For Whom the Dogs Bark

Women's Center Race Against Violence

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Location:

Cypress,TX,

Member Since:

Oct 10, 2009

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Other

Running Accomplishments:

5K: 24:22 (March 2010); 22:33 (October 2010); 20:47 (May 2011); 21:05 (May 2012); 21:33 (September 2012); 21:23 (November, 2013); 22:31 (September 2014)

5M:  39:22 (November, 2012); 35:54 (November, 2013); 36:03 (March, 2015)

10K: 44:08 (November, 2010); 49:20 (July, 2013); 44:07 (April, 2015)

12K:  56:03 (December, 2013); 58:58 (December, 2014)

10M:  1:11:58 (October, 2012); 1:15:24 (October, 2014)

Half Marathon:  1:53:xx (London's Run 2010); 2:05:21 (Cowtown 2010); 1:37:04 (Gusher 2011); 1:42:19 (Huntsville 2011); 1:33:47 (Baytown Jailbreak 2012); 1:33:50 (The Woodlands 2012); 1:42:52 (Texas 2015); 1:49:17 (Jailbreak 2015); 1:38:34 (The Woodlands 2015)

25K: 2:01:47 (Fifth Third River Bank, May 2014)

Marathon: 5:51:35 (Texas Marathon 2009); 6:21:36 (Ogden 2009); 4:58:29 (St. George 2009); 4:13:45 (Texas Marathon 2010); 4:04:12 (Utah Valley Marathon, 2010); 5:11:14 (Hartford ING, 2010); 3:41:43 (Richmond SunTrust, 2010); 3:39:27 (Texas Marathon 2011); 3:41:46 (Utah Valley Marathon, 2011); 3:30:35 (St. George 2011); 3:41:51 (Richmond 2012); 3:49:15 (Texas 2013); 3:46:59 (Paavo Nurmi, 2013); 3:34:04 (St. George 2013); 3:49:51 (Texas 2014); 3:31:59 (Richmond 2014); 3:28:34 (Boston 2015)

Short-Term Running Goals:

3:20, 1:30, 0:20

Long-Term Running Goals:

I'm 60, there is no long term.

Personal:

I live, work and run in Houston, Texas.  I have run 17 marathons, some good ones and some others.  I prefer straight, flat, cold, sea-level marathons, still waiting for my first one.  I feel like there are more PRs out there.  When I have them, I am told it is time to dial it back, run for healthy reasons.  I'm sure that's right, and I'm sure it won't happen.

My wife and I are from the mountains of the west.  We have five kids, three granddaughters and three grandsons.  The kids and grandkids are native Texans but we are not -- you have to be born here.

As for my blog title: I run most of my miles before sunrise, sometimes hours before. On the back road of my neighborhood two hours before daylight, I can depend on a pack of mutts behind the boundary fence lighting up when they hear my footsteps. I have wondered what they wanted; but according to Hemingway I needn't ask.

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to Ukraine's Armed Forces
Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: Women's Center Race Against Violence (3.15 Miles) 00:24:22
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
16.620.000.003.1519.77

Kind of a complicated day but a good one, a 5K race sandwiched inside a long run. I intended to run long last night but I thought it would put too much stress on my recovering legs after already running yesterday morning.  So I ended up with a race and the need to get in a long run today.

The race is a local charity event to raise money for the Women's Center.  It is well-backed and it is for a good cause.  I usually don't pay attention to these sorts of things, but this is an important cause and one that doesn't get enough support.  These institutions hide battered women and their children, in addition to performing a host of other services.  They do a good job and have always been well-funded in this community.  I liked the atmosphere at the race, very positive but you could tell people were serious about this issue.  I was happy to participate.

This is the first time I have run a 5K race, so I wasn't sure what to expect.  I thought it would be good to get there early and do a few slow miles so as to be loosened up for the race.  What I didn't want to do was re-injure my groin, especially since running fast got it injured in the first place.  This turned out to be a pretty good strategy.  I got there an hour and a half early and ran about 10K before the race, 6.22 miles, average pace 10:58 per mile, range 11:09 to 10:39, basically a steady pace.  I felt ready to go.

Then I went to the start line.  The race started in downtown Houston and headed west and back to the start line, basically an out and back with a loop in the middle.  Weather was perfect, about 50F with a light breeze.  I met up with some people from work (our firm was a contributor) and suggested a team strategy session, which suggestion was politely ignored.  That's why they call them fun runs, nobody was interested in taking out the other law firms.  That was the last I saw of any teammates.  I lined up fairly close to the front.  After the gun went off there was a little bit of jockeying around as people tried to find their pace.  I wove in and out for a couple of hundred yards, accidentally elbowed and apologized to a woman who wasn't too happy (especially given the subject matter of this particular charity), then I was free to run my own speed.  Lots of practice from Fort Worth last week and from driving an old sports car with a radar detector, but I digress.

Even though there were lots of runners, most of them were either good or purely recreational, then me running alone in the middle.  I marveled that I had so much room to run in a short crowded race like this.  After the first half-mile I passed very few people and even fewer passed me.  I felt like I was pushing the pace a little but it wasn't too bad.  I was afraid given my recent training adventures that the first mile would be low 9s, but it came in at 7:24 (171 bpm).  This is by far the fastest I have run a mile since high school.  Something paid off big time.  The next mile was 7:44 (184 bpm) which I also thought was good.  By then I figured I could make this happen.  I was very tired and lactic acid was building up, plus the last mile was a little bit uphill, but I hit 8:03 (187 bpm) and then a 7:57 (188 bpm) pace for the stub split at the end.  (My heart isn't supposed to beat that fast at my age, but it does and I am not complaining.  It gives me more upside, I think.)  Total time was 24:22, average pace 7:44.  This is not a fast time by the standards on this blog, but it is faster than I thought I could run and I am happy with the result.  I measured 3.15 miles on my Garmin -- admittedly not the most accurate measuring tool but I still think the course was a little long, and I won't get an official time or place for 2 weeks.  That's what you get when the sponsor is 501(c)(3) -- nice people but not razor's edge in the organizational aspects. 

They gave out age-group awards right after the race.  I didn't see any old guys running fast, so there is a possibility I might have placed, but I didn't stay around.  You can bet I am going to check the times of my co-workers as soon as I can.

I went back out and finished my long run as soon as I cooled off a little bit.  By this time it was getting hot.  I ran from downtown along the course route and then west to Memorial Park, which is the primary running location in Houston.  That place was more crowded than the race.  It was truly a great morning for running here.  Altogether I did another 10.35 miles, average pace 10:25, progression from11:25 down to 9:42 pace.  I was pretty tired but felt a lot better once I sucked down a chocolate milk shake.  I tell anybody who will listen that I run drug-free, but that isn't entirely true.  Chocolate is a drug.

Comments
From lightitup on Sat, Mar 06, 2010 at 15:58:55 from 67.185.20.107

You rock!

From SlowJoe on Sat, Mar 06, 2010 at 17:05:19 from 71.21.119.111

Wow, really really impressive day. That extra speed should be able to help get you to your BQ soon, I would think. I wouldn't be surprised if you placed very well in your AG if you didn't win it. The high heart rate seem like an even more promising statistic. I've played golf at Memorial quite a few times (before I started running) and always thought those runners were nuts wasting their weekend like that. Now I want to try it there next time I visit the folks. They live maybe 3 or 4 miles from the park. How was it?

From Missee on Sun, Mar 07, 2010 at 01:43:12 from 75.169.149.68

What a race report!!! I can never remember my races in that much detail! Good job!

From flatlander on Sun, Mar 07, 2010 at 15:07:44 from 198.207.244.102

E, yeah, I had one in my shoe, don't know how it got there.

Joe, I love running there. I live out in Cypress, so Memorial Park doesn't fit in my schedule much. Good vibes, lots of fit people and people hoping to get fit.

Missee, thanks for the feedback. I notice you are very fast. Good 5K for you too yesterday, by the way. I know you were hoping for a better time, but it looked plenty fast to me.

From Mack on Sun, Mar 07, 2010 at 17:02:25 from 71.111.182.118

No doubt a BQ is somewhere in your future. That is a GREAT time in the context of your other PR's. And then you go put in more miles later? Well done! I'd say you earned your chocolate milk shake.

From jasro on Tue, Mar 09, 2010 at 14:29:09 from 198.50.4.4

I'm sorry, I haven't had a chance to look over your blog until now. That is a very impressive race performance. I really like 5ks because they give you a good sense of your fitness level. They force you to go fast because they are so short, but they are long enough that you have to respect the distance. Anyways, good job.

From Burt on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 00:42:42 from 98.177.220.145

Very nice pace Mark. And thanks for telling me where they're keeping my wife.

From Burt on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 00:51:45 from 98.177.220.145

Oh, one more thing, and this is the dorky engineer in me coming out. I took a couple of the local races I've done and plotted out the times in different incremental time intervals on bar graphs. There was a distinct pattern on both graphs. Each one had two humps for lack of a more scientific term. In other words, there were a few fast runners followed by a group of solid runners, then a gap, then another group of casual runners followed by the slow runners and walkers. My guess is that you were on the tail end of the solid runners, and that's why you were on your own a lot.

From Burt on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 00:52:02 from 98.177.220.145

What? I told you I'm a dork.

From flatlander on Fri, Mar 12, 2010 at 12:42:41 from 198.207.244.102

Mack, thanks, I had a few more shakes this week just to make sure I was caught up.

Jason, thanks, I think I like 5Ks because the leaders are only minutes ahead, not hours.

Burt, good analysis, I think that explains perfectly what was happening in my 5K. Sounds like the best place to be is in front.

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