Ike Eve: 3 p.m.

• The television images of rising water topping the Galveston seawall -- which rises 15 feet above the (now submerged) beach -- are eye-opening.
• Here in Fort Bend County, it's still breezy and the sky is now completely overcast. A faint drizzle has started.

Ike Eve: noon

My run this morning featured a clear sky and a light breeze. Now there is a definite wind from the north and the sky is clouding over.

In hindsight, I think going through the hysteria during the near-miss by Hurricane Rita in 2005 was a blessing. We've got The Real Thing now and people are significantly more organized. Just about everyone in the threatened zones has been able to evacuate in an orderly fashion. Folks outside those areas will be calmly sheltering in place until it passes.

The projected landfall is still set for tonight at Galveston. While I was out running this morning, I remembered how this community rallied itself to recover after Tropical Storm Allison in 2001 and how it showed great heart in assisting those pummeled by Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Well, after this storm comes through, I suppose we'll find out who will reach out to southeast Texas.

Ike Eve: 9 a.m.

During the course of this weekend, I'll try to keep blogging what I see here in Fort Bend County as long as I have a connection....

• I got a decent 7-mile run in this morning, plus completed Week 1 Day 1 of the Hundred Pushup Challenge as per the ongoing thread on the Runner's World forums.
• Those fake storm shutters that flank the sides of the windows of some custom homes in the area look really silly now.
• I feel very fortunate to have found a rare gas station that had fuel and short lines yesterday. The heart of the Energy Corridor was deserted by 6 p.m. It must be nice to work for the oil companies that will happily send you home at the drop of a hat.
• Not a drop of rain has fallen, but the roughening seas have already knocked away the popular fishing pier at Galveston's 61st Street.
  

A time and place where the lines will be short, very short

Before I head to bed on the night before "Ike Eve" I thought I'd share this advertising chuckle:

Dear Academy: It's great that you're concerned about our hurricane preparedness and will now be open at 8 a.m. on Saturday. Just don't take it personally if no one shows up....

A Spike in Ike Preparations

I refrained from putting stock in any predictions until 48 hours pre-landfall. But here we are, and the latest projected track from the National Hurricane Center has the "dirty side" of the storm pushing a surge right up Galveston Bay. Bummer.

• It's like "Black Friday" out there. But unlike the day after Thanksgiving, people aren't mobbing the mall stores, Wal-Mart, Target, and Best Buy. They're cramming into Kroger, HEB, Fiesta . . . and anywhere that sells gasoline.
  
• After a four-month hiatus from posting, Jon Walk at RunHouston passes along the word that Finish Line Sports will be closed this weekend. Well, there goes my plans for trying on triathlon swimwear during the hurricane!
• The weather applet on the right side of my blog layout should be fun to look at on Saturday morning!
  
• At a minimum, tomorrow's Astros game versus the Cubs has been cancelled. It has taken a hurricane to interrupt the hot streak that Team Procrastination is on. One of the inexplicable mysteries in life is how a team can drift along listless for the first half of the season, then "flip the switch," year after year. If the baseball season only consisted of August and September, there wouldn't be room on the left-field wall at Minute Maid Park for all the division banners....
  

Officially on Ike Watch

For the last two days, I've been closely following Eric Berger's science blog concerning the emerging drama that is Hurricane Ike. The main idea he's been trying to push across is that even a mere three days in advance, we still have a wide stretch of Texas coastline "in play" for landfall. As cautionary examples, he cites the three-day track forecasts from the National Hurricane Center for Katrina and Rita in 2005. Neither one pointed to the storms' ultimate destinations in Louisiana. So the Palacios landfall projection of the NHC won't be lulling me into complacency.

So just like last month in advance of Edouard, tonight I'll be topping off my gas tank and stocking up on non-perishables. It's a grand game we play here on the Gulf Coast.

An indulgence of Hershey...

...Terry Hershey Park, to be exact.

I went to bed last night thinking I'd run in the morning. Well, I woke up today and the last thing my body wanted to do was lace 'em up and head out. So I made myself pack a bag of running gear before heading to work.

I am darn glad I ditched the morning run-around-home idea now. Despite the afternoon temps still hitting the nineties Fahrenheit, I had a really pleasant five-miler along the banks of Buffalo Bayou. The bayou and the accompanying trails really do form an ribbon-like oasis in west Houston. There are some points where I do forget that I'm still in the midst of urban sprawl. The trees lend embracing shadows to buffer runners and cyclists from the scorching stare of Sol.

We must return sometime.

Turn it up to 11!

I definitely wanted to log a long run this morning. Originally I was thinking that 8 miles was a reasonable distance for this point in my running life. But an absolutely rejuvenating atmosphere of 70F was waiting for me outside, and I was coming off of a rest day.

I didn't even have discernible sweat on the outside of my shirt until mile 4. Dropping heat and humidity is like lifting a straitjacket from my running. So I decided to stretch my goal. I chugged into Sonic Jog-In after 11 miles in two hours and one minute. This was my longest run since the Flying Pig Half Marathon in May, and I toasted the occasion by washing down a bistro breakfast sandwich with an apple juice slush.

I tried a new-to-me product today. In my handheld bottle I mixed water with an envelope of Clif Shot Electrolyte Replacement Drink that I got as a sample from a race. I think it might be OK, but I'm not too crazy about the apple flavor I tried.

Well, the bottom line is that the distance is coming back. We're now ten weeks out from Rock 'N' Roll San Antonio.

Fired Up 5K

For my next trick, I will attempt to type out a report on this year's 5K benefiting the Muscular Dystrophy Association while one hand is occupied with a SuperSonic breakfast burrito.

This is one of the events I did during my first summer of road races, and I've come back ever since:

2005 Fired Up 5K: 35:22
2006 Fired Up 5K: 31:59
2007 Fired Up 5K: 28:53
2008 Fired Up 5K: 28:29

Today's run started out great and I had clocked an even four minutes upon reaching the marker the organizers thoughtfully planted at the half-mile mark, so I thought I had the pace under control. But just like last month in Seabrook, the humidity was high and I could sense that my body was struggling to cool itself, so I had to throttle down to a pace around 10:00/mile. I will try not to obsess over what went wrong, however, and just be happy I broke last year's time.

After running through the fire station and crossing the finish line, I took a cooldown jog over to my car. In the parking lot I came upon a woman who was standing at her car door, peering inside anxiously. "Are you locked out?" I asked. She wasn't just locked out; she had been robbed. She had gotten in the practice of hiding her car keys on the outside of her vehicle. I guess someone saw her do that before the race today and had an opportunity too good to resist.

Bad things happen to runners every day, but this is the first time I had seen such a thing happen at a race event. So, take heed, adherents to the hide-a-key practice: You never know when you might be unwittingly playing a game of hide-and-SEE with the bad guys.

After letting Ms. Hide-A-Key borrow my phone to call a friend to come help. I returned to the fire station to meet Runner's World forumite Lisa D. The man at the Finish Line Sports booth was nice enough to take a sweaty post-race picture of the two of us. Lisa's a sweetie and can definitely rock a Nike skirt. As we sat through the awards ceremony, Lisa noted that it was uncharacteristically breezy for a morning this time of year. For those to the east of us being lashed by Hurricane Gustav, know that our thoughts are with you today.

On a final, gadget-oriented note. This Labor Day weekend, I treated myself to a new ForeRunner 205 after the most recent price cut. My old 101 has served me well over the years and I've loved it to pieces -- literally, I'm afraid to say.

I like that the 205 is much easier to recharge, and the wrap-around shape of the receiver does look sleeker. But the size and placement of the buttons makes it too easy to press the wrong one on the run. At least I don't have to worry about whether the Scotch tape is holding anymore! And the rubberized wristband makes absorbed odors a thing of the past.

Of more genuine concern is that the 205 logged today's certified 5K course as 3.02 miles. I'm hoping that maybe it just needs a software update. (Or I will realize later that I need a programming upgrade to work properly!) Otherwise, I guess the trees lining the boulevards were too much for this device to overcome.

Well, I cheated. I took down the rest of the burrito before the third paragraph was done, so I guess this report wasn't such a trick after all.....

Have a great Labor Day, everyone!

Beer Hunter: end-of-August update

Continuing my quest to take down 30 beers at Alamo Drafthouse, here's the updated tally:

AUGUST

• pints of Dos XX and Ziegenbock during Pineapple Express (Is there humor to be mined from violent drug culture? The answer is a resounding yes, in a "better them than me" sort of way.)
• pints of Paulaner Hefeweizen and Bud Light during Tropic Thunder (Downright hilarious -- just remember to check your Political Correctness at the door.)
• pints of Stone Arrogant Bastard and Fat Tire during Death Race (Bad people. Cars. Boom. The End.)
• pints of North Coast Scrimshaw Pils and Full Sail Pale Ale during Hamlet 2. (Something's being satirized here, but I'm not exactly sure what it was.)
• pints of Saint Arnolds Amber and Woodchuck Amber Cider during The Killing (Retrospective screening of the 1956 heist movie directed by Stanley Kubrick.)
• pints of Guiness and Shiner Bock during The Rocker (OK if you're in the mood for predictible feel-good fare. OK to wait for this one as a rental.)
  

JULY

• a pint of Sam Adams Boston Lager during Hancock (It's better than the trailers suggest. Definitely another good look at the whole "superhero" thing)
  
• pints of Harp and Sierra Nevada Pale Ale during Step Brothers (Will Farrell's antics do get funnier after a couple of drinks, but there's certainly nothing wrong with waiting for this one as a cheap DVD rental.)
  
• bottle of Blue Moon during The Dark Knight (Excellent flick all around!)

Sixteen down . . . Fourteen to go!