Little Rock Marathon

I had been looking for a March race. I was flipping from one race calendar to another looking for something that would fit in my schedule. Then I flipped to Twitter to see what was going on. Then Little Rock Marathon tweeted a trivia question, winner gets free entry. I googled quick and I answered and then waited and then... I WON!!! I'm going back (see my Feb 2014 recap) to Arkansas in March to run the Little Rock Marathon.  Thank you @LRMARATHON!

Now the problem. I already have The Woodlands Half in place for the day before. Going to be one hell of a rollercoaster running weekend!! 

I am still training for  my first marathon and I am already registered for THREE in 2015. 

Double the Race Weekend - sorry it's a long one.

First it is a very big race weekend here in Houston. The weather has finally turned to fall. The morning temps have been very mild and mostly humid free creating the perfect race conditions. For all types of races. 

To start my weekend I took off early from work Friday to help out for a few hours at the packet pick up for the Fairfield Triathlon.  It is a very fun experience to be on the other side of the table for a change. 

Saturday my girls and I ran (mostly walked) the RainTree Village 5k. I choose the race because of the price. For the $30 bucks I got entry's for all three of us. I was really surprised at how well this turned out for me. I got a bib and cotton shirt and my girls got bibs, trick-or-treat bags with Halloween cups in them that were filled with candy. The start was right at 8 am, as scheduled. The course was thru a neighborhood so the streets weren't coned off but at the major intersections there were police managing traffic. The course was marked with spray painted arrows better than most races that are not only twice this size but also double the cost. The only way you would have gotten off course would be if you just didn't completely pay any attention to anything around you. There was even a water stop at the neighborhood park. And at the finish, not Bling-whore type medals, but medals that would be reasonable to expect for a small race. For the record I have done bigger, more put together events that don't give out finisher medals, so I am giving the organizers of this race MAJOR props for even getting them. Post-race offered the usual assortment of fruit, granola bars, water and PowerAid along with candy and treats fitting any Halloween race. For a small neighborhood race I am giving this one an 'A'. 

Sunday was an actual race day. The first race in the warm-up series for the Chevron Houston Marathon, the Houston Half. This race is put on my the Houston Striders running club. Last year it's sell out snuck up on many runners. In previous years there was a half marathon relay for runners working up to the Aramco Houston Half marathon. This year there was no relay option but instead a single 10k. The two races mark the half way point for many local running groups training for either January race. 12 weeks out to the Louisiana Marathon it was a natural choice to run this half.

Being a race downtown your biggest obstacle is parking. It's not that there isn't enough but that it is slow going into the parking garages. There are two garages that are free to runners and a third that is free for volunteers, parking anywhere else can run you $7-$20. As I have said before the BEST place to park downtown for races is at Rusk and Bagby or Rusk #2 as it is now labeled. This just so happens to be one of the free garages. I got there about 5:15 and had no issues with parking, I was told 15 minutes later and that was when the issues started.

Yellow Volunteer tech-shirt

What most races don't do is make volunteer positions open to runners to do the morning of the race. This one does, so I also signed up to help out at the bag drop. Runners are so cute race morning, especially those who haven't run too many races. Runners coming to bag drop tables not to drop bags but looking for safety pins and even funnier is that the lady in charge of bag drop was prepared for them and made sure there were pins on every table. Once the crowd hit and things got moving my time prerace moved so freakin' fast it wasn't funny. Before I knew it, 1 1/2 hours had past and it was 15 minutes to start time. I had a really great time helping out and felt bad that I was leaving these ladies knowing that they were not going to get a break before the last runner had picked the last bag up. Dedicated volunteers will make or break any race and as a runner I could not be more thankful for their countless hours of selfless dedication.

I made my way up the hill to the team tents, which was murder. I think they need to work out better logistics in the way they organize things. I think if they swapped the bag drop and the team tent area they could sort of trap people below the start line and force them to enter the start shoot from the correct direction by blocking off the middle gate. It might help stop the issue that happened this year, that I am sure happens most years. which was people lining up facing the wrong direction. This year this issue delayed the start.

The Houston Half is a larger race, I think 5000 was the cap this year. I am sure it was at max capacity. That makes for an interesting first mile. I have issue enough with the first mile between warming up and finding a comfortable pace. Being run over is one thing I don't like to deal with. I seldom have to deal with people being in my way and even tho I start further back, I guess my slowness is too much for some rude runners to take. Anyways the few first miles run thru part of downtown, which is not really the best part of downtown. It's smelly, urine and sewage, and ugly as most run down buildings can be but before you know it.

When I got around to where the course ran a street over from the start I was able to cheer on the 10kers as they started their race. They course from here is nice for Houston. It follows Allen Parkway for a bit and then turns at Shepherd to run on Memorial Drive. What's really cool about running on Memorial Dr. is that there are other runners out, not running the race, that give cheer as they go on their run for the morning.

I took a pit stop at 6.5 miles. Why here? Well frankly because it was the first set of port-a-potties that didn't have a line in front of them since the start of the race. I was actually doing quite well at this point. I hit mile 7 and tried to do some math. If I kept up that speed and ran another 5 miles, I would finish in like 2:23. Problem was my math was all wrong and I needed some sugar to clear things up. At mile 8 I sucked down a honey packet and rechecked my math. I am sure you already figured out where I went wrong. At 7 I still had 6 miles to go. Meaning that if I maintained pace it would be a 2:36 finish. Not real shabby either way. With that sorted I threw out any time goals and just kept chugging on.

The Texas cut-out spins!

Somewhere between mile 9 and 10 I busted out the sports beans and completely did myself in nutrition wise. I had now over sugared myself. At this point I could not get enough water in me to dilute things fast enough. Groggy and a little lightheaded I adjusted my intervals and continued running 1:1. Mile 11 1/2 I was struck by what I thought were stomach issues, so I once again took a potty break and was thankful I was wrong. On my way back out to the course I ran into a runner friend, who like me was just trying to get to the end. So we chatted up the final final distance working the 1:1 and crossed in very good spirits. I ended up running it in 2:43:30, 15 seconds faster than my overall half average.



Coming up is another one of those "longest training run yet" weekends. 17 miles to my goal on Saturday and Yoga on Sunday are the plan.

Only two races on the calendar for November, LaPorte By the Bay Half and the Wild Hare 25k.

Toughest 10k Galveston

Shuttle buses at race start drop off

The second race in the Texas Bridge Series is the Toughest 10k Galveston. This was my second time running this race (and the series). Before we talk about the race we need to touch on logistics. The area around the start/finish is mainly homes in an area with a few businesses. This makes for very little open parking. In previous years runners have had to park along the I-45 feeder and walk into the race creating a very dangerous situation for all involved. This year RAS tried something different. Instead of having runners park at the start they had off site parking and shuttled runners back and forth.  From my hotel I saw the first buses begin rolling in at 5:45 and when I was leaving the hotel at noon the buses were still dropping people back off at their cars. Problem was the process of people moving didn't happen fast enough and in the 45 minutes between when runner were told to start lining up and 40 minutes after the race start time about a dozen buses (and a number of van loads) of people had to be moved. Yes I did just mention that the race started 40 minutes late BUT I am not sure how they could have avoided it. If they started on time half the race field would have been in left in a Target parking lot. That to be would have been a bigger disaster than the late start. 

Dawn over the start line.

What I would recommend is to staying on the island at one of the local hotels. There are not too many close to the start. The one closest is the Howard Johnson Express, which is little more than a roach motel. The drawback to staying there is the trains that run right behind the hotel, all night long. If you can live with that it is a quick walk to the start. On the other side of the freeway the closest hotel is the Springhill Suites. It's 1 1/2 miles to the start line which is a good distance for a warm up run if you are brave enough to tackle the feeder. The staff here is conscious about the fact that runners stay here and started the breakfast 2 hours early allowing runners to grab a little light snack before the race. Another plus this year is that it was about 1/2 mile walk to the shuttle parking lot. There are also a few other hotels on the side of the freeway near the shuttle drop. I was scheduled to run 9 for the day so I braved the feeder both ways. Thing to note about running this stretch of the feeder, the Springhill's freeway exit is the same one people are taking to get the offsite shuttled parking lots so it's really busy for the first 1/4 mile or so then just plain dark. Make sure you bring your reflective gear and a headlamp for safety, I also carried a nearly empty backpack which I stored at the bag drop at the start. The thing I like about their bag drop is that it's not one of those "you can only use our bag" kind of races so whatever you have works best. They also have race day packet pick up which fast and very efficient.

On to the race. The first mile leads you up to a water stop and the start of the bridge. The second mile takes you up and over for the first time. The third mile leads you another water station, on-wards to the turn around point on Tiki Island and then to another water station before you head back out to the bridge. Mile four winds up climbing back up the Causeway. Mile 5 is nice and easy as you come off the bridge back to flat running and the final aid station. By the time you see the flag for mile 6 you can hear the announcer reading off the names of everyone as they cross the finish.  At the finish you get one of the best medals you will every get. This year is had a spinner component. The festivities at the finish include all the food you can stomach, breakfast tacos and pizza as well as bananas and orange slices, sodas, water and ice cold beer. I did well this year, besting my previous finish time for this race by almost 2 minutes.

Coming up next week is a double running weekend. I an running the Raintree Village 5k with my daughters on Saturday and then Sunday I am working bag drop as well as running the Houston Half. If you will also be there be sure to come by and say "Hi."

Marathon training is certainly not on hold but it feel like it resumes again November 1st, 

16 Miles

Got my first taste of running out of my comfort zone this past weekend. I've got to tell you it wasn't ideal. The group started at a pace I don't train at but I kept at it and did little complaining about it. I did have some doubt that I could maintain it but as the miles went on it felt really good to dig deep, suck it up and do it. At about 14 1/2 miles my hip popped out of socket (or something of that nature) and it required me to stop running mile by mile and have to start running more minute by minute. BUT thankfully one of the coaches kept with me and helped me keep my mind off the pain. We talked thru it and even as we headed towards the run I mustered the strength to finish it running. I was relieved to be done but I have to admit I felt stronger for doing it. Thank you Jaye for sticking it out with me. 

I recovered by hitting the bath with as cold of water as I could stand for as long as I can stand it. After putting my feet up the wall for a few minutes I actually felt pretty good. I'm really wondering if it's more about what you do to recover more than how far you ran that makes the biggest difference. I mean I have run 4 miles and felt far worse the day after than I did after the 16. And of course after those 4 I do little more than a bit of stretching and making coffee.

The weather today is miserable. 75 with 90%+ humidity but it comes with the promise of 55 in the morning. I had an easy 35 on the schedule but I think I can manage that and tomorrow's prescribed speed workout. I think it may be good training for November when I have to add to races to make up my scheduled miles.

Buffalo Stampede

First Fall half in the books! I gotta tell ya, in my mind I was thinking this would be just another "small town race". I was so wrong. Don't get me wrong it was in the sense that it was a small town race with a small town crowd and small town after party with small race swag (virtual bag and cotton t-shirt) BUT this was no small race course. OMG! I had read that the last 2 miles were all down hill, it dawned on me towards the beginning of the race that, that meant the first two miles were all uphill. First 2 miles were nothing the entire 6.55 miles out were rolling hills which also meant that the same 6.55 miles back were the same rolling miles. Once again OMG! Hills are very non-existent in the area of Houston I am used to running in. Every so often I make it a point of running in town or a race that has hills BUT this time it was completely unintended. I think tho that in-spite of all that I did pretty alright.  Things they did right? It started on time OR at least they tried to start on time. There is nothing a RD can do about an accident on the race course pre-race. We ended up with about a 15 minutes delay (after a false start) while cars where removed from the road we were running on. They had a cheer squad contest which was cool. Starting at the 1/2 mile and then every mile after were these different squads which was fun. Inbetween the groups were the aid stations which were stocked with Gateraid and water and port-a-potties. It made it so you were never alone on the course for too long. Things I did right? I stuck to my program, until it became too completely unbearable to do so. Mile 11.5 I had to take a potty break and then about 12.5 I had to ease off the intervals and began running 1:1 for a full cycle but manage to get back on pace for the final 1/4 mile. 

Once I hit that final turn it was really all down hill and I managed to cross with a smile on my face. Not much of a crowd at the finish and the awards were already being announced but it was victory for me. This is the first race in the past 4 1/2 years that my husband came to support me on and it was so nice to actually have someone there for me at the finish. He even made effort to take some live action shots for me. I finished in 2:41:13.

Up next, marathon training takes a new turn. The Cy-Fit coaches have decided to merge the Marathon 1 group and the Marathon 2 group for a few weeks so instead of 14 next weekend I am now looking at the challenge of 16 miles. 15 weeks to the startline of the Louisiana Marathon and I am finally moving on to uncharted territory for me.