Rocky Raccoon 25K Race Report, Part 2

Results were posted this past weekend on the web site of the Hill Country Trail Runners from the 25K portion of the Rocky Raccoon Trail Run at Huntsville State Park on Saturday, October 22nd. The 25K had a very large increase in the number of finishers. 369 of 371 who started the event that Saturday finished. This is up from 161 in 2002, 263 in 2003 and 238 last year.

There were a number of Houston Striders and Seven Hills Running Club members who completed the 25K as well as some people that I either recognize or know. Their times and places of finish are as follows:

10. Russell Meyer, 1:53:34 (Houston Harriers; Run The Woodlands 5K 20-Race Club)
-- Was 9th overall in 2003
26. Lindsey Tlustos, 2:04:44 (Seven Hills)
-- 4th female overall and 2 minutes behind last year's winner, Sara Collazos
27. David Waddell, 2:05:04 (Striders)
46. Jeffrey Williams, 2:13:31 (Striders)
74. Charles Rodriguez, 2:19:12 (Striders)
110. Kelley Richard, 2:25:20 (Striders)
-- Top Striders female
111. Ken Blott, 2:25:21 (Striders)
136. Sam Ogundele, 2:32:41 (Striders)
147. Paul Kennnedy, 2:35:04 (Striders)
167. Pam Paling, 2:39:21 (Striders)
-- Has dropped time from 3:27:35 in 2003 and 2:54:32 last year
168. Frank Halter, 2:39:21 (Striders)
-- Saw time fall dramatically from 2:55:10 in 2004, which then was a distance PR
171. Christopher Wilson, 2:40:02 (Seven Hills)
172. Carole Flad, 2:40:16 (Striders)
180. Lynlee Linke, 2:42:55 (Striders)
225. Hans Jaegar, 2:54:49 (Seven Hills)
227. Jan Parks, 2:55:05 (Seven Hills)
239. Melissa Broussard, 2:58:35 (Seven Hills)
-- Came into the 2nd aid station at about the same time as Melissa and Hans Jaegar. Hans got out ahead and I got out before Melissa did. I saw Hans a little later on the trail, but didn't see Melissa until she caught up with me coming out of the 3rd aid station when I pulled up with calf cramps. She later told me that she had to take a few minutes off the course. If it hadn't been for that, I might not have seen her at all!
245. Lisa Ruthven, 3:02:26 (Striders)
246. Chris Murphy, 3:02:27 (Striders)
-- Lisa usually gets me on the road so to have been up on her, even though she was recovering from a tough Space City 10-Miler, and then let it slip away in the last mile was a big disappointment. Chris has really improved over the last year. At the Bear Creek 10K/20K last year, I was one up on her, but she was doing the 20K that day. If I hadn't cramped up, I'd been closer to being under 3 hours and had beaten these two ladies.
247. Jon Walk, 3:03:53 (Striders/Seven Hills/Houston Running Bloggers)
250. John W. Cook, 3:05:53 (Seven Hills)
-- John's wife and Ken Johnson's wife did a great job leading Seven Hills' efforts at aid station #2.

255. Allen White, 3:08:25 (PTI; HARRA member that I met at Blue Bell Fun Run 10K)
264. Sandra Wollangk, 3:11:27 (Striders)
-- I could be mistaken but I believe that this is a post-surgery distance PR for Sandy.
325. Ken Johnson, 3:44:42 (Seven Hills)
-- Ken is one of only three individuals that have completed the Rocky Raccoon 25K each of the last four years. The other two are Sheila Brock and Marshall Cohen.
333. Jack Rubalcalva, 3:49:59 (Striders)

I often forget that there is a large group of individuals who read this blog that aren't members of the clubs that I belong to. One of the missions that I wanted to do was to show preference to HARRA members as they support the larger effort to represent "Houston Running" outside of the Bayou City. The Houston Striders had 16 runners competing in the 25K. The remaining HARRA-affiliated clubs were as follows: Tornados (8), No Affiliation (7), Houston Fit (5), Houston Masters (5), Team PTI (4), Al Lawrence (3), Bay Area Running Club (3), Houston Harriers (3), Bayou City Road Runners (2), Fort Bend Fit (1), Finish Line Sports (1).

If you scored each club's top five (5) finishers as you would in a cross country meet, regardless of gender, the five clubs who had enough runners - in addition to Seven Hills from Huntsville - would have results as follows:

Tornadoes (198) - Garza (6), Aquirre (17), Galvan (19), Dodson (38), Crocker (118)
Striders (368) - Waddell (27), Williams (46), Rodriguez (74), Richard (110), Blott (111)
Houston Masters (642) - Cooley (32), Den Bleyker (36), Groutage (112), Totten (139), Hinton (323)
No Affiliation (683) - K. Garban (8), Kenney (58), D. Garban (121), Burge (237), Meriweather (259)
Seven Hills (888) - Tlustos (26), Wilson (171), Jaegar (225), Parks (227), Broussard (239)
Houston Fit (1,325) - Chapman (50), Batchelder (268), Rucket (298), Schmidt (348), Browne (361)

I'll do this event or other trail events, depending upon my racing and training needs at the time. It was a different challenge, but one that I really thrived on - especially when you had a little bit of a downhill and you are bouncing from side to side and running by tree root after tree root.