12th annual City of Livingston Jingle Bell Run 5K Race Report
After the 3rd annual Willis Wildkat 5K, I drove back to the house in Spring to get a shower, change clothes and begin the journey to Livingston for the 1 p.m. 5K there.
I drove north to Conroe to Loop 336, took 105 over to Cleveland, got on Highway 59 and continued north until we reached the Highway 190 exit to Livingston. Ken Johnson had told me earlier in the morning that the downtown square would be easy to find, and for the most part it was.
I navigated around the downtown Christmas festival that they were having until we found what would be a suitable place to park to keep from being boxed in from any of the town’s post-race activities.
Registration was really, really simple for the 12th annual City of Livingston Jingle Bell Run 5K. It was simply sign your name and address to a sheet of paper (so that they could mail you a flyer in future years) and you were handed a small envelope with two sheets of paper with race instructions, a colored sticker (5K runners had yellow) and a wrist bracelet with real little jingle bells.
I’m certainly one of – and for - good cheer, but the bells were not race day equipment.
The course was two loops. The first one, which included an extra city block to circle, was a little longer than the second one.
Shortly after getting registered and returning from the truck, I saw fellow Seven Hills Running Club member Jan Parks of Point Blank. This was her first race after foot surgery.
A few minutes later, I saw that Ken had finally made it as well as another Seven Hills member Don Ortloff, who I’ve only met a couple of times.
The race would start in the middle of a city street. We would head west to begin and basically follow a course that was a west-to-east rectangle. (I guess you could say east-to-west too.)
The course was a little hilly. I’m not sure which course was tougher: Willis or Livingston. I think Ken said that he thought Livingston was, but I’m not sure myself. I do know that the Livingston course was definitely right on and in fact, it could have been slightly long. When I mapped it at mapmyrun.com, it came out to be 3.11 miles.
I ran OK. I did the same thing that I did in Willis. I tried to run the entire race at a quicker pace than what my cardio was letting me. It was like running a 5K in a series of 800-meter intervals with short recoveries in between. It was primarily good, but a little frustrating.
My finishing time was 30:07.63. (I think I left the two loop splits at home in Houston – as I finish this up in the office in Jackson.)
It had to be a first that I was the first finisher at a race where there was more than just two Seven Hills Running Club members! (When Jan gets completely healed, she’ll be back finishing ahead of me.)
Waverly and I socialized a little bit with Ken and Jan and it was time to head south. I had needed to get the two back tires replaced on my Ford F150 and when we stopped to take a look at an old school building along the main drag in Livingston, I received my final reminder notice.
The back right tire was starting to go flat.
There was a tire store across the street, but they closed at 2 p.m. and it was 2:13 p.m. I remembered that there was a Wal-Mart near Highway 59 and Highway 190 so I made it there without any problems.
As the service writer worked up my order, he said that he didn’t have any tires in stock. Uh oh.
He said that there was a Tiremax along the feeder road of Highway 59.
We made it there and luckily they had what I needed in stock (or I might still have been there.)
Waverly and I went to get a bite to eat for lunch. We had planned to get something a little bit nicer than fast food, but those plans changed.
Once we made it back, the truck was done and we were off to Finish Strong Sports on Washington Avenue in Houston near Memorial Park to register for the Jingle Bell Run.
There I saw the Striders’ Nancy Drago, who was doing work for Run Far and making sure entries got in to the chip timing database OK, and Finish Strong’s Raymond Cooper, but really didn’t have an opportunity to talk or visit too much.
We were both pretty tired and looking forward to the Lakes of Williams Ranch 30K.
I drove north to Conroe to Loop 336, took 105 over to Cleveland, got on Highway 59 and continued north until we reached the Highway 190 exit to Livingston. Ken Johnson had told me earlier in the morning that the downtown square would be easy to find, and for the most part it was.
I navigated around the downtown Christmas festival that they were having until we found what would be a suitable place to park to keep from being boxed in from any of the town’s post-race activities.
Registration was really, really simple for the 12th annual City of Livingston Jingle Bell Run 5K. It was simply sign your name and address to a sheet of paper (so that they could mail you a flyer in future years) and you were handed a small envelope with two sheets of paper with race instructions, a colored sticker (5K runners had yellow) and a wrist bracelet with real little jingle bells.
I’m certainly one of – and for - good cheer, but the bells were not race day equipment.
The course was two loops. The first one, which included an extra city block to circle, was a little longer than the second one.
Shortly after getting registered and returning from the truck, I saw fellow Seven Hills Running Club member Jan Parks of Point Blank. This was her first race after foot surgery.
A few minutes later, I saw that Ken had finally made it as well as another Seven Hills member Don Ortloff, who I’ve only met a couple of times.
The race would start in the middle of a city street. We would head west to begin and basically follow a course that was a west-to-east rectangle. (I guess you could say east-to-west too.)
The course was a little hilly. I’m not sure which course was tougher: Willis or Livingston. I think Ken said that he thought Livingston was, but I’m not sure myself. I do know that the Livingston course was definitely right on and in fact, it could have been slightly long. When I mapped it at mapmyrun.com, it came out to be 3.11 miles.
I ran OK. I did the same thing that I did in Willis. I tried to run the entire race at a quicker pace than what my cardio was letting me. It was like running a 5K in a series of 800-meter intervals with short recoveries in between. It was primarily good, but a little frustrating.
My finishing time was 30:07.63. (I think I left the two loop splits at home in Houston – as I finish this up in the office in Jackson.)
It had to be a first that I was the first finisher at a race where there was more than just two Seven Hills Running Club members! (When Jan gets completely healed, she’ll be back finishing ahead of me.)
Waverly and I socialized a little bit with Ken and Jan and it was time to head south. I had needed to get the two back tires replaced on my Ford F150 and when we stopped to take a look at an old school building along the main drag in Livingston, I received my final reminder notice.
The back right tire was starting to go flat.
There was a tire store across the street, but they closed at 2 p.m. and it was 2:13 p.m. I remembered that there was a Wal-Mart near Highway 59 and Highway 190 so I made it there without any problems.
As the service writer worked up my order, he said that he didn’t have any tires in stock. Uh oh.
He said that there was a Tiremax along the feeder road of Highway 59.
We made it there and luckily they had what I needed in stock (or I might still have been there.)
Waverly and I went to get a bite to eat for lunch. We had planned to get something a little bit nicer than fast food, but those plans changed.
Once we made it back, the truck was done and we were off to Finish Strong Sports on Washington Avenue in Houston near Memorial Park to register for the Jingle Bell Run.
There I saw the Striders’ Nancy Drago, who was doing work for Run Far and making sure entries got in to the chip timing database OK, and Finish Strong’s Raymond Cooper, but really didn’t have an opportunity to talk or visit too much.
We were both pretty tired and looking forward to the Lakes of Williams Ranch 30K.
posted by WalkSports.com | 11:43 AM
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