JAIME AGUILAR

Motorola Austin Marathon 2000

Going into the marathon, I was a little nervous. I wasn't sure what my goal should be. Originally my goal was to try to qualify for the Boston Marathon. During Christmas I took a whole month off. When I came back I died at the 30K. I still though I had enough time to get back in Boston shape. I had it all figured out. I was going to keep training, do a couple of really long runs and then do the 21 miler with the Ausitn Fit. If I could do the 21 miler, I would be fine. The problem came when I was doing the 21 miler. I died after 19 miles. That was really disapointing and at that point it killed my Boston hopes. Then at the half, I decided to race it and did exceptionally well. I kept a 6:32 pace. I couldn't draw anything from this though. It is only half the distance and 13 more miles makes a big difference. I was a little confused as to what my startegy was going to be. I ran the monday before the marathon and then took the rest of the week of. I did a very light three miles on friday but I didn't consider that running. On race day I figured I had nothing to lose, if I died I could at least walk to the finish and still beat my old time of 3:42. So I stuck to the guy with the sign that said 3:10. He was running a bit fast though. I gave him the benifit of the doubt though and stuck with him. I was feeling great. I started to feel my body at about mile 14 or 15. Nothing hurt though. It started to hurt around mile 19, 20, or 21 though. At about mile 22 I looked at my watch. He kept saying that we had about a 2-3 minute cushion. I decided that if I kept that pace, I wouldn't make it to the finish. I also figured that i could run at a 8 minute pace and still finish under 3:10. As I was approaching the finish line, I remembered that it was 26.2 miles and not 26. This made me a little nervous but there was nothing I could do. I was sore. As I made the last turn and saw that it read 3:08.** my eyes just popped out of my face. I started screaming "Boston here I come" "I am going to Boston" and kept trying to get the crowd to cheer. I had beed trying to get the crowd pumped the last four miles by the way. I gave it a little semi-sprint for the last few steps. I couldn't believe what I had just done. I was a little delirious. Missed the people that were handing out the t-shirts, ran to the massage guy. Then decided that I might need to stretch before I get a massage. After walking for a little, I gained back my consiousness and stopped acting stupid. It was a blast.

jaime :)