Race in Texas city or town #126
Race in North American city or town #285
Race #2 new to me in 2017 (Goal is 50)
Race #3 to finish in 2017
Race #5 to be in attendance for in 2017 (3 finish, 1 announce, 1 media)
I think it has been well established that I like to race somewhere new.
I thought about running Rob Goyen's Horseshoe Trail Run in Hitchcock at Jack Brooks Park (which would have been a new city), but I needed to get out of town. (And it turned out that with some recent rains that runners were having fun in the mud -- ah, not my type of fun!)
Plus I figured out that I could see three new Texas college basketball gymnasiums or arenas this weekend.
So off to the Dallas Metroplex it was.
I saw Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College - now known as Randall University and is out of Moore, Oklahoma - take on Dallas Christian College in Farmers Branch in NCCAA women's college basketball action last evening.
Randall University took the win 68-61 in a hard fought battle.
The female national anthem singer was one of the best I have ever heard. Incredible.
Prayer before the game and after. What was so incredibly neat about the latter is that in a gymnasium that was getting ready for the men's game, you couldn't have heard a pin drop.
I actually pulled the trigger on this race late.
I signed up for tomorrow's Miracle Match 10K in Waco for $43.20 on December 31, 2016, but got in the Lake Grapevine Runners and Walkers (LGRAW)'s Bold In The Cold 15K for $38.00 even on January 10,2017.
The race was held at Oak Creek Park in Grapevine, which turns out to be a race in my 126th Texas city or town.
Pre-race communications established that race day packet pickup was between 6:30 a.m. and 7:30 a.m. and that parking might be a little tight -- and it was. The last few cars looked as if they were going to get parked in Lake Grapevine!
The thing about LGRAW is that it is a top-notch Road Runners Club of America (RRCA) club that has some appearances of an older, legacy club, that is, back in the 1970s and 1980s.
The race starts were simple - not big productions like some are.
The 5K was all chip finish. No timing mat at the start.
The 15K had a timing mat at the start, but no big announcements -- and they fired an actual starter's pistol. Awesome.
The course went two miles out to the east and came back towards the start. Roads without traffic in the Park as well as trails made up the course.
We passed by the finish at about mile 4.3 or so (estimate) and normally that's a demoralizer for me, but the weather was pretty good.
The car temperature read 50 degrees and I actually went against karma by wearing the race technical shirt that I had just received at packet pickup because it was long-sleeved and all I brought was my Park City Marathon, short sleeve race shirt.
At one point, I seriously thought about stopping to take it off, but was glad that I didn't because I didn't recall the temperature ever feeling like it picked up at all.
There was a negligible to slight breeze, but nothing that really stands out.
When we headed to the west, we ran off to the north for a little loop to add some distance and then did an out and back that brought us back to the finish.
The USATF certified course had a total climb of 395 feet and total elevation change of 789 feet. I relate it to Huntsville State Park, but without the tree roots.
Mostly changing with some flat spots, but the course kept you working.
I probably ran more hills than I have in awhile, certainly because of the cool temperatures, but still walked a little.
With it being cooler, I was able to continue to work on a faster foot turnover where I could and I think it paid off for a 1:36:14 finish -- good for a 10:19 pace.
This would be a 2:15:21 half marathon if I could hold it -- and that is exactly in the range I want to be going forward (even though I'm getting older.)
Saw and talked to Your Sporting Image's Karen Thibodeaux and then saw RRCA At-Large Director Kelly "K2" Richards at the mile 3 mark and then again just past the mile 9 mark.
Kelly is and has been a great contributor to the RRCA for a long time.
I would certainly recommend this race for anybody.
If you're reading this, you're likely to have not run many 15Ks, if at all. So it would be an automatic PR, but it is a good test of a road course with some small to mid-range rollers that you can keep churning through.
Somebody could come with you that wasn't as active and do the 5K. LGRAW is a very friendly club that is welcoming to adults and children of all abilities -- and many were out there enjoying the morning.
As a finisher's item, in addition to the long-sleeved, technical shirt that they gave out for registering, LGRAW gave out a head band with ear covers.
Additionally, the mile markers seemed to be spot on and in some places, there the miles had half mile markers too.
I certainly look at races with an event producer's eye - and there's nothing really that I could even think of to complain about. :-)
Offset - 19.73
Mile 1 - 9:55.01
Mile 2 - 10:16.93
Mile 3 - 10:05.99
Mile 4 - 10:18.43
Mile 5 - 10:31.32
Mile 6 - 10:28.19
Mile 7 - 10:24.93
Mile 8 - 10:26.80
Mile 9 - 10:22.50
Last .3 - 3:24.06
Total - 1:36:14.16 (10:19 pace)
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