Distance: 8K (4.97miles)
Chip Time: 53:30
Mile 1: 10:55
Mile 2: 10:53
Mile 3: 10:53
Mile 4: 11:07
Mile .97: 9:42
Avg/Max HR: 177/195

Saturday morning’s Law Week Fun Run 8K marked the return of my watch and heart rate monitor. I was losing motivation/enjoyment of running for a while, so I stopped wearing the watch/HRM in order to truly focus on enjoying running/exercising. Just running without any measurement or performance tool has helped me remember why I got into running in the first place - to keep myself healthy, to relax and because it’s fun. I never timed myself during the first few months (in fact, I rarely ever wear a watch outside of running), but I was really enjoying it. Still, I’m glad I wore my watch on Saturday.

Coincidentally, the current issue of Runner’s World has an article about training without a watch to increase/maintain motivation. Check it out.

And on to the race report:

• 6:30am, the phone rings. It’s John. He’s decided to do the race after all. The night before, a few of us went to the Museum of Fine Arts to watch Elevator to the Gallows (yawn), and I had mentioned the Law Week race. He said he’d call in the morning if he decided to run. I didn’t expect to hear from him, so it was a nice surprise.
• Left the house at 7:15am and picked up my chip at 7:25. I love living so close to Downtown.
• Found John doing his pre-race stretches. The turnout for the race was on the low side, but I had expected that. As we made our way over to the starting line, we ran into June and Joe!!
• The gun banged, and we were off. The course went up Allen Parkway, looped around at Shepherd and finished at Sam Houston Park. I was relieved we weren’t going up Memorial - the thought of doing that Bagby-Shepherd loop along Memorial again would have been kinda depressing.
• John and I chatted the whole way, which made the race fun. We saw June just before the Shepherd turnaround, where I spent a few minutes drooling over her Garmin. Gear rocks.
• Just before the finish, a guy was on the ground on his hands and knees surrounded by a cop and a first aid volunteer. There was vomit all over the sidewalk. Yuck. I really, REALLY didn’t want to be downwind of any smell, so I started sprinting towards the finish line….which is how I managed the 9:42 for the last .97 mile. Thank you, Vomit Guy.
• The post race party was awesome because of the FREE BEER!! Joe (who had finished waaay before I did) was on the sidewalk cheering for people, and he yelled “There’s Free Beer at the post race party!!” when I passed. I thought he was kidding, but no. After grabbing our obligatory post-race bagel/banana combo, John and I headed straight for the beer tent. mmmmm….nothing beats beer at 9:00am.