106 Complete The Woodlands Double in 2021

These are the folks who can't pass up a good race, right?

5K on Saturday and then follow it up the next Saturday with the 10K, half marathon or marathon.

Before the event, 117 were identified as having the potential to complete The Woodlands Double, in its third year.

However, 106 did.  

And three additional runners - Spring's Kristina Archuleta (2K and half marathon), Tomball's Curtis Linehan (2K and marathon) and Humble's Michael Williams (2K and 5K) -- ran two events, with one of them being the Pathfinder Pediatric 2K.

Four runners ran the double -- and the 2K with their children.  They included Spring's Chrissy Coffin, Phoenix, Arizona's Taylor Lopez, The Woodlands' James Spencer and Magnolia's Meagan Vernuccio.  (There were parents who registered only as an accompanying parent - and they aren't included in these as they were not timed.)

Congratulations to all who did two or more events.  The detailed lists are as follows:

5K and 10K (21 runners)

0:49:33 - Andrew Littlefield, 29, M, Houston, TX

0:56:21 - Mark Coalmer, 50, M, Tomball, TX

0:58:44 - Bradon Arrant, 15, M, Conroe, TX

0:58:53 - Thomas Samples, 32, M, Clifton, TX

0:59:23 - Kevin Baker, 45, M, The Woodlands, TX

1:07:46 - Ronald Arrington, 56, M, Houston, TX

1:08:35 - Maria Sanchez, 19, F, Spring, TX

1:12:26 - Bartenderx Oropeza, 45, M, Houston, TX

1:13:13 - Hugo Dimas, 40, M, The Woodlands, TX

1:20:20 - Anita Torr, 45, F, Tomball, TX

1:22:56 - Debbie Rudisill, 51, F, Spring, TX

1:25:53 - Stefanie Delzer, 40, F, Spring, TX

1:31:33 - John Rudisill, 52, M, Spring, TX

1:43:55 - Holly Steirman, 43, F, Willis, TX

1:48:32 - Christa Townes, 52, F, Conroe, TX

1:55:02 - Jim Braden, 85, M, Spring, TX

1:55:39 - Puneet Ahuja, 41, M, The Woodlands, TX

1:55:47 - Latiffany Sauls, 50, F, Missouri City, TX

1:57:41 - Sharee Moore, 56, F, Tomball, TX

2:11:33 - Ken Johnson, 79, M, Huntsville, TX

2:22:57 - Rossana Cervantes, 56, F, Spring, TX

5K and Half Marathon (53 runners)

1:37:05 - Ronnie Delzer, 39, M, Spring, TX

1:41:54 - Patrick Wills, 50, M, Spring, TX

1:43:33 - Zachariah Wrobel, 16, M, Houston, TX
1:44:39 - Konstantin Loguinov, 44, M, Houston, TX

1:49:25 - Marcus Lewis, 44, M, Rosharon, TX

1:50:02 - Marcela Jaramillo, 47, F, Spring, TX

1:50:32 - Sean Sipko, 44, M, Spring, TX

1:52:50 - Van Joslin, 35, M, Magnolia, TX

1:54:17 - Alfredo Balli, 49, M, Montgomery, TX

1:56:14 - Maria P. Whitworth, 56, F, Houston, TX

2:03:57 - Joseph Mensching, 44, M, Magnolia, TX

2:03:58 - Jesse Sarabia, 55, M, Houston, TX

2:04:35 - James Spencer, 40, M, The Woodlands, TX

2:07:15 - Donnie Hay, 39, M, Spring, TX

2:13:28 - Lila Carrera, 45, F, Spring, TX

2:18:43 - Amanda Lopez, 42, F, The Woodlands, TX

2:20:45 - John McGowan, 47, M, The Woodlands, TX

2:20:59 - Wendy Peters, 53, F, Splendora, TX

2:23:33 - Angel Rivera, 48, M, Spring, TX

2:25:31 - Bobbie Petersen, 45, F, Conroe, TX

2:27:17 - Katerina Savelieva, 48, F, Spring, TX

2:31:10 - Thomas Cooper, 18, M, The Woodlands, TX

2:35:02 - Diana Sanchez, 40, F, Magnolia, TX

2:37:43 - Kelly Wrobel, 42, F, Houston, TX

2:38:55 - Frank Natale, 49, M, Spring, TX

2:40:28 - Jennifer Lofland, 41, F, Spring, TX

2:40:31 - Britney Alban, 32, F, Montgomery, TX

2:40:39 - Enrique Tabarini, 53, M, Magnolia, TX

2:42:30 - Austin Leblanc, 28, M, Cypress, TX

2:43:46 - Michael Gartner, 59, M, Cedar Park, TX

2:45:12 - Rana Shammas, 27, F, Houston, TX

2:47:20 - Molly Dopico, 11, F, Spring, TX

2:47:32 - Pablo Dopico, 51, M, Spring, TX

2:50:16 - Kathy McWilliams, 76, F, The Woodlands, TX

2:57:37 - Sandra Gonzalez, 49, F, Baytown, TX

2:58:39 - Danielle Cureton, 33, F, Spring, TX

2:59:19 - Yanna Williams, 45, F, Kingwood, TX

3:04:54 - Cameron Seale, 34, F, Huntsville, TX

3:06:01 - Brian McCloskey, 62, M, Spring, TX

3:07:12 - Cecilia Sarabia, 55, F, Houston, TX

3:11:57 - Cayla Byrd, 27, F, Spring, TX

3:16:41 - Kristine Rice, 34, F, Houston, TX

3:17:46 - Patrick Steirman, 45, M, Willis, TX

3:22:00 - Courtney Dunham, 40, F, Spring, TX

3:22:56 - Melissa Valencia-Perez, 42, F, Spring, TX

3:29:07 - Cecylee Pierre, 43, F, Conroe, TX

3:32:55 - Nancy Tran, 56, F, Cypress, TX

3:36:12 - Tammy Crozier, 48, F, Cypress, TX

3:42:27 - Sahar Halim, 29, F, Sugar Land, TX

3:49:45 - Sadie Davis, 40, F, Spring, TX

3:50:52 - Camellia Jacks, 53, F, The Woodlands, TX

4:08:55 - Kristen Ingram, 28, F, Cypress, TX

4:09:10 - Keith Ingram, 72, M, Spring, TX

5K and Marathon (32 runners)

3:23:22 - Roger King, 39, M, Conroe, TX

3:35:03 - Greg Gibbons, 48, M, Spring, TX

3:37:34 - Robert King, 39, M, Conroe, TX

3:40:02 - Bryan Alsdorf, 38, M, Spring, TX

3:53:08 - Regina Massingill, 37, F, Houston, TX

3:57:15 - Gabriel Belforti, 49, M, The Woodlands, TX

3:59:03 - Mark Bonney, 50, M, The Woodlands, TX

4:00:49 - Robert Stepp, 60, M, Spring, TX

4:01:38 - Nikki Cannon, 39, F, Houston, TX

4:04:15 - Pedro Colunga, 31, M, Houston, TX

4:08:03 - Jose Herrera, 19, M, Houston, TX

4:14:52 - Chrissy Coffin, 36, F, Spring, TX

4:17:49 - Wendy Valdez, 39, F, Spring, TX

4:20:33 - Julie Stevenson, 57, F, The Woodlands, TX

4:28:27 - Tom Cooper, 56, M, The Woodlands, TX

4:33:17 - Jeffrey Custer, 50, M, Conroe, TX

4:46:17 - Kim White, 60, M, Spring, TX

4:53:10 - Aidan Rangel, 21, M, Richmond, TX

4:57:33 - James Wight, 39, M, Conroe, TX

4:57:50 - Dawn Spoljaric, 39, F, The Woodlands, TX

5:01:24 - Paul Minder, 56, M, Cypress, TX

5:08:06 - Phillip Parcon, 52, M, Beaumont, TX

5:09:05 - Meagan Vernuccio, 29, F, Magnolia, TX

5:10:24 - James Healy, 26, M, Conroe, TX

5:15:19 - Taylor Lopez, 21, F, Phoenix, AZ

5:15:47 - Chelsea Newgord, 30, F, Spring, TX

5:18:39 - Aby Goff, 41, F, Lufkin, TX

5:32:17 - Amanda Kelly, 48, F, Magnolia, TX

5:40:27 - Danielle Skelton Reeves, 63, F, The Woodlands, TX

5:45:04 - Megan Suggs, 35, F, Houston, TX

5:57:28 - Brad Kuykendall, 45, M, Spring, TX

5:59:22 - Stephanie Weiss, 59, F, Tomball, TX

Source:  mychiptime.com and RunFarUSA

2021 The Woodlands Marathon Event Report

Me announcing Saturday’s The Woodlands Marathon started out kind of innocently.

After a good friend of mine, Chuck Engle, and his wife Sommer ran the Texas Marathon in Kingwood on New Year’s Day after visiting her family in Texas, he and I had a conversation about him possibly coming to run The Woodlands Marathon after the Little Rock Marathon had pushed to the fall.

I told Chuck that I would put in a call to the race director.  Of course, that’s Willie Fowlkes.

We had a good, solid conversation about where all the moving pieces of the event were and as things worked out, I had agreed to become the race’s announcer in its 10th year.

As I have shared before, Terry Bisogno from Long Island announced year one and Adam Reiser and Logan Delaware – both in the Austin area - had done the last eight.

Willie desired me to announce earlier in the history of the event, but while I was on the committee the first five years, he needed me more in other areas.  

Another ask came in 2018, but I had turned down any interest without getting into any details.

In the meantime, two years before, I was fortunate enough to announce for parts of a couple of hours at the finish line of the Cowtown Marathon in Fort Worth.

This certainly gave me the confidence that I could hold my own with the best in the announcing world – at one of the five largest marathons in Texas.

The Woodlands Marathon is basically number six in Texas behind what I would call the “Big Five”.

So, to now be the voice of that race, I was honored at having the opportunity; however, there was a little bit of pressure that came with.

Some external, the rest internal.

The external came from some of my peers thinking that I could not do all eight hours – from 5:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. – all by myself.

In addition, some of my peers wanted to be here and play.

Neither one of those was really pressure, but more motivation.

The internal pressure came from the fact that I am generally well-loved in the community.  I have – and have had – my detractors, but when people think so highly of you there is a tendency to not want to let them down.

The original offer Willie made did not include the Saturday before with the 5K and 2K, but my belief is that you should have consistency between the two weekends – and given what he was trying to accomplish with the event’s “Return to Run” protocols he did not need to be trying to announce.

I agreed to do both.

Things last Saturday went very, very well and because of Randy Bradley and Bill Dwyer’s guiding all the participants across the 5K start line, we went with a rolling start approach for Saturday’s marathon and half marathon – as well as the 10K.

My preparation for this race was no different than any other, with the exception that I scripted a lot of my pre-race material and read it instead of just adlibbing it.

I was around the Expo all day Friday.  Just helping the rest of the team and gathering any last-minute information that I needed for Saturday.

The team is lean, but very good.  No egos.  And while small things tend to happen in the run-up to race day, I saw people working things out and apologizing where and when necessary.

My biggest fear was not waking up in time for Saturday morning.  

I did not sleep well Thursday night into Friday morning, so I could not afford it a second day.

Waverly helped me by printing and lamenting my material.  Five cards.  Lots to cover.  Two were more geared towards the finish line.

I always feel like I am one of the most prepared in the business.

Saturday morning came early.  I was in the drive through at the Whataburger across the road at 3:40 a.m. and was parked and walking towards the race site by 4:00 a.m.

I had parked in the Blue Lot just south of the park by the Riva Row Boathouse and as I was walking through the Green Lot I could see the gait of Bill Dwyer.

We walked to the finish line area, where he was going to be stationed most of the day and then I went on to race headquarters behind the Town Center Green parking garage to get another Race Staff badge because I gave my original one to Waverly for her to get to where I was without hassle and into her corral late if need be after singing.

Willie was going over the corrals with some of the other staff right around 4 a.m. and then I walked the Market Street parking garage to see how they were going to be laid out so I could articulate it clearly.

Steve Curry was handling the sound once again.  I’ve worked with both him and Roxanne Davis’ son Andy on numerous occasions and they are both great.

He was still setting a few things up and he asked me what time I wanted to wake the neighbors.  I said 5:30 a.m.  

I walked a good bit during the day – 5.8 miles – and before I started talking, I burned off some nervous energy in some of that mileage by covering more of the grounds.

Before I entered the area between the streets on Lake Robbins near the start in front of Town Green Park, I could see Jordan Hasay sitting on the curb with another athlete.

As I approached from the side, I said that I was glad to see her back in The Woodlands.

She recognized my voice and then me from the 2018 NXN South Regional at Bear Branch Sports Park.  We had a good, short conversation.  I really feel for her and the amount of trash that gets talked about her on places like the letsrun.com message board and elsewhere.  She just seems like a nice person.

As I got started announcing, I could tell that folks were not moving as quickly out of Town Green Park and towards the corrals as I was hoping.  

I started thinking about all the work that went into setting up safe protocols that not only had been signed off by the appropriate governmental bodies to grant a permit, but to also keep runners safe if somebody was out there that had COVID-19.

And then to have that possibly set aside because some runners did not want to plan – like pre-pandemic – and then try to crash the corrals, taking out the distance spacing that had been designed by race management.

We kept rolling towards 6:32 a.m. when State Representative Steve Toth was to address the audience.

He was short.  Like 15-20 seconds.  I joked that he might be able to buy some votes with a short speech as a politician.

Then things went off script.

Willie was set to lead the invocation at 6:34 a.m., but I had no sight of him nor knowledge where he was.

When I had gone through the timeline with Steve Curry, he informed me that Toth was also a pastor.  At that time, it was a “good to know” item.

Turned out I needed it and I asked him to pray.

We still had a little time in the bank with not a long prayer, so it was time for Waverly to sing the National Anthem at 6:36 a.m.

She did a tremendous job that received a lot of comments and I would not have started, but suddenly Willie comes running towards me saying that we were going to have a delay for some course issues.

It is something that every race producer hates to have happen – and I do not enjoy being in front of a large group of waiting runners, but I think we handled it as best we could at the start line.

We agreed that we would condense the two-minute gap between the Athletes With Disabilities and the rest of the race and make it a one minute gap.

I think we were finally able to get the AWDs underway at 6:59 a.m. and the rest at 7:00 a.m.  (Or maybe 7:00 a.m. and 7:01 a.m.)

It took a little bit of time to get all the half marathoners out on to Grogan’s Mill and after a shifting of the cones, we got the 10K started – and then I was off to the finish line.

The hardest thing for me as an announcer is what I would call the “hype” or “rah rah”.  I don’t do it well and is something that I have to work on.

Where does this happen at?  In between the start of the race until everybody leaves the corrals.

I just try to focus on clubs, groups, and people that I know – and it usually works out OK.

When Willie first gave me the opportunity to let me do the finish line at the CB&I Triathlon in The Woodlands, I still laugh at what he said to me, “I really like Michael Garfield’s energy.”

Garfield is a great guy and is naturally high energy – and brings it across a microphone naturally, but it was like issuing a challenge to me.

Today, Michael still does the start and then I handle the finish line and awards.  The event gets the best of the both of us.

On the way to the finish line, I saw Conroe Courier sportswriter Justin Maskulinski and his wife.  Good guy.  He ran the half marathon last year and pointed out that had it been a week later it likely would not have gone off.  I agreed with him.

As I got to the stage or booth where RunFar Timing’s Raul Najera was and Steve Curry’s sound guy was getting things ready, I saw Cowtown race director Heidi Swartz and asked her how she has been.

And she complimented me on my announcing.

For me, who does not do this for a living, nor do I let it define me, I took those words as a great compliment.

As far as the race went from there, I had a great day.

I pulled from a place that I had never gone to before, so to speak, because I had not led an event start to finish before of this magnitude and felt that I had the latitude to really “let loose”.

I have announced the Houston Striders’ Houston Half Marathon finish line a couple of times and they have had 4,000 – 6,000 finishers, but this was a little different – and especially since it was my hometown crowd.

Every year I get asked, “Are you announcing The Woodlands?”  I have said “No!” up until this year.  I felt it was appropriate to really put on a show, without being hokey, which I will never do.

So many highlights from the day.  Really.

And so many kind words.  Almost embarrassing.

I get paid to do what I do.  It is a different skill set than most possess – and there’s a need for it.

So when you get paid, you’re expected to deliver.  And I did.  😊

I am afraid I’ll leave something or somebody out, but here are some of the highs of the highlights:

+ My daughter finishing.  She had the race of her life really.  Sure, the two marathons count for something, including the 4:51:23 marathon debut at Houston in 2018.  And as I mentioned in a couple of posts, she was excited as she has ever been, and rightfully so.  (She told me later at dinner that she used that as motivation that she knew she would hear a great finish line call from me.)

+ Every runner who engaged me when they came in.  Whether it was a fist bump, a point to me and back or raised arms, I get the most enjoyment out of that.  I joke I get paid by the smile, but it really feeds my energy.

+ Two teams that get a lot of credit to my success:  RunFar (Raul and Meghan Najera) and SkyGod (Steve Curry).  If the reader isn’t working right or well and the sound isn’t great, then I can’t have a great day.  (We had one stretch where the music wasn’t playing, and it was just me announcing – and I just didn’t feel like on my own that I was able to keep the energy up.  Even though many runners feed off the music and energy, and I have to kind of announce through it, all of that pushing tears up your voice.  But it’s worth it.)

+ A very good friend of mine, Erika Park, was pacing a friend of hers, Pam Greene, in the half marathon and I knew ahead of time that Pam was coming back from an injury.  I don’t remember if I saw their names on the reader first or if I looked up and saw Erica on the left-hand side of the left lane, but I think I got a little exuberant over that – for them.

+ Of course, I got some love from the crowd for The Woodlands’ Jim Braden, who at 85, did the 10K, as well as Huntsville’s Ken Johnson, who did so at 79.  Both ran the 5K last Saturday.

+ Called out 10-year finishers in the marathon, to include Gabriel Belforti, Henrita Van Wyngaarden, Keri Scott and Karen Berglund.  (I missed a few half marathoners to do so, including Rip Reynolds and Rich Fredrich.)

+ In hindsight, I really do not remember having the time, but I had somebody who I admire yet have had some challenges with here recently – they have said much longer than just recently (open for discussion when they are ready to talk about it!) – take the time to come up, wait for an opening and tell me that it was great to hear my voice out there.  I really appreciated the genuine effort, especially given the contrast to the previous Saturday.

+ I tried to take care of my fellow Pennsylvanians – and Penn Staters (John and Debi Rudisill, Vincent Attanucci and Steven Sfeir) – in the field.

+ It seemed like there were a ton of runners from the Miami, Florida area, west Texas seemed to stand out (Odessa and Midland) as well as Pleasanton, which is south of San Antonio and the hometown of a good friend of mine, country singer Rodney Hayden.

+ How could I forget Waco’s Nancy Goodnight, who I mentioned about finishing every single Ironman Texas, but I just had to chuckle when I saw the time on the clock.  She was telling me at packet pickup about how much she had not run and that it was not going to be pretty.  She cranks out a 3:38:45 and takes the women’s grandmasters title.

+ It was great to see Stacy Holden and Ben Harvie.  I did not know either was running.

+ I have some runners who seem to enjoy my announcing more than others.  One of those was running and I got May Shek a good solid call.  The other one, who was not racing this weekend, is Jetola Anderson-Blair.  I appreciate the love and respect of my announcing.

+ I did my best to add in mentions of every club that I could, even though it might have sounded out that I was overboard with my friend Bill Dwyer’s Volte Endurance Training group.

As far as announcing goes, it was probably my most memorable and professionally satisfying race.

Thank you to everybody who supports me and what I do.  Your love and respect is greatly appreciated – and it motivates me to do a great job each time out.

And I would also be remiss if I didn't mention the incredible job that The Woodlands Marathon race committee has done.  It was really great to be back a part of it this year.

Appreciate the support of the other directors, Don Wisenbaker and Danny Golden.

Tiffany Renken and Katie Bienek, who get a lot of detail stuff done for Willie.  Shared a lot of laughs with both of them and they got to hear me whine about some of my personal challenges on Friday.

Laura Faria did a helluva of a job putting together an elite field.

Angie Parker, Ron Stitt, Norm Lapell, Ray and Dianna Sarno, T Eamma, Amaris Zabiegala, Shaun Hebert, Trina Jones, Lou Fiscella, Nathan and Kelly Dietrich.  These are the ones that I know and/or engage with the most.

Cheri Turney had a great volunteer crew and got me names of them to recognize and give them a shout out.

And, of course, Bill Dwyer had a rockstar crew at the finish line:  Roxanne Davis, Barry Blanton and Jimmie Baker.

There were others on the committee that I don't know personally, but if they also weren't doing what they did the event wouldn't have been the success it is and has been.