Angie's Half Crazy! Half Marathon

I enjoyed the Angie's Half Crazy course so much last year that I decided it was worth the early hour's drive to the Clear Lake area from my home in the Energy Corridor to do it again. (Ah, Houston -- in what other American city can you literally drive for an hour on the highway -- at the speed limit -- and still never leave the city limits?)

I have, without reservation, declared this the flattest 13.1-mile course in Houston. It forms a big loop around the UH-Clear Lake campus, the Armand Bayou Nature Center, and the Johnson Space Center, and is lush with greenery. Combined with today's weather -- clear skies, moderate humidity and a starting temperature of 41F -- was tailor-made for PR running. Well, I'm sure it was for some other folks....

Since I have a tendency to start races too fast, I relied heavily on my Garmin and made sure to keep the GPS on today! My plan was to force myself to clock a ten-minute mile to start and then work from there. I reached the mile one marker in 10:11, so I got that part perfect. After that, I let myself settle into nine-something pace for the next four miles. I saw a lot of photographers out in mile four, and I bet they got some great shots of runners going past patches of bluebonnets in bloom.

I've been living with achilles tendinitis for the past few weeks, and I made several brief stops to stretch out my calf muscles. Overall though, things were great for the first ten miles. Right after cresting the one "hill" on the course -- the Saturn Lane overpass that goes over the Space Center Houston tour tram path -- my energy level just crashed and I developed a maddening headache. So in the last 5K, instead of a finishing surge, I was on "dead legs" and waddled in with a finish time of 2:17:34.

As I posted after last year's inaugural run, this is a bright new gem on the spring running calendar for Houston. The word is getting around, too, since the announced field before gun time was right around a thousand runners. I'm already thinking about coming back again next year -- especially if the postrace spread features brisket again.

Belief of Suspension

Today I set up the third and final level of my patio garden. Last night I was thinking about how feasible it would be to suspend some ivy or other greenery. Then a couple of things happened.

First, after living here for several months, I finally noticed that there were three small hooks set into the ceiling above the railing. A previous tenant had saved me a little money/labor.

Second, I remembered that tomato plants are vines, ones we normally directionally discipline with stakes and cages.

So I picked up three hanging planter containers, more soil and one more plant -- a Quinalt variety strawberry. The Quinalt is supposed to be an everbearing that grows rootless runners. Joining the strawberry in suspension are the two roma tomato plants that were sharing the ground containers with Impatiens. I'm hoping that I'll be able to look outside my window at dangling fruit later in the summer. Since they're suspended in the air, I shouldn't need to stake any of these plants, nor worry about any pests having easy access to them from the ground.

The big wildcard remains the sunshine. I like my apartment's northeast exposure for it's potential to keep my air-conditioning needs to a minimum. But less than half a day of sunshine could hold back all the fruit-bearing plants. Ah, the suspense . . . what will happen to our plant-agonists?

The picture in this post was taken from the stairwell landing, looking down on my plants.

SCOPE Fun Run

Previously, I had left today's date open with tomorrow's half marathon looming. I had even decided not to do the Pope John XXIII Fun Run this year -- the only race where I've actually lucked into age-group placing.

With Paulette (Runner's World forumite "kayano") in the midst of her treatment battle with cancer, though, I couldn't pass up an obvious way to show support like this morning's running event at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center -- the Sprint for Colorectal Oncology Prevention and Education, or SCOPE. SCOPE, get it? (I know, some of you are a little behind in getting that kind of humor.)

Not being pre-registered, I drove down to the Texas Medical Center and was in a little rush to perform walk-up registration. I was directed by volunteers to park on the eighth floor of the parking garage. When I saw that the elevators were busy with arriving participants, I went down the stairs instead. After registering, I took the stairs back up to drop off stuff I wasn't using for the race in my car. Then once more back downstairs, I looked for a restroom. Signs directed me into M.D. Anderson itself to bathrooms on the second floor. Wouldn't you know it, the escalators weren't running....

After that stair workout, I lined up and we were off and running. While I was inside the hospital, my Garmin gave me the "Are you indoors?" question, and I foolishly selected yes. Now I was outside, and in the first mile of my race, the GPS was shut off. I was trying to select a decent 5K pace, but had no idea how fast I was really running until I reached the first mile marker in 7:56. Uh oh. That was WAY too fast.

I slowed down in mile 2, completing that in 9:16, but the damage was done. I had triggered my Puke Point, and was in trouble. I thought back to the history of the Texas Revolution and of James Fannin's sacrifice with his men at Goliad, and how it might be a little disrespectful to hurl last night's spinach and salmon onto the street that bears the colonel's name. So I stopped running and started walking.

Crossing the finish line with an elapsed time of 28:06, I decided that taking a sub-30-minute time today was good enough. I got a T-shirt from the race, and plan to send it to Paulette this week.

Ground Floor Expansion

Tonight I launched the second part of my patio garden. As I mentioned yesterday, I was going to attempt tomatoes despite having direct sun in this location for less than half a day. While browsing the starter plants in the garden department at Walmart, I recognized that one of the peat pots had more than one plant in it:



Who could resist a two-for-one deal? When I got home, I cracked open the pot, confirmed that these were indeed twins, and carefully untangled the root balls from each other:



I may have risked some serious root shock in both plants, but even if the gamble fails completely, I'm only out $3.50, right?

After a night of sleep, I woke up this morning, looked at the Impatiens I planted last night and had decided that there was no way having the plants only three inches apart was going to turn out well:



So I halved the number of plants in each box from six to three:



The evicted Impatiens were transplanted down into the new round containers sitting directly on the patio. The flowers' new assignment is to surround the tomato plants that I planted in the middle:



The Impatiens are now about ten inches away from each other. I bet they'll appreciate the extra room. Meanwhile, down in the round containers, I am counting on the Impatiens staying less than a foot tall, while the roma tomato plants shoot for higher altitude. We'll find out this spring and summer if they can all get along!

Growing Impatiens

Other than an outdoor thermometer, my apartment patio has been barren since I moved in. On a whim, I've decided to attempt to launch a little garden project out there to liven things up.


The challenge of this location is that it is an eastern exposure. And even some of that morning sun is obstructed by the nearby handiwork of the Texas Department of Transportation. Let's just say I'm not living here because of the view. In my online searches for easy-to-grow species for the spring/summer season that can tolerate both "bright shade" and Houston weather, one name kept appearing -- Impatiens.

Tonight I hung a couple of window boxes off the railing and planted some seedlings with a bright pinkish-red hue. Total project cost was a little under $50. I put six plants in each 24-inch box, as if I'm counting on some of them dying off early. In the event that all of them live, there's going to be some intense sibling rivalry in those containers.

So the patio garden begins with the Impatiens, or as I like to call them, my "safe bet" plants. The next move I'm plotting is a riskier one: I'm thinking of attempting to grow normally sun-loving roma tomatoes on the same patio.

The Run Before the Storms

I'm pretty sure I can get to the finish line. Everything else is TBD.

Let's face it -- I haven't really been loading up on the mileage approaching this weekend's Angie's Half Crazy Half Marathon down in Clear Lake. I wanted -- nay, let's make that needed -- one more long run into the double-digits not so much for conditioning as for a confidence booster. So when I set out on the dam trail tonight, I vowed that I wouldn't quit until my Forerunner hit 10 miles.

Twinges of Achilles tendinitis made a rude appearance about halfway out, but I worked through it. Actually the worst part of the return trip home was probably facing that stiff east wind. I was pretty occupied on Sunday, and Tuesday is supposed to start a string of days featuring thunderstorms. So today was probably my best shot at one final long run. While it was not pretty, a ten-miler does get credited to my log tonight.

As usual before a big race, the preceding days will be loaded up with rest. The calf muscle stretching will continue. Hills are supposed to aggravate AT; thankfully, the Angie's course is flat flat, flat. Six days out, and I really have no idea what to expect from this one or how aggressively I can run it. I guess that's why we don't just run these on paper!

I feel like such a heel....

I've reached that dreaded milestone -- dealing with a running injury. Last night I had to cut short my planned long run when I felt a biting pain in the left heel area. After a few minutes of walking, I decided that it had subsided enough to where I could slowly jog straight for home.

I'm showing the signs of a budding case of Achilles tendinitis. The tender nodule is on the tendon a couple of inches above my heel. I can probably point to multiple factors at play here:

• Increasing mileage in preparation for the Angie's half
• Shortchanging myself on warmup/stretching time
• New shoes -- although they are the same model as my last pair

I was a little stressed and inconvenienced this week after having to replace a broken timing belt that disabled my car. I'd be extremely furious at myself if I let this situation with my Achilles progress to a ruptured tendon that would take me out long-term. So I'm going to be erring on the side of caution.

Since it's jumping/running that aggravates this condition, I even have this crazy idea of walking the upcoming race. It is Angie's Half Crazy! Half Marathon, after all....

Bayou City Classic 10K

I just had a breakthrough 10K at Rodeo Run a couple of weeks ago, but going into this one, I wasn't sure what to expect from myself. But the race ended up yielding some surprises.

Mile 1: 8:32
Mile 2: 8:40
Mile 3: 8:51
Mile 4: 9:24
Mile 5: 9:21
Mile 6: 9:25
10K Elapsed Time: 55:48 (new 10K PR)

Official results aren't up yet, and those times above are taken from my Forerunner 205. After my seeing my first two mile splits I was worried that I had gone out too fast. Sure enough, I hit my Puke Point shortly after the Shepherd Drive turnaround and I spent the rest of the run just trying to hold things together. Lots of people were passing me on the return leg, but I think the one that really got to me was the guy wearing the "Run Easy" Reebok shirt. I do not recommend this race strategy, but I had managed to "bank" enough time on the outbound leg of the course to somehow still notch a PR by nearly a minute over my Rodeo Run time.

The skies stayed clear of rain during the race, the wind was tame, and the temps hung down in the mid-40sF -- my shorts/long-sleeve/hat weather. Looking at my first three mile splits makes me think I might have had conditions ripe for a 5K PR as well. But that course wasn't on today's menu.

After successfully crossing the finish line without ever actually throwing up, I walked over to the Saint Arnold tent in the post-race area. My stomach had settled to the point where I could down a glass of Fancy Lawnmower. It's really a summer brew, but I'm not one to complain about free beer!

Normally I hate races on Memorial Drive; it's concrete and out-and-back means usually means staring into the rising sun. But I got drawn into the one by the prospect of gathering some of the H-Town folks on the Runner's World forums. It was neat to see "Palacios Paul," "Scottydog," "Blackhawk26," and "Kimmi5207" all gathered at one race.

Now we're two weeks away from the Angie's half, and the truth is that I have no idea what version of my running self will be showing up that morning. Would it be too much to ask for the temps to stay below 60F at the end of the month?

Warmed Over Blog Bits for Thursday, March 12

It's been a while since I've posted to this blog something other than a race report. Here are some of my random CurrentlyVince thoughts for those of you still following along....

• Right now I'm feeling a bit disconnected from today's tech culture. I realized that I really like the feeling of having physical media for my recorded music and movies that I can hold in my hands. Just last night I noticed that my checkbook was nearly finished and felt strongly compelled to do something about it, despite the fact that I have occasion to write a paper check only a handful of times a year.
  

• So what can I do to reconnect as a member of Generation Tech? The latest issue of Maximum PC just landed in my mailbox this week, and the cover story is titled "50 Things Every PC Geek Should Know." Maybe I'll start there. Of course, just the fact that I still subscribe to print magazines might be a sign that I'm stuck in the past. Even the venerable PC Magazine went 100% digital this year.
  

• Chron.com's Dwight Silverman posted a list of 15 movies that he thinks reflects geekdom.

• The property formerly known as Town & Country Mall -- 13 miles west of downtown -- has been wholly redeveloped and rechristened as "City Centre." The name change alone expresses so much about the direction of population growth in the Houston area. The newest Studio Movie Grill opened there this week. Together with the Cinemark at Memorial City that opened last fall, the two movie theaters fill what I've thought has been a very strange void in one of the most affluent sections of the city.

• If you ever need to come up with an example of niche marketing, look no farther than Santa Fe Natural Tobacco, maker of Natural American Spirit cigarettes. I found an ad for this product while flipping through this week's edition of the Houston Press. (Gotta love those Press advertisers!) Do you know people who are both cigarette smokers and members of the buy-organic crowd? Apparently this company does.

• Fellow running blogger Pat in Arizona has developed a strange obsession over the timing chip used by Biggest Loser contestant Dane in his not-quite-a-marathon race.

• I subscribe to neither cable or satellite TV, and broadcast reception was initially very spotty inside of my new-to-me living room. In this digital age of television, I'm one of those who live on the edge of the "cliff effect" -- just a truck passing by outside could be enough to knock out a show. I've found success with hanging an amplified multidirectional antenna inside the window, backed by a double-layer of aluminum foil. Hardly high-tech, but this setup is soaking up enough signal to keep me from falling off the edge of the cliff.

Shamrock Shuffle 5K to benefit Ronald McDonald House

Brian O'Neill's Irish Pub in the Rice Village will be hosting a "Shamrock Shuffle 5K" for runners and walkers on Sunday, March 15. Day-of registration starts at 9:30 a.m. Runners begin at 10:30 a.m. "Shufflers" begin at 10:45 a.m. This event will benefit Ronald McDonald House Houston.

Registration is $15 and dogs and kids are welcome. For more information or pre-registration, contact Jill at the pub. Brian O'Neill's is located at at 5555 Morningside and their phone number is 713-522-2603. The pub is encouraging pre-registration to help the organizers anticipate the number of participants.

I just found out about this and wanted to pass it along! RMH and running are both parts of my life, so when the two intersect, it's a beautiful thing.