For Whom the Dogs Bark

May 02, 2024

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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

Sat, Oct 08, 2011

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
10.54	0.00	0.00	0.00	10.54

71F, 93% E 7 mph. I paced Wade at the 10 for Texas race in The Woodlands this morning. It was a big race, over 2500 runners, they actually sold out, which doesn't usually happen around here except for the bigger marathons. Wade had some good days in the cooler weather earlier in the week, but he had ratcheted his expectations down to 8:15 pace because of the return to summer temperatures. Probably 75F by the time the race started and close to 80F by the finish. (Something about that finishing temperature seems vaguely familiar.) I picked up Wade and Linda, another friend, at his house at 5:30 and we drove out there, arriving way too early, the race didn't start until 7:30. So we toured the PoP, which had lights, running water, Kleenex box and dried flower arrangements. Only in Texas.

Linda had a friend, Annette, who had registered then couldn't race. The race was full when I tried to register, so I took Annette's number. I took the tag off the bib, not wanting to be a Boy Named Sue.

We ran 0.47 warmup, then met up with a bunch of people from CypressFit, our running club, they were out in force. The organizers made a major effort to get people lined up according to goal paces, so even though the early stages of the race were on pretty narrow roads the first-mile jostling issues were minimized. Our first mile came in at 7:54. After that it got progressively slower until by mile 5 our overall average crept over 8, and we finished at 8:11 per mile (1:22:24 for 10.07 miles), which was fine for today. Wade's slowest mile was mile 8, 8:29, but he dug deeper and got 8:19 and 8:12 for the last two, so he finished strong in the heat. If he had made his original 8 flat goal I might not have been able to keep up on my recovering legs. Afterwards we hung around for some good food and conversation.

5:40 per mile won it. 8:13 per mile won Annette's age group, so it was a good decision to take the tag off.

Happy weekend all.

Comments

From SlowJoe on Sat, Oct 08, 2011 at 15:16:35 from 64.217.180.63

Way to help out a friend. Not bad for a week out from St George. Not sure what the deal is with the unseasonable warmth right now, bad deal.

From ACorn on Sat, Oct 08, 2011 at 17:17:32 from 24.2.76.146

Sounds like a great event! Nice job pacing.

From Steam8 on Sat, Oct 08, 2011 at 17:42:15 from 166.70.55.77

I can't believe you paced someone one week after a marathon! WOW! I am usually still having a hard time walking!

I love the Woodlands! It is so beautiful up there. Is that where you live? We used to live by the Astrodome..haha!

From Dan on Sat, Oct 08, 2011 at 22:07:26 from 24.209.83.20

Goooooooooo Armadillos!

From I Just Run on Sun, Oct 09, 2011 at 18:06:26 from 166.137.137.110

Tell Wade congradulations on a good race. Those conditions are tough!

Good run for you too..after such a short recovery.

From flatlander on Mon, Oct 10, 2011 at 10:27:31 from 76.31.26.153

Joe, seems to be gradually cooling off, just doesn't happen in a straight line like I expect. Checking your race report in a minute.

ACorn, thanks, it was the first time I have done something like that. I found it completely stress-free, and it was well-timed from a training standpoint.

Steam, I live in Cypress, almost to Tomball, too many trees in The Woodlands for a desert rat like me. I never got the full story -- what brought you to Houston and why did you leave so soon?

Dan, it was the race logo, believe it or not.

IJR, I will, thanks.

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