7/16/2005, My birthday AND the Lunar Rendezvous 5K!

Today, more on impulse and wanting to do something ‘note-worthy’ for my 25th birthday (an age-group changing year!) I ran the Lunar 5K in Clear Lake. After getting little more than 4 hours of sleep, I managed to get in my car and make the 1 hour trek to NASA. I had never actually been there so I got a little lost and there was also some dumb construction, so I was, needless to say, a little panicked about making it to the race in time. I hurridly paid my $19 registration fee (not bad for race day!) and ran to my car to throw my packet in there. I did a little stretching (literally about 2-3 minutes because I got there sooo late!) and I was off! I don’t even know that I had caught my breath when the gun went off. Eager to get going though, I passed up the infamous Jon Walk as he hollered “Hey, slow down there Jessica” or something like that. I was like “Are you talking to me?! Hey Jon!” We chatted for a little while before we settled into our paces. I think he saw the “It’s my B-day!” that I had wrote on my shirt in red tape (that later started to fall off around mile 3! Annoying!). I knew we ran pretty close in pace though so I kept him in my view as he passed me up again. I knew I could keep up with him though, so I kept pushing myself for negative splits. Finally at mile 2 as he stopped for water, I caught up with him and started to attempt to pass 25 people (well 26, one to grow on!) as a little birthday tribute for me. It worked! Jon ran with me about half a mile before I left him and made a very noble and steady push to the end. In fact, I sprinted the last .2 mile! Although not a PR for me (acording to my watch-I only missed it by 6 seconds!) I felt I ran really great and strong and the crowd and my fellow runners cheered me on as the birthday girl so it was tons of fun to ‘fly across’ the finish line to a great crowd. (Pics here to prove it! :)

Afterwards, Jon and I chatted some more (along with his daughter Waverly who got a good picture of us!) and caught up on some local running news. It’s really nice to meet someone with so much knowledge of a sport we both truly love and it’s nice to have someone do such a great service for the Houston-area! And I believe I also told him I couldn’t wait til the next race so he can pass me up again and then I could get him in the end! :)

The Stats:
Mile1: 9:52
Mile2: 9:49
Mile3: 9:17
Mile3.1:0.38

OFFICIAL TIME: 29:37
AVERAGE PACE: 9:32
HEART RATE: 183 Ave 200 Max
WEATHER: 85 degrees, 80 % humidity(not really sure about this)