The Shamrock Strut 5k and 10k Houston has been a small charity fun run for the past 33 years hosted by the Houston Eye Association Foundation. The race raises money for adults and children on the verge of losing their eyesight. The money directly supports patient services to help cover: surgical facility fees, vision-saving medications, and other ancillary services necessary to preserve and restore sight.
The course is an out and back race. Once for the 5k and two times for the 10k. I ran the 5k only. For those runners who normally do not place, this is a good race to get on the podium and win an award. This year there were less than 200 runners and at least one award was a new pair of sunglasses! Unfortunately I don’t know what the other awards were, but I’m certain they were of equal or greater value.
The race seemed well organized. Packet pick-up was easy with plenty of parking and they also had packet pick-up the morning of the race. Coffee, water and muffins were available if you needed it along with plenty of CLEAN porta-potties (always a plus)! Since this was a family event, the morning started off with a 1k race for the children. They were so adorable!
The start of the race was a little strange. We didn’t start at the finish line and there wasn’t really even a line in the road marking the start position. I wasn’t near the front so I’m not how they decided exactly where the start line was. I was surprised that it wasn’t marked clearly on the road. The start was simply a horn and I noticed people in front of me moving. 
My goal for this 5k was to get an official PR which I knew was possible, given that the previous week I had run a 5k personal best as part of the Houston Rodeo Run 10k. My time to beat was 38:31 and I figured if I kept at or below a 12 minute pace, I could do it. The good news was that this time I remembered to wear my watch so that I could easily pace myself. While I didn’t manage negative splits, my split times were pretty good. 11:37 / 12:17 / 11:49 and 10:45 as I sprinted to the finish according to my watch. My official chip time was 37:14, Pace 11:59, 80/184 overall, 8/21 in age group 50-59, definitely a PR! (Yes, I know that my watch time and chip times are different, but fortunately not too much.)
It looks like my training with Houston Fit is paying off. My times are getting better as it wasn’t so long ago that I was a 13 to 13:30 minutes/mile runner and now I’m getting times at or below 12:00 minutes/mile. I am still struggling, however, with getting my brain to stop telling me to quit! My legs are doing fine but it is still difficult to keep running and not walk. Even during this short 5k race, I walked some of it when I should have kept running. I need to continue to work on that. But at least my official photo looked good!
And yes, I’m wearing my Gym Girl Ultra from Skirt Sports! Seems like all the races I’ve run lately have been PRs with my Skirt Sports!! #skirtsportsambassador
