Just What I Needed

We traveled to Houston this weekend to visit friends and run in the ep5K. Our friend Josh, a high school friend and one of David's college roommates, was turning 30 on Sunday. In addition, our good friends Mindi and Jonathan were running their 3rd half marathon in 3 months on Sunday as well, so we had lots of reasons to make the journey to Houston.

The ep5K is the "fun run" that is held at the same time as the Chevron Houston Marathon and Half Marathon. I thought we would run the 5K, watch Mindi and Jonathan finish, and that would be the extent of my experience at the marathon. However, it ended up being so much more for me. I am sad to say that after only a month away from racing, I had forgotten some of the reasons that I race. Races have all these characteristics that you can only know if you have competed in them -- the energy, the camaraderie with other runners and fans, the sense of competition, and the sense of togetherness. There's really nothing like it, but I had let some of those feelings slip from my mind over the last month. However, Sunday's race brought it all back.

Surprisingly, I enjoyed the 5K, but that wasn't really what brought all the positive feelings about running back to me. The marathon and half marathon started at 7:00 a.m., so we got to watch the start before the 5K began at 7:30 a.m. We walked to the start line of the marathon and watched all the elite athletes warm up before the race. The energy was awesome, and it was really cool to see the elite runners. For most runners, the elites are like rock stars. Anyone who's tried to race at any distance understands the near-impossibility of what these elite runners do. It was also really great to see all the average runners like myself running the race. I wanted to jump the fence and run with them!

I also enjoyed standing near the finish and watching all the half-marathoners and marathoners finish the race. We got to see Deriba Merga set a course record in the marathon with a time of 2:07:52 (that's under 5-minute-per-mile pace in a marathon), and see Teyba Erkesso set the women's record with a time of 2:24:18. Those times are unbelievable, especially when I consider that I cannot even run a one mile race at the same pace those two ran the entire 26.2 miles.

Mindi and Jonathan both set personal records! I think they are both (understandably) burned out on the half marathon, but I hope they'll do another one again this year. It is really great to see your friends accomplish something and take care of themselves. On that same topic, Sunday was our friend Josh's first 5K. He completed the race in 29:09 on his 30th birthday. It was a lot of fun celebrating with him.

I was going to treat this as a "fun run." I really did not run as hard as I could, but I did push myself a little more than I thought I would. The last few months of my life have been focused solely on endurance and distance, so speedwork took a back seat. However, I was still able to complete the 5K with a time of 24:53 and finished 5th in the 25 to 29 age group. David completed the race with a time of 22:47. Neither of us set a PR, but we both enjoyed the race.

Here are a few photos from the weekend. They are from my blackberry, so the quality isn't too good. I will post the others soon.

Christine, Josh & David after the 5K:

Jonathan & Mindi finishing their third half-marathon in three months: