Laporte by the Bay Half Marathon Race Report (and videos)

Laporte by the Bay Half Marathon - December 5, 2010

Yesterday Annie and I along with our friends Ruth Ann and Patrick ran in the inaugural Laporte Half Marathon.   Now the draw to this race is that it runs over and back on the Fred Hartman Bridge (pictured).

I had never driven over this bridge (Houston is a big place, leave me alone) but was told that it was pretty steep.  This was not false bravado as this bridge was indeed, steep.

My plan for the race was to take it easy and just enjoy the run since Ironman training begins this week.  Annie wanted me to run with her as she was using this race as her weekend long run in her training for the upcoming Houston Marathon.  This sounded like a fun idea so I was game and spent the entire race running next to my wife. Since this was just a fun run and I was supposed to not care about time I left the Garmin 310 at home and the only piece of technology geek boy had on him was our point and shoot digital camera.

Annie and I in the car keeping warm

So since I was carrying the digital camera I thought it would be cool to video some of the run as we were running.  I was wrong because it is not very cool.  But since it is a slow news day here at the Carrot I will post up the videos anyway.  Be warned:  If you suffer from motion sickness or get nauseous easily these will probably make you puke (I am running afterall!).  Also, I realized after watching these that running, is indeed, boring to watch.  

Video #1:  Race Start

Video #2:  Annie Demonstrates Proper Jacket Removal While Running

Video #3:  Pee Break

Video #4:  Starting up the Fred Hartman Bridge (Listen to the wind 25-30mph)

Video #5:  Getting to Top of Bridge

 

Unfortunately (or maybe fortunately) the camera ran out of juice and I could not carry on with the video documentary of the Laporte Half.  I really need to get one of those Flips for future video endeavors.

We had a really good time and the race was extremely well run and supported.  The post race spread included pizza and SAUSAGE ON A STICK.  This was freaking awesome.  I had two sausages on a stick and should of had like three more.  They were glorious.  This was a unique race with the bridge and the cool ramp leading up to the bridge and we will do this one again.  And if you are the RD and read this report please include SAUSAGE ON A STICK at every race you direct and you will have a groupie/stalker from this point on!

Annie and I finished the race with identical times of  2:04:35,  which was a pace of 9:30/mi.  This was a little slow for Annie as she did San Antonio about 10 minutes faster but the bridge added quite the degree of difficulty and she was using this as a training run.  

Some of you may wonder how a couple could run together for 2 hours without an argument ensuing and the answer is simple:  Annie used an iPod!  I tend to be quite chatty when running and even more so when running at an easy pace like this - I actually toned it down for the video!  At about Mile 12 I was rambling on aimlessly and Annie looked at me with a stern look and said, "Could you please just be quite for the last mile?"  So I shut up and we ran it in - Good times!

Ruth Ann and Patrick both finished under there goal times and a special congrats goes out to Patrick for finishing his first half marathon!

Post Race with our cool Finisher Medals:  The bottoms are bottle openers!!!

Thanks for Reading,

Jeff