Summer Kickoff Fun Run

Contrary to what Joe says, I didn’t know every 5th person at the Summer Kickoff Fun Run this morning. Maybe every 10th though. 😉

I love this race precisely because it’s in my part of town and so many people turn out for it. The course is actually one of my least favorite — a pretty dull out-and-back along 2094 and South Shore Boulevard — but it passes quickly when I spend most of my time watching the people on the other side and looking for friends.

Joe’s been having hamstring issues, and with his higher priority race in Colorado coming up in two weeks, he decided to take it easy and run with me today. Debbie was also with us for the first two miles, but pulled about 50 feet ahead at the mile 2 water stop and stayed there until the finish line. It was nice to have a pacer (though I think Joe was really just running whatever pace I wanted to go) and someone to chat with.

We finished in 33:01 with steadily slowing splits of 10:18, 10:34, 11:09 and 1:01. Not fantastic, but not too bad either.

The laundry list of people I saw is long. Buzz gets special mention for setting a new PR and finishing 1st in my age group (25-29 female), which she accomplished by keeping Ron (her husband) in her sights throughout the race; Joe and I met fellow Houston Running Blogger Erin for the first time, and she took 1st in her age group and was a mere 13 seconds from winning overall; Chris, a coworker, finally let his wife Kristin drag him along and ran his first race ever finishing just behind me in ~33:30 (Kristin was 2nd in her age group, and their adorable kids did the kids race); and Rich tried racing again despite the fact that his longest run of late had been 2.25 miles.

I also saw coworkers Mark, Darrin, and Floyd… Michelle came out to cheer (she’d already done her run for the day but came anyway)… Sam was out as a supporter as well, taking it easy in preparation for his leg in the Beach to Bay relay next weekend…

The funniest moment of the morning, though, has to be when I went to the packet pickup table to get my packet. They looked and looked and — no Sarah. I wasn’t on the list! Did I forget to register ahead of time? It was highly possible — I register for so many races that I do lose track. The volunteer helpfully pointed me to the registration table, so I walked over and presented them with my situation: “Hi. I thought I pre-registered but apparently I didn’t. I want to register now, but since I thought I registered ahead, I only have $6!”

I offered to take the money by the local store, On The Run, this afternoon, but they said I could just mail it in. “Do you happen to work at NASA by any chance?” the guy asked. “Yes.” I replied. “Well it’ll be ok then, I work there too, I can track you down if you don’t pay!!” Needless to say, the first thing I did when I got home was write a check and put it in the mail. 🙂