For Whom the Dogs Bark

May 06, 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

Fri, Oct 14, 2011

Easy Miles	Marathon Pace Miles	Threshold Miles	VO2 Max Miles	Total Distance
10.07	0.00	0.00	0.00	10.07

Indoors. Ran 10.07 on the treadmill at the hotel in Beijing on Friday night local time. This week has been stupid busy, and it takes a full day to fly here, so this is the only running I have been able to manage. Was hoping to get out this morning (Saturday morning) because it is a rare clear-air day here and there is a river only one block from the hotel with a running path on it. Temps are cool and dry as well. No such luck, up all night working because U..S. was still doing their Friday thing. I was lucky to get in the run that I did, finished up about midnight.

So last March when I ran a half marathon in Beaumont I met a guy who was my nephew's father-in-law (still is, in fact). He is almost the same age as me and almost beat me. That same nephew sent a link to both of us yesterday about a 31-year old runner in England who hopped a bus for the last 10K of a marathon and snatched third place before his dark deed was discovered. I had wanted to initiate a dialogue with this Mike guy, so I replied back to him that I thought that was an awful thing for a young guy to do, but it was probably OK for guys our age and since he is local, do they have buses along the half marathon route in Beaumont? He was not amused. He wrote back, "They do not operate along the course during the race. I wouldn't dream of taking a bus. Only cheaters and quiters do that. I would rather be slow but do my thing the best I can than hop on a bus. Why waste the time to train, the cost to enter if you are going to cheat? Hope your running is going well Mark."

Oops.

I asked my wife about it and she said the report through the back channels is that he is used to winning the geezer division and didn't take kindly to me coming in from out of town and edging him out, especially since I am a semi-relative. Apparently his family has been giving him a hard time about it. I wanted to go back and do this race next year as a tune-up for Boston, but I am looking for alternatives now, this is not good and I want none of it. Besides, he would probably tell the bus driver to not let me on, or at least charge me extra.

Comments

From Russ on Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 00:42:39 from 24.72.198.228

Don't know if I'm supposed to be laughing or not, but I am! That's really funny that he would castigate you in reply to an obvious facetious e-mail. Someone needs to take a chill pill. I'd still run the race. Maybe in costume (and still beat him).

From derhammer on Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 10:48:19 from 70.113.125.159

wow - 10 miles on the TM - that's commitment. How long of a drive is Beaumont from Houston? I need to travel there next week.

From Stephen on Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 12:18:02 from 174.52.133.66

You ran the same distance as me today, but it sounds like mine was more interesting (speaking of the run and not the emails).

From Dan on Sat, Oct 15, 2011 at 20:41:55 from 24.209.83.20

So you are saying you would rather drive the bus. Got it. Hey safe travels and try and take it easy despite being so busy.

From SlowJoe on Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 11:57:27 from 75.109.104.60

Geez, I thought you were a stand up guy Mark, but the bus...? I'm not sure I want to associate with you anymore!

But seriously, if anything, go back to Beaumont and kick his butt again.

Safe travels.

From Rye on Sun, Oct 16, 2011 at 17:00:25 from 174.27.76.167

I think that he just gave you a reason to run Beaumont again. Sounds like he is compensating for something????

From flatlander on Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 08:50:15 from 76.31.26.153

Russ, there's an idea. I'll pretend like it's a Halloween race in March! At least everybody will know I was out on the course for the whole race.

DH, Beaumont is a couple of hours from downtown Houston.

Thanks Dan, driving it is better than getting thrown under it.

Joe, thanks, really not sure what to do. It's kind of funny but I really don't want to start anything either.

Rye, I dunno, something is getting lost in translation here, probably my fault as much as anybody's. It does rankle me, though, that someone thinks I would actually consider doing that.

From Burt on Mon, Oct 17, 2011 at 11:12:33 from 72.223.91.148

It could be lost in translation. Maybe he was just ranting about the punk that actually did it. I still love you Mark.

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