Run? ME?

Yes, it has been a while. No, I am not dead…

January 12th and 13th, I ran in the Houston 5K (Saturday) and the Half-Marathon (Sunday). I have never done two events on back-to-back days, so this was a first for me. But hey, the bling gets better - you get THREE medals, not two!

I stayed at a Mariott downtown, so it was an easy walk to the start for both days. Saturday's race was a little warm, and downright muggy by the time we finished. but it still felt good to get out and do some running... don't tell anybody I said that.

Sunday was a different story altogether - not only was it a lot cooler (almost cold) but it was raining. Raining at the start and for about the first 6 miles. It was an ugly run for me from the very outset. You start with a climb up an overpass, and the rain water was pouring down the hill, so your shoes get completely filled with water, over and over. No fun at all. I made a decent time of it for the first 6 miles, and then the cold and wetness got to my feet. By the time I made it to the turnaround at mile 9, my feet felt like bricks. At times, it was painful to put my feet down. I ended up walking quite a bit of the last 4 miles. But I finished, that's all I can say. I wandered around a bit trying to find the place where you pick up the extra medal for completing both races, and then started toward the hotel and a hot shower. A lady walked by handing out the mylar warming sheets, so I took one and wrapped up. The race went right by the front of my hotel, so I slowed down to cheer on some of the full marathon runners going by. Pretty cool to watch for a bit, then upstairs, shower, pack, and head for home.

This past weekend was the Run For Chocolate 5K and 15K in Dallas. I did this event last year, and many of us started that day wearing garbage bags to keep from freezing in bitter wind. Fortunately, it did warm up enough to discard the bags about halfway into the 15K.

This year, I thought about signing up but never got around to it until my daughter (who had come down to Fair Park to meet me at the finish last year) told me she and her husband wanted to sign up for the 5K. This was a very nice surprise for me, as association with sports events has been largely limited to driving SAG support for my long rides. Needless to say, I jumped in immediately! I figured I could do the 15K while they did their run/walk, and we would finish not too far apart.

Well, once we started getting more information, we found out the 5K would start 40 minutes before the 15K, and Amanda and Matt would be in an early corral, while I would be in one of the last 15K corrals - which meant our start times would be even further apart. Oh well.

I picked them up at their apartment and we drove into Dallas, and once we got to I-30 going toward Fair Park, it was evident that the race would be very well attended. Traffic was horrible, but the weather was a lot nicer this time around. Once we got close to the Cotton Bowl stadium, we crawled. When we got closer to an open gate, they hopped out to go to the 5K start. 20 minutes later, I managed to find a parking space, put my windbreaker on and started the walk toward the start. The last of the 5K corrals was about to start the race, so after a potty break I headed out to the starting line. It wasn't too long before they started queuing up the corrals for the 15K, but it took them a bit longer to get set for the 15K start… and then it was another 15 minutes before my corral was ready.

Finally, we were off! It only took a couple miles before I was warm enough to take off the windbreaker and tie it around my waist. At the first aid station I looked at my Garmin and was extremely surprised that my first mile was under 11 minutes, and the second mile was just over 11! Usually my time starts dropping off pretty quickly, but I felt decent and was sticking to the 4/1 after the first mile, so I was able to recover. I would walk through the aid stations (mostly because I didn't want to slip in the water), and then get back into a steady rhythm. I started looking at the Garmin each time it beeped a mile, and I was hanging right there around 12 minute miles, so about mile 6 I decided to try to make sure my average was under 12 when I finished.

Hand-slapping as many police officers as I could at the intersections, I kept moving. At mile 8, one officer was standing in the middle of the road, high-fiving everybody that went by, so I popped him and he shouted "Keep it up…it means something!" - reading the logo off my chest.

Making the last turn toward the finish, I saw Amanda standing up on a concrete planter edge. When I got closer, she hopped down and started trotting next to me, and we went all the way across the finish line that way. She and Matt wore shirts from our non-profit, which match my tri top, so I hope we will get some good pics. Matt took a couple as we went by, and those will look pretty decent after I crop them.

We stopped at the race banner and asked a lady there to take a picture of all 3 of us together, so this is now the first recorded event where more than one of our non-profit shirts were seen. Then a long walk to the truck, back to the hotel, lunch, and then head home.