Houston, TXJanuary 13, 2008
I just got back from Houston, TX. where I opened my 2008 racing season at the Armco Houston Half Marathon. Overall, I can say it was a good weekend. There is definitely room for improvement and areas I can work on while on my way to the Olympic trails, April 20th. Going into the race I had a couple of goals I wanted to achieve. The first one was to finish in the top 3 and the second one was to run a PR (personal best).
My training for this race went very well. I averaged 80-90 miles a week. After the weather here in Alamosa got crazy cold since November, I made the decision to sign up at the Alamosa Recreational Center. Since then the treadmill became my unconditional training partner for almost 8 weeks. I felt fit and ready to go. In fact, I was excited to find out the end results. Well approximately 13 hours ago, I was crossing the Armco Houston Half finish line in a personal best of 1:13:11-9th place.
After the race, I met with a few of the Rice University Cross Country runners and had lunch with Nicole Mericle and her Mother*. Later on, they took me to the airport and I headed back to Colorado Springs* where my car was waiting for me to go home.
It was nice to be able to achieve one of my goals today, yet I am not satisfied. After all, I have big dreams to fulfill and I do believe great things will happen this Olympic year. I am looking forward to keep growing as a person, an athlete, community mentor, public speaker and ESL teacher. God Bless us all!
*Nicole and her family provided housing for me during the summer when I came to Houston for a training camp to get ready for the World Championships back in August 2007.
*Colorado Springs is 2 hours and 30 minutes away from Alamosa.