League Play Grill Semi-Annual 5K Race Report

Two down. One to go in the morning. And there will be at least one other person -- Ben Tucker, who is a good friend of Dalton Pulsipher and Strider David Kennedy -- that pulls the Houston race hat trick tomorrow at Sugarland's Fired Up 5K.

This race report could really turn out to be terribly critical; however, it is one of those things that you just had to be there to understand. So buckle in for the story. :)

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I noticed this rare Sunday 5K on Jay Hendrickson's RunBayou.com site. (Meeting Jay, aka Chip Tyme, this morning for the first time, he said that someone had distributed the race information via some e-mail posting at hp where he works.)

Waverly went with me and we got to the strip center where League Play Grill is located along Barker Cypress, just west of 290, at 6:30 a.m. Early, I know, but you never know with a first-time event. I looked around for other runners and within about 5 minutes, I noticed Jay Hendrickson and Suzy Seeley - two of Houston's better Masters runners.

I noticed a little bit of set up activity going on, but nothing that made me think that any race was going to get underway at 7:30 a.m. Sometime around 7 a.m. and after Jay, Suzy and another run headed out to warm up, I got out of the truck, walked around a bit and started a conversation with Ben, who did the BENeezy Purple Monkey 10K on Saturday in Alvin. I warmed up some as the number of runners totalled about a dozen.

One of those was Houston Strider John Yoder who said, "I figured I would see you here." He explained that it was 10 minutes from his house. I also got a chance to meet Calvin and Joyce Stout from Brenham, who compete in about as many races as I do. (They both were in Alvin yesterday as well, but probably will not be in Sugarland in the morning.)

As race time approached, we all walked up to tent and got our race T-shirt. It was given to us, with a coupon for free Buffalo Wings there, in one of those white styrofoam containers you get breakfast in. A little different! Most had their online registration form and it was checked against the signmeup.com list that the organizer had.

It was explained to us, at that time, that the race would start at 8:30 a.m. - which was a little bad news because the sun was coming out and getting strong and it was going to throw Waverly and I possibly off from making it to church. At this time, we were also assigned our bib numbers!

I got #12. It was marked on my right hand with a black Sharpie! (Yoder got #11 and Hendrickson got #13. I think the Stouts were #9 and #10.) If you've ever participated in a small race or hometown event, it was a nuance that was actually something to smile about. (Not sure though we'll be adding that dimension for Run The Woodlands.)

The finish line was marked off in chalk and we were told that the course needed to be changed a little bit, but we didn't know why at the time. We were told that we would cut through the parking lot, over a median of grass, and out a side entrance road to the strip center onto Riata Ranch Blvd. We would go back north on Riata Ranch until we got to Cypress N. Houston Road where we turn back. (With the alteration announced, we all figured that it wasn't going to be 3.1 miles.)

Chuck actually "clicked off" a toy starter's pistol, which drew a good-hearted chuckle when it made no noise whatsoever, but we were off. (As we crossed the median I thought to myself, "Good training for the HARRA Cross Country Relay.")

My goal for the morning was to try and push things as much as I could even though I felt my legs felt weighted down from the hard workout Friday night and the 10K the day before.

I was passed by a couple of ladies, but I came up on a couple of youngsters who ended up waling it the rest of the way after I passed them no more than a mile in. As I was making my way towards the turnaround point where they said there would be water, I saw John and Jay coming on the way back in 1-2. Suzy Seeley, to know surprise of the five females in the event, was leading.

I hit the turnaround in 13:55.46, but I had no idea how to benchmark it as far as distance was concerned. I grabbed a bottle of water because typically I have hydration issues that slow me down some.

I ran fairly strong on the way back. I thought that I might be able to equal the time going out, but I ran the back half in 14:37.94 for a total time of 28:33.40. (The course had to be short because if it was a true 5K, that would have been a PR for me - in the humidity!)

Yoder won the men's division and Seeley won the women's. As we waited for everyone to finish (yes there were 4 behind me at least - the last of which had a Power In Motion singlet on), there was lots of good conversation to be had.

Proprietors Bill and Susan Carter, I believe (I got their names right), met everyone and apologized for the delay and change in the course. He said that they had contracted for security with one of the local law enforcement entities, but that they got called away to work at the Astrodome. (It appeared that we would have gone out onto Barker Cypress before turning onto Riata Ranch and that that would have made the 3.1 miles.)

Since the event was to raise monies for the Tomball chapter of Habitat for Humanity, he said that they were going to make a donation to them that equalled the race entry fees as well as making a matching donation for the victims of Hurricane Katrina. He implored that he'd get things taken care of for another running in the spring of '06.

Really a class move overall. He could not have done that and just let things fallen how they may, but he met everyone face-to-face and did what a good businessman does when things don't always go your way -- admit it, deal with it, apologize and make the best of the situation!

In the end though, I'm not sure how to put this one on my results page!