2011 Chevron Houston Marathon - 3:16:26 / 7:30

Net Time: 3:16:26
Pace: 7:30
Rank: 260/9416
Age Grade: 63.7%

Houston marks my 24th marathon, and certainly had to battle through tummy issues. After so many marathons I would've thought that I got this down under a science and given by my own pre-race rituals, my tummy tends to be on the resilient side. Unfortunately when it came to race time, it was not the case. Sunday's experience proved to be very new to me as I had to make three stops (record breaking lol) throughout the course and was unable to carry a good rhythm for the race. Truthfully, once the pain started on mile 4, I slid into a downward spiral. Nevertheless, will chalk this one up, try some black coffee in the morning as a pre-race ritual to ensure this won't happen again. However, I learned that despite this setback, literally shyt happens but still have to complete the race no matter what the finishing time was.

Splits:
Mile 01: 6:55:61
Mile 02: 6:40:06
Mile 03: 6:51:16
Mile 04: 6:51:93 (start of stomach pains)
Mile 05: 6:52:40
Mile 06: 6:54:85
Mile 07: 7:03:40
Mile 08: 7:00:52
Mile 09: 7:08:99
Mile 10: 7:22:34
Mile 11: 8:23:74 (First stop)
Mile 12: 7:16:24
Mile 13: 7:16:03
Mile 14: 7:22:85 (2nd round of stomach pain)
Mile 15: 7:22:86
Mile 16: 7:28:51
Mile 17: 7:32:57 (desperately seeking for the porta-john)
Mile 18: 9:08:76 (2nd stop)
Mile 19: 7:33:61
Mile 20: 7:45:30
Mile 21: 7:49:93 (3rd round of pain)
Mile 22: 7:56:75
Mile 23: 7:55:26
Mile 24: 8:08:93 (3rd stop and hopefully the last)
Mile 25: 8:05:44
Mile 26.2: 9:38:21