Knight Flight for Humanity 10K Race Report

Cool weather rocks! For those Houston Running Bloggers doing the Run for Tulane Med 10K on Sunday morning, here's a time for you -- 58:45.45!

Thanks to Lance Collins of the "Great River Running" team (yeah, I saw that in the 20K Relay results last night) for putting me on to this event this morning. I ran really, really well and I'm incredibly pleased! But the cool air really allows me to breathe as opposed to sucking in the humidity. Without it, I was able to blow through all of the water stops and keep moving.

This course was out in the middle of nowhere down off of Highway 6 in Missouri City just beyond Fort Bend Elkins High School was sweet! Flat as can be! The only negative is that the road had a funny camber at spots, but it certainly wasn't a big hinderance at all.

Plus I ran this race pretty much by myself after those for the 5K dropped off at their 1.55-mile turnaround. So it was a good feeling to just be able to put together a run like this without a pacer (which is what I had on the back half of my PR race, the Mardi Gras Beach Run 10K in Galveston in January).

Here are my mile splits (I pretty much hit my goal to be as close to 9:30 splits to be able to get under an hour today):

Mile 1 -- 9:10.23
Mile 2 -- 9:26.32 (18:36.55)
Mile 3 -- 9:30.43 (28:06.98)
Mile 4 -- 9:41.88 (37:48.86 - technically, a PR! - 39:42 at FWRC club event in June '04)
Mile 5 -- 9:24.12 (47:12.98 - 6.18 seconds shy of a PR from Park to Park Run in February '05)
Mile 6 -- 9:43.19 (56:56.17)
Last .2 -- 1:49.28

Total -- 58:45.45 (16.05 seconds off PR race from January '05)

The red-headed princess made the trip with me and really enjoyed wearing my NYC Marathon race jacket, which I shed before the start! I had the pleasure of watching the 5K winner, Kingwood HS' Danielle Selner sprint by on the return as well as seeing On The Run Racing's Raymond Cruz leading the 10K coming back in (and eventually winning it!)

Collins and his other "Great River Running" teammates, Brian King and Steve Schroeder, finished 2th, 4th and 5th, respectively. Anne Ekern and Suzy Seeley went 1-2 in the women's side and 6th and 7th overall.

I got a chance to visit with Houston Strider John DiMarco, who was at the high school to see his son, Ryan, play freshman basketball for Elkins in a tournament at 8 a.m.

Small group. Lots of high school kids. Great cause as all monies are going to Elkins High School's Habitat for Humanity Project. Fort Bend Fit had excellent representation (and they'll be in full force at the 30K!) The race got off to a little bit of a late start, 8:15 a.m. It only would have been bad if it got significantly warmer. Plenty of water stops. Fluids and a good food spread at the end of the event.

This one is an event worth doing again!

Waverly and I stopped and had breakfast at IHOP along Interstate 59 on the way back home. Now it is time to update the web page, get a shower, relax, watch Penn State beat Michigan State to go 10-1 and get to bed early for the drive to Austin for tomorrow's Motive Bison Stampede.