Santa Hustle Half Marathon Event/Race Report

2021 has been tough, but I've learned a lot and am continuing to ask myself what I want the next season in life to look like.

One of the realizations that came to the forefront during today's race is that I want to write more in 2022.

I've shed some races from an announcing standpoint for this next year, with more to come.  

And there will be a few shockers.

I have recommitted to finish line announce the 2022 Hot Chocolate 15K and 5K on Saturday, January 29, 2022.  That is one thing that I can publicly share that was finalized this week.

But back to writing.  

People either haven't known me long enough or maybe have forgotten about how I came to be more involved in the sport.

I started running in very late 2002 and ran my first race - a 4-miler - at an event associated with the Houston Marathon in January 2003.

Since then, I've done a lot.

Some of which only matters to me, and doesn't register on the greatest feats of some in the community.  But, I don't care.

I believe what I've accomplished and contributed has been significant and I'm thankful to have had all of the opportunities that I was given and to do them professionally, ethically and with a healthy bit of enthusiasm for an introvert.

However, I used to have a website where I tracked every race, etc. and so on, and two people recognized it as unique at that time - Roberta McInnis with the Houston Chronicle and Lance Phegley with then Inside Texas Running.

I was profiled in one of Roberta's columns and was asked by Lance to contribute to the magazine, as well as Runner Triathlete News.

That led to announcing, and so on.

Earlier this year, while trying to complete the Great Virtual Race Across Tennessee, I went too many miles (80% walking and 20% running) on shoes that wore down on the front part of the shoe causing me issues with my left knee underneath the front of the kneecap.

And then I had a slight case of COVID in late July, with recovery going to mid-August.  I was and am thankful it wasn't any more severe than the mild case that I had.

The knee has just gotten to a place that I could begin running again and my motivator over the years has been to race.

Because I work from home 45-plus hours a week, I'm always looking to get out of the house in the evenings and, especially, on the weekends.

I usually check runningintheusa.com, dfwraces.com and even put the date, such as "December 18, 2021", 5K and Texas in a browser and see if I can find a race that isn't in one of the lists.

I'm always looking for a race in Texas in a town that I've never been to before, or a county.  The one this week that looked good was a 5K in Gainesville in Cooke County.

I usually then look to combine it with a sporting event, preferably at a location I've never been to before.

The wildcard this week was the weather.

I didn't want to race in the rain, nor did I want to drive east on I-10 in the rain as I considered going to Mobile, Alabama to see Liberty play Eastern Michigan in a bowl game or see two basketball games at Nicholls State and University of Louisiana-Lafayette.

And then once they cancelled the Terry Hershey parkrun 5K because the forecast was going to have thunderstorms at the 9 a.m. scheduled star time, I resigned myself to riding my Air Assault bike for 20 miles while I contemplated what I was going to do.

I decided to see Sam Houston State host Hardin-Simmons University in men's basketball at 2 p.m., run the Santa Hustle Half Marathon in Galveston on Sunday morning (I wasn't going to pay their price for the 5K) and then see Rice University host the University of St. Thomas in men's basketball at 2 p.m. afterward.

I drove down last Saturday afternoon and stayed at the Hampton Inn, which was about a mile from the start of the race - just outside of the San Luis Resort.

After driving to the race site to pick my packet up, where I saw Hiroshi Hamada, David Leach and Sharon Morin, I went back to my car, which was on a side street behind the Resort, but I felt nature starting to call and I decided to go back to the Hampton.

When I got back to the hotel, I couldn't get back in to my room, even after having my keys reset.

I walked the little more than a mile to the start.  I saw Konstantin Loguinov on the start line and chatted with him for a minute or two before the National Anthem was played.

I then moved myself back to the 10 minute per mile area where I saw an opening in the white fencing and no sooner had I started to look for people I knew, up came former Houston Strider and long-time friend Whitney La Rocca.

And after chit-chatting for about a minute or so, the race started and we started moving forward towards Seawall Blvd. where the race would traverse.

Within the first mile, I started to see people that I knew.

First up was Seven Hills Running Club member David Keithley, who I came up from behind on (but just briefly), and then shortly after another Club member, Bridgette Collins, did the same to me.

She was telling me that she was running her fifth half marathon since the Huntsville Half Marathon in mid-October.

As we ran for a little bit, I could see Norman Langwell, Jr. ahead of me and I asked if she knew Norman and she said she didn't, but I started to share with her Norman's running story.

Mile 1 - 10:27.57

I caught up with Norman and we ran together to the turnaround and then some more.

In all of that time, I saw one of my great friends, Erika Park, heading south and hollered at her loudly to catch her attention as she can tend to be a bit focused on her race, even though I learned later that she was supposed to be running this race after running 15-plus on Saturday.

In the mix of all of that, Whitney would catch up and so the three of us are were changing positions back and forth.

Mile 2 - 10:38.09 (21:05.66)

Near that mile marker I saw David's wife, Velvia, as she was running the 5K.  They are both great people and loyal Seven Hills Running Club members.

Norman and I kept rolling along, running together, before I needed to take a break other than a water stop.

Mile 3 - 11:03.57 (32:09.23)

Around that area, Richard Broussard, a gentleman that I've been Facebook friends with for awhile, but hadn't really conversed much with, came up along side of me and we had some really good conversations.

He was sharing with me that he's 69 and that as recently as five or so years ago he weighed 380 pounds.  

Even though he said that he didn't get started running half marathons until about five years ago, the Santa Hustle Half Marathon was his 81st as his goal is to make it to 100.

Mile 4 - 10:59.08 (43:08.31)

So it turned out that there was now four of us that were running about the same pace.

Since I hadn't run a half since Blue Bell in April and Vintage Park in early May, and just my left knee allowing me to run again, I knew that I was going to be three parts run and one part walk the rest of the way.

Mile 5 - 11:15.67 (54:23.98)

Mile 6 - 11:08.85 (1:05:32.83)

Around this time the leaders were making their way north.  Konstantin was running third or fourth overall and being chased by Michael Robbins, the younger of the two Robbins brothers.

Three females had gone by and then there was a group of about six or seven, all guys and two females.

One of those two females was my friend Erika Park.

If you're a good friend, I will go all in for you.  

I got close enough to tell her that the other female runner - who had just made a charge out of the group at that time - was fourth and she was fifth - and to go get her!  (It turned out that she did!)

Mile 7 - 11:18.73 (1:16:51.56)

A little further down I saw David Leach coming at me.  He's a Penn State alum and a Bay Area Running Club member.  I had actually given him a #WeAre on the way to the first turnaround, but cheered him on again.  He had a guy in a purple Northwestern shirt chasing him, who he held off to the finish.

So we're approaching the turnaround, and the wind was getting even more brutal.  I also knew that Norman, Whitney and Richard were behind.  They were my friendly motivation today.

But I decided to walk a little bit more to try and conserve some energy going into the wind.

I passed the mile 8 flag twice, not sure which was really the marker, but I think it was after the turnaround.

Mile 8 - 12:03.60 and 1:49.68 (1:30:44.84)

From here all the way in, I tried to walk about 70 steps and then run as many as I could, and then repeat.  My next few miles looked like this:

Mile 9 - 10:44.82

Mile 10 - 10:59.84

Mile 11 - 11:09.70

Mile 12 - 11:46.90

Mile 13 - 11:27.07

During this stretch, the only other person that I saw that I recognized or knew was Susan Bell.

The last .1 mile was likely short as I clocked it in 38.78 seconds.

Total time was 2:27:31.95.

Of the 154 half marathons I've completed, it was my 93rd fastest time.  And it was the slowest of the three Santa Hustle half marathons that I've completed.

It was good to know that I can go and finish the distance on little to nothing (not to say that it is the wisest ... just that I can.)  Plus, it was just a jumpstart to get me back motivated again and to push the envelope more.

The 231 days since the last half marathon is the longest gap that I've ever experienced not related to COVID.

After I finished, I saw Graham Schooley, his wife Randi and timer Tony Sapp behind the San Luis Resort building while they all were waiting for the race to finish.

All in all, a good day, other than the Rice vs. St. Thomas game being cancelled because the Owls had COVID-19 issues within their men's and women's basketball programs.

Next one?  Maybe Kingwood on New Year's Day.  We'll see.

Addendum:  Two people that I missed in the report -- Matthew Chauvin and Candace Caesar.  My apologies.