Peak Week and the Return of the Lost GPS

For most of the past week, I've been living every gadget-loving runner's worst nightmare: I couldn't find my Garmin Forerunner 110 after Monday night's run. Several days of fruitless searching later, I knew there was one surefire way it would turn up.

After visiting a local retail outlet, I walked through the front door last night, announcing, "I'm sure looking forward to wearing this brand new Forerunner 410 on tomorrow's long run."

Within the hour, the 110 was spotted next to my bed.

With a smug look on my face, I returned my purchase today. I knew the whole time that the 410 was never leaving its box.

So the 110 and I reunited in time to take on the longest long run of this half marathon training season -- a 14-miler into the heart of George Bush Park and back again. I started with my pace group but needed to let them go at the first available restroom break. Morning coffee gets all kinds of body systems going....

At least dawn had broken over the forest by the time I found myself solo. I felt just a twinge of regret about deciding to return the newer Forerunner, as the 110 is a basic model that doesn't include an interval-training function. I was doing on-the-run arithmetic to figure out when to take the next walk break. I finished off the 14th mile right at the end of the 3rd hour.

Once again, weather played a part in pacing as it was singlet-warm today. Most likely it will be cooler on race day and I can knock off 13.1 miles in significantly less than three hours. The starting gun in downtown Houston booms in 28 days and 16 hours.

Finally, I feel that I must share this trailside message of motivation that I saw this morning from Katy Students Run:

Trafigura Home Run 10K

This post is actually being written two weeks overdue, but through the cheater's magic of Blogger pre-dating, I'm labeling it with the actual race date to avoid any future confusion if I come looking for it....

For the second time, I came downtown to take part in the Trafigura Home Run benefiting Ronald McDonald House Houston. The course route was reconfigured this year so that the start/finish and postrace party were located on Allen Parkway in the shadow of the Interstate 45. The bulk of the mileage was still out-and-back on Allen Parkway, but at the far end, the 10K runners would visit the Montrose/Allen Parkway intersection three times in a cloverleaf  pattern. (Look up USATF course TX12195ETM for a visual,)

As entertaining as I find the art of course layout, the more pressing concern was actually weather. Early December can still mean warm and humid conditions and I had to take care not to let myself get sucked out of the start at too fast of a pace. As I was missing out on our usual training group run back home in dam country, I decided to practice run/walk intervals even if this was "only" 10K, and the results were quite positive:

Mile 1 - 9:46
Mile 2 - 10:00
Mile 3 - 10:16
Mile 4 - 11:15
Mile 5 - 11:10
Mile 6 - 11:31
Last .27 - 2:37
Elapsed 10K time - 1:06:35 per Garmin Forerunner 110, 1:06:36 per race chip timing

My memory may be a bit fuzzy, but I don't think I've clocked under 1:10 in a 10K in quite a while. So with a new tree ornament around my neck, I went home happy.

TXU Energy Turkey Trot 5K

So this "running thing" isn't getting any less popular. This morning I was sitting behind a long line of cars waiting to exit the 610 freeway. We were all heading into the TXU Energy Turkey Trot and bunches of runners started leaving their cars (I hope they were passengers) and running down the off-ramp towards the start corral on Post Oak Boulevard.

As I'd find out from the public address announcer later, this year's event in the Uptown district had 13,000 registered. That's a lot more than I remembered from just a few years ago.

Anyway, those hurried souls were likely trying to make it to the starting gun of the 10K race. Fortunately, I had a bit more time to spare, because I was out for the more leisurely 5K that would start 30 minutes later. After needing almost all of that extra half hour to find a parking spot, I took off with the back of the pack along the streets surrounding The Galleria:

Mile 1 -- 11:41
Mile 2 -- 10:50
Mile 3 -- 9:57
Last .14 -- 1:18
Elapsed 5K time -- 33:48 per Garmin Forerunner 110

You're just going to have to trust my Forerunner time, as I opted to save five bucks by not getting a timing chip. With this type of race, there was no way I was threatening a PR today! It took about 10 minutes after the gun for me to reach the start line and after much non-tangential pathfinding, I think I finally got ahead of the packs of walkers around \the 2.99-mile point.

Now it's time for some football and family time. Happy Thanksgiving, and if you're thinking of running this event next year, plan on arriving an hour early!

Winded

Speaking of tweaks: It's becoming clear during this half marathon training season that I'm unable to keep up with my current pace group on long runs. We've been going out at roughly 11:20-11:30/mile, which didn't feel too fast at first, but as our distance has increased, by mid-run I would find myself uncomfortable with speaking in sentences -- failing the classic litmus test of Long Slow Distance pace.

It became painfully obvious last weekend, when we headed out for our "cutback" run of seven miles and I was feeling ill by mile two. The resulting really-I-got-up-before-dawn-for-this funk of exhaustion clung with me for the rest of the day. I'm sure the chill of 38F air that morning did no favors to this non-acclimated body either. (We've got daytime temps back in the 80s Fahrenheit as I type this now.)

I was kind of hoping that as my mileage base has increased, I'd also adjust to this pace. A few years ago I was doing long runs solidly in the elevens, so I don't think I was being unrealistic. But the elevens aren't right again for me (yet). So the new plan is to try to find another pace group in the program that moves something closer to 11:50-12:00/mile, so my long runs suck less -- literally.

Tweaked

After a week of tweak after tweak, I think I'm now finally satisfied with the way Houston Running Calendar -- my "side blog" -- looks. The most significant change was finding additional code to tighten up a lot of wasted white space in the gutters. (If anyone else needs the CSS answer to reducing padding in Blogger's Simple template, I found it on another blog -- thanks, Simple Blogger!).

The resulting layout pushes the advertising slots much closer to the edge, making more room for what everyone really comes for -- the race listings. Those listings get a bump up in text size, which may be appreciated by a certain segment of visitors.

And web visitors continue to come. I think half a million total pageviews by the end of this year is possible. Not too shabby for a linkblog. As always, community contributions are a big help. If you know of an organized run event happening within 60 miles of downtown that could use more publicity, send a link to their webpage to list@houstonrunningcalendar.com.

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all, and if you want to make a last-minute plan for an area Turkey Trot tomorrow morning, I know this online reference you can check.....

More Android smartphones belong in a museum

Last week, the Houston Museum of Natural Science released a nifty little smartphone app that gives us more background text and images to go with the vast new Paleontology Hall that opened in the summer. The next time I stroll those exhibits, I look forward to having this guide in my hand. I recommend that everyone install it before their next museum visit.

If you can, that is.

While reading the app's Google Play page, I took notice of the operating system requirement -- Android 4.0.3 or above, a.k.a. "Ice Cream Sandwich." That statement took me aback because AT&T had only released Ice Cream Sandwich for my phone model, the Motorola Atrix 2, just the previous week, and this was for a phone that was purchased new this year. Only recently had I joined a small minority of Android users that could install the app.

At first I thought it was a bittersweet oversight on the part of HMNS's part to go to the trouble of reaching out to a limited audience. But then I suppose this only underlines the laggard manner with which the wireless carriers have been taking in regards to OS updates. The cynic in me says that this is a ploy to get customers to buy new handsets on a frequent basis. But it's even worse, because there are STILL brand new handsets that are being sold with Android 2.3, a.k.a. "Gingerbread,"

And these new phones are being unboxed in an environment where there's no assurances that they're not already obsolete. It's a real waste to see one-year-old devices being left behind. Consumers should start taking note of which manufacturers and wireless providers are most guilty of this behavior and spend their dollars elsewhere.

Most expensive trip to Burger King, ever.

I think it was when we got passed by the KPRC-TV Houston news truck near Lake Pontchartrain that it was made evident that our original vacation plans were getting blown away. While we were en route to Louisiana, the forecast track of Hurricane Issac was changed from a Florida landfall to a line that would bring the storm to meet us.

Arriving last Sunday evening in New Orleans, the city was already in shutdown mode. After checking into our hotel, we checked the surrounding blocks in search of dinner. At one point we thought we had walked into a still-open place, only to be told by the hostess that the restaurant was also closing early to allow employees to start hurricane preparations.

Figuring that there was no point in staying longer than necessary, we would be checking out of the hotel and leaving town the next morning. After travelling all the way to New Orleans, the lone attraction we enjoyed there was the neighborhood Burger King that we found still serving dinner that night.

Originally, we were supposed to be in New Orleans for most of the week, but instead we fast-forwarded to our second destination city of Baton Rouge, where we rode out the storm. Unlike Ike in 2008, which rumbled through Houston in the space of hours, Issac arrived and departed Louisiana like a loaded drunk taking his time to find the exit of a French Quarter bar. After 3-1/2 days indoors in Hunker Down Mode we were finally able to emerge to do a little sightseeing in the downtown area and watched the LSU football game from high atop Tiger Stadium this weekend before returning home.

I know most everyone says they "need a vacation after a vacation," but in this case, it's very, very true.

Summer drips away like softened mint chocolate chip down the inverted incline of a waffle cone

So how has summer been working for you? After being scorched and burned last year, the dam area has just finished draining after a really wet July. I feel like it's time for another bullet-point post to recap random stuff.

• Pittsburgh-based Cello Fury made a tour stop in Houston at the end of July and we got to enjoy a free performance at Market Squre. A trio of cellists backed by a drummer, Cello Fury's expressive sound spans that gap between chamber music and Headbangers Ball that you didn't even ask to be bridged. Their YouTube channel is well worth the visit.
• Last weekend the summer Olympics left us for another four years. Requiring a cable or satellite TV subscription turned the online offerings into a non-starter for me, and made NBC look like the old legacy media company that I guess they are. So among the garbage I had to scrap for the worthwhile moments on the network broadcast -- especially Meb Kefleghizi's fourth-place finish in the men's marathon. My gut feeling told me that he was the USA's best shot at a medal, and I was correct.
• We took a tour of the Melcher Center for Public Broadcasting. As a contributing member of KUHF, I finally got to see exactly where my dollars go, including the studio where The Front Row is recorded and the workday desks of news staffers like Carrie Feibel.. Our guide was Eric Ladau, whose voice I've heard on evening traffic reports. 
• My running mileage is on the upswing. This morning I hung on pretty well during our group run of five miles. The Aramco half is now less than five months away.
• I've been surprised that site traffic on Houston Running Calendar has merely leveled off during the summer when I thought it would nosedive. On August 1, the Facebook "fanpage" reached 500 Likes, which I think is a happy metric for something that isn't being actively marketed; people are searching for this stuff.
• My "must-see TV" right now is Breaking Bad. The conclusion of season 4 was so decisive that it could have easily served as a series finale. But I suppose the fans now get one last season to see exactly where "ever after" takes the characters. As counterweights to that heavy drama I've discovered Portlandia and The Guild on Netflix; both are comedy gold.

Now, if you'll pardon me, there's a carton of Breyers waiting for me in the freezer....

Singing the Kenwood Bluetooth blues

I think I can squeeze a  few more quality years out of my old designed-before-the-21st-century car. But I also felt that I couldn't spend them with a 20th century car stereo. So I decided to operate the audio system under the new management of a Kenwood KDC-BT752HD.

It's mostly been a blast. The HD Radio hype is finally a reality for me. For capable stations where the Kenwood can get  a strong enough signal for a digital signal lock, the sound quality improvement is very noticeable.  The USB port and Bluetooth connectivity means that I no longer need to tether my phone with an AUX cable to hear digital music.

If everything was perfect, then I might not have even been motivated to type up this blog. But it hasn't and I'm really posting this to possibly assist others that run into Bluetooth issues with this stereo. You see, a few times while paired with my phone, the audio has started stuttering. Last night, the pairing completely failed, to the point where the display gave an "HF ERROR 68" which the manual instructed me to remedy by performing a factory reset. But I had remembered reading a couple of reviews (versus many, many positive ones) on the Crutchfield website that alluded to some Bluetooth issues on this headunit model.

Well, I hope I've fixed the problem in a more permanent fashion, because it turns out that Kenwood has released a firmware update that is supposed to address Bluetooth pairing and Pandora stability issues. Oddly enough for the year 2012, the firmware can only be updated via a file burned to CD-R, and not a USB flash drive. Luckily, I still had a few of those around, and I followed the instructions to the letter, including the part about idling the engine while parked during the upgrade. The instructions say that it may take up to 15 minutes, and I got my "COMPLETE" message after about 12. Checking the firmware version on the display again confirmed that the device updated from firmware version 3.00 to version 3.01.

If I never post about this again, then it's safe to assume everything's peachy. If you've come here via some sort of search engine link, then I hope I've pointed you in the right direction in addressing your Bluetooth issues.

Catching Up: Girls On The Run, Flash Mobs, Lottery, etc.

For the first time in eight years, I did not take part in any of the area races on Independence Day. I was up a little on the late side as I watched my first MLS game on Tuesday night at the Houston Dynamo's new downtown stadium. For all the wonderful crowd buzz that abounded in boisterous shades of orange, it felt like nothing really happened as we all went home after a nil-nil conclusion in the match against the Chicago Fire.

But to resume my running story here on the upper reaches of Buffalo Bayou, there's been a little more than nothing as I've been trying to keep the fitness fires lit with some fun runs close to home. It's just that I hadn't felt motivated to blog much about them. In late May, the Greater Houston Girls On The Run organization held their annual fundraiser 5K and I rolled up the neighborhood concrete course in about 32 minutes. Then last month, I tried something new as Sun and Ski Sports put together a weekly Flash Mob Race Series. I made a couple of the races. Each course was roughly 3 miles or even less, but on the cross-country terrain of Terry Hershey Park and George Bush Park. Combining the late p.m. heat and the off-road footing meant slow times but fun times. At least I came away with a copy of Jason Robillard's The Barefoot Running Book as a door prize. From what I read online, there may be more Flash Mob madness yet to come.

And finally, it's already time to start aiming the training towards winter goal races. I successfully made it through the lottery and registration process for the 2013 Aramco Houston Half Marathon. Unlike the Independence Day runs, my Houston Marathon weekend participation streak is a meaningful one I'd like to keep rolling.

Running for the Arts

Ah, another tardy race report blog post.

Last Saturday, April 28, I ran the Spring Branch ISD fundraiser Running for the Arts. This 5K, now in its 20th year, was staged out of Memorial City Mall.

The splits:
Mile 1 -- 9:40
Mile 2 -- 9:38
Mile 3 -- 10:31
Last .17 -- 1:44
5K Elapsed Time -- 31:05 (per Garmin Forerunner 110)

Thanks to the large number of students, the first mile had a little extra fun -- there's nothing like being among hundreds of giddy kids that are uninterested in keeping a steady pace or following a tangent. But somehow they managed to not get crushed by me.

The late spring has really been feeling more like early summer, so the best part of the morning had to be the post-run snowcone.

Alex's 5K

Happy Easter!

I started the holiday weekend at Bear Creek Park, where the Bayou City Road Runners hosted their second annual Alex's 5K on Friday evening. This race benefited two autism-related charities, Avondale House and Autism Speaks.

The course consisted of two circuits of a loop road that connects to the various picnic areas on the park's west side, and the tree shade was most welcome during this rather warm sunset race. In a kooky coincidence, I clocked the same elapsed time for this 5K as I did last week.

The splits:
Mile 1 -- 9:24
Mile 2 -- 9:40
Mile 3 -- 9:46
Last .18 -- 1:41
5K Elapsed Time -- 30:31 (per Garmin Forerunner 110)

Being an Energy Corridor denizen, I did enjoy getting a rare local Friday night race opportunity. I even took advantage of the "must be present to win" clause to score one of the door prizes at the end of the night. My only real complaint is that the timing company ran out of chips for walk-up registrants. Let's hope they noted this year's turnout and come better supplied next year.

Attack Poverty 5K

I decided to try out some flat-out speed yesterday morning at the Attack Poverty 5K in Richmond. I believe this is a brand new event (correct me if I'm wrong) benefiting the Friends of North Richmond and staged at River Pointe Church. It was an under-frilled production, with no chip timing and awards only for overall and masters winners. The bib numbers were even leftovers from other races. (The emcee mentioned that considering the good turnout, they'd be back with a higher "frill level" next year, including chip-timing.)

The course was an out-and-back using only a single lane of Ransom Road and surrounding neighborhood streets. If the attendance grows much more this will definitely need to be expanded. My race went OK, and I came somewhat close to going under 30 minutes. By the second mile, I could feel myself fading and the dangling blonde braid I had been using as a pacesetter faded out of view. Running low on energy I joked to one of the course marshals, "I swear, the second half of this course is longer than the first."

The splits:
Mile 1 -- 9:01
Mile 2 -- 9:31
Mile 3 -- 10:17
Last. .15 -- 1:43
5K elapsed time -- 30:31 (per Forerunner 110)

I did find myself a little jealous of the little ones in the kids run that took place after the 5K. Their event ended with a water balloon toss, and on a warn spring morning, that might have felt pretty good.

Lookin' Good Shamrock Strut 10K

This start corral scene still needs more green.

After my feel-good time at Rodeo Run last month, I was a bit curious about how I might do on a flatter course. Well, I found out this morning's fundraiser for the Houston Eye Foundation.

The splits:
Mile 1 - 10.46
Mile 2 - 10:40
Mile 3 - 10:23
Mile 4 - 10:20
Mile 5 - 10:35
Mile 6 - 10:15
Last .26 - 2:26
10K elapsed time - 1:05:24 (per Forerunner 110)

I haven't clocked a 10K that fast since 2009, so the green beads I was wearing must have been lucky charms. The funniest moment of the morning came shortly before I reached the mile one marker, when I overheard one girl grumble, "Eww. Eww. Eww. I, like, so need a shower now. See, this is why I don't do outdoor sports."

Yeah, I suppose it was a little humid. We've only reached March, though. Poor thing.

I'm in a geeky mood, so the rest of this post gets dedicated to a couple of tech debuts. Only the insanely-devoted readers of my blog would have noticed, but I recorded today's splits with a new Garmin Forerunner. The Enter button on my ol' 205 has cracked rubber and went intermittently responsive. So after 3-1/2 years, I decided to retire it in favor of the 110, Garmin's new base model GPS for runners. The latch on the wristband is wide, which I think will make it less likely to tear through the wristband notches. Also, the device has been shrunken down to the point where it looks like an ordinary digital watch. Indeed, it even has a "sleep mode" where all it does is tell time. It might be a while before I can get used to the idea of a Garmin as an everyday accessory though!

The other geeky item of note from this morning is that the timing crew used back-of-bib tags I've never seen before, attached using double-sided foam tape. The sensor equipment was mounted on the arch above the start and finish lines, so that probably explains why our instructions heavily emphasized wearing the bib numbers up on the fronts of our shirts. (Coincidentally, this makes the race photographer's sorting job easier later, too.) Do these work better than shoe-mounted chips? I don't know, but the manufacturer has a slick cat logo, so that's got to help.

It's such a shame about that Mayan-end-of-world-thing, because the 2012 running year is looking like a good one so far.

Rodeo Run 10K

15,000 on Texas Street ready to stampede. The guy in the banana costume slipped ahead and I never saw him again

(This is being typed on March 3. Yeah, I snoozed a little on this blog post!)

If spring is breaking in, then 'tis the season to Rodeo! The Rodeo Run date hasn't been really all that kind in the past weather-wise, but 2012 brought in some pretty good running weather. Just cool enough to be refreshing, the overcast skies were a welcome sight in a late morning run that has given me sweltering sun . . . . when not pelting me with rain and wind.

I've always had an affection for the 10K distance -- it requires you to save some in the tank lest you burn out early, yet it's still short enough where you want to make each second count. And I'd have to say that this was overall a really good race for me at this time. I was able to keep the sub-11 minutes pumping through practically the whole race, except for mile 5 (rising over the Elysian viaduct for the second time) and the brief mile 1 rail stoppage.

Yes, one of the unexpected things runners sometimes get in a race finally happened to me. During the Leeland Street leg of the course, a string of METRORail cars on Main Street rolled into my view. After halting in my tracks for a couple of dumbfounded seconds, I realized that hundreds were bearing down on my position behind me, so I made a point of turning around and yelling

"TRAIN!"

Once again, I saw numerous people demonstrating of one of my pet peeves -- wearing headphones during a crowded race. I still don't understand why someone might think it's a good idea to block out the surrounding sound during a mega-event like Rodeo Run. There are bands on the course, course marshals are barking out directions, and other runners may try to alert you that they're about to pass . . . or warn you of a train.

Safety first, pardner.

It's all downhill from here!

The splits:

Mile 1 - 11:32
Mile 2 - 10:43
Mile 3 - 10:54
Mile 4 - 10:40
Mile 5 - 11:07
Mile 6 - 10:51
Last .25 - 2:24
10K Elapsed Time - 1:08:12 (per Garmin Forerunner 205)
10K Elapsed Time - 1:08:05 (chip time, with 5K halves of 34:12 and 33:53)

CitySolve Urban Race

Outside the Chase Bank tower, the sculpture Personage and Birds by Joan Miró was one of our final checkpoints.

Yesterday afternoon the rain clouds blanketing the city took an intermission just long enough to let the lovely Laurie and I race CitySolve Houston under dry skies. And after the gusty soaking we took in 2010, it was a relief to be able to keep the umbrellas stowed away this time around.

♫♪ "Red Solo Cup
you're more
than just plastic.
You're more
than amazing
you're more
than fantastic." ♫♪

CitySolve is a scavenger hunt that asks racers to solve pop culture trivia or other puzzles to derive their photo checkpoints. For example, one of yesterday's clues referencing Ashton Kutcher's relationship troubles was pointing us to take a picture of ourselves in front of Demi's Dog House in Neartown.

At high noon all teams assembled at Little Woodrow's for this battle of wits to the death . . . or about four hours, whichever came first. After a kickstarter question led us under the freeway to Discovery Green, we picked up our full clue sheets and sat down to plan our attack. At 12:35, we had finished our phone-tapping and paper-scribbling and set out for the Main Street Square METRORail station.

I was wearing my Garmin Forerunner 205 and after boarding, the spring bars for the wrist strap popped loose. Rather than try to fix it aboard a shifting train, I thought it best to stow it away in my backpack. Even hidden away there, the GPS receiver would go on to record our entire journey. So that Couldn't-Have-Worked-If-I-Was-On-A-Bus alibi by marathon cheater Rob Sloan is still very much busted!

In hindsight, there were a few places where more careful reading of the clues would have made our wanderings more efficient. Our biggest goof added an extra half-mile to our race by forcing us to double back south into Midtown to complete a cup-stacking challenge at Maple Leaf Pub, which must be the only sports bar in the city of Houston to have hockey on every screen.

CurrentlyVince Field-Tested-and-Approved Pro-Tip:
CitySolve is much easier if your phone
isn't turn-of-the-century tech.

By the time we plopped our butts down on the sofas back at Little Woodrow's at nearly four o'clock, we were far from contending for the cash prizes, but we had experienced eight miles through city neighborhoods in a way that you simply don't get while cocooned in an automobile. Better yet, we logged our nine checkpoints, so unlike our soggy mess two years ago, we finished the assignment and avoided DNF shame. And as the new season of The Amazing Race begins on CBS tonight, I'll certainly have a little more empathy for the contestants scrambling to keep their directions straight!

Our journey!

Top Ten Suggested Marketing Taglines for the 2012 Houston Astros

10) Hey, it couldn't get any worse this year, can it?
9) We've got one season of reprieve before we're stuck in the same division as Albert Pujols again.
8) With the power output of our lineup, you can rest assured that no one's 'roiding here!
7) We promise that you'll never see Orbit again.
6) Given a choice between watching us or the London Olympics on tape-delay . . . we win, right?
5) The Mayans would have wanted you to enjoy a few more games before it's all over.
4) We've got Livan Hernandez -- fresh off of his 1997 World Series MVP campaign.
3) Minute Maid Park: The perfect antidote to the congestion of Houston rush hour.
2) You did hear about the lower beer prices, right?
1) Did the Texans or Rockets win 56 games last year? Didn't think so!

Heart of Katy Fun Run

The rhythm of the Katy Taylor drumline helped us beat the cold.

I made a race morning decision to drop in on this year's Heart of Katy Fun Run at Christus St. Catherine Hospital. It was a challenging race because I had been focusing on endurance so much leading up to last month's Aramco Half, so this was really the first time in a while that I tried to dial up the pace at a shorter distance.

The air at gun time had a brisk texture to it as it was 40F with a breeze gently pushing from the north. The good thing was that it was still humid enough to breathe comfortably. I was decked out for battle in my "Houston cold" gear -- dual-layer shorts, a T-shirt covered with a long-sleeve tech, gloves, a hat and my Nike earwarmer band. The earwarmer band provided some great pre-race amusement as I rummaged through my car for a few minutes before noticing that it was still wrapped around my forehead.

The course is a simple out-and-back on a very flat Kingsland Boulevard, and I was indeed able to push the pace. I had been flirting with the idea of cracking 30 minutes, but had to take a couple of short walk breaks just to keep things safe. Later I'd learn that I was only a couple minutes away from taking home age group hardware, so I'll take that as encouraging even in this small community race.

The splits:

Mile 1 -- 10:04

Mile 2 -- 10:09

Mile 3 -- 10:35

Last .1 mi -- :55

5K elapsed time -- 31:44 (per Garmin Forerunner 205)

5K elapsed time -- 31:36 (per IPICO chip)

5K elapsed time -- 31:44 (per gun time)

Linkpost for January 26, 2012: Blog Stuff

Fairly recent blog posts that I liked. (Yup, I'm still trying to keep up with all you crazy kids.)

• ClaireTheCpChic muses on portrayals of the disabled on TV, and makes me think about The Facts of Life for the first time in a long, long time.
• Josh Cox tweeted about some Texas un-Hospitality upon his arrival in town for the Olympic Trials. Runner's World Daily expanded this into a illustrated storyboard worthy of Unsolved Mysteries.
• Tim at The Dragyn's Lair runs down his favorite movie fight scenes. (I must click into my Netflix account later.)
• Mommy's Fabulous embarks on an epic quest for Snow White panties. And the drama has a happy ending.

I ought to do more of these linkposts in the future, so I can properly recognize these authors for making my day a little brighter or more insightful..

Aramco Houston Half Marathon

On the "heels" of the ordeal at RNR San Antonio, the new year found me ill with a sickness bug that seems to be still making the rounds. So my run confidence coming into Marathon Weekend here in Houston was sagging. But as I had deferred last year's registration, skipping this year's race would mean swallowing a DNS for a half marathon that has cost me in total more than $200 in registration. So I found myself holding out hope that maybe things would come together somehow on race morning.

If nothing else, I was scoring myself a PR in the number of visits made to the George R. Brown Convention Center in one week thanks to my involvement with Saturday's Olympic Trials.When my alarm jolted me awake at 3:30 a.m. yesterday it felt like my serendipitous perfect storm was gathering.

I was breathing freely.

I downed some cold medication anyway just in case and managed to tick off my entire checklist, including finding a downtown parking space by 5:00 a.m. For the type of person I am, this is miraculous.

So it only felt appropriate to praise the Lord at the pre-race Mass in the GRB at 5:30 a.m. This is the only time of the year you'll see me show up this early for church services. After being dismissed with a "blessing of the feet" I put on one more application of BodyGlide, then headed out to the starting corral under perfect running conditions -- 40F, humid, no wind. This is shorts/short-sleeve weather for me, if not for the thousands of others I saw bundled up as if they were preparing to board The Polar Express.

Before gun time, I had made a decision to go ultra-conservative -- NO RUNNING. This would be a nearly 100% walk strategy where I would make a point of keeping one foot on the ground at all times. I was not going to risk pounding pavement like I did in San Antonio. Not now, when my feet have grown accustomed to the crushed surface trails along the neighborhood forest.

And the strategy paid off. As I type this now, I have the usual postrace quad soreness. But I have no pain in my feet -- none. My best memories of this race are from the last three miles. I got the best-tasting cup of Gatorade ever from my girlfriend working the aid station on Allen Parkway. Shortly after that, I came upon a random stranger handing out American flags right before I entered downtown.

I had watched the tape-delayed Trials broadcast on Saturday afternoon and remembered the joyful footage of Meb Keflezighi being handed a flag on the homestretch as he claimed victory. So naturally I decided to recreate my own "Meb Moment," turning the corner at Discovery Green, grinning at the people in the viewing stands and waving the Stars and Stripes above my head as I crossed the same finish line on Avenida de las Americas.

The splits:
(GPS readings at the end are likely inaccurate because I was in the midst of all the skyscrapers.)
Mile 01 - 12:37
Mile 02 - 12:02
Mile 03 - 11:50
Mile 04 - 12:39
Mile 05 - 11:49
Mile 06 - 12:44
Mile 07 - 12:18
Mile 08 - 13:34
Mile 09 - 12:38
Mile 10 - 15:24
Mile 11 - 15:30
Mile 12 - 15:20
Mile 13 - 17:03
Last .04 mi - :26
13.04 mile elapsed time: 2:56:01 per Garmin Forerunner 205
Chip Time reported by race: 2:55:54
Gun Time reported by race website: 3:11:40

Don't Do The Bartman: Playing a cog in the machinery that minted Team USA

Caution: This post steers into logistics and running nerdity. You've been warned.

My favorite action snap of the morning: Jeanne Cooper of Colorado splatters a mile 19 Powerade at my table. Cooper went on to finish in 2:49:16.

When I got the Thanksgiving-week email from the Houston Road Runners Association soliciting a little more fluids crew help with the Olympic Trials that would happen yesterday, I decided to inquire. Growing up, I learned that the Olympics were a Very Important Television Event that only happen every four years in far-off lands, and even the partially-jaded sports fan that I am now still thinks it's a special thing. So I felt that being even a small part of the process that will send our best athletes to the coming London games will give me a vested interest in seeing them succeed when I watch them from the comfort of my living room in about six months.

So how does an aid station for world-class athletes differ from the table, Igloo cooler and Dixie cups found at the turnaround of my typical neighborhood 5K? For starters, there are more tables -- lots more tables. The last thing you want to see is a slow rush-hour-like crowd stacking up around a small area. These tables get spaced far apart. With approximately 20 feet between tables, our fluids station would consist of 44 tables covering a five-block span of the turn at City Hall. (There were two additional aid stations elsewhere on the course, each with a similar number of tables.) The spacing would make it easy for athletes striding by at 12 miles per hour to pick up a drink.

The next difference is the personal attention: Most of the tables would have eight large dots spread out on them, Each dot was the spot where a specific athlete could expect a bottle pre-filled by the athletes themselves with whatever they thought they would like to drink at that specific point in the race. With the triple-loop course layout, the runners would meet us at the mile 3, mile 11, and mile 19 points. So, as an example, the two volunteers at our table number one were entrusted with the three bottles top-seeded Ryan Hall would fill and label "Bib 1, Mile 3," "Bib 1, Mile 11," and "Bib 1, Mile 19" as well as the similarly-labeled bottles from seven other athletes. (Table two would have bottles from second-seeded Ritzenheim plus seven others, and table three would have bottles from third-seeded Keflezighi plus seven others, This staggered arrangement would help prevent closely-seeded runners from reaching for the same table at the same time.) As the race progressed, the volunteers would be responsible for having the right bottle on the right spot on the table at the right time.

I suppose they decided that this task was too complicated for me, so I was assigned to one of the last couple of tables. My job was to make cups of Powerade available, just in case an athlete wanted something in addition to (or instead of) their pre-filled bottle. On the preceding Wednesday, I left an orientation meeting with a belly full of pepperoni pizza and these words from our team leader -- "Remember Steve Bartman."

In case your baseball trivia synapses in your brain didn't fire just then: On October 14, 2003, the Chicago Cubs hosted the Florida Marlins in a playoff game. With the Cubs leading 3-0 in the eighth inning, a Marlins player hit a foul ball just over the railing into the left-field stands. The Cubs' left-fielder attempted to reach over the railing to make a catch, but previously-unknown fan Steve Bartman deflected it and possibly prevented the Cubs from recording the second out of the inning. The Marlins would eventually score a bunch of runs in that inning, and angry Chicago fans would point at the Bartman "interference" as the turning point that cost the Cubs the game and eventually the league championship series.

"Remember Steve Bartman" meant that we had specific instructions to not become part of the action in any way. We were asked to stay off the course if there were athletes in the vicinity. Drinks would be set out on the table, but unlike my neighborhood races, athletes would be expected to pick them up on their own. USA Track and Field officials would be watching, and handing a bottle or cup to an athlete could be counted as outside assistance and a possible reason to be disqualified. And none of us were interested in becoming infamous in the running community for interfering with a competition that would be aired on NBC later in the afternoon. (Can you imagine the hate mail that Houston would get if one of our volunteers tripped Ryan Hall?)

In the end, my assignment went exactly as planned. My table partner and I served up a few Powerades, provided soft-spoken encouragement (no cowbell-level cheering!) and marveled at sports history passing us by. The frontrunners, as some of you may have seen on the TV broadcast, looked invincible. But even in the Olympic Trials, many of the back-of-packers looked like they were visibly struggling on their last pass by us (mile 19). One woman made a grasp at four different Powerade cups at my table and fumbled them all. And at the end, we waited around for nearly an extra thirty minutes for an update on one female straggler that was injured. Eventually we got word that she decided to drop out, and then we dismantled our refreshment stands.

Thanks for reading all this text. Your reward at the end is more of my pictures from my smartphone camera! (Click for larger versions.)

On Friday night, opening ceremonies happened in Discovery Green. The Trials hopefuls were introduced as a group, followed by speeches and presentations from Team USA officials and past Olympics greats. Trials competitors Meb Keflezighi and Deena Kastor were recognized for their medal accomplishments in the 2004 Athens games. "Elder statesmen" Frank Shorter and Joan Benoit Samuelson were recognized for their accomplishments by being named honorary captains of the men's and women's teams and were gifted with cowboy hats. It was like a pep rally for the Olympic Team.

The opening ceremonies concluded with a smile-inducing fireworks show.

My partner Rachel stands behind our ready Powerade table early on a chilly Saturday morning. This is the view the runners would see if they glanced in our direction heading north on Bagby Street. Eight cups are in the positioned in front for easy grabbing, and we had a bunch more in the back to replace them as necessary.

This was the table next to ours, with athlete-filled bottles ready to go. In general, the men didn't do much other than fill their bottle, slap the supplied labels on, and turn them in. Some athletes taped energy gels to their bottles. The women got more creative, attaching stickers, glitter paint, or in one case I saw, pink foam flamingoes. The "LSS" bottle on the corner belonged to 50-year-old Linda Somers Smith of California.  I remember this because when she drank and discarded it, it came right at me and landed at my feet.

The race itself didn't yield any real dramatic turns of events. The top seeds went to the front of the pack  and were the only contenders in the competition to secure the top three spots and be named to the Olympic Team. This is the men's lead pack passing us at mile 11, approximately 55 minutes into the race. In front is Ryan Hall, who eventually placed second. Dathan "Ritz" Ritzenheim would get the dreaded "not quite" fourth-place finish. I believe behind Ritz in this picture is third-place finisher Abdi Abdirahman. Way in the back with the blue cap is the eventual men's winner of these Trials, Meb Keflezighi.

The athletes arrived in waves that got further and further spaced out as the race progressed. This is the mass of women appearing after they made the turn from McKinney onto Bagby at mile 3, at around 16 or 17 minutes into their race. They are led by the NBC cameramen on a motorcycle.

And here is the front of that mile 3 women's pack. The Olympic squad would eventually become Shalane Flanagan (right, with blue top and her just-about-trademark high socks), Desiree Davila (red/yellow/black top) and Kara Goucher (left, blue top, obscuring her bib in this shot).