Maribelle's On The Bay 5K Race Report

Could the course have been short? (I doubt it. Jay Lee puts on excellent events.)

Could it have been the three (3) Mountain Dews that I had the night before? (Not good overall!)

Could it have been a change in when I ate this past week?

Could it be that I didn't run at all after last Saturday and otherwise hiked four miles (Sunday) and spent an hour on each the bike (Thursday) and the elliptical machine (Friday)?

Could it have been that I only had a couple of hours of sleep?

Could it have been, as Saturday's Masters winner Tom Sherwood suggested, the "cool ocean breeze"?

Could it have been that my biggest fan -- my 10-year-old daughter, Waverly -- was at the finish line? (What would my excuse be for last week? The elevation?)

Or finally could it have been that it was the first race in a little bit that I wore my Dad's Marine Corps dog tags?

Why this exercise?

I felt as if I drifted back into time! Specifically, back to May as I reeled in a 29:22.25 5K today at the Maribelle's On The Bay 5K in Seabrook.

Seriously, though, I ran well today and the course can't get any flatter than this one. (I think the only hill down there is the Kemah Bridge!) Actually, I don't want to brag but I left feeling like I've made it back.

117th career event! 37th in 2005!
61st career 5K! 55 in Texas! 24 in 2005!
29th Texas city or town to have run in!
52.7 score - Best overall run since 4/30/05 - Drake Relays Half Marathon
15th best scored race ever!
9th best 5K time ever (of 61 total)!
Fastest 5K since 4/23/05 - 28:45.20 at Run The Woodlands #128

Interestingly enough, it was my second fastest mile 1 (8:49.77) of the year, including all three (3) of my sub 29-minute 5Ks. On the other hand, it was my slowest last tenth of a mile (1:03.46) of the year, which eclipses the 1:02.06 that I had in the Kingwood Bridge Fest 5K (my PR race in February).

But during the entire race, I didn't feel negative at all about how I ran. I'm really pleased that I'm back in the 29-minute territory. THAT is what I was letting bother me. I probably for the first time in awhile didn't worry about who was passing me and who I was passing.

Mile 1 looked long driving into the Maribelle's area almost underneath the Kemah Bridge.

However, I ran by the first water stop (which was before the mile marker and probably good ... forcing me to move on). I saw the 8:49.77 split on my watch; however, I didn't panic and worry that I would slip more than a minute from mile 1 to mile 2.

I kept running until the turnaround point near about the 1.7-mile mark where there was the second water stop. I've never been good about consuming water on the run so I took a 20-second walk break (watching my watch) before getting it into gear again and for some inexplicable reason, after carting off a 9:35.93, I took another 25-30 second walk break just past the mile 2 marker.

I didn't have an estimate on how the remaining 1.1 miles was broken down coming back in so when I made the last right on to the main street that went down to Maribelle's, I had to try to remember to just stay consistent.

I recorded a 9:55.07 for mile 3 but I really didn't feel like I was slowing down that much at all. But the 1:03.48 in the last tenth of a mile was a big surprise because I felt like I ran pretty strong, but I must have been spent. Still a 29:22.25 after languishing for nearly two months over the 30-minute barrier!

As far as name dropping goes, I think the question is "Who didn't I see or meet?"

Before the race even started, I had the chance to meet Lance Phegley, the editor of Runner Triathlete News and Inside Texas Running, which published the Run The Woodlands 5K results for the first time ever last week. Thanks Lance! His company, raceshots.net, led by he and his wife Sherri were the official race photographers.

Rudy Rocha won the event in 15:40 while Laura Bennett won the women's division in 19:18. Recent RTW winner Tom Sherwood won the men's Masters division in 16:57 while Bonnie Jo Barron took the women's Masters division in 21:03.

I got a chance to meet Tom for the first time as well as a friend of a friend of mine. While I was talking to Christopher Bittinger, somebody kept trying to make eye contact with me. I didn't know them, but I knew that the woman had to be fast because she obviously didn't run towards the back of the pack and she had a sleek Bay Area Running Club uniform and really cool shades on to go against her jet black hair.

She comes up to me and asks me if I'm "Jon." I said that I was and she explained that she had seen my blog and was reconciling me to this person that her friend kept talking about. Our mutual friend is Shelley Stephenson of Seabrook while the runner was the third place finisher in the women's 30-39 division, Vera Balic. I knew I was right that Vera was fast because she covered the distance in 22:17. (Christopher, a good guy, ran it in 18:04 and said that he had been coming back from being off running for just a short bit. He too, like Sherwood, is a recent RTW winner.)

Back to Balic, she and Shelley have become good friends recently and run often. Vera recently qualified for Boston in her third career marathon in Oklahoma City this past April. Balic was 7th in her 30-34 age group with a time of 3:35:05. She was also the 20th overall female. Vera had run two marathons in 2004 and the OKC performance was a great improvement. Her first marathon was Oklahoma City when she ran a debut time of 4:00:47 before slicing four (4) minutes off in October while posting a 3:56:38 effort in the Twin Cities Marathon.

Earlier, I also had the opportunity to see Houston Strider David Kennedy and Dalton Pulsipher, who works for the same company as David does and that I had met for the first time a race or two ago at one of the Run The Woodlands. Dalton was fourth in his 20-29 age group with a time of 23:11 while I didn't see David's time in the results at all! Check out Dalton's website here.

Seven Hills Running Club president Ken Johnson was a little late (held up by an accident on Interstate 45 South) which explains his official time of 39:18, but he indicated that he was under 32 minutes. Club member Sara Seale finished third in the 20-29 age group with a time of 25:48.

The leader in cumulative time of those working to complete all of the HEB Texas 10K Challenge races, Karen Nyberg of Seabrook, won her 30-39 age group in 21:26 and was the 3rd overall women finisher behind Bennett and Barron.

I told fellow Houston Strider Yong Collins before the race to keep from beating me by more than 10 minutes. She graciously complied as she finished 2nd in the 50-59 age group (behind Eva Luckey) in 22:05.