A Flooded Firecracker Four

This race is always warm and humid and the past couple of years the awards ceremonies broke up in massive cloudbursts. This year it was a little cooler with steady rain throughout the morning. I ran a 6:12 first mile, a little surprised that it was that far slower than 6:00 pace. If I could hold to that pace, though, I could easily make my goal of sub-25. But the second mile was an even slower 6:20. There were some deep puddles near the end of the second mile, but I don't think they really slowed me down much. I spent much of the third mile concentrating on a High School aged kid in front of me, slipping the pace a little to a 6:22. I caught up to him just after the 3-mile mark and shortly after that was passed by another kid like I was standing still. He slowed down a little though, and I was able to catch him just before the 3.5-mile point. That didn't last long and he took off from me after just a few yards. I was content following him into the finish when all of a sudden the kid I passed at mile 3 came screaming past me at the finish line. I didn't even have time to react. Overall time was a 25:14. I really thought I was capable of running faster than that, but I did tie my second fastest time for this race. This is my first race in over a month and I think I've lost some of that "race drive". We'll see.

With the steady rain, the temperature was only 78.6 degrees at Clute and 76 with a 74 degree dewpoint farther inland at Angleton.

Here's a story from the local paper.
The same story in MSWord with a picture of my ugly mug.