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.
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.
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.
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.
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| Yellow Volunteer tech-shirt |
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.
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| The Texas cut-out spins! |
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.
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