I’m officially registered for my first Half Marathon!  The Houston Half Marathon is basically the 20K with an extra .7 mile added, making it an official 13.1 miles. Plus, it’s managed by the Houston Striders.

Ok, I’m back. I think these two weeks have been the longest blogging break I’ve taken in a long time. Anyways, yeah, I’m back. Here’s a cliff notes update: Baseball Fireworks: Using our free Astros tickets from the Race for the Pennant 5K, a few of us went to watch the Astros beat the Cubs. The following week, Theresa got tickets through work for the Astros vs. Braves game. Her company sponsored the Friday night fireworks - the stadium roof was opened (why didn’t they open it during the game?) and the fireworks were great.
Blue Bayou: I went to the grand opening of the Sabine to Bagby Promenade. It was Houston from a whole new perspective - boats and kayaks on the Bayou, a floating cinema, etc. I posted a review at Metroblogging Houston. If you haven’t gotten a chance to check out the new park, I highly recommend it. It’s awesome. Check out a few photos.
Blueberries: We made our 2nd annual trip to J.D. Organic Farms to pick some fresh, organic blueberries. YUM. The owner had warned that this year’s crop was smaller due to the hail over the winter, but I couldn’t tell any difference. They were EXCELLENT. We picked three flats of blueberries (that’s 36 baskets). Everyone also got blackberries except me, since I’m not crazy about them. Anyways, it was a wonderfully sunny day, and ended with the traditional blueberry smoothies. YUM. More blueberry photos here.

Time: 40:44.6
Pace: 13:08/M (TERRIBLE)

My last race for the summer: On June 10th, I ran the Houston Pride 5K. Ok, “ran” might be a pretty generous description, since it was hot and miserable. It was the first 5K I’ve ever walked in - pretty discouraging. The volunteers at the mile markers were hilarious, though - the woman at the 2nd mile marker kept screaming, “WHO’S YOUR NUMBER? WHO’S YOUR NUMBER?” like Who’s Yo Daddy? Even the cops were cracking up. Anyways, I felt so discouraged about the race that I took a week off from running, and decided that I’m officially done with races until October. I’m still running, just no more races.

I stumbled across this interesting report at MarathonGuide.com presenting marathon statistics for 2005.  The part I found most interesting was the ranking of marathons by number of registered finishers:

2005 Largest USA Marathons
Both New York and Chicago did not increase their registration limits in 2005 and so continued with their respective ranking as number one and two marathons in the USA. The LA Marathon and Marine Corps Marathon each added more than 2,500 finishers - and the Nike 26.2 (which can’t quite decide if it’s a women’s race or not) nearly doubled in size. Shaking up the top 25 rankings was the New Las Vegas Marathon, which as an inaugural event, debuted at number 8 and just missed the record for an inaugural event which was set by the Rock N Roll Arizona Marathon in 2004. In total, the country’s 25 largest marathons, accounted for more than 70% of total marathon finishes in the USA in 2005.

A while back, I registered for the New York Marathon.  Here’s an excerpt from the email I received this morning:

Thank you again for applying for the ING New York City Marathon 2006. I am sorry to inform you that, unfortunately, you were not selected in the random lottery drawing. I wish we could accept everyone, but we have to limit the size of the field to ensure a top-quality experience–and I hope you get to experience it yourself one day!

So, I’m not running NYC this year…though actually, I’m relieved.  Mentally, I’m not quite ready to jump into an intense Marathon training regimen again (which I’d have to start NOW if I’d gotten in), and I’m really hating training in the heat these days. 

I had considered Chicago as a backup to New York, but now my next race goal is the Koala/Luke’s Locker Half Marathon on October 29th.  This race used to be a 20K, but adding just ~1.08K bumps it up as Houston’s second Half Marathon event!   Plus, it’s managed by the fabulous Houston Striders.

Speaking of the Striders, a version of my Bay to Breakers race report is in the June issue of Stridelines.  :)  

(catching up on reporting my logs) 

Tuesday
- ran the Allen Pkwy loop with John. We also explored the new Buffalo Bayou Path from Sabine all the way past UH Downtown.  The paths are beautiful.  I hope that more people discover this new part of Houston’s parks.  As usual, I didn’t bring my watch, but our run lasted about 2 hours.  In Allen Parkway, there were rabbits everywhere - we guessed we’d seen at least 10.   Also saw an owl and some bats.

Thursday
- ran with Alex for the first time.  It was his first time doing the Allen Pkway loop.  We started at Eleanor Tinsley, and did the entire loop.  The trails were surprisingly dry given all the thunderstorms this week.  It was a nice, mellow run.  One hour. 

According to a comment left by lak, one of the Smurfs at the Bay to Breakers race, 290 Smurfs showed up that day setting a world record for Most People Dressed as Smurfs. Apparently, there was also a contingent of Smurfs pushing a cottage-sized Magic Mushroom that housed Smurf beverages and a DJ dressed as Gargamel. Awesome.

Also, today is the first day of the 2006 Hurricane Season. Guess it’s time to stock up on duct tape and batteries again. woohoo.