For Whom the Dogs Bark

Memorial Hermann 10 for Texas

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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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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Race: Memorial Hermann 10 for Texas (9.9 Miles) 01:15:24, Place in age division: 7
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
0.000.009.900.009.90

74F, 95%, slight breeze.  Race day arrived hot, windy and humid.  Very close to the same conditions as last year, but no rain boiling off the pavement.  By Monday morning it is going to be 52F according to one forecast.  Basically we missed acceptable weather by one day.

Wade and I drove out together, we showed up wearing the same hat, which was awkward.  He threw out his race plans and decided to do a progression run, as he has been running in Wyoming all summer and didn't want to deal with heat stroke.  I decided to deal with heat stroke, thinking I would have an advantage over the other guys running on creaky legs in my age group.  But I did make one concession to the running gods, not to try for anything faster than 7:30/mile overall average.  I started out right on pace, 7:27 and held it through 3 miles.  Mile 4 was 7:40 and I couldn't get it back after that.  Mile 9 was 7:37, which I was happy about.  Turned on the afterburners, sprinted in to the finish and got 7:51 on the last mile.  Overall 7:37/mile.  Official pace was 7:33/mile but the course was a tenth short, kind of lame for a certified course for a big race.  I ran most of the tangents but didn't catch them all.  Over 3,000 runners, got 7th in my age group.  Average heart rate 179, max 188.  Didn't know I could hold that high of a heart rate for 10 miles.

Pretty happy with  results today under these conditions.  Jet lag probably didn't help things any.  Have been short on sleep all week, surviving mostly on 2-hour naps on planes or in hotels.  Slept well last night though.  I complained to Wade about all the fast guys in my age group -- he said that guys our age don't have anything else to do so it's no wonder.  My age group was apparently faster than his (50-54), as he got 10th with a per-mile pace that was 23 seconds slower than mine.

Comments
From Matt Schreiber on Sat, Oct 11, 2014 at 14:45:27 from 66.17.102.175

Nice race. You can't expect any records to be broken in that kind of heat. The TC10 last weekend was .14 short, too. Lead bike took a wrong turn. It's a huge race, too, run in conjunction with the Twin Cities Marathon. A tenth seems like a lot to be short on a certified course.

From SlowJoe on Sat, Oct 11, 2014 at 17:31:33 from 104.51.208.13

All things considered, this was a really good run! gotta love Murphy's law on the last little bit of heat for October...

From Rye on Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 01:10:06 from 174.27.99.115

Wyoming dude way out of his norm with 95% humidity. Good race flat. You had lots of adversity leading up to this race with travel and work. Nice effort!

From flatlander on Tue, Oct 14, 2014 at 12:47:53 from 198.207.244.102

Thanks Matt. 4 days later now, still pretty happy with it so that is the test I guess.

Joe, did you have the same temps we had on Monday? At least it seems to be gone for good now.

Rye, yeah, he would be the first to admit it, but he is a good sport. In cool weather he is faster than me but I had the advantage this time.

From Burt on Sun, Oct 26, 2014 at 21:33:26 from 184.101.217.140

Nice job, old guys! You guys are pretty fast!

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