Back from the San Antonio Marathon! Was a hell of an experience. Was pacing my best friend as his first full - he's done an incredible job training and getting in shape - lost 40lbs so far. He killed his last 21 miler @ a 9 min mile pace, so knew he was ready.
Unfortunately, 70 degree starting weather and 90% humidity = we knew it was going to be a bad day. :| By mile 1 we were already drenched...and it normally takes me about 1.5-2 miles to start sweating. I had him go out at a 9:40 pace...which seemed to last until about mile 13-14. Then he said his body was completely done/shot. Hips, legs, knees, feet were all throbbing. I tried pushing him but he was completely pissed/had given up. He ran/walked for the next two miles until he was completely done. Said he was going to find a taxi.
I talked him out of it but he was really hurting...walked for a mile and we sat down. He finally got back up and started walking again, ran a 1/4 mile and stopped. Needless to say, it was a long next 9-10 miles. A lot of walking. I got him to run/walk a bit but he was just completely down/angry. I told him several times about my bad first experience but he was zoned out. He told me to just leave him alone and keep running but there wasn't anyway we could do that.
Anyway, he finally got to see the light at the end of the tunnel about mile 23, the last 5K left. Finally got more excited and more willing to run/walk. We finally rounded the corner and saw our friends at the finish line and finished around the 5:24 mark. About an hour more than we were expecting. In the 6 years I've known him (including be his roomie for 1.5 years) this was the worst/angriest I've ever seen him...he took about 30 minutes with a walk/talk with his wife before he finally calmed down and was able to talk.
My legs/feet/knees have never been this sore in any of my previous 3, but the pounding from slow running/walking, humidity, dehydration all took a toll on the both of us. Least we set the bar low enough on his first that he'll shatter it. All in all about as depressing/bad as my first time, but it's one of the intangibles that you can't change come race day.
The one thing we both agreed upon is that we both weren't mentally ready/psyched to run. Why that was? Could be that one of our buddies who was supposed to run with us and got a stress fracture 3 weeks ago. It was the only thing we could really think of.
Needless to say, he's now excited to run his second one. Our buddy who was hurt is looking to run the second with him. My next was supposed to be in a month at White Rock, but I'm just mentally shot of running right now.