La Porte by the Bay Half Marathon

I made the 100-mile drive down to La Porte (east of Houston) early this morning to run the La Porte by the Bay Half Marathon.  The temperature was in the 30's when I left Huntsville and was in the 40's for the start of the race at 7:30 a.m.  Clear weather, so a perfect day for running.  I ran into a lot of old friends, including John and Julie Loftus, who were here from New Zealand.  For the most part, the course was flat.  Then, there were out and back trips over the Hartley Bridge over the Houston ship channel.  Each way over the 178-foot bridge was 2.6 miles.  I made it without having to walk.  In any case, I finished in 2:51:47, less than 2 minutes faster than my half marathon in Nacogdoches last Sunday.  There were nearly 1,800 finishers and I was 4th of 5 in the 75-79 age group.  Half marathon number 78 done.