Location: Run the Woodlands 5K
Time: 33:02
Avg Heart Rate: 175
Max Heart Rate: 222 (?? - can that be right?)

- I’m pretty disappointed with my time. It might be my worst 5K yet. But, as Vic so encouragingly said, there’s never a bad run. I did have a great time, though, and the Woodlands was…woody.

- Most (if not all) of the Houston Bloggers from Saturday were fellow Houston Striders, and all were really nice and down-to-earth peeps. Yay for Striders!

- As it turned out, I ended up spending the rest of the weekend in North Houston (Kingwood, Spring, Woodlands). It felt like a mini-vacation.

Last Saturday, The Sis and I ran the Houston Astro’s 3rd Annual Race for the Pennant 5K Run/Walk. I haven’t been running nearly as often as I should be, so my times were rather horrible.

The course for the Race for the Pennant started just outside Minute Maid Park, wound through a portion of downtown, and ended up on the field inside the stadium. Excellent. Even though it was on the Saturday morning of Memorial Day weekend, a pretty good sized crowd showed up.

• The race started at 7:45am. Skokie woke me up at 7:20am. After yelling “MOTHERFUCKER” a few times, I hauled ass onto the freeway. Luckily, I had slept in my race clothes. Amazingly, I made it downtown, found parking, and met up with The Sis at 7:40am….with even enough time to put on a timing chip. I even passed two cops while driving 2039475 mph up 59.
• Free stuff: water bottles, Minute Maid apple juice (of course), Powerade, Capri Sun drinks, oranges, pears, bananas, Krispy Kreme, Kolaches, and grilled chicken wraps from Pei Wei…yuck. As The Sis commented, who wants to eat greasy Chinese food at 8:30am? For lunch and dinner, tho, Pei Wei is da bomb.
• As part of our race packets, we received two vouchers for free Astros tickets. Too bad the Astros suck.

So, my race results:

• Overall place: 900 out of 1168.
• Chip time: 34:07
• Pace per mile: 11:00/M

bleh.

My 10K race results:

Time 01:07:46.55
Gun Time 01:12:42.70
First 5K 00:35:15.60
Second 5K 00:32:30.95
Pace per Mile 00:10:54.30

Ran my first 10K (6.2 mi) race this morning at the ConocoPhilips Rodeo Run. The weather was cold and wet, but the race itself was fun thanks to my race buddy, JP. Highlights:

• JP rubbing the bus driver’s hat for good luck.
• The girls running in the jeans with the butts cut out.
• Running the “viaduct” (aka, the bridge over the bayou).
• Watching senior citizens pass us by.
• The female runner making the XXX-rated groans and moans.
• The kazoo band after mile 4.
• Losing feeling in my hands from the cold.
• Seeing & waving at AO near the finish line.
• Booking it at mile 6.175.
• Needing help untying my shoe because my hands were too numb to remove the race chip.
• The free goodies at the post-race party.
• Sitting in my car with the heater turned on full blast. ahhh.

Afterwards, a bunch of us went to Farrago’s in Midtown for brunch. The White Chocolate Bread Pudding with Golden Raisins was super excellent.