When I walked out the

When I walked out the door early on Saturday morning, I knew we were in for one hot 5K. As we walked from the car to packet pickup, I think I started sweating! It was warm and it was humid.

Before the race, I saw a lot of the HRBers, but unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to really talk to anybody in the rush of picking up my packet, getting Jose registered, and getting our chips.

Thankfully, the first mile was run mostly in the shade of downtown’s skyscrapers. I wondered if Jose would feel the ol’ adrenaline rush of running in an actual event, and I think he must have — we hit the 1-mile marker in exactly 11:00. That’s equal to the fastest mile we’d run in our training!

The second mile saw warmer temperatures as we emerged from the buildings into the sun. UGH. We ran back past Minute Maid Park and south to Mile 2. I hit my watch at the marker — 10:56! Jose had actually been pulling me a long for a bit, pumped up by mentally chanting Marine Corps chants that a friend’s dad used to yell when the ran together the one season he was on the track team. SO, not only did Jose just run two solid miles without a walking break for the first time, he also did both miles faster than he’d done during any of his runs leading up to the race!

His effort caught up to him in Mile 3, and we walked twice — once right after the water stop, and once again on the slight uphill section that took us back towards the ballpark. We slowly made our way in the sun back towards the park, and as we neared the stadium, I said “ok, no more walking, you can make it the rest of the way, no problem!”

I haven’t run with Jose enough yet to know with certainty what kind of motivation he does or doesn’t like while running. Some people like being cheered for and constantly encouraged; some people would rather you just leave them alone and run beside them quietly. Turns out that my “no more walking” remark was a good one, and he later said that he was glad I’d told him that because he’d been thinking of walking one more time.

With two walk breaks, we still managed a 12:20 third mile. We hit the 3-mile marker just before going into the Minute Maid tunnel and whoa — talk about a strange experience. We went from sweltering in the hot sun to being plunged into virtual darkness. Jose remarked that he wondered if he’d blacked out; I just worried that I’d fall on my face in the dark. We both made it through the last tenth in 1:01 for a 35:18 finish. That’s faster than anything we’d run in his training, which he later told me had been his goal — to finish the race at a faster pace than anything he’d done before. SO, Jose’s first race, an average time of 11:20/mile…not bad, not bad at all! I was very proud of him. Aw. Schmoop.

If he breaks up with me tomorrow, at least I can say I did him some good!

Yesterday I had a little change of pace and hopped on my bike for the first time since last June. Yes, it had been 11 months since I’d ridden anywhere! After consulting my training log, I realized why — last summer was when I had the bulk of the problems with my right knee, it was the time when the overuse injury from marathon training really kicked in. Bike riding made my knee hurt more, so I stopped. And just never started again, as evidenced by having to pull out of the MS150 this year due to a complete lack of training.

I’m happy to report that after yesterday’s ride, my knee felt good. A little aching and discomfort (the injury has never entirely gone away), but today it feels normal again.

I took things pretty easy, with a nice 15-mile ride that included two laps around the space center. It took me just over 56 minutes, and I averaged exactly 16 miles per hour. I was pretty happy with that distance and speed for it being my first time on the bike in almost a year. Thankfully it wasn’t too awfully windy either.

I hope to get in at least 1-2 more rides before the Tejas Triathlon on June 11. I certainly won’t be in top form for the race, but I’m looking forward to it nonetheless as a means of getting me back in triathlon mode! It’s been almost two years since I did one, which is really a shame since I enjoy them so much. I’m even thinking of signing up for On The Run’s tri training program that starts in mid-June…