Houston Young Lawyers Foundation 5K Race Report
My congratulations to fellow blogger Cassie Cowan, 26, who reeled off an impressive PR of 27:48.8 this evening at the Houston Young Lawyers Foundation's Tie One On For Charity 5K in downtown Houston. (One of the few during-the-week evening races all year long in the area.)
She did a great job in winning the first "Battle of the Bloggers!"
I had the pleasure of meeting Cassie and her boyfriend, Manny, shortly before the race. We chatted near the starting line for a few minutes, primarily about her upcoming trip to San Diego and her concern about putting in a 21-miler on Saturday. I assured her that if she made it this far that she'd be fine on Saturday as well as in three weeks at the Rock 'N Roll Marathon.
After waiting for about 7-8 minutes for the race to begin (past the stated 7:30 p.m. start time), the gun fired and it took us both about 13 seconds (according to the official times to get across the starting line. We ran for a little bit together then I pulled out in front. I knew she was behind me and then she pulled up on my right side and went ahead about at the half mile mark.
I edged back ahead before the Mile 1 marker, but she pulled even as we both crossed the Mile 1 mark at 8:39.73 (on my watch). We both commented to and laughed with each other, "Way too fast!"
I stayed ahead until midway through the uphill end of first underpass when I was spent and pulled to the right to take a short walk break. Cassie made it past the turnaround point first then bypassed the water table. I made it around and stopped as I was starting to get dehydrated. (I had a 32 oz. bottle of Powerade before the race, but it wasn't enough to counteract the Tylenol Cold and Advil Cold and Sinus that I had been downing since Monday to work against a flu/cold.)
I continued to see Cassie ahead of me as she maintained a nice steady pace the rest of the way in. I passed mile 2 in 17:42.73 (however, a runner during the post-race indicated that he thought mile 2 was short and mile 3 was long as his split was a minute off). There were a couple of times past mile 2 I thought I might have had it in me to close the gap more than what it turned out to be, but it simply wasn't the night to do so.
Mile 2 was 9:03 even and mile 3 was 11:13.55. (Again, these were probably off some.) The last .1 I covered in 47.08, which is a 7:50 pace!!
She was on the left-hand side of the road cheering me in as was Strider John DiMarco, 46, who I had the chance to meet for the first time Thursday evening as well. John ran the 5K in 23:59.4.
Cassie and I chatted post-race and admitted that we were both pushing ourselves because of the other! But as I walked back to the truck to head home later, I thought to myself that it was great to be able to be competitive with someone yet it to be totally and completely good-natured! (Besides, with that in mind, I felt I had a part in her PR!)
So the first of what I'm sure will be many "Battle of the Bloggers!" went to Cassie by almost a two-minute margin, 27:48.8 to 29:43.3! (In all reality, her training runs were indicative that she could post the time that she did this evening and that 27:48 is 48 seconds better than my PR of 28:36.)
Three Houston Striders took first place age group honors Thursday night:
Ryan DiMarco, 14, M 1-19, 20:59.3
Barry Chambers, 60, M, 60-99, 22:18.2
Yong Collins, 50, F, 50-59, 22:41.5
Barry had commented that this was the best 5K that he has run in 2-3 years. Ryan was aiming for a sub 20-minute 5K; however, the humidity played havoc with that.
Ryan was followed in the 1-19 age group by Bellaire's James Woodruff, 12. John, Ryan and I all had the chance to meet James and his father, J.D. Woodruff, who had spotted John and Ryan at previous races. He asked if we belonged to a running club and we did our best to point out the benefits of being a Houston Strider!
Huntsville's Len Hill, 52, from the Seven Hills Running Club was 5th in the 50-59 age group in a time of 25:47.1.
All in all a good evening, but the funniest moment belongs to Cassie's boyfriend, Manny. Cassie asked what they were going to have to eat this evening and Manny thumbs over his right shoulder to the pizza and buffalo wings on the table behind!
She did a great job in winning the first "Battle of the Bloggers!"
I had the pleasure of meeting Cassie and her boyfriend, Manny, shortly before the race. We chatted near the starting line for a few minutes, primarily about her upcoming trip to San Diego and her concern about putting in a 21-miler on Saturday. I assured her that if she made it this far that she'd be fine on Saturday as well as in three weeks at the Rock 'N Roll Marathon.
After waiting for about 7-8 minutes for the race to begin (past the stated 7:30 p.m. start time), the gun fired and it took us both about 13 seconds (according to the official times to get across the starting line. We ran for a little bit together then I pulled out in front. I knew she was behind me and then she pulled up on my right side and went ahead about at the half mile mark.
I edged back ahead before the Mile 1 marker, but she pulled even as we both crossed the Mile 1 mark at 8:39.73 (on my watch). We both commented to and laughed with each other, "Way too fast!"
I stayed ahead until midway through the uphill end of first underpass when I was spent and pulled to the right to take a short walk break. Cassie made it past the turnaround point first then bypassed the water table. I made it around and stopped as I was starting to get dehydrated. (I had a 32 oz. bottle of Powerade before the race, but it wasn't enough to counteract the Tylenol Cold and Advil Cold and Sinus that I had been downing since Monday to work against a flu/cold.)
I continued to see Cassie ahead of me as she maintained a nice steady pace the rest of the way in. I passed mile 2 in 17:42.73 (however, a runner during the post-race indicated that he thought mile 2 was short and mile 3 was long as his split was a minute off). There were a couple of times past mile 2 I thought I might have had it in me to close the gap more than what it turned out to be, but it simply wasn't the night to do so.
Mile 2 was 9:03 even and mile 3 was 11:13.55. (Again, these were probably off some.) The last .1 I covered in 47.08, which is a 7:50 pace!!
She was on the left-hand side of the road cheering me in as was Strider John DiMarco, 46, who I had the chance to meet for the first time Thursday evening as well. John ran the 5K in 23:59.4.
Cassie and I chatted post-race and admitted that we were both pushing ourselves because of the other! But as I walked back to the truck to head home later, I thought to myself that it was great to be able to be competitive with someone yet it to be totally and completely good-natured! (Besides, with that in mind, I felt I had a part in her PR!)
So the first of what I'm sure will be many "Battle of the Bloggers!" went to Cassie by almost a two-minute margin, 27:48.8 to 29:43.3! (In all reality, her training runs were indicative that she could post the time that she did this evening and that 27:48 is 48 seconds better than my PR of 28:36.)
Three Houston Striders took first place age group honors Thursday night:
Ryan DiMarco, 14, M 1-19, 20:59.3
Barry Chambers, 60, M, 60-99, 22:18.2
Yong Collins, 50, F, 50-59, 22:41.5
Barry had commented that this was the best 5K that he has run in 2-3 years. Ryan was aiming for a sub 20-minute 5K; however, the humidity played havoc with that.
Ryan was followed in the 1-19 age group by Bellaire's James Woodruff, 12. John, Ryan and I all had the chance to meet James and his father, J.D. Woodruff, who had spotted John and Ryan at previous races. He asked if we belonged to a running club and we did our best to point out the benefits of being a Houston Strider!
Huntsville's Len Hill, 52, from the Seven Hills Running Club was 5th in the 50-59 age group in a time of 25:47.1.
All in all a good evening, but the funniest moment belongs to Cassie's boyfriend, Manny. Cassie asked what they were going to have to eat this evening and Manny thumbs over his right shoulder to the pizza and buffalo wings on the table behind!
posted by WalkSports.com | 11:07 PM
2 Comments:
Hmm, I never even heard about that 5K. Could've been fun, though I usually play softball on Thursdays and I would have easily been the slowest of the bloggers... :)
Great report Jon! It was so nice to meet you! Great race!!!
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