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.
3 comments:
Oh yeah. This half marathon's a winner. Everything is pretty much together --plenty of parking, good organization, volunteers, course, police, etc. I felt kinda sorry for the volunteers handing out sponges. The weather was around 44 degrees and we really didn't need them. But it could easily have been much warmer in late March when the sponges would have been needed bigtime. Ya never can tell...
See you next year.
I was one of the runners that did not receive a medal because Angie ran out after allowing all late registrants to get theirs on the same day even though she had not ordered extra medals. They should have been the ones to have to wait for theirs in the mail. I received an email stating that the additional medals had been received by her on May 4 but I have yet to receive mine in the mail. The website is no longer working and neither is the email address for this race site. I'm a little disappointed and a little concerned that those of us who didn't get a medal on race day will not ever get one. If someone can reach Angie Bennett or tell me how I can, that would be great. Otherwise, I do not recommend this race because of this.
Anonymous #2: Via Facebook, Angie sent out a message just today announcing that bibs and medals have been mailed. Good luck -- I hope you get yours. I still haven't gotten my award from two years ago.
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