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.....