Awards Galore to Close February 2024

The end of February is the sweet spot in the racing calendar, locally and statewide, where there are a lot of quality races to choose from.

Two races in our own backyard on Saturday, February 24 included the JohnEagleHonda.com 5K as part of the Legacy Capital The Woodlands Marathon and Spindle Tree parkrun 5K #111.

The Park family was in full force for the JohnEagleHonda.com 5K.

Mom Kristi was cheering, but the rest of the crew was running.

Brayden, a sophomore at The Woodlands High School, was second overall in 17:29.

Brayden Park on his way to a second place finish in the JohnEagleHonda.com 5K.
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

Jerritt finished his 15th race of the year in a time of 20:15, good for first in his age group.

And Riley ran a personal-best time of 23:47, breaking her pre-race goal of 24 minutes.

Not sure if Paolo Biagi heard her footsteps or not, but he made it to the finish line in 23:28, winning first in his division.

Volte friend Dawn Spoljaric claimed first in her age group in 21:25, while all four Spoljaric children competed in the 2K.

Santino, 5, was first in his division in 9:50.  

Lucianella, 9, took the family honors in 8:22 to be the second fastest female.  

Vincenzo, 12, was three seconds behind in 8:25, and grabbed third place in his age group, while Serafina, 7, finished in 11:47.

Volte friend Ken Johnson was second in his age group in 50:40.

Legacy Capital The Woodlands Marathon race director Willie Fowlkes
flashing ... the peace sign as he leads JohnEagleHonda.com 5K racers!
(Photo courtesy of Bill Dwyer)

Out at Spindle Tree, Volte friends Randall Ivins and Vincent Attanucci ran the three-loop (mostly) oval course in 26:51 and 37:59, respectively.

Just off of downtown Houston, a good group of five took part in the Rodeo Run 5K and 10K.

Christopher Branch was the only one in the 5K, finishing second in his division in 21:10.  

Volte friend Josh Rivas was first in his in 20:17.

Jason Bodie led the way in the 10K in 48:03.  Judith Albarran finished in 49:11.  Jennifer Vieira and Mike Kuykendall posted efforts of 1:18:02 and 1:29:17, respectively.

Volte friends John Nguyen and Sabina Lorca were timed in 45:03 and 48:16, respectively.  Sabina was second in her division.

The next day, another quintet ran the Cowtown Half Marathon in Fort Worth.

Running as part of an ExxonMobil team, Jeffery Howard and Darren Hadden nailed down respective times of 1:25:22 and 1:41:12.

"Sunshine" Mike Csikos finished in 1:51:17, while Bill Crews ran with his daughter, Morgan.  They finished in 2:01:33.  (Well, Morgan nipped Dad by two seconds!)

In Pearland, Jerritt Park and Erika Sampson invaded the double loop course that was the Pearland Half Marathon.

Park, in race no. 16 and his third half marathon, grabbed the age group win with a new personal best of 1:36:14.

He said that he stayed ahead of the 1:35 pacers until about mile 10 and then kept them in sight to guide him to a new best mark.

Erika was the second overall women's master finisher in 1:48:52.

Volte friend Josh Rivas doubled his weekend hardware pleasure with a Sunday age group win of 1:34:24.  

Jetola Anderson-Blair won hers in 1:56:47 while C. Stephenson-Lake was second in hers in 1:45:01.