Volte Off and Running in May

When you get crazy goals, you do crazy things!

Alright, not really crazy, just committed - to drive three hours for a race on a weekday evening!

Race #32 for Jerritt Park was the May The Fourth Be With You 4-Miler hosted by the San Antonio Road Runners on Thursday, May 4, of course.

Thing is, it was something other than four miles.

We'll let Jerritt take over the storytelling:

"Runners go out about .35 mile and can choose which way to run the loop (one is the dark side and the other the light side)," he explained.  "Four of us go out and I’m the only one to take the dark side.

"Me and the leader cross at 1.5? and we both meet up again at 2.65 with .35 left?"

Jerritt said that it appeared that they forgot to mark some loop. 

"I turn around and got four in the 2nd and fourth guy stopped at 3.  I’ll take unofficially 2nd overall in 28.10."

Always better executed is the annual Woodforest Sprint Triathlon produced by The Woodlands Township Parks and Recreation department and run out of North Shore Park.

Mike Kuykendahl led Team Tri Volte with a 1:38:49 finish over the 500-meter swim, 12.8-mile bike and 5K run courses.

Former Team Strive and Strike Force Racing athlete - and Volte friend - Scott Mayer posted a 1:12:11 finish while Nicholle Winger was second in her age group in 1:15:27.

Jerritt finished race #33 the same Saturday morning, May 6, in the 68th running of the Spindle Tree parkrun 5K.

He was second overall in 20:50, while Volte friends - and community legends - Vincent Attanucci and Ken Johnson ran the course in 30:52 and 47:03, respectively.

Then we had long, and comparatively short, the rest of the day.

Mark Embry ran the Wildflower 50K in Bastrop in 8:33:34.

Darren Hadden was called in to duty by his employer, ExxonMobil, to compete in the annual Corporate Track & Field Meet, this year hosted at Barnett Stadium in Houston.

Darren Hadden handing off to an ExxonMobil teammate, much like the way he works in tandem with many of the runners in our Volte group.
(Photo courtesy of Darren Hadden)

While his overall ExxonMobil team took first, Darren was on two separate second place relay teams.  He posted a 2:30 800 meters in the Masters Relay and then followed with a 5:30 in the 1600 meters Executive Relay.

Tabbed for one more event, he covered the 3,200 meters in 11:30.

Big group at The Woodlands Running Club Sunday Night 5K on Sunday, May 7 at Barbara Bush Elementary in The Woodlands.

Voltes 9, Friends 4 was the final score!

Jerritt Park was first overall - in his race #34 - in 20:39.  

Christopher Branch was second in 23:55, followed by Volte friends Edson Jones in 24:58 and James Spencer in 25:37.

Judith Albarran was the first female finisher in 26:53 and Paolo Biagi in his first race post-procedure was not too far behind in 27:39.

Volte friend Randall Ivins was next in 30:56.

Our Geri Henry led a small group in 45 minutes even as Volte friend Ken Johnson followed in 48:13.

Mona Draper, Kimberly Roth and Julia Di Paolo all finished together in 48:32 and Julie Purcell was close behind in 50:43.

A little bit lighter fare on Mother's Day weekend.

Volte friend Ken Johnson finished his 16th career parkrun in 50:10 at Spindle Tree parkrun #69 on Saturday, May 13.

Jerritt?  Well, that same morning, he travelled south to Houston's Rice University to take place in one of Texas' oldest races - the 54th annual LP Run, where you run as many laps as possible in 33 and a third minutes (33:20).

He covered a little of 19 laps for an official distance of 4.83 miles, which equated to a 6:54 pace.

Eunice Allen ran the Shoots & Ladders 5K produced by AMPT Running in Plano finishing in 29:32 - good for 108th out of 481 finishers.

And finally, who knew that the Kings were cookers?!

First place brisket in the Willis VFW BBQ Cook Off went to Roger and Robert King.

Probably not a long list of guys that can win a BBQ cook off and drop sub-3 hour marathons.
(Photo courtesy of We Two Kings)

Holy smokes!

Maybe we'll enlist them for a Volte Sausage Eating Contest or something like at the Bud Heat Wave on the Fourth of July!