Recent Race Results

Not even considering anyone's training mileage, members of the Mid-Texas Symphony running team logged some pretty good race mileage over the past couple of weekends, totalling 78.6 miles. Dorian and Fred Ramirez both ran the Chevron Houston Marathon on January 17th, while Liz Pittel and James Baker ran the 3M Half Marathon in Austin on January 24th. Fred ran a 4:32:17 in Houston, while Dorian turned in 4:53:36. In Austin, on a rather windy early morning, Liz ran 2:06:18 and I ran a PR of 2:08:51. I'm letting my sneakers cool off for a day or two before getting after it again with the TIR now less than 6 weeks away. I hope everyone's training is going well and I look forward as always to our team experience on the roads of Texas.

We are still short one runner, preferably a female to maintain our 50/50 balance. Any leads would be much appreciated. I am also giving consideration to this year's team shirt. Anyone want to nominate a favorite color? My plan for a 2010 slogan is based on that spectacular sprint finish which Alan turned in on his final leg of last year's race. "What'cha got left?"

The topic of training for the TIR has been discussed previously and I believe we could conclude a consensus that integrating multiple daily runs into our overall regimen is invaluable. I never get around to doing this as much as I intend, but with still a pretty good lead time we all might consider setting aside a day or so each week for two 4 or 5 mile runs. This, of course, will give you a feel for the race weekend experience of running 3 or 4 legs within a (less than) 30 hour span. Hmm....maybe we should also carry our smelly running clothes around in the car as preparation for the 6 sweaty runners in a car experience of race weekend.

Brenda the Wrunner Wrangler has mapped out preliminary leg assignments which I will publish here in a few days. We are also still looking at reserving a few motel rooms along the route which the team can use for mid-race showers and a short napping period. Brenda predicts there would be a potential 6 hours down time per van, focusing the rest area in Sealy. I think this is probably a very good solution which will allow us to avoid the congestion of the gymnasium experience, but I would love to get some feedback. Thanks.

All for now.