11 of 50 states in the #50in50 done:
NEW YORK 11/4/18: @nycmarathon
NEVADA 11/11/18: @runrocknroll Vegas
PENNSYLVANIA 11/18/18: @Philly_Marathon
WASHINGTON 11/25/18: @seattlemarathon
TENNESSEE 12/1/18: @stjude Memphis
ALABAMA 12/8/18: @irunrocketcity
FLORIDA 1/13/19: @rundisney #wdwmarathon
LOUISIANA 1/20/19: @thelamarathon
MISSISSIPPI 1/26/19: Mississippi blues Marathon
ARIZONA 2/9/19: Mesa-Phoenix Marathon @phxmarathon
TEXAS 2/17/19: Austin marathon @austinmarathon
I woke early at Erica and Greg’s Place in East Austin to run the Austin Marathon. Greg made me coffee and I made a hummus muffin sandwich, and a banana. The coffee did it’s thing pretty quickly.
Greg drove me to around 8th and I-35. I then walked to 2nd and Congress, where the start line was and near the pace group Ferd and I were running with. Ferd was staying at a Marriott hotel near the start. We met up with Aaron and Stephen Berry, my nephews. They also had a couple of other friends running, Hunter and Jason. Stephen had a knee injury, and was wearing a brace.
Ferd, Hunter and I went to Ferd’s room to use the bathroom one last time. We then got out and started running with the pace group. The mass start was very crowded, with all 11,000 marathon and half marathon runners starting at the same time. The race organizers should do a better job managing the amount of runners in their race. They should at least do wave starts. The field was way too crowded all the way until mile 8. This is also one of the races where the runners don’t get much direction from the racer organizers on how to seed themselves. I saw friends Shannon, Javier, Greg, Erica, Dan, Ines and Brad at multiple times throughout the race. It was great to see them.
The weather was mostly good in the 50s with decent humidity up until around 9am. From 9am-11am it was a little warmer and humid. The course was a bit difficult with many steep inclines. There is also a very steep incline at mile 26.
Ferd and I finished at 4:14, not bad considering the hilly course and the temperature.
Here are the splits:
Stephen somehow managed to finish with Aaron in 4:50. Hunter finished in an amazing 3:11, wow. Jason finished after Aaron and Stephen.
The best part of this race is the race medal which doubles as a Texas-sized belt buckle. I’ll wear it to work at some point.
Overall this is a difficult race, with issues that can be fixed like managing the start of the race to handle the amount of people.
If people are going to do a Texas race, I don’t recommend Austin. I will be looking at Houston for next year, which I’ve heard great things about.
After the marathon, we all met at East Tavern for food and drinks. It was nice to be with everyone. We then went back to Erica and Greg’s to shower and relax.
After a little bit of relaxing, I met up with some more friends for dinner. I saw Kaleb, April, their kids, Sam, Maggie (her birthday), Javier and Shannon at Lupe Tortilla.
Next marathons/states on the schedule:
2/24 MA (Hyannis)
3/2 SC (Myrtle Beach)
3/3 AR (Little Rock)
3/9 NC (Wilmington)
3/17 GA (Atlanta)
3/21 NM (Clayton)
3/22 OK (Guymon)
3/24 KS (Wichita)
Join me on the #50in50 for the Gweneviere Mann Foundation, with many ways to get involved.
PLEASE DOWNLOAD GWENEVIERE’S SONG
She was excited about releasing an album that she had just finished, but she passed before she could realize that dream, so we just recently released a single "What I Can Be" off of her album for her so that we could fulfill that dream for her. Download it here
Together we will save lives through early detection programs for lung cancer and brain tumors.
I ❤️ you Gwen.
-Yasir