Hi. I’m back. I didn’t intend to be away from escapevelocity for so long, but hey. The past two weeks have been mostly about catching up on work and life stuff I’d put off till after the Marathon.

It’s only been two weeks since the Marathon, but it feels longer than that. I snuck in a quick run and it felt great - there was a slightly different sense of confidence that wasn’t there before. It was either Holden or Edwin who said (at the Expo) that after completing 20, 25 and 30K races - as well as a Marathon - running shorter distances feel much easier.

My 2006 Running Goals:

2005 was all about discovering the Houston running scene, building endurance and facing my personal challenge of completing a Marathon.

2006 is going to more about speed. Speed, speed, speed. Last year’s target was the Marathon finish line - this year, the target is the clock.

• Run a 5K under 30 minutes. Target race = Stepping Stones 5K, Sunday April 30th.
• Run a 10K under 60 minutes. Target race = ??. Need to find one. The Bayou City Classic in early March is too soon, methinks.
• Get a Spring Ironfoot award from HARRA. Since it’s unlikely I’ll ever win awards for speed, why not get something for perseverence? heh.
• Get used to running in the Houston summer heat/humidity. A grim necessity, but heat stroke ain’t no fun. Yuck.

I registered for the Spring session of Power in Motion, which starts on March 1st. Sponsored by HARRA, Power in Motion is the program that introduced me to the Houston running community. When I first registered in Fall 2004, I selected the “New to Running” option. Today, I selected the “Can continuously run 3+ miles” option. woo hoo! Each season, Power in Motion trains towards a certain race - this season, it’s the Stepping Stones 5K on April 30th. I hope to make my sub-30 min goal at that race.