Mosquito Chase photos

The worst race picture ever…link

I was trying to stay ahead of the guy in the black shorts behind me and I was not interested in posing for the finishing photo. It shows.

Here is a good picture of Jakeb … link

These are pictures from The Mosquito Chase … the race where my wife Andrea stood in the hot sun after her walk at the track and cheered me on.

Mosquito Chase

Jakeb and I ran the Mosquito Chase yesterday morning. The race is part of The Great Texas Mosquito Festival in Clute. It is normally the hottest local race of the year and this year was no exception.

As soon as the gun went off (or really when the guy starting the race yelled “Go!”) the sun came up over the horizon. I was able to keep pace with EQ for a couple of tenths of a mile but that was only because he started at the back of the pack and admitted that he was going to take it easy. It wasn’t long until he was out of sight.

I ran pretty well. I am not in my fastest 5k shape ever but I am pleased with the results. I passed 3 people in the second mile and picked off eight in the last 1.1 even though my pace progressively slowed.

Mile 1 – 7:27
Mile 2 – 7:42
Mile 3 – 7:50
.1 – 34:44
Total – 23:34 (7:36 pace)

Jakeb ran 26:05 about a minute and a half off of his 5k PR. It was a good race for him considering the heat and the fact that he is just in the beginning stages of training for a half-marathon.

Jake and I finished the day at an Astro's game with great seats behind home plate. We got to see Roy O pitch and the Astro's win so it was worth the trip.

Overall it was a good day.

Holy batphobia batman

Last week I mentioned how I am fascinated by bats. A couple of years ago I noticed that there were bats everywhere during the summer months. It was cool to watch as many as ten at a time flutter around above me as I ran.

I have a friend who worked at the local bird observatory and I asked him why it there seemed to be so many bats in the summer. He said that they were Mexican bats and they were migratory. So every summer I began to look forward to seeing the bats while I run.

This year the route I see them on the most is a run that takes me toward downtown Lake Jackson on Center Way. The bats seemed to be getting braver. Instead of flying ten to twenty feet above me, every so often one would circle a few feet in front of me. I thought it was cool and I never really even reacted to it until I read this article about the City of Lake Jackson finding rabid bats at a local apartment complex.

This morning Jakeb and I ran a new three mile route that he mapped out last night on Gmaps. After we hit the three mile mark, he stopped and went into the house and I ran on so I could get in a fourth mile. Right past the house a bat dove right in front of me. The experience was no longer enjoyable. It made me want to take another less bat infested route. It made me wish it was November.

Who needs a plan?

I ran six miles this morning. Being the imprecise runner that I am, all I know is that I ran it in about 55 minutes (~9:10 pace). This is my “long run” for the week as I start building up to marathon training.

I have been running in ignorant bliss, ignoring my training plan because I knew generally what I was supposed to be running but not specifically. So yesterday I opened my training plan spreadsheet and found that my general knowledge of my training plan was falling short of what I was actually supposed to be running.

This week I’ve run the following:

Saturday – 3 (track), Sunday – 5, Monday – 3, Tuesday – 4, Wednesday – 3, and Thursday – 6
Total – 24 miles

This is what my training plan called for:

Saturday – 4, Sunday – 4 (marathon pace), Monday – 6 (Long Run day), Tuesday – 4, Wednesday – 5 (track), Thursday - 4
Total – 27 miles

Fridays are my rest day. I’ll stick to the plan next week … and say goodbye to 3 milers forever.

Routine running

EQ gave me a hard time this morning @ church for not blogging about my running.

So … yesterday morning I went to the track with Andrea. I ran an 800 warm-up, 2x200 with 200 meter recovery, 2x400 with 400 meter recovery and an 800 with an 800 meter cool down for about 3 miles. I didn’t even look at the watch so I do not know how fast it was. All I know is the sun was up and it was HOT. Andrea and her sister walked for an hour.

This morning I ran five. 8:57, 9:11, 7:37, 9:15, 9:44 for a 45:44 total (9:08 pace).

I’ve been running but it has been very routine. I guess there is something to say for consistency but it is very boring to post on a blog. The bats are back in full force and they fascinate me. Other than that I have nothing to say…

Lake Catherine State Park

The family made it home from camping Monday night. We had a great time while we were away at Lake Catherine State Park in Arkansas. Arkansas has some great state parks. We tent camped for a couple of nights and then spent two nights in a cabin.

Jakeb, Anna and Tori fished. Tori and Anna both caught their first fish on this trip. All three of our kids caught their first fish at Lake Catherine. Jakeb caught his first fish at Lake Catherine a couple of years ago.

We swam … the kids more than the adults. We hiked every trail in the park. Lake Catherine State Park has ten miles of hiking trails. I ran the trails a couple of times and slightly twisted my ankle yet again. Arrgh!

I read two books while I was away and thoroughly enjoyed both. This one and this one. It is rare that I read two books back-to-back that are as enjoyable. Usually there is a dud in between.

The trip was fun and relaxing.

Tonight Tori, Andrea and I are going to Everything is Spiritual … it should be good.

July 4th Firecracker 4

The firecracker four was a family affair this year. Jakeb and I ran the four miler. Andrea and Tori walked the two miler and Anna ran the kids K. Andrea’s sister Gwen and her kids Shannon and Matthew walked the two miler as well.

Jakeb finished in 36:47 – pretty well since it is his longest run in over a month and has done very little training since he has been busy camping.

I ran 32:33.

It was hot but I remember past years being worse. I saw a lot of people that I know. It was a good day to run.

Now it’s off to lunch with my parents – B-B-Que. And fireworks tonight with Andrea’s side of the family if the weather holds out.

We are leaving at the end of this week for a camping trip. All of us are looking forward to swimming, hiking, swimming, running, swimming, and other stuff and swimmimg.