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.