I'm posting this for Thomas King Jr. - training partner, friend, and warrior. It is his response to an article written in Texas Runner & Triathlete magazine titled "Who Really Won?": Does crossing the finish line first mean anything anymore? Apparently not! In your article, with the insulting title, "Who Really Won?", you attempt to argue that the absence of age grading at the Bellaire Trolley Run made me undeserving of the Overall Masters Award. You crunched the numbers, and apparently, if age grading had been in effect, I would have com...
It was time for annual HMSA 25K held in downtown Houston. I’m not feeling extremely motivated for this race because I’ve been battling the onset of plantar fasciitis for about a month now. I have been trying to take some time off, but also just stretching and icing a bit more than usual in the hopes that it will get better sooner rather than later. Still, there is the question of “the streak” I have going with regards to HARRA races and don’t think it is bad enough for me to want to skip the race. Besides, I believ...
It was a near perfect day for a 5K race. The temperature must have been around 56 degrees with no wind or clouds in the sky. It was time for the annual Pumpkin race in downtown Houston. I ran this race last year and did surprisingly well considering it is in the middle of the Fall season and my legs are usually pretty tired. The difference being that last year I had taken several days off because I was battling allergies hard. This year I didn’t rest at all and it made a huge difference. Only five days rest from the half marathon and I wa...
Running a half marathon in 76 degrees with 90% humidity is not something that normally gets most runners excited – I’m no different. It was time for the annual HARRA half marathon race which is part of the warm up series to the Houston Marathon in January. I thought the race last year at 62 degrees was a bit warm. Hence, today was just not something I was excited about doing at all. The only thing that got my spirits up a bit was hearing that Sean Wade was not going to make it after all – apparently he is still trying to recov...
The Park to Park 5 mile race has been in existence for several years now. They were fortunate to be included in the HARRA spring series in the past. However, for whatever reason, they chose to leave HARRA so that they could have a Fall event. It is a different type of race in that it starts one place and finishes in another – similar to the Conoco Rodeo run. This race has never really been extremely well organized, but because they were under the HARRA umbrella, they could count on the numbers to show up. This year, the numbers would supp...
It was time to kick off the HARRA fall series individual races with the 10 miler in Clear Lake. Another race which I’ve run for several years since turning masters which I had never been able to win. I figure my chances are dwindling since I’m now 44 years old and not getting any younger, as they like to say. The drive down was encouraging – we’ve had nice weather all week, but it had been gradually warming up and I was concerned that it would be warm for this race. But mother nature was being nice and giving us temperat...
It was the first annual Oktoberfest 5K/10K in Pearland. I decided to do it to support the local running scene in Pearland. Since it was the first annual, there weren’t that many entrants and was expecting to win the event, since most of the big dogs would be at the Komen 5K in Houston. The weather was very cooperative – probably near 62 degrees near start time – 7:10 AM. As I look around, I see nobody who would be a threat to me. My plan is to run it the way I plan to run the first six miles of the 10 mile race the following w...
It was time for the annual Cross Country Relay held across the street from St. Thomas High School. This is a good event simply for two reasons – a very challenging course and a relay. Both make this a tough event to compete in, much less win. I’ve put masters teams together for this event since I turned masters and my team had won three of the last four years. Hopefully we could do it again. One small problem – who is going to be on the team this year? Last year I had one too many wanting in – this year it was a struggle...
I’ve had a rough time of it this summer to say the least. Continued problems with my soleus on both my right and left leg had been causing problems for my training all summer long, not to mention my inability to defend my masters titles at three races. It is times like these in which we are tested. I’m back to some semblance of normalcy now and hope to have a decent Fall season now that the training is back to normal. I’m still reminded from time to time how difficult it is to keep the body and mind functioning at its highest ...
It was going to be another warm start for a race for the Astros Race for the Pennant. The good news (for me) is that I get a text message from Tom King about 90 minutes prior to the race stating that he wasn’t going to make it – still suffering from a hamstring problem. I knew he would have been hard to beat if he had been able to make it. It turns out I park right next to team-mate Blake Culp and we go out for a warm up together. I’ve been looking forward to this race – sort of. I mean, I’ve been running well and ...
