77F, 86% humidity, wind S 15 mph. A beautiful morning to be out and about, perhaps it could have been a little bit cooler for the race! We decided to do our turkey trot in a planned community north of Houston called The Woodlands. They have lots of trails out there and lots of runners. Woodlands High School regularly wins or places high in the state cross-country meet. I looked up my age group times from last year and saw that the winner ran 6:22 per mile, out of my reach even on a good day. Now I know where all the fast age groupers in Houston live. Obviously I had won my age group in the Komen 5K too easily last month.
I drove out early, intending to warm up for four or five miles, but ended up running around getting everybody's envelopes and attending to GI details. (Note to self, don't do mexican the night before a race -- it was worth it though.) I did manage to run one mile very slowly, but with these temperatures I wasn't too worried about not getting warmed up. The race started about 15 minutes late because of some medical emergency out on the course from an earlier race, not a good omen.
I tried to line up about 150 runners back but got behind a bunch of slow runners anyway. A lot of elbows flying in the first quarter mile before I finally broke free. Despite the bob and weave, the first mile was 7:02, anyway, followed by a 6:56 that included a climb over an overpass, but I knew I couldn't sustain it. Splits after that were in the 7:20s, really felt the heat. Had to climb the same overpass coming back in, pretty tough, plus the course was longer than 5 miles. The Garmin measured the first 4 miles short, then the last one was 1.1, so I don't trust the course length, I'm calling it by the Garmin, 5.05 miles. Splits and heart rate were 7:02 (169), 6:56 (180), 7:25 (182), 7:27 (183), 7:20 (186), 0:21 (6:52 pace) (193). (I felt like I worked hard, final heart rate was 4 beats per minute higher than I have ever seen it, and that was an average for the final sprint, I still don't know for sure what my max is but this has to be pretty close, I was over 190 for the last half mile or so.) Overall 36:28, average pace 7:14 per mile. 6/70 in age group, leaving some unfinished business for next year -- don't know my overall place yet. I ran the 10K 3 weeks ago at 7:11 per mile (Garmin) at 35F, so this was a better time after adjusting for the 42 degree difference in temperature.
I ran with my mother in law, father in law, two daughters, one son and a daughter in law. We had a great time. My daughter finished 10th out of about 140 in her age group, so she got a higher relative placement than me. My mother-in-law finished third in a small age group, hardware territory, she will get a plaque in the mail. The race is very well organized and friendly, and they served lots of food afterwards, including a pancake breakfast that was excellent. This is definitely the race to do if you are ever in Houston over Thanksgiving.
Here are the happy runners, managed to get a picture in before everybody headed indoors for badly needed showers. We let my granddaughter Kate in the picture because (i) she insisted and (ii) she ran a whole lap at the track earlier this week. She was playing with dolls on the grass with her friend while their mothers worked out. Then without any encouragement she laid her doll down and decided to get in on the action. She ran a full quarter hard without slowing down, just put her head down and went for it. Unfortunately it wasn't timed but we are pretty sure it was an age group record. We are ecstatic to pass the torch to the next generation, the rest of us are getting tired. :
Left to right: Kate, Jennifer, Walt, Helen, me, Clint and Becky.
Happy Thanksgiving to all. | 