A five-mile race -- and a point-to-point one at that -- is a rare thing to find in this town. I've been intrigued with the idea of doing the Park to Park Run for a few years, but it always seemed to conflict with something else I was doing in the spring. After finding out that the event was shifted to this autumn morning and seeing the Katy Fit training calendar calling for a six-miler this weekend, I figured the timing was right."I'm running this morning in honor of Columbus, Ohio," I thought to myself after parking my car in the Toyota Center garage. I pondered how the years of working in call centers and telecommunications have permanently warped my brain as I fastened my race number (614 -- you knew that, right?) and timing chip. I hurried across Discovery Green to have the honor of being the last one across the starting mats and out to race:
Mile 1 (11:09) -- Yeah, picking off walkers at the start shouldn't be anything to brag about, but I'll use anything these days for a pick-me-up! We passed the left-field wall of Minute Maid Park and then made a turn for the south.
Mile 2 (10:46) -- A "Toyota: Moving Forward" banner in the windows of the Rockets' home arena had an arrow that conveniently pointed us under the Southwest Freeway and into the condo-filled blocks of Midtown. I laughed as I heard a driver plead for permission to go through a closed intersection so he could make it to a convention. (Unless the GRB is hosting a vital organ transplant convention this weekend, that officer was going to continue shaking his head.)
Mile 3 (11:40) -- This stretch of Almeda Road has a definite Third Ward flavor to it. Barber shops and soul food restaurants hadn't woken up yet, but the music from 4212 Cafe was already calling people in for Zydeco Brunch.
Mile 4 (11:13) -- The highlight of this mile was yet another driver/police confrontation. I'm not sure what started it, but at this point, the officer felt the need to roar, "ME. YOU NEED TO BE WATCHING ME!" The Third Ward faded behind me, as my run replaced the scenery with the condos of the Museum District.
Mile 5 (11:11) -- The final mile brought me past some familiar landmarks leading into Hermann Park -- the McGovern Health Museum, the Chinese Pagoda, and the Museum of Natural Science. After passing the equestrian statue of Sam Houston, the sounds of the after-race party tantalized from the other side of the reflecting pool, but there was still a half-mile arc to go....
I did a sloppy job of starting and stopping my Forerunner, but it recorded my elapsed time at the five-mile mark as 55:59. Mindful that this is actually slower than my 10K PR from last year, I'll be happy at this point that I completed today's distance in less than an hour without any achilles trouble or nausea issues. Most importantly I hope I haven't brought any dishonor on the great people of Columbus.
Overall I think this run benefiting the Hermann Park Conservancy was a well-run event. I imagine that a big chunk of the race budget was devoted to traffic control. At least one of Space City's finest was posted in every intersection along the course. The words, "Good Morning! Thank you, officer" passed from my lips about forty times.
By the time I figured out where the T-shirts were being distributed, they were all gone. I'm not really bothered, though. I simply packed away an extra can of Michelob Ultra on the way out and called it even.
