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)