Seabrook Half

Though I have completed all my scheduled mileage, I’ve been malcontented with my training this cycle. My focus has been diminished due to the added stress of working two jobs during tax season. To gauge my conditioning, I went to south Houston to run the Seabrook half-marathon this weekend.

The course was two laps of 6.55 miles on a pine wooded trail. I ended up placing 1st in my age group, and overall 7th out of 412 finishers. I have this little race anecdote to pass on.

Due to the balmy conditions (63 degrees / 90% humidity) at gun time, I carried a handheld water bottle during the first lap for extra hydration. Right before completing the loop, my bottle was empty. I didn’t want to carry my empty bottle the whole of the second lap; however I also didn’t want to toss it as they cost $ 18. A dozen volunteers were standing at the second lap start. I tossed my water bottle to a guy in the middle and said, “I’ll be back in 48 minutes.”

The kick was that I wasn’t wearing a watch. Pre-race I decided to run entirely on “feel”. At the half-way point I actually had no idea what my elapsed time was. But I felt that I was on about a 7:15 min/mile pace. Additionally, having completed the first lap, I knew the course and believed I could maintain my current stride. Accordingly, I figured I would complete the second 6.55 miles in 48 minutes, give or take 30 seconds.

As I approached the finish, the group of volunteers stood clapping and smiling with an amazed bewilderment. It was as if they had just seen David Copperfield make the Statue of Liberty disappear. The guy who caught my water bottle approached me looking at his watch and said, “Amazing! 48 minutes 3 seconds!”. “Pacing,” I replied, “It’s all about pacing.”

Ok, Ok. Maybe I’m embellishing a little. It is true that the bottle cost $ 18. It is also true that I tossed it to the volunteer and said, “I’ll be back in 48 minutes.” It is even true that without the aid of a watch, I actually completed the second half split in 48 minutes 3 seconds, which I learned when the official race results were posted. However, the guy who caught my water bottle was in fact, nowhere to be found. I guess he figured I wasn’t there at the time I stated (3 seconds earlier), so now it his.

David