Reindeer Run 5K

Rich, Gavin and I did the Reindeer Run this morning, a 5K held only a mile and a half away from my apartment. It’s one of my favorite runs to do each year because it has a nice course, is well-organized, and has a happy fun “small neighborhood gathering” feel, even though it draws 500 runners.
In years past I remember this race being very cold, but unfortunately Houston has not gotten the “IT’S DECEMBER NOW!!” memo this year and this morning’s weather was 75 degrees — and muggy.
Despite the weather, I was able to get close to my amended (as of Thursday) goal time and turn in my best 5K time in recent memory: 32:45.
I covered mile 1 in 10:52 as I eased into the race and saw how my legs were doing (good!). Just after mile 1, I heard a “hi” next to me and looked over to see a man that I’ve been seeing a lot out on the Gilruth trail lately — we’ve both been running out there after work. We introduced ourselves and chatted for the entire second mile before he pulled ahead again. He’s also training for the half marathon and was actually doing the course 3 times to make a 9-mile run. He’d done one lap before the race, was using the race as his second lap, and then planned to do one more. He’d finished his first lap slightly late and so he started the race a couple minutes behind everyone else. He caught up to me, slowed to my pace for a mile, then took off again.
I felt pretty tired during the second mile and figured I’d probably sped up a bit running with David, but it turns out that I was probably just breathing harder because I was talking! The second mile passed in 10:54, so as David pulled ahead I resolved to do the final mile in something more like 10:30.
The muggy air started to get to me around the 2.5-mile point and I had to do a few minutes of my “don’t walk don’t walk don’t walk” chant. (Thursday’s run was the first in a long time that I’d done entirely without a walking break, a feat that I repeated today; my fitness level is finally getting back to where it used to be!) As I turned the corner to cover the final .15 miles, I felt ever-so-slightly sick, but I managed to cross the line in 32:45 — I ran the last 1.1 mile segment in 11:00 flat, or a 10:00/mile pace. I was pretty happy about that.
I turned to walk back to meet Gavin, who finished in just over 24:00, and before I could even get the tenth of a mile back to where Gavin was, Rich came across in 34:15. That’s an awesome time for him, especially since he said he was going to run 12:00 miles. Yeah right. 🙂
I saw a bunch of other coworkers while we milled around afterwards. During the last mile there were two girls about 100 feet ahead of me that I was focusing on, hoping to catch them. I didn’t quite make it, but after the race I saw them again and it turns out one of them was Erin (who works in my division)! I hadn’t recognized her from the back, and didn’t even figure it out until I mentioned my time and she said “oh, you finished right behind us!” I paused, walked around behind her and her friend Alicia, and laughed. “Yep — I was trying to catch you!!” I said.
Floyd was also there (I see him a lot), as well as Charlie with his kids. This race has a ton of stuff for kids to do, including a petting zoo. Yes, a petting zoo. They had some goats, and a calf, and a deer, and a couple chickens, and a llama. I was so amused.
All in all it was another fun Reindeer Run, and I’m feeling happy with my running heading into next week’s Blogger Meetup at Run the Woodlands!