Run and Creek Report

Hey!

It is 5:30 pm and I just finished a snack, shower, and a load of laundry to wash some sweaty run clothes. I was getting pretty bored and decided that I had better get a run in because I might not be able to tomorrow. I took my camera with me so that I could take pictures off the creeks and gullies that tend to fill up in heavy rain storms and will sometimes flood. The sun stayed pretty much behind the clouds but it did peek out once or twice. Near the end of my run the breeze started picking up and there was a few minutes of a very light drizzle of rain and it felt really good because temperatures are still between 88 and 86 degrees. Mostly, the neighborhoods were quiet but there were more people than I have ever seen out walking dogs, riding bikes (without helmets!!!) and boarding up windows. I would say that 10% of the houses have their windows boarded up or taped to prevent the glass from flying in as shards once the window breaks. The breeze is pretty steady now with gusts up to 25 mph and if reminds me a lot of what the breezes are like here in the spring.
Here is a picture of Cypress Creek near the house. If I go down the street 5 houses and make a left turn and go 50 yds to the stop light and then take a right, Cypress Creek is at most 400 to 500 yards down the road from the stop light. The last time that Cypress Creek came out of its banks was in 2001 after Tropical Storm Allison dumped tons of rain on Houston. There was a lot of flooding in our neighborhood and the houses near the creek were eventually torn down. Right now, only empty lots are there. I guess no one will give homeowner's and flood insurance for those lots.
Here is another picture of Cypress Creek on another end. If I go down the street 5 houses and turn to the right, away from the stop light, I can run about a 1/2 mile up to the bridge over this part of the creek. I wanted to document how low the water was in the creek before the storm and after the storm.
Here I am on the bridge. Everything behind me and back to just before my street was flooded when Tropical Storm Allison came to town.
This is Faulky Gully another 3/4 of a mile down the road. Once I run through another residential area, I hook up onto a jogging path along the gully. It is really low right now.
Here is our new park near Cypress Creek. I fear this will all be under water. Buddy loves this park because it has a skate park.
Yea! My run is done and El Esposo finished fixing the deck!

Run Stats:

Time: 1 hour 20 minutes
Distance: 8.85 miles
Ave HR: 145
Max HR: 162 ( I was almost home and I had to go the bathroom--YIKES!)
Ave Pace: 9:04
Max Pace: 7:48
Calories: 727

More Ike updates later. Later Gators,

Liz