First Choice ER Run Thru The Woods Race Report
We trotted ... and we ran.
We got to the First Choice ER Run Thru The Woods 5M event early, as always. I had a chance to see a lot of people before the race that I knew. They included: Bill Dwyer, Mike Mendeck, Jeff Sharp, Mark Gonzales, Pam Paling, Frank Halter, Bill Rowe, Rick Cook, Robert Duncan, Ken Johnson and I got a chance to meet Bill Thompson from Conroe (I had seen his page, linked here, a few times) as well as two women that Bill was helping walk through their first 5-mile event.
Waverly and I did a warm up run all the way over to the Luke's Locker store and back. For about 25 minutes, I stood on one (1) of the main corners with a poster board that Waverly made for the Run The Woodlands 5K on Saturday. (Ann Leoni passed by and stated, correctly, that the poster board probably cost less than the $1 RTW entry fee.)
This is the third straight Turkey Day run that I've done and while I love it, one thing that I think I've noticed is that there are a lot of folks running who don't do races regularly. And I say that because Waverly and I both know to start towards the back and we both had to dodge a lot of smaller kids (4-6 year olds in her run) and adult runners/walkers.
I saw fellow Strider Jeff Sharp and his stepdaughter, ahead of me but not too far, dodging runners all the way past the 1-mile mark. It wasn't until we went over Interstate 45, up the feeder road and off towards Oak Ridge High School that I was able to run with a bit of ease. (Lesson for next year? Move up on Thanksgiving Day.)
Waverly did super; however, I think that the course was short. (C'mon folks, how hard is it to measure off a mile?) The winning times last year were in the mid-to-high 6's for boys and low 7's for girls - maximum age of 12 years. They were in the low 5's for the boys this year and mid 5's for the girls.
Gun time for her was approximately 10 minutes and the chip time was 9:44.
On the 5-mile run, my stopwatch time was 48:23.34. I was at the mile 3 mark in 28:02.94 and the last two (2) miles were 10:35.53 and 9:44.81.
Mile markers were basically ineffective and/or non-existent in this race. If you looked at the map on the event web site, http://www.runthruthewoods.org/, there are no mile markings at all. It just shows you what streets you'll be running on.
I never saw any marking or sign at mile 1. I heard somebody call out "9:35" and I thought to myself, "Ok, I was almost two minutes from crossing the start line. That means I just did a 7-plus mile? No way." (Looking at the USATF certification map done 5 years ago, the '1' marker is on the other side of Interstate 45.)
Mile 2 was no better. On the side of Oak Ridge HS, there are two big "O/R" red and blue paintings on the street. Just beyond the second one read, "Mile 2 RTW." I couldn't hit my watch because it was covered up by my shirt; however, the gentleman that was calling out the times (though not clearly audible) was standing close to the water stop in front of the high school (which is where he was supposed to according to the certification map.)
Mile 3 was right on the money and had a clock. So that is the first time that I hit my watch.
Mile 4 was almost all of the way up the up ramp of the exit. Again, spray painted on the street; however, I thought they had clearly visible signs last year. I talked to Craig Calmes after the race and he thought mile 4 was off or long. It was long. If you looked at the certification map, you couldn't tell for sure where mile 4 really was - whether it was supposed to be on the feeder road (which is where I think it was before) or where they said it was today.
So 48:23.34 was a 9:41/mile effort. 9:21 per mile in the first three and 10:10 per on the back two. After having two excellent races last weekend, I'm not going to cry too much over spilled milk on this one. I felt pretty good for the most part, but I felt my quads being a bit sore starting just before the mile 3 marker.
Sean Wade won it all. He avenged his loss from last year and defeated another young guy (he lost to 23-year-old Adam David last year), Andrew Cook from Flower Mound, who finished second. I met Sean after the race. Nice guy. We didn't talk too long, which was fine. He was talking to Luis Armenteros.
Statistically speaking, this was event #138 and #58 this year. It was the seventh 5-mile/8K that I've done. (Yes, I know that the 5-mile is just a tad bit longer.) It was an event record for me (49:45.1 last year) and the second fastest 5-miler that I've ever done.
After the race, I visited with Mike Mendeck, Ken Johnson and Craig Calmes. I saw and said hello to Tom Pinney and Lou Wilson as well before we headed home. (There appeared to be a good group from Seven Hills Running Club out, but I didn't get a chance to stand around and visit too long.)
I'll break down the results and give a "Who's Who" rundown later this evening or when the results are online! And if you need to burn those calories off from later today, please come out Saturday and do Run The Woodlands 5K #142 at 8:00 a.m. in The Woodlands.
We got to the First Choice ER Run Thru The Woods 5M event early, as always. I had a chance to see a lot of people before the race that I knew. They included: Bill Dwyer, Mike Mendeck, Jeff Sharp, Mark Gonzales, Pam Paling, Frank Halter, Bill Rowe, Rick Cook, Robert Duncan, Ken Johnson and I got a chance to meet Bill Thompson from Conroe (I had seen his page, linked here, a few times) as well as two women that Bill was helping walk through their first 5-mile event.
Waverly and I did a warm up run all the way over to the Luke's Locker store and back. For about 25 minutes, I stood on one (1) of the main corners with a poster board that Waverly made for the Run The Woodlands 5K on Saturday. (Ann Leoni passed by and stated, correctly, that the poster board probably cost less than the $1 RTW entry fee.)
This is the third straight Turkey Day run that I've done and while I love it, one thing that I think I've noticed is that there are a lot of folks running who don't do races regularly. And I say that because Waverly and I both know to start towards the back and we both had to dodge a lot of smaller kids (4-6 year olds in her run) and adult runners/walkers.
I saw fellow Strider Jeff Sharp and his stepdaughter, ahead of me but not too far, dodging runners all the way past the 1-mile mark. It wasn't until we went over Interstate 45, up the feeder road and off towards Oak Ridge High School that I was able to run with a bit of ease. (Lesson for next year? Move up on Thanksgiving Day.)
Waverly did super; however, I think that the course was short. (C'mon folks, how hard is it to measure off a mile?) The winning times last year were in the mid-to-high 6's for boys and low 7's for girls - maximum age of 12 years. They were in the low 5's for the boys this year and mid 5's for the girls.
Gun time for her was approximately 10 minutes and the chip time was 9:44.
On the 5-mile run, my stopwatch time was 48:23.34. I was at the mile 3 mark in 28:02.94 and the last two (2) miles were 10:35.53 and 9:44.81.
Mile markers were basically ineffective and/or non-existent in this race. If you looked at the map on the event web site, http://www.runthruthewoods.org/, there are no mile markings at all. It just shows you what streets you'll be running on.
I never saw any marking or sign at mile 1. I heard somebody call out "9:35" and I thought to myself, "Ok, I was almost two minutes from crossing the start line. That means I just did a 7-plus mile? No way." (Looking at the USATF certification map done 5 years ago, the '1' marker is on the other side of Interstate 45.)
Mile 2 was no better. On the side of Oak Ridge HS, there are two big "O/R" red and blue paintings on the street. Just beyond the second one read, "Mile 2 RTW." I couldn't hit my watch because it was covered up by my shirt; however, the gentleman that was calling out the times (though not clearly audible) was standing close to the water stop in front of the high school (which is where he was supposed to according to the certification map.)
Mile 3 was right on the money and had a clock. So that is the first time that I hit my watch.
Mile 4 was almost all of the way up the up ramp of the exit. Again, spray painted on the street; however, I thought they had clearly visible signs last year. I talked to Craig Calmes after the race and he thought mile 4 was off or long. It was long. If you looked at the certification map, you couldn't tell for sure where mile 4 really was - whether it was supposed to be on the feeder road (which is where I think it was before) or where they said it was today.
So 48:23.34 was a 9:41/mile effort. 9:21 per mile in the first three and 10:10 per on the back two. After having two excellent races last weekend, I'm not going to cry too much over spilled milk on this one. I felt pretty good for the most part, but I felt my quads being a bit sore starting just before the mile 3 marker.
Sean Wade won it all. He avenged his loss from last year and defeated another young guy (he lost to 23-year-old Adam David last year), Andrew Cook from Flower Mound, who finished second. I met Sean after the race. Nice guy. We didn't talk too long, which was fine. He was talking to Luis Armenteros.
Statistically speaking, this was event #138 and #58 this year. It was the seventh 5-mile/8K that I've done. (Yes, I know that the 5-mile is just a tad bit longer.) It was an event record for me (49:45.1 last year) and the second fastest 5-miler that I've ever done.
After the race, I visited with Mike Mendeck, Ken Johnson and Craig Calmes. I saw and said hello to Tom Pinney and Lou Wilson as well before we headed home. (There appeared to be a good group from Seven Hills Running Club out, but I didn't get a chance to stand around and visit too long.)
I'll break down the results and give a "Who's Who" rundown later this evening or when the results are online! And if you need to burn those calories off from later today, please come out Saturday and do Run The Woodlands 5K #142 at 8:00 a.m. in The Woodlands.
posted by WalkSports.com | 12:23 PM
3 Comments:
Was Gavin (Mendeck) there?
We had the same problem at the Fort Worth Turkey Trot -- lots of dodging entire families who just STOP dead in their tracks in the middle of the road. I made sure to LOUDLY tell my son "Move over to the right before we start our walking segments -- leave room for the runners on the left," hoping others would listen, too. Thank goodness we carry our own water -- the water stop was horrendous with people standing there chatting -- we could just skip far, far around it!
John - It was great to meet you at the Run Thru the Woods. I have enjoyed your running information page, and now have a link to it and to your running blog from my webpage. It was a fantastic day for running!
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