Fort Davis, TX / Parkersburg, WV

As I mentioned earlier, Waverly and I made the 664-mile trip (one way) to West Texas to participate in the Prude Ranch Races in Fort Davis, which is the highest town in Texas.

Next Saturday, I'll be in Parkersburg, West Virginia for the third consecutive year to take part in the RRCA National Half Marathon Championship News and Sentinel Half Marathon. The weather forecast currently is calling for a high of 86 and a low of 65 with isolated thunderstorms, which would be a welcome change from the scorching heat the last two years. (I expect to see Cassie Mondragon run better in her hometown this year, being under 2:19 even with the hills. Wait, let's make that 2:17 - you know, the shorter hair thing!)

It was an interesting trip, to say the least. I didn't decide to go for sure until about 12 noon. The former plan was to go to Schulenburg, run their 5K and then drive on out to Fort Davis. But getting in after midnight from Oakland left me a little more than beat - and I didn't think I could make that early morning drive safely.

After making a final decision at about noon (and picking up an inexpensive rental from Enterprise here in Spring), we were on the road by 2 p.m.

We had passed through San Antonio and it is at mile marker 488 where the speed limit signs go to 80. (Drivers on I-45 think they see the same once they cross Kuykendahl/Rankin heading north.) It was interesting to see, but not surprising, that as we kept driving further west that the price of gas went up. We made a stop at the River Road exit near Iraan to go to the restroom and the gas at the Fina station was $3.09!

At about 10 p.m., we stopped in Fort Stockton to get a quick bite to eat and made it into Fort Davis around 11:45 p.m. On the road from Balmorhea south to Fort Davis, nature called. Well, there's nothing between the two towns, except the road, the mountains and the stars.

Having turned off the lights to the car, it was darker than you'd ever experience in the city and when I looked to the sky -- wow! Stars like I've never seen before covered the entire sky!

I told Waverly to get out of the car. She was a little nervous given how dark it was, but it was worth it. There's no surprise that not far from Fort Davis north on Texas Highway 118 sits the McDonald Observatory on Mount Locke and Mount Fowlkes.

I didn't check before we got to Fort Davis how big it was.

I had looked for overnight accomodations in Balmorhea, but didn't book anything because I thought I would find something in Fort Davis. When we rolled into town, everything was shut down! Uh oh!

We pulled into the Fort Davis Motor Inn. It looked kind of Bates-ish from the outside, but I didn't want to go back to Balmorhea. I rang the outside bell. A woman came to door and she said that she had rooms. Thank goodness, I thought to myself!

Actually, it wasn't bad at all. Spartan? Yes. It was clean, the air conditioning worked and it was less than six miles from the ranch, which meant we could go back and shower before we started the long drive home.

We were up by 6 a.m., filled up with gas and drove to the Ranch.

We got there, registered and they had a bunch of copies of Inside Texas Running on the counter. I made a comment about that it was good to see that they had them there and proceeded to point out what we do with our HARRA section in there.

They loaded up the runners on buses for the 5K and 10K, which were point-to-point back to the front gate of the ranch. They had to be on the buses by 7 a.m. and the half marathon would be an out-and-back from the main gate and it started at 7:30 a.m.

I met a young man named Cody Smith from Cypress who was going to be running a marathon a month here soon. He looked as if he would probably finish high in the light field of 19. (I ended up being right as he finished third.) But I also spoke to a gentleman named Glenn Beck from Austin just before the start too.

I told him that we drove in from Houston and that I covered the sport. He shared with me that he had been the RD for the race the last six years, but couldn't do it this year as he took over as the Activities Director for the Fitness Camp the week that followed. Therefore, he was running it.

All 19 of us got started and I ran with two gentleman -- one from the Austin area and another from Lubbock but after the first mile (and a little incline I needed to back off some). I also knew that I would see Waverly coming back in and I did as we started to climb a hill that made up a good bit of mile 2.

As I started to make a slight turn to the right in the road (after the first water stop) and move to the left to run against traffic again (as the roads were open), I could see Waverly cresting the hill. She had just finished the first mile in her 5K. I was excited for her. I crossed the road and as I approached her and got close enough to be eye-to-eye, she rolled hers which told me that the first mile was a little bit of a challenge for her. I gave her a high 5 and was off again.

Her 5K splits were like this:

Mile 1.1 -- 13:57.30
Mile 2.1 -- 12:31.51
Mile 3.1 -- 12:04.18

Finish -- 38:33.01

So she had run three 5Ks in four weeks and all in the 37-to-38-minute range. The last couple of summers, she started out in the 43- and 44-minute area. I think it is quite an improvement. Last week before that race, she had run 2.1 miles on Monday and did the workout with Bill Dwyer's Tuesday night group in The Woodlands. (She hadn't run on Thursday because she wasn't feeling well.)

The remainder of the Prude Ranch Races half marathon was fairly tough. Nothing like Leadville and not as hot as Lander on the fourth of July, but the temperature at 6 a.m. was 75 and when we left the Ranch, it had gotten to 82 degrees.

I took too much time at each water stop, but I needed to make sure I had fluids in me because of not having anything to eat in my system since the night before. Plus my feet were killing me running the roads with shoes that I had no business running in.

Mile 1 -- 10:43.21
Mile 2 -- 11:48.57 (WS)
Mile 3 -- 10:36.04
Mile 4 -- 11:55.96 (WS; 1:26.35 to the .1 mark)
Mile 5 -- 11:18.48
Mile 6 -- 13:22.89 (WS and a steady climb)
Mile 6.2 -- 3:27.00
Mile 6.55 -- 5:43.77
Mile 7 -- 6:00:00 (15:10.77 overall)
Mile 8 -- 11:16.53 (WS)
Mile 9 --10:59.29
Mile 10 -- 11:12.66
Mile 11.1 -- 14:58.05 (1:11.46 to the .1 mark and 13:56.59)
Mile 12.1 -- 12:40.39
Mile 13.1 -- 11:32.89

Total -- 2:37:42

Hey, the time wasn't pretty, but I had fun and a great experience that I'll never forget with my daughter.

As always, Waverly was waiting for me to finish. She had been helping at the water stop just beyond the finishing gate after she finished her race. She enjoys it and it helps her pass the time. I come to find out that she talks quite a bit about what we've been doing, which is interesting to hear about afterwards. :)

Like I could with her, she could tell when I appeared on the horizon just by my stride (and knew when to start heading out.) She's learned too that when I've had a tough race to just run with me and not say anything, but I know with her being there and doing that that she'd do anything to help her Dad. And that means a lot to me, all things considered.

Now what was funny is that they were starting the awards at 10 a.m. (and we got started at 7:30 a.m.). They were coming to get Waverly because she was getting a medal for finishing second in the 19-and-under division. She ran in - about two-tenths of a mile (as I tried to get down a granola bar while was up the dirt path to the campgrounds.)

Glenn had come up and asked what I thought. I told him that while I had a tough day that I really enjoyed myself. We talked a lot more and all of the sudden, the discussion turned to their camp and about a bike ride that they did round trip to Balmorhea and back.

He stated to tell me a story about one of their running coaches. He said one of their coaches was Austin's Keith Dowland, one of the fastest 50-and-over runners in the state and then he asked me if I knew their other coach, who was from Houston.

It was HARRA's VP of Clubs, Roger Boak, who will be leading the Tour de Art Run for the Houston Striders coming up on September 21 at 6:30 p.m. as part of the RRCA's Run @ Work Day. Roger told me at the July HARRA Board Meeting that he went out to west Texas to train for this month's Leadville Trail 100 but didn't say where. Now I know!

Anyways, Glenn went on to say that Roger has been the running coach at the camp for approximately 20 years and that when the bike ride to-and-from Balmorhea comes up, Roger was once heard saying, "Who needs a stinkin' bike?" as he has run the 37-38 miles from Fort Davis to Balmorhea. All I can say, having seen it in the daylight, is that I'm impressed.

Of course, knowing that Roger has done the Leadville Trail 100 three times already and will be gunning for number 4 this coming weekend had already been enough to impress me.

No long drive is complete without hearing at least once on the radio, C.W. McCall's "Convoy", which we heard on San Antonio's AM 680 on the way back. (It's a country oldies station that we'll be able to play during Kim Hager's runs at the Texas Independence Relay. Big band era music for Juliee Sparks.)

The most interesting site were the windmills between Fort Stockton and Ozona. (On the trip to Lubbock and back in late June, we saw lots of them in Sweetwater.)

And the one sad note of the trip is that we pulled up on an accident on Interstate 10 about 20 miles west of Ozona. It was a one vehicle accident where an Explorer-like vehicle was turned over in the median of the freeway. We couldn't have been five minutes behind it. My guess is that somebody might have been trying to pass going up the hill and lost control of their vehicle or got cut off inadvertently. There were at least two people out of the vehicle and one was very bloody.

As we pulled by, a Texas DPS Officer was just getting on the scene and it was at least 5-to-7 minutes, as we wearing driving east towards Ozona, until we saw an ambulance approaching. We only hope that everybody made it through that accident safely.