For Whom the Dogs Bark

81F, 100%, light wind.  Got up and left the house at 4:35 to run 7.29 miles in the neighborhood.  Easy pace, probably no faster than 9:00 but didn't get a time.  Then got in the car and picked up Wade and my nephew Justin, drove down to south Houston for this same 5K I did last year.  This is a fundraiser for the United Negro College Fund, and it is probably one of the better causes out there.  I love the atmosphere and the race is run almost flawlessly.  They were posting finishing times on the computer in real time as the runners came in, so it was easy to get your time and place right off the bat.  Plus a huge enthusiastic crowd at the finish line.

Justin is a first-year dental student, going back to school after working as a ChemE for several years.  He hasn't been training consistently, 32 now but in the day he was a very solid runner, he was on one of the top cross-country teams in Texas, about a 4:30 mile.  I talked him into coming to this race, for which my law firm is a primary sponsor, so he was registered under our umbrella.

We got to the race site at about 7:15 and spent some time getting registered, walking around, and finally ran a warmup mile, which was good because my back was hurting after sitting in a plane all week.  The race started right at 8:00 after a speech from the mayor.  Justin kept wondering what my goal was and I told him probably 7:00, but wasn't really sure because I hadn't run a 5K in this kind of heat before and haven't been doing much speed work.  Really don't know how fast I am.  He said he would pace me and if he felt good he would go for it in the last mile.  That is exactly what he did.  I hung with him for the first 2 miles with him calling out the splits (he had a stopwatch not a Garmin, so his calls were based on the course signs).  Then he pulled away.  There were some other guys running with us but I pulled away from them at about the same time.  The sun was out the last mile and I found myself fading fast, really counting the steps to the end, and hoping I didn't throw up in front of all the folks out for this fundraising walk.  I looked back with about a quarter to go and saw the other guys gaining on me, so I gave it one last push and beat them by 10 to 20 seconds.

Justin won so a good showing for our law firm.  Plus, I can't be accused of bringing in a ringer because without him I would have won.  This race is marketed to corporations rather than to the running community, so even though it has a sizable participation, including around 100 timed runners, there isn't anybody fast out there, although it is hard to tell due to the extreme heat/humidity combination.  One friendly guy that I beat came up and was asking lots of questions about my training, etc.  He is young and I'm sure he has me in his sights for next year.  That is good, I hope he brings lots of fast buddies with him.  Kind of embarassing taking second with a time like this.  Wade measured the course at 3.19 miles, which gives me a 6:45 pace if it is accurate -- I see that I measured it at 6.20 last year.  Official race pace was 6:57 per mile.  I beat my time from last year by 16 seconds and it was 11 degrees warmer today.  So my conditioning is better now despite all the injuries, traveling and illness that has slowed me down this year.  I'm feeling good, recovering quickly from workouts, and overall pretty happy with how everything is going right now with my running.