Wow......I enjoyed this report Tim. Thanks for putting it together for us. It is a great lesson for those of us who run. You did a lot in this race that will benefit you down the road. You pushed the envelope to see what happened. While the results were not what you were hoping for, it did tell you a lot about you are and what you can do in such situations. Somewhere down the road (pun intended), you may come to a section of a race where you will now know what pushing the envelope will do for you. Thanks for sharing this report. You did a super job. Joey

Thanks for taking the time to read my Long RR...as many of you know....mine are usually long... On the subject of even pacing......usually I am quite good at holding an even pace....however during my training...my MP runs were not as consistent as I would have preferred and I think it showed at Houston. The Pfitz program does not offer many pace runs.....thus it becomes difficult to "memorize" the pace...so I will likely add more pace runs next time.... On fueling......around mile 22 I considered another PowerGel.....but just never followed through.....since I had followed my typical fueling plan..... One thing I failed to note in my report....typically I take notice of my cadence.....but never even though of it during the race......which is unusual for me.....could of had an impact on my inconsistent pacing..... Also, I was faster than planned on the first 2 miles......but not faster than my training pace, meaning, during my MP runs I usually hit 7:42 most of the time (which was actually the MP that I originally had planned to practice, but backed of since my half marathon goals were not met).. So with that in mind I was not alarmed...but it is a good possibility that it had a negative impact on my performance. As we all know, too fast in the first few miles can make the final miles awful. I am not sure about the blisters, historically I get a blister on the same toe all of the time, but I have not had any blisters after the 2006 Boston (I had horrible blisters at Boston, but discovered that I was not tightening my shoe laces enough), since then I have run blister free until Houston....during the race I could feel my right sock slipping...I am sure that caused the problem, but not sure why. Anyways...I knew I was taking a big risk..but just felt like I had to..but when all was said and done I still had fun. I have a busy marathon year ahead of me, Boston and NYC, neither of which will be PR's, so I am not sure when the PR opportunity will come again.... Thanks again...