Sealy 5 Alarm 5K Race Report

I am thankful that I get a chance to do a lot of neat things.

My very good friend Bill Dwyer shared something in this week's note to his group of runners.  The quote from Chrisopher McDougall was, "The reason we race isn't so much to beat each other, but to be with each other."

I can't tell you how many races I've done since January 2003, but I enjoy getting out, being around people, putting myself out there, making new friends and further developing the quality friendships that I already have.

I have some goals, but they aren't end-all, be-all goals.  However, I must get ready for them, and because there's a certain level of discipline that I lack, I race often to facilitate training.

Plus, racing is a frequent benchmark of where I stand.

The challenge is to not do too much of it so where it inhibits you from reaching your goal.

I probably shouldn't have run 14 marathons leading up to Rocky Raccoon this past February, but I did and I learned from it.  Come mid-November, my body had taken a beating for the great month of racing I experienced in October.

I ran with Waverly at the Astros Race For The Pennant 5K for the two of us to enjoy a race together. 

As I mentioned, I know that those days - with her planning on going to Liberty University for college - will be fewer and fewer.

The following week, I ran the Heights 5K Fun Run for me.  And, man, was it an eye opener.  32 minutes, 31 seconds.  Yikes!  I hadn't seen that time since my first year of running and racing.

But I've changed my diet some and have increased my workout load, and the results have started to come.

My original plans was to race the 5-Alarm 5K in Sealy Friday night, drive to Austin, get up, drive into Lampasas, run the Toughest 10K in Texas and then drive to Tulsa and do a long duathlon today.

While there were some questions about being able to make it to Tulsa in time to pick my packet up on Saturday evening, those plans were shuttled once I learned that our church's Youth Department was going to lead today's church service to share how Christ worked in their lives at youth camp two weeks before.

I didn't go to Lampasas, instead running 10 Saturday morning with friends from The Woodlands Running Club, but I did keep the 5K in Sealy on the schedule.

The race called for a 10 p.m. start as part of the city's Sealybration.  I arrived well before 8 p.m. - after misgauging the time necessary to drive to Sealy from Spring, but got to see and visit with Greg Zarate, who timed the BMI 5K race for us in Conroe, from Run Houston Timing.

The good news for the 5 Alarm 5K?  They had a bigger turnout than they expected.

The course ran through the streets of Sealy, although they weren't the most-lighted ones - at all.  At some points, the race was just downright unsafe because you couldn't see in the middle of some streets where you were planting your feet!

Nonetheless, I ran pretty well.  (This gave me a race in my 71st Texas city or town.)

I had picked up two new pair of shoes earlier in the day from Fleet Feet Sports in Shenandoah.  One a pair of Cumulus and the other a pair of Nimbus.  I normally run in Asics' Fortitudes, but when I went to first inquire about another two pair Asics had backordered my 12 EEEE until the early fall.

I chose to run in the Cumulus Friday night and they are perhaps the lighest shoe that I've worn after starting out in the Brooks Beast back in 2003.

My "chip" time was 30:11, but some of the elite runners that were there felt like the course was 100 meters long.  If so, that represented 34 seconds based on the my 800s from Wednesday night's track session - or an equivalent 29:37.

And that is almost a three-minute improvement in six weeks. 

I'm happy with my effort lately.

I made a new friend in Sealy's Mary Ann Ramirez, who was the interface between the fire department and the timing company.  She had just finished the Bear Lake double in Idaho and Utah last weekend.  (I had done the Bear Lake Half two years ago - a week after doing a half in Montana.)

I also saw and spoke to Leno Rios and his girlfriend (whose name I didn't catch), Annie Hadow, Stacy Holden, Gordon Christie (who is looking to qualify for The Woodlands Marathon as an elite runner this year as opposed to one of the pacers) and Susan Walters. 

I also talked to a gentleman, who was new to racing, that had been at the 5K in Crosby two Saturdays before, and Dallas' Karol Curran, who travels far and wide to racewalk races of all distance across the Lone Star state.

All good stuff -- and like Bill said, it is why I like to "race".