Singapore, San Francisco, San Felipe and Spring Dot Volte's Map

It is always good to go out and kick the tires on our training.

Equally enjoyable is being able to get out and connect with others in our running community.

It is why we race and why week after week our list of Volte friends that we talk about in our weekly racing recaps seems to grow.

We first, though, to go Singapore this week where Rapha Machado on Saturday, March 25 ran in the OSIM Sundown Half Marathon.

"It is truly endurance training, especially when the race is not well organized," he said.  "It was so hard to run a half marathon at 1 a.m. at 81 degrees and 98% humidity."

Totally unlike his mid-January efforts, where conditions were optimal, as part of Walt Disney World Marathon's Dopey Challenge, Rapha finished in 2:00:59.

Back across the Pacific Ocean, Keith Wiley was finishing up an East Coast-West Coast Rock 'N' Roll Half Marathon double.

On Sunday, March 26, he celebrated the Rock 'N' Roll San Francisco Half Marathon with a finishing time of 2:14:28 despite "the hills (which) were tough in Golden Gate Park."

All of that was forgotten as Keith ran into an old classmate from elementary school.

"There is no better feeling," he said.  "Gotta love the power of Facebook."

We had two good crews out this past weekend.

One at Texas 10 College Station and another at the San Felipe Shootout.

Our Texas 10 College Station crew -- Brian Hanyzewski, Tiffany Hauerwas (kneeling), Laura Hanyzewski, Layton Gill, Jerritt Park (seated), Tammy Grado, Keri Amador, Bill Dywer, Desna McDonald, Letty Gonzalez and Alfredo Gonzales.
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dywer)

Ten of our athletes made the trip to Aggieland -- three left with age-group awards, four with new 10-mile personal bests and Desna McDonald grabbed a $100 in the cash drawings.

Second in his age group was Rip Reynolds with a 1:05:04 that was just 10 seconds behind Spring's Mark Fanelli.

The Park family ran well.  Father Jerritt was third in his division in 1:12:04 while his son Brayden was first in the kids 1-mile race in 6:43.

Then the personal bests started to roll in across the finish line.  In fact, three in a row.

Winning her age group by three minutes and 28 seconds was Keri Amador.

"(It) finally felt like all my training came together today," she said after notching a time of 1:17:44.  "(I) had a great race and an almost two and a half minute PR!"

Keri's previous best came at last year's Texas 10 Conroe in 1:20:10.

Tammy Grado's been waiting for a new 10-mile personal best since a former Texas 10 Conroe too.   Namely, a frigid morning in 2013.

Focused is Tammy Grado.
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer.)

"After nursing an injury for months, a four-minute PR brings (me) lots of happiness," Grado explained as her 1:20:41 performance shattered the 1:24:48 from three and a half years ago. "Tuesday night track and Thursday morning 5 a.m. tempo runs definitely contributes to that. As a result, I'm feeling stronger every day."

Then came Layton Gill, who finally had reason to own the PR Gong.

Just the fact that an LSU fan was putting fast feet down in the lands of fellow SEC foe Texas A&M should have been enough.

He sprinted to the finish with a time of 1:23:09 -- just more than ten minutes better than last year's Texas 10 Huntsville where he battled the hills in 1:33:19.

After the race, Gill, and don't dare call him "E. King", said he "would have had to be injured not to PR", explaining that his time was a minute better ... per mile than last year's effort at Texas 10 Huntsville.

Laura Hanyzewski told us after the half marathon at The Woodlands Marathon three weeks ago that her husband, Brian, was continuing to make progress in his running.

We agree.  And a one-minute, 48-second personal best of 1:29:41, lowered his previous best from Texas 10 Conroe in 2014 of 1:31:29.

However, Laura finished just a little ahead of him in 1:28:19.

McDonald and Alfredo Gonzalez rounded out our Voltes in the 10-miler in1:54:24 and 2:14:28, respectively.

Volte friends Tiffany Hauerwas and Ken Johnson were second overall and second in their age group, respectively, with times of 1:09:59 and 2:16:06.

A day earlier, Ken also took second in the American Legion 5K in Jersey Village in 36:53.

In the Texas 10 College Station five-miler, Ray Sarno and his wife, Dianna, ran together and finish in 1:04:48, which netted Ray a second place age group finish.

Running west to east of our crews on Saturday - and Sunday - was Tim Russell, who participated on the Conroe ISD "Apples" Texas Independence Relay team that covered 203 miles from Gonzales to the San Jacinto Monument in La Porte.

The "Apples" are one of many teams who have done TIR all ten years of its existence.

Four of our Voltes ran in the San Felipe Shootout as did four of our friends.

"I had a blast participating in the San Felipe Shootout ... running a 5K and a 10K followed by a half marathon," said Juan Flores.

He completed the Shootout by taking third in his age group in both the 5K and the 10K in 23:28 and 48:27, respectively, while running the half marathon in 2:06:06.

Having done a couple of loops at Seabrook the week before, Bonnie Scholz was ready.

First in her age group in the 5K and the 10K, with marks of 25:01 an 53:19, she produced a 2:10:46 half marathon that was third best in her division.

The ladies at the San Felipe Shootout:  Bonnie Scholz, Mary Carter and Marta Mixa.
(Photo courtesy of Mary Carter)

"I was the fifth female in the triple (in 3:29:07) and Rebecca Gartrell beat me by (only) 43 seconds!" she said excitedly.  "I looked her up and she's a beast.  I can't even believe I was that close to her.  She had about 66 races listed -- and many were 100 milers."

We think Bonnie has a little beast mode in her as well though.

Back in action was Mary Carter.  She covered the 5K in 45:46 and then needed to stop her Triple pursuit after the 10K that she did in 2:27:42.

Rounding out our Voltes was Marta Mixa in the half marathon.

"This has been one of my most difficult races I've ever done and the most beautiful ones too," she said after taking third in her age group in 2:40:50.  "I think I'm falling in love with trail running.
"It was great to have my Volte friends there with me."

Perfect segue, Marta.

And the men:  Juan Murillo, Juan Flores and Luis Murillo.
(Photo courtesy of Mary Carter)

Brothers Luis and Juan Murillo run at the Knox Junior High track with us nearly every Tuesday night.  As they come out with Juan Flores.

Luis was second overall in the 5K in 19:52, first in the 10K in 41:20 (third best ever behind Calum Neff and Jeff Ball) and third in his age group (and fourth overall) in the half marathon in 1:40:28.

However, Luis took the San Felipe Shootout overall title in 2:41:42.  Flores was the tenth male in 3:18:03.

Juan Murillo finished the Shootout in a cumulative time of 3:31:23 -- two spots behind Bonnie -- with times of 24:32 in the 5K, 55:42 in the 10K and 2:11:08 in the half marathon.

Also doing the Shootout was Bonnie's sister, Michele Fregia.

She ran the 5K in 38:37, the 10K in 1:20:33 and the half marathon in 3:58:49.

Former Volte coach Adrienne Langelier was second overall in the 10K in 46:41, which was part of the new Gulf Association USA Track and Field 10K Trail Championships.

Volte friend Jon Walk ran his 12th and 13th new races "to him" in 2017 on Saturday and Sunday as he finished the inaugural Run Thru The Village 5K in Spring in 30:07 and the 32nd annual Lookin' Good Shamrock Strut 10K in Houston in 1:04:53.

Run Thru The Village 5K was hosted by CHI St. Luke's Health and was the first race ever in the new Springwoods Village, where the world headquarters of ExxonMobil are located.