sort of came from no where, I have had IT band flares here and there but this was the second time it flared up in a long distance event (the first was my first marathon).  Familiar with the pain, I found it easy to ignore.  Around mile 10 I started losing the pack and fell behind.  They were still within my sights but I avoided doing surges to try to catch up.  I would have loved to have been right with them but I figure I would catch up.  I did start struggling with the pace.  I was extremely sloppy with the water stations.  I usually fell behind when I had to take in water and gels.  I should have looked up the water stations and made exact plans on when to take in gels at what water station instead of being like oh shoot, water!  Quickly take a gel and then water.  I even accidentally skipped one water station.  The biggest "hill" of the course was around the half marathon where you have to go over a bridge.  Around mile 17 I completely lost the 3:25 pack and had to pace myself.  I had my bluff blocking my left watch and went by feel.  I kept up a marathon effort but I knew I was slightly slowing down.  I think I also wasn't particularly motivated for a time goal so I didn't give myself that hard push.  I just kept up what felt like a strong effort.  It's quite the opposite of last year where I was really trying to break the 4 hour mark.  Around the 37k mark I noticed that the kilometers counted up so I looked at them rather than mile markers.  It was easier to see the kilometers tick off every few minutes instead of the long miles.  However by mile 24 I felt like complete shit.  I kept thinking that the 3:30 pace group would probably pass me and then I would fight to stick with them but then on mile 24 I remember that there was no 3:30 pace group.  I also saw the timer at 24 and was able to quickly do the math.  I might not even PR!  Mile 24 went fairly badly.  I received a text at about mile 25 from Hong with some encouragement which helped.  I was able to run the last .7 miles in a pretty fast and strong sprint.  I was a little surprised at how comfortable the sprint felt.  Like last year, the crowds and volunteers were great.  There were three spots for Gatorade gels which I took advantage of, though not my favorite gels, not needing water with them is pretty advantageous.  The finish leads back to the convention center where I got my drop bag and changed.  Ate a protein bar, oreos, and bananas to recover.  I skipped the party afterwards and went to a all you can eat vegan buffet in Chinatown.  I was more looking forward to real food that anything.