Sunday, February 15, 2009

Austin Marathon (from the Bike)

Time: none
Distance: none
Bike: about 30 miles

It was another early morning that was filled with excitement. Yesterday, Owen did just about everything in his power to sabotage his race in hopes of finding an excuse for a poor performance. He played a few games of pong, ate a plateful of brownies, dug a hole for the whole pig and smoked a pack of cigarettes. He didn't actually do that last one. Owen was up early and looked to be in good spirits for his debut in the 'thon. I was disappointed that I wouldn't be joining him down at the start line but wanted to serve a role in his performance and watch the race from Hanley's bike.

I rode down to about the 10k mark on the course. It was along Town Lake where I caught my first glimpse of the race. The runners who I thought were the leaders came through and one of them was sporting the Brown tattoo. Turns out Dan Kahn was near the front of the race and it wasn't until later that I realized these guys were running the half-marathon. (It looks like a former NYC Marathon champion, German Silva, was in the field. I've been reading Shannon Rowbury's blog and Silva has a training facility down in Mexico where Rowbury and Leo Manzano have been putting in work.)

The press truck was about a minute behind with the marathon leader who was only about 10 seconds up on Owen and a pack of 3 other runners. Owen looked great but he was being followed closely by an obnoxious Euro dude who wouldn't leave his hip. I understand and am fully for the principles of drafting and racing tactics but when there is no money at stake in a non-championship atmosphere why not help out? I could tell that Owen was annoyed with the dude especially when his request for help was returned with a "sorry, sorry." I'm not sure if he was sorry for not understanding the question or for refusing to share the lead. Besides the Polish dude (who I don't think finished) Owen was running with Gilbert of RunTex fame.

Around 8 miles Owen and his Pollack buddy broke away from Gilbert and looked like they were going to chase down the leader. I was trying not to follow too closely or aid Owen too much because there are some written and unwritten rules to marathoning and road racing in general. I'm all for encouragement and advice but I kinda draw the line with domestiques during the race. Since I wasn't officially a part of the race I thought it be better for me to keep some distance and not appear too vested in Owen's race. Just before the halfway mark Owen had broken the Pole and was running solo in second place. He looked great and was about 20 seconds behind the leader. When he asked for a Gu packet I quickly rode ahead and asked a girl if she would hand a vanilla flavored packet to my buddy running in second place. This was probably unnecessary but a safe way of getting Owen the packet.

I decided to look up the official rules but couldn't find anything relevant, but I remember watching Geb break the WR in the 'thon and the commentator mentioned something about people on bikes not be allowed to give water or substances. I did find this interesting from the 2009 IAAF Competition Rules:
(d) pacing in races by persons not participating in the same race, by athletes lapped or about to be lapped or by any kind of technical device.

Technically, I think Gilbert could be disqualified as late in the race he was helped by members of his support crew. I think at one point he had 4 or 5 others running around him near the 24 mile mark. It's not a big deal on a race of this scale but something that definitely isn't allowed in larger races.

Anyway, Owen looked good until about 18 when the leader started pulling away and by 20 Gilbert was gaining on him. By 21 Gilbert had caught and passed and by 22 things were going from decent to poor. At one point I took a call from Tom McArdle and he asked, "Is Owen gonna win this shit?" I wish I could tell him that was going to be the case, but it wasn't meant to be. Owen's form stayed together until about 24 when the wheels fell off. I feel bad writing about the latter stages, but Owen doesn't like to sugarcoat things either. He didn't completely fall apart, but it definitely wasn't the way he envisioned closing out his debut. You feel bad when your buddy starts to falter but there isn't really anything one can do. I was a bit helpless as I watched the pace slow, the grimmace intensify and know the course was about to head up a hill. I'll let Owen give his account of the race in the coming days.

3761 Jeremy Borling Chicago IL USA Overall 28 M 2:30:05 2:30:05 1 1 1
2 Gilbert Tuhabonye Austin TX
Overall 34 M 2:31:58 2:31:58 2 2 2
2569 Adam Nevens Santa Monica CA USA Overall 29 M 2:33:48 2:33:48 3 3 3
3923 Owen Washburn Washington DC USA M 25-29 25 M 2:36:02 2:36:03 4 4 1
2359 Michael McGrane Arlington MA USA M 35-39 38 M 2:36:40 2:36:40 5 5 1
1655 Jonathan Feddock Lexington KY USA M 25-29 27 M 2:38:21 2:38:22 6 6 2
6 Craig Ottman Keller TX USA M 25-29 26 M 2:39:32 2:39:33 7 7 3
4948 Patrick Darragh Austin TX United States M 35-39 35 M 2:40:32 2:40:34 8 8 2
907 Andy Gardner Kingwood TX USA M 25-29 28 M 2:41:04 2:41:04 9 9 4
4644 Adam Cohen Norman OK USA Master 40 M 2:41:12 2:41:12 10 10 1
1429 Peter Keenan Saint MN USA M 25-29 26 M 2:41:48 2:41:49 11 11 5

Congrats to Adam Cohen who had a great race and Pete Keenen who was part of the Dartmouth crew.

The evening's festivities were great even though Brown (Owen and I) couldn't manage a victory over Dartmouth. Terrible. We only played a couple games of pong and our performance was rather lackluster. Instead of re-posting the photos of the day, I'll simply give a link to Meagan's blog.
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