It’s another hot, hot, HOT Monday and I feel sticky and sweaty from being outside most of the day. See, I’m mentoring another team of teachers who arrived in town last Friday to fly an experiment on the Weightless Wonder (aka Vomit Comet). Their work area is in one of NASA’s hangars at Ellington Field. An open air hangar. As in, not air-conditioned. As in, the heat index was 105 this afternoon. At least it’s shaded, and they keep a cooler stocked with cold water! I’ll be flying with them on Thursday. None of them have ever flown in reduced gravity before and they are VERY excited, so it should be a ton of fun.
I did the Y Freedom Tri yesterday for the fifth year in a row. I really enjoy this race, even though it’s usually insanely hot outside. Yesterday turned out to be better than expected since there was a breeze and the run course is fairly shady. I finished in 1:17:42 so I beat my time from last year by almost a minute! That was my goal, so I was pleased. My bike split was just slightly slower, I think, but my run split was faster. The timing company had some kind of issue with splits so I’ll write a full race report once they get those posted. I finished as 2nd place Athena as well. Y Tri always has a large and competitive Athena group — I wish all the local tris were like that!
In other racing news, I did not get selected in the lottery for the Houston Half Marathon in January, so my eight-year streak of running either the half marathon or the full marathon there will come to an end in 2012. I’m soooo glad they appreciate my loyalty.
I’m not fast enough to qualify for either race, the HARRA slots only apply to the full marathon, and I haven’t run the full marathon enough to be a veteran. (Anyone who has run 5 marathons gets in automatically, but that “veteran” status is not extended to half marathoners. I take issue with that, but obviously that doesn’t do me any good.) Although there are a lot of other great races in the December-March time frame to choose from, I’m pretty disappointed to miss out on “the big one.” Not getting in after eight years feels like a slap in the face. I could still get in via a charity entry, but I decided when I registered for the lottery that if I didn’t get in that way, I wasn’t going to scrounge for another way in. (For years, I’ve chosen to support charities in my own way, and in general I tend to avoid using other organizations as a go-between.) In the grand scheme of things, I know that the marathon/half marathon behemoth doesn’t care about little ol’ me. I figure that’s a sign I should take my money elsewhere this year.
Maybe I’ll run Houston again in 2013. Maybe not. The marathon/half marathon have gradually implemented policies I didn’t like, and when they started the lottery last year, I knew that not getting selected was inevitable at some point. Now that it’s happened, I’m feeling pretty apathetic about supporting the event — at least in the form of me paying them to “let” me run — in the future.
its so exhausting spending the day at the hanger, the heat just took the life out of me, all I did was come home every night and lie under the air conditioning..
Oh, you poor, poor people. I really feel for you. Next time, I’ll take your place, seeing as how I’ve NEVER FLOWN ON THE VOMIT COMET BEFORE. Maybe I don’t apply to be a mentor every year, but when I have, I’ve never been chosen. So stop whining! Yeah, the heat sucks, but you get to fly!!!
Wow Cari, breathe, ok? It’s hot as hell, in case you haven’t noticed. Remarking on the heat doesn’t mean we’re whining about the program.
Also, I don’t get selected every time either but I DO apply EVERY SINGLE TIME. So if you want to do it, you have to apply. At least half of the other mentors out there this week with me are first-timers.
So my understanding is they select 50% new mentors and 50% returning. They also give preferences to those that also review proposals. I have about a 50% success rate in getting selected as a mentor, this is the first time I’ve been selected two years in a row. Anyway, my advice Cari is to 1. volunteer to review the proposals 2. apply every selection 3. when you don’t get selected, email them and ask for feedback on improving your chances of getting selected in the future.