God Save the Queen Half Marathon, Houston, Texas, October 22, 2022

 Race Number 87

After a six-month hiatus from running, I started training again, in September, and culminated that training today by completing 13.1 miles in the “God Save the Queen” Virtual Half Marathon. A pretty cool medal and some nice juicy blisters were my reward! Frankly, it was pure grit that got me to the finish line today, as a few weeks of training really does not prepare you well for even a slow race.

I did my slow 13.1 miles at Memorial Park, in Houston, in honor of an extraordinary lady whom I admired. The proceeds from the race go to the HALO Trust, a favorite charity of the royal family. The Trust helps countries recover after conflict. Clearing landmines, to save lives, is at the heart of what they do. They work with communities that are too often forgotten once the fighting has ended.

Now, reason number 11 of “13.1 Reasons Why I Run Half Marathons”

The Streets are OURS! Getting to run in the middle of the street is contrary to what my mom taught me when I was growing up. She never liked us playing baseball or skate boarding in the street. Cul-de-sacs did not exist in my childhood days or at least in my neighborhood. Yet, think about it: I don’t have to look both ways and don’t have to obey traffic lights. And ..... I get to thank the cop for keeping me safe from the Little Old Lady From Pasadena (or people like Robin Korac, one of my parents at Jefferson Academy that use to AIM her big SUV at me as I tried to direct cars during drop-off and pickup from school).

Have you ever tried to get around a city when there is a race going on? It is worse than trying to get home at rush hour in LA or Houston. You might as well park the car and take a nap or read a book. The road blocks, at a race, are set up to protect the runners, and our friends in blue make it very difficult for you when you are trying to make your quick visit it Dunkin Donuts. I suspect your pleading and crying with the police officer, will get you nowhere. Your lust for that 12-grams of saturated fat (and that is the average), will not get in the way of the kind officer risking the chance you will run over Mikie the Half Marathoner. After all, Mikie needs to make it to 100 half marathons by his 75th birthday in September of 2024.

Post script: It just dawned on me, that if you tell the cop that you are heading to the donut shop, he may have empathy for you and let you through..... hmmmmm. There may be a flaw in my logic. Aristotle would have been disappointed in me.