I Didn’t Run the 2018 Chevron Houston Marathon

I didn’t run the 2018 Chevron Houston Marathon. That’s right. Even though my name shows in the official records as finishing in 5:56:33, I didn’t run it.

No. I walked it.

That’s right. I walked the entire marathon, and I finished within the six-hour time limit.

Here are ten lessons that I learned or re-learned from the race.

Lesson 1: It is possible to walk a marathon in under six hours. I thought last summer that I had a chance to do so. That thought came from walking twelve miles one Saturday morning at an average pace of 13:00/mile. I had completed many marathons as a run:walk athlete. But, I suspected that I could become a faster walker. So, I spent last year focused on improving my walking pace. Run:walk athletes should work on their walking as well as their running. Writing Run:Walk Pace Tables in Minutes/Mile taught me that. This marathon reinforced that lesson.

Lesson 2: People who walk marathons on a regular basis must have what I call Marathon Willpower. I attempted this as a bucket-list item. I don’t know if/when I’ll try it again. It takes a lot of concentration. But, I’ll share something from that book that I applied in this race. I focused away from racers who were having a hard time. My natural inclination is to speak words of encouragement to people struggling in a race. In this marathon, though, I applied a lesson from that book. I focused on my own effort. This saved me from spending energy on speaking. More important, this saved me from willpower depletion. I let the spectators encourage those struggling racers. I spoke some thirty words in total across the entire marathon, most often to say “Thank you.” when I heard my name. Otherwise, I kept silent, listened to my breathing and footfall, and focused on my form.

Lesson 3: If you get a finisher medal for a marathon, it’s not a participation trophy. It’s a sign of achievement. It would be a participation trophy, if you got it for showing up at the race.

Lesson 4: Racewalkers look odd but know what they’re doing. My wife and I took a racewalking clinic from Dave McGovern two months ago. Dave is the only eight-time Olympic Trials finalist in US history. He caught me on video walking like Bigfoot. Dave used that video to teach me how to hold my arms so that I don’t throw energy backward. Thanks, Dave. I still have much to learn, but that one change gave me a consistency that I otherwise would not have had. Even better, that gave me confidence in estimating finish times, as I cover in lesson 8.

Lesson 5: Starting toward the back can help in the first miles. “Finish Gun” minus “Finish Net” shows that I crossed the start line at 53:45 into the marathon. This is close to the 53:40 that I saw on the start clock when I crossed the first timing mat at the start line. I was among the last to start. This meant that I wasn’t stuck in lots of traffic at the start. This also meant that I could get psychological boosts from passing lots of people in the first miles.

Lesson 6: The more crowded the race, the faster I go. This sounds like a contradiction to lesson 5, but it’s not. As I wrote in Marathon Renegade, don’t worry about running a negative-split marathon. Many elite runners positive-split their marathons. This race made me appreciate one reason I positive-split my Chevron Houston Marathons. That reason is the break-away from the half-marathoners near mile 8. Because I start in the final corral (“D”), most marathoners are ahead of me from the start. More half-marathoners than marathoners surround me before the break-away. The crowd of racers thins quite a bit after the break-away. This hurts my pace, as I have fewer rabbits around me. Worse for my pace, the racers after the break-away are the slowest marathoners.

Lesson 7: I now like Altra Escalante shoes. Injury-Avoidance Habits for First-Time Marathoners and Half-Marathoners advises buying from a specialty store. That’s what I did two years ago when I first bought Brooks Pure Flow 4 shoes. These have a 4-millimeter drop from heel to forefoot. They helped me to learn the Pose Method of forefoot running, which requires a low heel. I went to a specialty store again last December when I bought Altra Escalante shoes. These have a 0-millimeter drop from heel to forefoot. Zero-drop shoes make the racewalking technique of rolling through the extended foot easier. The Altras also have a wide, clown-shoe-like toe-box. This makes forefoot running easier, too. Although I like this particular shoe now, you might like something else. That’s cool. Go to a specialty store, and find what works for you. And, be willing to change as your body and walking or running style change.

Lesson 8: Use mile or kilometer flags to keep estimating finish times. When I walked by the half-way flag at 2:48:19, I calculated that this was a marathon pace of 5:36:38. But, I also noticed from my GPS watch that my pace had slowed to ~14:00/mile. I did the arithmetic for 13.1 more miles at 14:00/mile to estimate a finish time of 2:48:19 + about 182 minutes. That gave me a finish-time estimate of 5:50. Later flags kept giving me finish-time estimates of 5:52. When my GPS watch started showing mile completions closer to 14:30/mile, I knew that 5:52 was unrealistic. But, that pace plus stopwatch times at the final flags gave me confidence that I would finish in under six hours. In fact, my estimate at the mile-22 flag was that I could finish in 5:56 by maintaining about a 14:30/mile pace. I did, and I did!

Lesson 9: Encouragement by training buddies late in a marathon can propel me to a strong finish. That’s what happened this year at about 24 miles into the marathon. Ed, Margot, Hugh, and so many others: Thank you. Your fist bump, your shouts, your applause, and your pretzels made the final two miles a joyous blur.

Lesson 10: A marathon’s finish chute rocket-boosts the happiness of achievement. I get emotional whenever I run or walk that final stretch of a marathon. This finish was extra special. Not only had I completed a marathon, I had set a time goal and beaten it. For that, I am grateful.

Have you set a racing goal and beaten it? Encourage other readers by posting a comment about it here!