To some, that would sound like a bad dream.
For my long-time friend, Edwin Quarles, that’s his everyday world as the Athletic Director of Pineywoods Community Academy and former sportswriter for the Lufkin Daily News.
Anyway, as I drove home from Queen City last evening, the body rebelled and said, “Pull over and get a room.”
I like to tell people, especially when I go race in a new city or town and meet new people, “I don’t hunt. I don’t fish. I don’t golf. This is just what I do.”
Some people don’t get it – and I politely don’t care.
Heck, many times, I don’t "get it".
It is what life handed me and I make the best of it.
I don’t sit still well, I guess, and it's the second-best answer I can give.
After the third annual Run Thru The Village 5K – located a mile from my house - was cancelled mid-afternoon on Friday by the race organizer (not the producer) for Saturday morning, I was already off and looking at where I could go and race new.
There were many options, but some were drives of four hours and more – and I already had one of those in mind for the evening.
As many people know, I’ve been involved in the promotion of private and parochial high school athletics in Texas.
This past school year, I kind of came back with a little bit of a vengeance, but work sidelined a lot of that in January when I was assigned to a project that required me to travel for 16 weeks.
However, the Knights Run 5K in Bellville caught my eye.
It was put on by Faith Academy of Bellville, which was a member of the Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools (TAPPS).
The school plays six-man football and have a talented runner in Brianna Gallaher, who was competing in the state track meet this weekend.
As I got up at six a.m. and out of the door a half-hour later, aiming for the first pit stop at the Buc-ee’s in Waller, I arrived in Bellville concerned that maybe they had cancelled the race.
Finally, what later proved to be a participant, a man came from the back of the school’s gymnasium and said that the race was still on, but just a victim of low turnout.
I made my way around to the back and confirmed my suspicions from reading the race description: this was going to be a cross country race.
Given the rains that had moved through the area in the evening – and earlier in the week, I was glad that I brought my “B” and “C” shoes – because they were going to end up being wet.
We started at the goal line of the football field. All seven of us. Six men and one high school aged girl.
The school took complete advantage of its property, including some switchback swath cuts of grass that made up a good bit of the third mile.
One gentleman had 3.17 miles on his watch and I ran 29:40 for that. I was happy.
It actually turned out to be a lot of fun and a different challenge.
Most people won’t get out and try something new.
Got to have the medal. Got to be a flat course. On the roads. Water handed to them. All the swag and so on.
Heck, this was a $25 entry fee and I enjoyed myself as much – or more – than I do at a lot of races where I know tons of people.
The school wants to host a cross country meet and have an open race at the end of it in the fall.
And then I met a gentleman with the Bellville Police Department that puts on a race – there in Bellville in April – a 5K/10K called Back the Blue - that supports the PD and their CASA organization in the area.
Great conversation and share of ideas of how to grow their event. (I suggested a separate division for uniformed officers, perhaps.)
I made my way back to the house in Spring – and I didn’t want to spend the day being lazy.
I have a ton of books to work through, but a race in Texas county #84 was calling me ever since I found it in the last week or so in Queen City.
Cass County. Almost all the way to Texarkana.
It was an 8 p.m. 5K that benefitted Queen City High School’s Project Graduation efforts that supported a safe post-Prom experience for all of the school’s participants.
I left Spring at about 2:30 p.m. – armed with a number of different plans in mind.
I saw the Murphy Half Marathon, 10K and 5K in Murphy – another city or town that I hadn’t run a race in – for Sunday.
I also knew that the Run For Wellness – Heights 5K race was going on this morning back in Houston.
It was just a matter of how much I wanted to drive – and push my body.
I basically made it to Queen City -- after a gas fill-up here in Lufkin and two other pit stops on the way – at about 7:15 p.m.
The high school sits to the east of Highway 59 and after a short while – after registering, I learned that the course was going to be completely on the roads and grounds of the school.
I’m guessing that there might have been 30 or so folks registered.
We got started on the track just before 8:10 p.m.
It was a good little challenge. The course ended up to be short.
One woman had the distance at 2.2 miles. I’ll probably remeasure it on MapMyRun.com later.
If so, I ran 20:47. 9:27 per mile on a course that had a few slight inclines that tested the legs a little.
I had a pleasant conversation with the race organizer before I left.
Other than the course being short (of which they could have added another loop of something that we had run earlier), they really did a nice job.
I like off-time and off-day races. It means that I can race more.
I’m thankful that I have the time, the funds and the means to be able to do so.
The Queen City race was one in my 84th county and the two races together put me at 159 Texas cities, towns or census-designated places (think Spring or New Caney) to run a race in.
I’ve actually added four in the last eight days as Katy was a surprise new city to run a race in, even though I’ve helped produce one there.
I was making good progress on the way back without stopping to get a bite to eat, grabbing a Mountain Dew and something to snack on a little after making the turn south in Carthage.
However, by the time I got to Nacogdoches, my body said that it needed sleep and rest.
Wisely, once I got to Lufkin, the Hampton Inn here had a price that I was good with – aided by using some of the vast total of points from my business travel – and I called it a night.
Looking forward this evening to taking part of The Woodlands Running Club Sunday Night 5K at Barbara Bush Elementary and seeing a completely different, yet familiar running family there.
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