Pearland Area Runners Club Monster Dash 5K Race Report

The options for races around town were fewer and far between than most other weekends. I even considered making a road trip to either New Braunfels (for the Wurst 5 Miler) or Henderson (for the Thundering Sneakers 10K); however, as the evening went on last night, those plans went out the window. Well, at least, the Henderson one did.

I had the alarm set for 3:30 a.m., but the snooze won and I settled on the Pearland Area Runners Club Monster Dash 5K at the Silverlake Athletic Club in Pearland.

The Pearland Area Runners Club is one of our HARRA-affiliated clubs and Cassie Dimmick has worked really hard to take advantage of the opportunity to put their club report in Footprints.

Their club did a very good job at putting on today's event.

The course was certified (TX08028ETM) and PR-friendly. It had one turn coming and going; otherwise, it was a straight shot with an incline before the 1-mile mark going out.

That being said, I ran the whole way and got back under 30 minutes for the first time all season! Yay! Cutting out soft drinks for two whole weeks (with a small glass of Dr. Pepper late last evening) and eating sensibly may just indeed have paid off. :)

The temperature was probably in the low 60s and to me it wasn't very humid at all.

If you pull up the results online, you'll see that the gun time is posted, which is 30:16.4.

However, I was 22.48 off the starting line for a net time of 29:53.96! I didn't get my watch stopped as I stepped on the timing mats at the finish. Therefore, I had to back into this.

Mile 1 -- 9:35.81
(Felt like I was close to overdoing it, but thought this was better than a 9:0x)

Mile 2 -- 9:27.17
(I really didn't "know" this split because I had hit my watch at the turnaround, but I could see that it was 19:25 gun time less 20 seconds and 19:05 sounded good to me.)

Mile 3 -- 9:55.12
(I didn't feel that I was struggling too much to keep from walking; however, there were a number of kids who would run, stop and walk, run, and so on. I thought to myself, "If you'll just keep it steady..." I realized that I was then talking to myself. I also saw 29:20 on my watch, and knew that I'd have to hustle to make it under 30 "chip time".)

Last .1 -- 55.86
(Nothing blazing like last week's finish, but a solid effort towards the line even though three of those kids found another speed and passed me. Oh well.)

My good friends from The Woodlands and the Striders, Frank Halter and Pam Paling, were there. (Pam's brother lives in Pearland about a mile away.)

I saw Frank first on his return trip (of the out-and-back course). He finished second in his age group behind PARC's Bill O'Neill in a time of 23:45.6. Pam was next. The women's leader (Ann Wacker) was way out in front, but I watched closely to be able to tell her that the runner immediately in front of her (steps ahead) was the second female!

She kicked it in and took second place overall by 26 seconds in 24:47.4.

Brace yourself. After that, there wasn't anybody else that ran the race that I knew!

I did get a chance to see Roger and Ann Wacker, two very good triathletes, in action for the first time ever. Roger was ahead on the way back when I passed him; however, he ended up losing to 45-year-old Steve Morell by 8 seconds. Roger is 49.

We stayed around for the door prizes, watched Frank and Pam pick up their etched glasses as age group awards, and then we drove all the way to The Woodlands to have breakfast at Egg & I. (The wait at the IHOP in Pearland was pretty brutal.)

No sooner had we gotten back out on Highway 288. I had a text from Edwin telling me that he had finished a 10-miler in 6th place overall and 4th in his age group. (Wish he would start blogging about his races again.) I asked him where it was at because I didn't see it in ANY calendar.

He said that it was hosted by St. Patrick's Church in Lufkin and that he had found out about it Monday. And I'm wondering why I didn't know about? LOL

The remainder of the afternoon? I've been tracking Montgomery County's seven men that are competing at Ironman Florida in Panama City Beach, Florida.

A good day!