Houston Running: Trash Talking

Houston Running

One of the leading sources for the discussion of Houston-area (and Texas as well) road racing. Focus and attention will be given to Houston-area runners, specifically HARRA members, that compete in outside-of-the-area events as well as those who do interesting things that aren't captured in the various media outlets, such as Inside Texas Running, Runner Triathlete News and Roberta MacInnis' Running Notebook in the Houston Chronicle (all fine publications and columns but with limitations too).

About Me

Name: WalkSports.com

Location: Spring, Texas, United States

I'm a mid-to-the back of the pack runner who probably enjoys promoting runners more than I do running myself ... I've completed 21 marathons (with a 4:47:32 PR! in Austin) and 52 half marathons (with a 2:09:58 PR! in Oregon) since November 2003 ... I've done a marathon in 12 states, half marathon in 23 and an event in 30 states and one Canadian province ... I have a 13-year-old daughter, Waverly Nicole, who completed her first half marathon in January 2006, made only two B's each of the last two years, was the only sixth grader to sing a solo (Carrie Underwood's Don't Forget To Remember Me) in their choir program (adding Taylor Swift's Tim McGraw in '08) and scored a 19 on the ACT in December 2007 as a seventh grader ... Waverly and I are members of the following clubs -- the Seven Hills Running Club, HARRA and The Woodlands Running Club ... I'm Marathon Maniac #308 ... I edit HARRA's Footprints in Inside Texas Running and write a column for Runner Triathlete News called, "Talking the Talk" ... I'm also the running columnist for the Courier of Montgomery County ... I'm a three-time winner of TAPPS' Sportswriter of the Year Award as well as TABC's Golden Hoops Award.

Thursday, March 15, 2007

Trash Talking

I got word today from Coach Bill that trash talking is back in style. (Yes, I saw the Clydesdale comment and no, some people don't have the copyright on the term.)

With that ... Waverly and I saw a race T-shirt at today's Astros game in Kissimmee versus the Florida Marlins. And we both deduced that it was a race that Rick Cook could not enter.

The race's name here in Orlando, Florida? The "U Can Finish 5-Miler".

3 Comments:

Anonymous said...: Hey Jon, this has nothing to do with your post - I'm just hijacking here. I pulled a Jon Walk last night in preparation for Boston. I wanted to find out the average difference in time last year for women in my age group (40-45) who ran both Houston in Jan '06 and Boston in April '06.

If I recall, it roughly came to 10 minutes, give or take. I pulled in just Houston area women runners, not women from other areas who maybe are better prepared for the hills.

I have more stats than you can shake a stick at now. One was more than 30 minutes difference (clearly something happened) but some woman was within just a few seconds which was incredible.; 6:01 PM
WalkSports.com said...: I'm honored that you called it a "Jon Walk" ... :)

Seriously though, if you are looking at other women who had that much difference in time between Houston and Boston, you might not be able to find too many events out there in mid-January - give or take a week - that are run on a hilly course.

The other thing that could be a variable too is whether or not the runner was running their first Boston or not. But even there would be two schools of thought - 1.) enjoy it the first time because it took so long to qualify for it or 2.) run Boston hard because it took so much work to qualify.

I think that there would be so many variables out there, but your work sounds like it gives you some type of time expectation to shoot for.

Hijack a thread any time, especially if you have stats. :); 6:08 PM
Anonymous said...: haha! Yes, I took Suzy out of the mix first thing.

I was surprised how many I found around my time frame. I got in through a lottery - definitely did not make it through my qualifying time.

So I want to run it to post at least a reasonable time based on Houston (4:30-4:40???) but then also enjoy the heck outta every minute!; 5:36 AM