Great Fun Run! and planning ahead

Today was the Great Pumpkin 5k Fun run at the Houston Zoo. The temperature was about 52* which was enough to wake you up very quickly. My daughter and I arrive and found our way to the shoe chip's which was an short line and then proceeded to attach the little thing to our shoes. Next it was a short warm up and then headed to the start line. Not sure how many runners there were but I estimate about 700 hundred with other walkers as well. The gun went off and it only took a 28 seconds to hit the official starting line mat. At mile one the pack was pretty much together and part of the run was an out and back which we could already see the leaders coming on the back in part. We hit the 1 mi mark at 11 mins and thought wow we are running fast so I asked my daughter how she was doing and she said great. I really think she would have ran faster if it wasn't for slow ol'pops holding her up. Mile 2 was not really marked but I assumed it was where the second water stop was where we grabbed a quick drink and merged with the shorter distance walkers. Now this made for a zig-zaggin effect for the last mile of the run which was somewhat annoying. They should have directed the walkers to stay to the right of the trail which is about 12' wide but somewhere that was left out so we continued to run hopping in and around people as we had picked up the pace on our last mile. The final quarter mile was great because we turned and ran inside the side, still dodging the walkers, but then finished inside the zoo at 33:15. We grabbed our snack packs that were handed out and towel and then just enjoyed walking around the zoo and seeing the animals which most of them were up and ready for breakfast and near the front of the exhibits. This was so cool because we both had not been so close to some of the animals. After walking around we made our way to the results board and my daughter 15-19 age group placed 10/15 with only 1 other 15 year old coming in at 8/15. Great Job! and like I said I slowed her down so she would have done better. As for slow ol'pops, age group 35-40 I came in 32/40. Overall all my daughter was 579 and I was 580 with an average pace of 10:44/mile! What are you kidding me! I have never ran that fast before and I felt great running, felt like a PRE of 4-5. Sweet, I'm happy! After my daughter told me she had fun! and really like running inside the zoo. Great Day!

Today is the Nebraska Cornhuskers taking on the Oklahoma Sooners in Stillwater, OK at 2:30pm CST on ABC so you know where you can find me.

Tomorrow is the big day for all the IronStar athletes! Good luck and see you out there!

This past week has been a little lite or relaxed on my training and I can some has been due the fact of the sinus infection I had at the beginning of the week and I suppose it was good to make it a light week to help recover however last week was my step back week so I have really had two weeks of decreased mileage. This coming week I will pick up the mileage with my long run scheduled for mid week instead of the weekend due to next Saturday will be very busy with the LoneStar Galveston Bike Rally and my daughters Homecoming dance! I also have to pick the mileage up due to the up coming run in Vegas on Dec 10th. The next 4 weeks will bring increased long runs with my longest 11 mile run coming the last weekend in Nov on the 25th. Gotta burn all that turkey and sweet potato's off, damn I love those!

Rockon`