Unknown to me living way out here in the ‘burbs, the HARRA (Houston Area Road Runners Association) has been holding a Tour de Bayou for several years. The Tour de Bayou is a series of runs in the parks and bayous of Houston, with the tracks laid out to create hills (which, if you’ve been to Houston, is a neat trick). The runs are free, and my hat is off to HARRA and the volunteers who set these up.
I’d taken a break from running in February and the first half of March to let my knees and my IT Band un-swell, and this seemed like excellent punishment to get myself back into it.
For those of you that don’t run in Houston, it is one of the flattest places to run (which I imagine is one reason why the US Olympic Marathon trials will be held here) and in April it starts to warm up. At the 6pm start time for these races it was upper 70s or lower 80s.
My notes on each of the legs are below. Bottom line: it was a lot of fun, a great way to visit some of the parks around town and I will certainly do it next year, hopefully in good health.
Stage 1: Spots Park; 3.1 miles; 28:40; 9:15 pace
79 OverAll; 42 Masters Men Theme: Show up, sign up, run up and throw up (more…)
Though lighter on the Rugby (disappointing for this former and now occasional rugby player) than on the subject of Mandela, Invictus is an entertaining movie covering Nelson Mandela’s backing and support of the 1995 South Africa Springboks rugby team, and their efforts in that years Rugby World Cup (the third most watched event in world sports, for my uneducated American friends). Up to that point, the blacks hated the Springboks as a symbol of white supremacy, and Mandela threw his weight behind the team as a symbol of unification.
Invictus (see the poem at the end of this post) is directed by Clint Eastwood (which is reason enough to go see it), and stars Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon. Morgan Freeman plays Mandela, and his performance ranks right behind The Shawshank Redemption (IMHO) in a long line of excellent work. Damon plays Francois Pineaar, captain of the South African Rugby team. (more…)
admin | Sports, Travel | Monday, November 16th, 2009
The race is over, the soreness is gone (well, almost), and my first ever half-marathon (at the San Antonio Rock and Roll Marathon) is in the past. Bert and I crossed the finish line at 1:56:57, an 8:56 per mile pace, beating our 2 hour goal and finishing about 2,000 out of 20,000 half-marathon runners. Congrats to my friends Everett and Michael who also completed the run, and all of the other participants. As someone who has in the past played sports like basketball and rugby (i.e., sprint, stop, sprint, stop…or, as one of my so-called friends called it, sprint, stop and watch others, sprint, stop and watch others) running 13 miles was a daunting event.
So what did we learn from this latest undertaking, this latest accomplishment struck so resoundingly from the bucket list:
- San Antonio cops never change; the starting line was in Breckinridge park and the exit at Hildebrand was backed up two miles. I suggested to John, who was dropping Bert and I off, to pass the line and pull over on the freeway, and we would walk down Hildebrand. But one of SA’s finest motorcycle cops pulled John over, telling him he was going to write him a “big ole ticket”. He motioned Bert and I back, telling us to get in the car or we would all get tickets. “Go down to St. Mary’s exit, there’s no one there, you’ve done this before.” We hadn’t done this before, but he was right…there was no one at that exit, and we two plus several hundred others walked part the ever-tempting Bombay Bicycle Club bar to the 40 some odd starting corrals on Broadway. (more…)
admin | Sports, Travel | Wednesday, September 30th, 2009
There are so many double entendres I could use, but I leave that for the comments.
We’ve had a team (Komen Get It) for four years in the Houston Komen run. My wife started it with Sue whose lost her mother and a cousin to breast cancer, and my son has run it with me for the last three.
Times change. Sue moved to Denver, my son is off to college (but still doing work for two charities at UTA), and Audrey is out of town.
Solution: my wife says it is simple:
- Larry runs 5K Houston Komen run with running buddy Bert (should be dog slow since we’ve been training for the SA half marathon);
- Larry flies to Denver, meets beautiful wife;
- Larry and Lee do 5K Denver Komen run (should be dog slow since they have like mountains and stuff up there), Audrey, Sue and a cast of others do 5K Denver walk and gab;
- Larry et al celebrate with many adult bevvies.
I signed up too late to have an online Houston Komen page (perhaps it wasn’t as simple as originally planned, but if you would like to donate, Click here to visit my Denver Komen page or you can donate to the Houston Komen at running buddy Bert’s page.
“Grammy says you are too old to play Rugby,” my nephew, who had a short college Rugby career of his own, tells me.
“She’s probably right,” I reply, “but I’m still playing.”
Master’s Rugby players get a lot of grief from friends and family, about why they are still playing (note the timely Sunday Mother Goose and Grimm (4/10/09) comic my wife found for me right before the tourney).
Last weekend, New Orleans played host to the 2nd Annual French Quarter Masters Rugby Tournament. The Texas XXX’s showed in force, along with teams from Memphis, New Orleans and part of a Birmingham team. Undoubtedly, the economy kept this year’s tourney from being as successful as the first one, but we got in two good matches and lots of bourbon street.
Master’s Rugby is for players over 35 years old. The rules are modified to protect older players, but what happens in reality is that the team captains meet before the match and decide on the restrictions. (more…)
With the Rockets win over Portland combined with the Spurs loss (stomping) at Cleveland, the Rox are now 1/2 game out of the Southwest Division lead. The New Orleans Hornets loss at home to Utah gives the Rockets a 1.5 game cushion over the 3rd place Hornets, with Dallas three games behind the Rockets.
A quick look at the remaining games in the schedule shows the Rockets with an excellent chance to win the division: (more…)
Like most Rocket’s fans, I’ve spent the majority of this first half of the season waiting for the “real” Rockets team to show up. With injuries to T-Mac, Artest, Battier, Rafer, Yao and Luther Head, the Rockets have employed 15 different starting lineups.
But with my first Rockets post of the 08-09 season, I’m predicting that the Rockets are going to rattle off ten wins in a row…at least.
Even though they will have to start the streak anew, after giving the 2nd game of a back to back without Yao to the Knicks (after being up by nine, T-Mac (2o pts) and Artest (11 pts) ran out of gas their 2nd game back in the lineup), it looks like everything is lining up in their favor. (more…)
In Grisham’s excellent book Playing for Pizza, Rick Dockery is a 3rd string quarterback for the Cleveland Browns who comes into the game with a 17 point lead and only a few minutes remaining.
In the Houston Texans not-so-excellent game yesterday against the Indianapolis Colts, Sage Rosenfels, the 2nd string quarterback for the Texans, played a terrific game through three-and-a-half quarters, posting the Texans to a 17 point lead.
In Playing for Pizza, Dockery throws three intereptions in eleven minutes and the Browns lose the game.
In Houston, Rosenfels fumbles twice and throws an interception in the last 3:54, and the Texans remain winless losing 31-27.
In Playing for Pizza, Dockery ends up in the Italian Football League, “playing for pizza” with the Parma Panthers.
In Houston, we’ll just have to wait and see where Sage ends up. A great game up until the last 4 minutes. Maybe he can play Dockery in the movie version…
The Talking Head’s live album “Stop Making Sense” was the staple at our Rugby games, the tunes that got us jazzed up to play. The movie of “Stop Making Sense” (cue the visual of Byrne dancing in his over sized suit) really pounded that album into my brain.
Byrne has re-united with Brian Eno who produced several Talking Head’s albums for a new album called Everything that Happens will Happen Today. The streamer for it is embedded below. Good to hear you again, Mr. Byrne, and please bring back the suit.
Hakeem Olajuwon played 17 seasons for the Houston Rockets, and one season at the end of his career for the Toronto Raptors. After averaging over 21.5 points, 11 rebounds and 3 blocked shots per game and winning two NBA championships with the Rockets, Hakeem’s final season with the Raptors was forgetable, averaging just 7.1, 6 and 1.5 respectively.
Emmitt Smith played 13 seasons for the Dallas Cowboys, winning two Super Bowls and then played two forgetable seasons with the Arizona Cardinals…but he did win Dancing with the Stars.
Brett Favre, after one season with Atlanta, played 16 seasons with the Green Bay Packers, winning a Super Bowl and multiple MVPs… and is now headed for one season with the New York Jets.
Granted, Brett is coming off a near MVP and near Super Bowl season…but the parallels remain.
All three players should have stayed with and retired with their respective career teams. In each of these situations, fans can find fault with aging veterans who probably should have retired, or with management who viewed the situations with too much of a business lens instead of with an eye on history. Sadly, it’s becoming more and more rare for star players not to stay with the one team where they made their name (and while I’m thinking about it, kudos to Biggio and Bagwell of the Astros for spending their entire career in Houston).
