Today's (and Last Year's) Results Are In!

The results are in . . . I'm no faster this year. Sadly. I was expecting a touch more, but nope . . . not to be. What the hell am I talking about? I'm talking about the Houston Running Company. I've done lots of these runs in the past few years (see HERE, HERE and HERE). I used to run them all the time, in fact in college I used to help organize and administer fun runs. All of my novels feature fun runs to some degree (see HERE). 

It's because I've run so many fun runs and because I've organized them that I know when I see a bad one. This one today . . . it was a bad one. 

Parking was atrocious, the pre-event planning and setup were non-existent, there was no thought to the crowds and how they would act and react, people were still parking, and there were a lot of people still waiting to find parking when the race started. Worst of all, to park you had to cross the starting line and the racecourse! Worse yet! They didn't have my shirt size when I got my number and my shirt. 

Even worse than these things, the course took us down and back and they actually made it so we had to go by the finish line then turn around a half-mile on and come back. It's a huge psyche out. Check out that second image and you see how we had to pass the finish line and then loop around for a half-mile or more! This was especially egregious because they miss labeled the course. We passed mile marker 6 then half a mile on we passed mile marker 5! So it was just a mess.

Even worse than all of these things was the fact that I have gotten no faster. I've lost over 25 pounds in the past 6 or so months and it had done nothing for my running speed. I looked it up. I ran a memorial day race with the Houston Running Company last year. A 10K just like today's was. Today I ran a 55:14. Last year . . . I ran a 55:08. 

Respectable times for an almost 50-year-old big guy, but still, one would think I might get a touch faster. Sure I ran the Dome Run at a sub 8-minute-per-mile pace, but 10K vs 10K I've gotten no faster after dropping over 25 pounds of ballast. Crazy old world. 

P.S. I think I'll buy this shirt or the one below it . . . and next year I'll wear it for these memorial day runs. Even though I love that second shirt, and that's a phrase I use often  . . . I think the first is more apropos for memorial day runs!