2nd annual Young Life Run With Endurance Race Report

Young Life Run With Endurance race director Dan Priest was surprised to see me this morning in Lumberton.

I was honest with him, though.

I told him that his race was my first choice east of I-35.

There were races west of I-35 in two different counties that I have not raced in that I had been spying, followed by a basketball game at Howard Payne University in Brownwood.

One was a trail 10K in Granbury and the other was a road 5K in Copperas Cove.

The reason that I was focused in that direction is because I'm running a race at the Miracle Match Marathon in Waco in the morning.

Without wanting to put a lot of extra miles on my car, my plan was to go to IAH and rent one a vehicle.  However, if I picked it up too early, I'd have been rushing to get back on Sunday to keep it a two-day rental.

Later on Friday, though, would have meant that I would have been staying overnight Friday - and getting in late.  And I didn't want to pay for a hotel that I was going to barely use.

Plus it gave me an opportunity to have dinner with Waverly after being on the road Monday through Thursday for work.

I had checked with the timer of the Granbury race to ensure they were going to have race day registration.

Race Day Event Services, out of Gustine, told me - as I've run many races they've timed - they would get me in if things changed.  (Always pays to make friends with timers.)

So I would have had to have left at 3:15 a.m. at the latest to make it to Granbury in time.

I went to bed around 8:30 p.m. and set the alarm for right at 3 a.m.

I was up, but my heart wasn't in making the four hour and 15 minute drive.

I really wanted to run two 10K's this weekend; however, I did consider parkrun in Terry Hershey Park - as it started at 9 a.m. - and the Seven Hills Running Club monthly club race in Huntsville.  Both were 5Ks, however.

And for the Huntsville race, unless I was just prepared to go on to Waco, construction coming back on I-45 at Rayford / Sawdust would have required a detour to come back to the house.

So it was off to Lumberton, going a different route than I normally have:  the Grand Parkway to Highway 59, north to 105 just south of Cleveland, east to 770 just west of Saratoga, and then further east to 287 in Kounze and about 15 miles south to Lumberton.

Entry fee was reasonable.  $45 cash on race day.  Plus the net proceeds were going to benefit the Lumberton Young Life program.

When I arrived, the start / finish location had changed a little bit so I was a little concerned about the course as I was looking to come over and race.

But knowing that Dan was the RD, I was confident that it would be spot on.  (Feel like it was.)

The 10K course would consist of three out-and-backs.  Normally, that would turn the stomach of many runners, but basically we did just one more than last year because of the change in locations.

I started mid-pack to force myself to go out a little slow as I wanted to see how my right knee was going to respond.  I took a rest this week after I've started to have some pain.

My chiropractor shared with me some strengthening exercises yesterday for the patella and I've done them both days since - and will continue to.

The temperatue was perfect.  40 degrees.  I had waited in my car until about 7:50 a.m., though.

I was going to run with a short sleeve tech shirt on top of a long sleeve tech shirt, but decided to go with a different long sleeve and gloves.

First mile was 8:59.45.  Not too fast, but definitely wanted to try and hold it.

The second mile had a turnaround in it and we came back before we made a left to go the next street over and start the two out-and-backs.

Came through the second mile in 9:01.06.

I bypassed the water station at the turnaround and grabbed water when we made the left-hand turn on the next street over.  There was a water station there to get people coming and going in both directions.

We saw mile 4 first (on the left), but mile 3 soon approached and that mile was 9:17.32

I did the math and realized that I was a little faster than Saturday - when I had done a 28:28 at the first parkrun 5K, but that was to be expected because the section of Terry Hershey Park that we ran at has some slight inclines.

Down to the second turnaround and back, I passed the mile four marker in 9:12.64.

Honestly, this excited me.

So I went from an 8-second count and worked on dropping to seven, then six.

The idea was try to turn my feet over a little faster.

I got water again before making it to the mile five marker in 9:15.07.

One more turnaround, then we came back through a quick "S" in the road, of which I ran the tangents through it, and then two left turns to put us back on the main road towards the finish.

About half way down to the right-hand turn to the finish, a guy passed me.  A sandbagger for sure!

As I saw him pass, I saw a little grey on the right side of his head underneath his hat and I thought to myself that he was probably in my age group.

I was just trying to hold on, though, because I thought as long as mile six was going to be a surprise that I'd have a shot at breaking 57.

We made the right-hand turn and I tried to go a little bit, but not enough.

I passed the mile six marker in 9:05.83 and I don't recall seeing the clock, but I did after going 47.27 seconds between the mile 6 and mile 3 marker.

It was then that I realized that I had a chance to make it in under 27 gun.  (I was 13 seconds going across the start line.)

I thought I had another gear, but I covered the last tenth of a mile in 52.11, which is sub-9.

Finishing time was 56:30.75.

There was a race back in the day that was held at Elkins High School in Fort Bend that might have been my PR.

I had a 58:30 on January 29, 2005 at the 6th annual Mardi Gras Beach 10K in Galveston.

I ran 59:50.59 at Lake Jackson Turkey Trot 10K on Thanksgiving Day 2016 and as recently as November, I covered the Waco Zoo Stampede 10K in 59:06.71, but it might have been 6.14 or 6.17 as the course had to be adjusted because of flooding along the Brazos River.

Here's the bigger shocker:  I had more than a six-minute improvement from last year at the same race!

I ran 1:02:38.02 last year and 56:30.75 today.

Wow.

For the second straight year, I ended up third in my 50-54 age group.

This is a definitely a race that you should do.  Flat as can be.  Well patrolled by three different law enforcement vehicles to slow down traffic on open roads that aren't heavily traveled as it is.

Great family atmosphere - for a great cause - that is not over the top (which for me is a turnoff).

I got a chance to visit for a little bit in the parking lot with Gusher Marathon co-race director Richard James about the article that ran in the Beaumont Enterprise.

He said that as a result of the article he has had some sponsor interest and he's doing everything he can to make the event a go for this year on Saturday, April 6.

Always great to see some familiar faces, including Mike Cabaniss, Jeremy Fermo and Mike Moss.  Didn't get a chance to visit with Mike Moss, but saw him on the course.

Plus there were a few folks that hollered at me on the course, but I didn't quickly recall a name.  If you're reading and that was you, my apologies.

It is always flattering to be recognized and in that area, it is from my announcing the Gusher Marathon for many years.