News and Sentinel Half Marathon Race Report

Why was it listed as "brief" earlier? Because I was going to sleep at about 3 p.m. Eastern!

The biggest news of the day? Cassie Mondragon kicked butt with a 2:14 on a pretty good day weather-wise for running. She ran all of the hills where I still had her in sight (through to about mile 6). It was her third best marathon ever, to follow up on 2:12 and 2:10 showings the last two years at the Aramco Houston Half Marathon.

I didn't do too bad. I ended up at 2:24 - down from the last two years, but the conditions in '05 and '06 were brutal - and The Woodlands' Tara Wilson, who works at Luke's Locker there (and like Cassie, is from Parkersburg - as is her husband, Steve), came in just under 2:28 in her first half marathon ever.

It was fun for the three of us to be able to socialize before and after the race that far away from where we live - even though it is home for both Cassie and Tara. (In fact, I didn't even know that Tara was definitely going to be there. Or if she had told me recently in the store, I forgot about it. About 45 minutes before the race, I could see somebody walking my way down one of the downtown streets with a Ten For Texas shirt and I'm thinking to myself, "How odd?" But it was Tara!)

Here are the official results:

554 22 Cassie Mondragon, 28*, Houston, TX 1:05:06 2:14:54 10:18
610 59 Jon Walk, 40, Spring, TX 1:06:20 2:24:19 11:01
634 14 Tara Wilson, 48*, The Woodlands, TX 1:07:14 2:28:04 11:18

As you can see, Cassie really ran strong on the back half, which is what she has been doing on her long runs - starting out slower and steady and then getting stronger at the end.

Here were my splits - a lot better looking than last year:

"Chip" Difference - 31.67
Mile 1 - 10:12.92
Mile 2 - 10:52.77 (uphill)
Mile 3 - 11:05.96 (uphill)
Mile 4 - 9:41.33 (slight downhill)
Mile 5 - 10:50.01
Mile 6 - 10:49.55
Mile 7 - 10:52.00 (Mile 6.2 - 2:17.09)
Mile 8 - 10:48.07
Mile 9 - 10:44.83
Mile 10 - 11:16.96
Mile 11 - 11:26.88 (includes bridge over the Little Kanawa River)
Mile 12 - 12:15.14 (includes 13th Street Hill)
Last 1.1 - 13:09.33 (this is pretty flat, but I was spent)

Watch Time - 2:24:37
Chip Time - 2:24:05

Which makes sense with the time above. That's a gun time as the event doesn't use a timing mat at the start and I didn't get my watch stopped until I finished being dizzy after paying tribute to Jon Blais (aka Blazeman), who passed away earlier this year after being diagnosed two years ago with ALS, with a "log roll" finish.

I made one attempt, during mile 4, to see if I could get to Cassie and blew off one water stop, but she held that 40-second lead into the 10K spot and then opened it up from there. (I really knew that I wasn't where she is physically right now, but I figured for a moment, "Hey, it's still a race.") What's strange is that all of those miles from mile 5-10 at an even pace still hurt.

This is a great event with incredible hometown support - 1,400 volunteers! - from the water stops and people cheering in the street. The only race in Houston that can equal the energy at this distance or greater is the Chevron Houston Marathon. And the people in Parkersburg are volunteering at a time when they could be enjoying all of the Homecoming Festival events themselves.

They also bring in a host of foreign runners with 16 of the top 20 finishers hailing from Kenya or Ethiopia. The event has been doing this since 1997, long before it picked up the designation as the RRCA National Half Marathon Championship two years ago. The top seven (7) female finishers were from either Kenya, Ethiopia or Russia. You don't even see the depth of these numbers at the Chevron Houston Marathon!

Looking at the results, I realized that I did see Chuck Engle of Columbus, Ohio warming up. He finished 25th among all men with a 1:14:57 finish. Chuck and Dane Rauschenberg both racked up over 50 marathons last year. (Dane did a marathon every weekend in 2006 while Chuck doubled up once or twice.)

I also saw another running legend warming up and that was Indianapolis' 56-year-old Gary Romesser, who covered the course in 1:20:34. He was the fourth fastest Masters runner.

I'll see how I feel later about the Nationwide Health CMTS 15K in the morning here in Columbus, plus I haven't looked at logistics. Columbus is bigger than what I thought it was. (I looked. It is doable, but we'll see.)