Marathon Day 5K Pacer Needed / Tuesday's Workout

Want to be a "local invited runner" for the Houston Press/Smart Financial 5K? (Yes, that means that I will pay your entry fee!)

I'm looking for someone who isn't running the marathon or half marathon that would be willing to pace Waverly on Sunday, January 14th and positively encourage her in an attempt to set her 5K personal best (which I believe is 35:56.) To me, this would also include guiding her on the course - away from individuals that might be stopping to walk, avoiding rough spots on the road and trying to keep her running as close to how the course was certified.

Waverly and I both went to Knox Elementary to be around the runners from the Luke's Locker Beat - The Woodlands and Team Woodlands Team In Training groups that are led by Bill Dwyer, Kim Hager, Debbie Tripp, Carol Steele and Dana-Sue Crews.

I saw Kim earlier at the press conference for the lanching of the Tri One O One brand. Her coach, Dana Lyons of The Woodlands, will be the race director of the Championship event in the The Woodlands on November 11, 2007. She said that the marathoners were doing eight (8) 800s. I had e-mailed Bill, in jest, and said, "Yikes." He responded that he was going to worry about "dialing me back."

After running 52 miles in 5 days, including Sunmart, my body simply wasn't ready for the speed workout. Oh, I could have pushed myself to complete it, but I don't think it would have been healthy for me physically or mentally.

I warmed up by running eight (8) laps around the track with Waverly as she was still a little sore from Sunday (plus she had basketball practice Monday night.). They were to run at school on Tuesday morning, but she got out of it. Why? Because she had done five (5) laps - in 20 minutes - in each session so far this year. So she played basketball during that time.

We really took it easy, but Waverly ended up running at an 11:53 per mile pace!

We ran in lane 7, which equates to 446.01142 meters instead of 400. Multiply that times eight, convert it to miles and it comes out to 2.217 miles. She ran it in 26:21.16.

But here is what was impressive (and we weren't even trying):

3:12.84, 3:22.78*, 3:14.29*, 3:18.60, 3:20.32, 3:18.67, 3:19.68 and 3:13.98
*I was long on lap 2 and short on lap 3

The rest of the time, she stood around and watched a lot of the runners doing their workouts and being near Bill and Kim, who were doing the timing. (I believe in trying to expose her to people who do things right, are knowledgeable and most importantly, are as ethical as the day is long.)

I tried a 1200 - that the half marathoners were doing - and was none too pleased -- 2:31.36, 2:30.41 and 2:27.72 = 7:29.89.

I started a second one, ran the first lap in 2:25.70 and realized that my body wasn't ready for it that night. Maybe next week. I did a nice and easy lap in lane 7 (12:04.50 over 1.108 miles) at a 10:53 pace.

So call it a little over 4 miles with excellent company. Works for me!