Harvest Moon & Margarita Run 5K Race Report

When is a 5K not really a 5K? Your first answer might be if the course was long or short. The real answer is when it is advertised as one thing, but turns out to be another.

The first paragraph may lead you to believe that I'm going to be hyper-critical. I'm not. However, you'll see how plausible it is to allow first impressions to damper one's entire thought process.

Earlier this week, as a Houston Masters Sports Association member, I received a copy of the October 2009 newsletter and it made reference to a new running store - Fit 2 Run - in Galveston and an event - the Harvest Moon and Margarita Run 5K - that they were hosting.

I googled the store, got the yet-to-be-completed web site and found that they were also on Facebook. There was a registration form on the web site and they were touting the event on the store's Facebook page. I decided, once I cleared some things out of the way from work, to head to Galveston on Thursday afternoon - in the midst of afternoon traffic.

After navigating some heavy rains in the League City area along Interstate 45, I made it to Galveston just shortly before 6 p.m. and found Salsa's Restaraunt along the Seawall at 45th Street.

I already saw Leno Rios warming up around the parking lot that was part of Academy.

I hadn't replaced my watch this week after it came to a halt at the Heels and Hills and Him Half Marathon in Irving on Sunday. It would be my third watch that I had purchased since the first one just prior to the 2005 hp Houston Marathon.

Once I had that secured, I made my way over to the restaraunt and registered.

After circling the parking lot three or four times with Leno, I learned that he works in Galveston very close to their store on 23rd Street, had met the owners recently and helped give them some advice.

The event didn't quite get started on time, and it really wasn't even handled like a real race. I was a little disappointed, but the atmosphere and the spirit was great. And the turnout was a big, big surprise - and very good. Just before we crossed the street to run along the Seawall, the organizer, Kim Bachmeier, had everybody turn to somebody close to them and introduce themselves. I was close to a young woman who was wearing a BARC Pub Crawl singlet and she introduced herself as "Serina" and I replied, "Oh, McEntire".

Needless to say, she was a little freaked.

I quickly chimed in and told her that I recognized her name from all of the Bay Area Running Club HARRA reports that Veronica Hoge had provided me over the years. (She's also included in the Clear Lake Fitness Club reports too!)

We were to run to 25th Street and come back. I got off to a pretty good start and while there wasn't a ton of people in front of me, I started to wonder to myself that I must have gone out a little too fast.

I'm still struggling with getting back to my normal 29-minute 5K and 2:18-2:20 half marathon times, and tonight would be no different than what I've been suffering through since the first of June.

I'm trying to run about a 9:20 pace (which is in the low 29s for a 5K), but my endurance and all certainly isn't there yet. So it is a lot of starts and stops.

I made it down in 16:19:08, quickly doubled it in my mind and was praying that perhaps the organizer didn't get the turnaround in the right spot.

The temperatures were in the mid-80s, but they didn't seem to bother me going south. However, I quickly found out why on the return trip north: We were running into the wind! Just what I needed to slow me down even more than what I was.

So I had to make the best of it for the long drive down. I had two ladies pass me about half of the way heading south to 25th Street. Then just before we made the turnaround, another two women did as well. Even though I'm slow, the second one didn't sit real well with me. (And approaching was Serina and the young woman that she was pacing - in her first 5K I later learned.)

As we made our way north back to the restaraunt, I eventually caught and passed both pairs of women. Small victories. The one little defeat was the time on the return trip - 17:33.40 - and a total time of 33:52. Ugh!

When we got back, we turned in a reflective wrist band - kind of like the stick that we used for TIR - for two drink tickets and off everyone went into Salsa's.

The restaraunt really did a great job and everyone basically had a plate of Mexican food with their drinks.

Kim gave out a number of nice door prizes and a good time really seemed to be had by all. I spent a little bit more time getting to know Serina and visited some more with Leno. During the trip down, I got to meet Terlingua's Dale Lee for the first time. I had known of Dale for a long time and knew him to see him, but had never introduced myself to him. Nice guy.

In the restaraunt, I also saw Ralph Miller of Tiki Island. Miller is in his mid-70s and still does lots of triathlons.

Certainly the store won't be able to do more of these at a $25 price without making it a real race - even running it on the sidewalk of the Seawall. However, I could very, very easily see them doing a $5 event monthly of different distances much like Run The Woodlands 5K is done twice a month. That is something that I see would be a very real possibility for the store that seems to be revitalizing running in Galveston.

And it turned out to be the seventh straight day that I had run three miles or more: definitely a record!