Jail Break Half Marathon Recap

This weekend I completed my 5^th 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!!!