Slow Run The Woodlands 5K; Pub Crawl Scratch

I rolled out of bed at approximately 7:20 a.m., told Waverly we were leaving in 10 minutes and was soon on our way toward Barbara Bush Elementary in The Woodlands. This was how I did things the first year that I ever ran any events at all.

I laughed when I saw Vincent Attanucci and he told me that he had done RTW 5K at least 65 times and that this morning was the longest that he went before he saw somebody he knew!

There were a lot of young men and women from Concordia Lutheran High School in Tomball that were probably doing the event this morning as a time trial for the upcoming cross country season. (I'm looking forward to going out Friday night to the Friday Night Lights cross country meet in The Woodlands myself.)

I almost threw in the towel on this race this morning as I started the first loop. I was hurting from yesterday's workouts, especially the muscles which run up the top of the leg in the groin area. I really felt the left one of those after swimming yesterday.

But the miles, without injury, will make me a little tougher I hope. The humidity didn't do us any favors today either. So today stunk from a time perspective!

Mile 1 -- 9:31.26
Mile 2 -- 10:14.59
Mile 3 -- 10:32.79
Last .1 -- 57.31
Total -- 31:15.95

I chatted with Tom Sherwood, Wayne Rutledge and Tracy MacEwan after the race for a little bit as well as Tom McHale, Vincent and his son, Michael. (Vincent said that he wasn't going to do a 10K next Saturday unless he got into the 21s this morning. I guess he'll be going to Alvin - or perhaps Milano, based on what I was telling him.)

[A sidenote here. Tom Sherwood is going to write a piece for "Deer Tracks" about his experience at the U.S. Olympic Trials in early July and how what he saw there led to what took place in Beijing the last two weeks.]

I also ran RTW this morning with nothing in me, which probably isn't the best thing. Therefore, Waverly and I stopped at Egg and I for breakfast before we made it home. That decision made for me to be a scratch from today's Bay Area Running Club Pub Crawl.

It is something that I enjoy, but I also only know a handful of people (good people, nonetheless.) And Wayne is one of those people and he said he wasn't going down. Plus Bill Dwyer said he needed to complete a project for his wife, Sandy, or he'd be in the dog house. (I think it was a way of getting out of running seven miles - even though it is a start and stop affair.)

So I may rest up, go to the gym and bike for an hour, then plan my drive to Dallas early in the morning for tomorrow's Hottest Half Marathon. I'm also looking forward to watching the Men's Olympic Marathon this evening as well.