How Sweet It Is! Waverly finishes the Half in 2:54:06!

Waverly did it!

She finished the Aramco Houston Half Marathon this morning in 2:54:06! There were 8 girls that were age 11 and under and Waverly was 6th! The two 8-year-old girls, Shelby Zimmerman of Houston (2:20:41) and Mia Bloomer of League City (2:25:54), that finished in front of her became the youngest girls ever to finish the half in Houston, which is in its fifth year.

Alvin's Reagan Norwood, 9, was the age group leader as she turned in a 1:52:25 finish!

Waverly's official pace was 13:16 minutes per mile. (Our aggressive target was 2:50 - my first half marathon in November 2003 or 13 minutes per mile - but her ankle began to flare up as early as mile 4 and she started to have some congestion problems near mile 8.)

I'm not only proud of the fact that she finished today but, more importantly, that she stuck with the training to be able to do so!

Her time splits were as follows:

Mile 1 -- 12:43.52
Mile 2 -- 12:26.23
Mile 3 -- 12:52.19
Mile 4 -- 12:40.65
Mile 5 -- 13:34.29
Mile 6 -- 13:30.76
Mile 7 -- 13:21.82
Mile 8 -- 13:19.90
Mile 9 -- 13:44.92
Mile 10 -- 13:49.48
Mile 11 -- 12:16.64 (probably short)
Mile 12 -- 15:33.50 (probably long)
Mile 13 -- 13:03.19
Last .1 -- 1:08.50

Total -- 2:54:05

While her speed certainly wasn't blazing, she was fairly consistent. Her hip, which bothered her a little bit during the December 24th Striders Longest Long Run, flared up some right at the Team in Training Mile 8/10 Cheer Stop, which was manned by Bill Dwyer, Carol Steele and the newest HRBer Jill Boston. (Thank you!)

Some friends of hers saw us just after mile 7 and mile 10. My parents, my wife and my mother-in-law were there down the finishing stretch and Jessica Alexander and Sarah Graybeal saw her come across the finish line! Sam Rodriguez said after the race that Lisa Leese was out on the course "yelling her head off", but we missed her!

As we got to mile 12, I pointed out to Waverly that we were about 10 minutes ahead of the pace that we did on the Longest Long Run. The finish was just under 3:03 on December 24th and 2:54:06 today!

Waverly and I were singing (not very well, of course) Tim McGraw's "How Bad Do You Want it" coming down Rusk Avenue and after she crossed the finish line, she started to cry - and so did Dad! (I tried to point out to J. Fred Duckett, the public address announcer, to announce Waverly's name however he did mine!)

For all of you who offered her encouragement and praise during the process as well as before, during and after the race, I - as a very proud father regardless of whether she ran 13 steps or 13 miles - don't think that I could ever thank each of you enough!