Steps for Students 5K

Some days it's there; some days it's not.

Mile 1: 8:41
Mile 2: 8:47
Mile 3: 10:11

5K Elapsed Time: 28:36 (as recorded on Garmin)

I had a near-PR 5K last weekend and have been bumping up my mileage this past week, so I wasn't really expecting to run another near-PR race. But it still didn't feel good to have that out-of-energy demon throw his cloak around my neck a half-mile from the finish line. Ugh.

This is a nice event on the spring running calendar in Houston. There was no chip timing and the 2500 people that were there consisted mostly of the family walk crowd. But the registration fee was only $10, with proceeds raising money for the inner-city schools run by the Catholic archdiocese here. The 5K course around UH's Robertson Stadium was USATF certified, and had fruit,Girl Scout cookies and breakfast sausage waiting for me at the end. I can't complain!

It probably didn't help that I got there later than I originally intended. I hadn't even gotten in a full mile warmup before the gun went off -- a little early, at 8:27 a.m. according to my Forerunner. At that point, I saw that the starting corral was packed with walkers, so I decided to lay off for about seven more minutes before crossing the start line, to give the pack a chance to thin.

Next weekend is Rodeo Run. With about ten thousand expected, I'd make it very hard on myself if I show up late for that one.

As an aside, this race was dedicated to "kayano" on the RW forums, who has just started to battle cancer. She's highly supportive of everyone online, so here's a little voice of support for her.