Volte Runners Dodge December Rains

Rain made its presence known throughout the greater Houston area -- as well as a good bit of Texas -- on the weekend of Saturday-Sunday, December 3-4.

A number of races cancelled for Saturday morning and less than three hours before its anticipated start time, the Texas 10 Series endured its first cancellation ever - since its inception in November 2012 - as a line of strong thunderstorms bore done on the Katy area Sunday morning.

Yet Volte and friends still managed to get a little racing in.

There was rain in the area of Constellation Field in Sugar Land on Saturday morning, but the H2O of choice were tears of joy from Penny Garza.

She belted out a 28:05 personal best at Run Houston Sugar Land 5K, which put her, as she noted on her Facebook page, “6th – SIXTH – in my age group” and added, “Normally I’m at the bottom.”

Nobody had a bigger smile in Sugar Land on Saturday than Penny!
(Photo courtesy of Penny Garza)

The 9:02/mile pace was her fastest ever, eclipsing the 10:48/mile pace at an Austin Thanksgiving Day race and more than nine minutes better than her previous best 5K time of 37:48 (which came on a hot, hilly course in Conroe at the Southern Star Brewing Company 5K).

The real tears came the following day, but racing always supersedes.

Braving windy, cold and wet conditions, Ruth Perez journeyed to northeast Houston’s Duessen Park for the 7th annual Run Girl 13.1 Half Marathon – and slashed times like … Penny Garza!

It is a race that Ruth hasn’t missed.  And here are her previous times:  2:15:51 (2010), 2:14:51 (2011), 2:25:28 (2012), 2:11:44 (2013), 2:15:48 (2014) and 2:21:03 (2015).

Ruth's smile is about as wide as Penny's!
When it is cold, rainy and windy, you'd run faster than you ever have in the same location too!
(Photo courtesy of Ruth Perez)

Put the number seven (7) on a roulette wheel somewhere because Ruth stole second in her age group with a 1:58:37 masterpiece.

They got a little wet in San Antonio too, but that didn’t get in the way of Brian Schultz posting a 4:15:39 time in the Rock ‘N’ Roll San Antonio Marathon.

John Trocko and Becca Holt recorded half marathon finishes of 1:40:11 and 1:40:06, respectively.

John Trocko and Becca Holt staying warm together in the Rock 'N Roll San Antonio Half Marathon corral on Sunday.
(Photo courtesy of Becca Holt)

Volte friend Sabina Lorca, who runs with the Pasadena Running Club, won her age group in the marathon with a Boston qualifying time of 3:30:12.

Finally on Sunday, Jerritt Park led a field of four at the final The Woodlands Running Club Sunday Night 5K for 2016 with a winning time of 21:12.  He was followed by Curtis Barton, Ken Johnson and Jon Walk.

A wire-to-wire TWRC Sunday Night 5K win for Jerritt Park.
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

Not that a Texas 10 Series race that morning would have stopped Jerritt from running the TWRC Sunday Night 5K, but he ran on fresh legs because of Texas 10 Katy’s cancellation.

Some of the most popular comments seen posted after severe weather made its way through the Katy area was as follows:

Derek Bailey: “Like I said the other day, running is becoming soft and weak”

George Rux: “Time to run my best 10-mile ever in my dreams!”

George Rux: (then later) “New PR! Slept until 9:05!”

Jerritt Park: “Hope...It’s a good thing this was cancelled so you wouldn’t have to beat me”

Hope Jimenez:   “Jerritt is one lucky guy. Next time Cheetah!”

Layton Gill:  “Glad I ran 20 yesterday”

After this weekend, Voltes, it will be five (5) weekends to Houston, 12 weeks to The Woodlands, 18 weeks to Boston and 20 weeks to Revel Mt. Charleston.