Hardware for the whole family

This morning, Kathleen and I both earned a trophy in a 5K race here on the west side of Houston. She came in third (25:47) and I placed second (21:53) in our respective age groups, in the US Vets 5K, which was run under warm and muggy conditions, with about 300 people vying for position along the trails of Terry Hershey Park. We caught a break, with many of the faster local runners being in Corpus Christi, TX for the popular Beach to Bay Relay marathon. Even so, Kathleen and I had to hold off some stiff competition, with twice as many runners as last year participating.

Earlier last week, the race was re-located from Bear Creek Park, which is still flooded, to Terry Hershey Park. The United States Veterans Initiative-Houston (U.S. VETS – Houston) celebrated Armed Forces Day by putting on this 5K Fun Run. Proceeds from the race will be used to provide safe, sober, clinically supported housing and employment assistance for homeless veterans. Race Director Omar Sesay and his crew including Mark Coleman did a fine job: good organization despite the last minute change of venue, lots of prizes and trophies, and excellent refreshments. We'll be back next year!

My time was still well off my April 2009 PR, but a big improvement on last week. Incidentally, I am testing new highs on my maximum heart rate; during today's run it reached 177. I may have to tweak my target heart rates to fine-tune the effort-based training plan.