Started out at 5:06AM at the corner of MLK Blvd and 610, and headed East, accompanied by my buddy Keith from BON Running Club, trotting along in the damp and dark morning air and trying not to sprint out of excitement! I managed to soak one foot in in a puddle within the first mile of course. The city was still very much asleep, but we got some extra pep getting chased by packs of dogs, both large and small! After zipping across the first bridge over 45S and approaching Galveston Road, Keith split off to go to work and I continued on my own until mile 25.
The morning breezed by -- peacefully (aside from the constant city roar of freeway traffic of course) and I saw the golden light from refinery gas flares in the distance against the pre-dawn clouds. Navigating some of the rail yards were a bit exciting, due to a series of stopped trains that required an extra detour and crossing a few ditches it was pleasant crunching along alone on the gravel.
I pushed along and made it to the Sidney Sherman Bridge (after another brief dog chase), and caught a stunning view of the sunrise over the ship channel to my right and downtown in the distance to my left, and hopped over the barrier back onto grass quickly on the other side, taking a break in the forested area near the Clinton Rd exit.
After ducking into a corner store for extra soda and juice near Wallisville Rd I celebrated passing the 1/3 mark and pushed on a few more miles and met a friend from the Houston running community at the N. Wayside exit for more beverages and snacks. I'm pretty pleased with the decision to make this run a supported run -- involving other runners in this effort made it a really meaningful experience and it was lovely to get to share parts of it with others.
The sunny day forecasted for today never appeared and instead storms and a coldfront blew in, and I began to get a light chilly shower as I continued Westward on the North loop. At Yale St - more than halfway done - my friend Mitchell and Raven joined me, taking turns, with Mitchell running the following 10 miles with me before switching off with Raven. By this point my legs were starting to protest quite a bit, and it was great to have conversation and company. Turning onto the West Loop, I felt renewed after changing into a spare set of socks I'd luckily brought and restocking on snacks from the gas station.
The rain increasingly softened the grassy and dirt trails and I got a bit more of a workout slogging through the spongy wet grass trails near Braes Bayou with Raven, but the route was otherwise pretty straightforward aside from being occasionally a bit overgrown.
Near the turn onto the South loop more friends joined the run for the final push back East! Shannon and Tony popped up and joined us, and before long I had a pack of runners sharing the adventure with me! The last few miles got tantalizingly closer as my legs protested every step. Just before the very end, I noticed that my Garmin watch had just lost power and paused, but thankfully I was also tracking the run on my phone with Strava. Thank goodness for having a backup plan! After plugging my watch (and phone) into an external battery I continued on to the finish line back at MLK and 610. I'm so grateful to the Houston running community and all the people that got excited about this project and came out to cheer me on, and celebrate the finish!
What an incredibly adventure this was! I can't wait to see who gets excited to make the next attempt at it!
I have so much more I could say but I need more time to gather my thoughts and sleep and collect photos from friends in the coming days.