This weekend I completed my 5th half marathon, the
Jail Break Half Marathon Run in Baytown, TX.
While I didn’t get a new PR, I still had a blast running this
weekend! The Jail Break Half Marathon
and 5K proceeds go towards police officers that are sick or injured. As some of you know, my stepdad Keith is a
police officer, so I like to support causes that help police officers.
In Jail Break Run has three events, a half marathon, a 5K,
and handcuff 5K. I of course did the half,
but maybe next year I will do the Handcuff 5K because how fun would it be to be
handcuffed to someone during a 5K? Super
fun! I told my mom about it, and she was
interested in doing the 5K, but I forgot to remind her so she didn’t end up
signing up. Maybe next year! My friend Aly wanted to run the half marathon
also so we rode together.
The race started at 7am so Aly and I had to leave my house
at 5 am for us to have time to park, pick up our packets, and stretch. It was so cold that morning and luckily they
had a few space heaters that we could all hover by until the race started. Walkers were able to start 30 minute earlier
than the rest of us, and promptly at 7 am we started the race. While we were waiting we took pictures of the
starting line that looked like a jail!
Super fun.
(This is Aly wanting OUT of jail) :)
Not even a mile into the race my friend and former co-worker
Kevin caught up to me and we said hello.
I knew he was running the race (per FB), but I didn’t see him at the
start line. By mile 3 of the race I knew
that this was going to be a tough race for me. A muscle in my inner thigh was hurting
pretty bad, and my feet were going numb.
I had the strength to run endurance wise, but injury wise I wasn’t doing
too hot. I stopped at mile 4.5 to
readjust my shoe laces that felt too tight and Aly went on without me, I had
told her I would catch back up with her on the bridge. Right before the bridge there was a random
dog on the course by someone’s house that was loose and barking at the
runners. I am terrified of scary dogs so
I stayed on the far side of the street, but the guy in front of me almost got
bit! The course went to the top of the Fred
Hartman Bridge and back down instead of over completely and back down in the LaPorte by the Bay Half Marathon. I did a
walk/run combo up the bridge and flew down it signing R. Kelly’s “I Believe I Can Fly” in my head.
My feet were still hurting and so was my inner thigh, so I stopped
around mile 9 to do some down ward dogs (super helpful for tight legs), then
kept going. At around mile 10 I noticed
Aly wasn’t too far behind me so I stopped to wait for her and then we ran the
rest of the way together. We were both
hurting at this point; her leg was hurting too so we did a walk/run combo for the
last three miles. We finished at
2:40.35, way off my PR of 2:25, but honestly with my injuries and also the bridge I am
not disappointed. I worked for that
medal. BTW, I LOVE the handcuff
medals!!! Nice job Jail Break.
The food at the finish line was awesome! They had Chick-fil-A there (with their
dancing cow), Buffalo Wild Wings, What-a-burger, 5 Hour Energy (not a fan of
that sort of stuff), plus other snacks and fruit/veggies. After the race we went to Waffle House for
breakfast (I saved all my food for later) and I got to eat grits and chocolate
chip waffles! Whoo hoo!
I would highly recommend the Jail Break Half Marathon to
anyone who is looking for a half marathon to run in the Houston area. The race was very well organized, the course
took you all over the place (including a awesome view at the top of the bridge),
had tons of water stops, tons of finish line food, and the medals were
awesome!!!
Thank you for the blog about Jail Break Run! I just posted a link to it on the Jail Break Run facebook page. :)
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