Texas Marathon

For the fifth consecutive year, I ran the Texas Marathon this morning in Kingwood (northeast of Houston). The course is four loops on a 6.55-mile concrete sidewalk through the greenbelt in Kingwood. Tough course and lots of trip opportunities (did one of those last year). Previous finish times:
2008 - 6:30:24
2009 - 6:06:50
2010 - 6:08:21
2011 - 6:07:53
With the hamstring problems, I figured I would finish between 6:30 and 6:45. The concrete was harder on the hamstrings than I thought. Several times, my legs almost collasped. I ran the entire distance, but very slow. I heard a spectator use the word "wobbily." There was an opportunity to switch to the half marathon during the race, but I decided to finish the full marathon. I have not seen my exact time, but it should be about 7:21. As last year, they presented the finishers with a Texas-size finisher medal (3.3 pounds). I also received a plague for completing the race 5 times.
Got to see and visit with a lot of good friends down there. Had a chance to visit with Larry Macon, 66, of San Antonio before and during the race. In 2010, he ran 106 marathons and set a new world record, breaking his own record of 104. He ran a marathon in south Texas yesterday, which gave him 113 for 2011 and a new world record. I met him last year at the Texas Marathon and also ran into him at the Athens (Ohio) Marathon last spring. I asked him if he was going to do something crazy in 2012 and he said no.