The Tornado Sunday Long Run

One of the oldest Tornado traditions, sixteen years running, is our Sunday morning long run.  It starts at 7:00AM near the Memorial Park tennis center.  We cordially invite you to join us.  Some runners fly to another continent for the ultimate experience, when right in Houston is a run that will give you a running epiphany, an entirely different way to run.  We call it a run, but it really is a race.  It may not even be about running at all as it is more of a heart test.  It is the kind of long run that Steve Prefontaine would have loved, having once said, "A lot of people run to see who is fastest.  I run to see who has the most guts, who can punish himself into exhausting pace."  This is what the Tornado's long run is all about, guts and heart.  Leave your precision, scientific running program for just one weekend and join us for a twelve-mile gut check-up.  If you have ever wondered how fast you can really run by pushing through pain, our long run is your remedy.

It starts out innocently enough with fifteen to twenty runners talking and laughing in English and Spanish.  We run about three different routes, but the most common one is the Sabine loop.  The first two miles in the park are leisurely, but then there is always someone who starts to push a little.  However, there is an oasis to keep you going; it's the drinking fountain on Sabine bridge.  To win this stage of the run is not considered important and is almost bad style.  The real race begins here.  The lead runners will start pushing it right away leaving a long line of runners strung out a half-mile or more.  This is the part I love, trying to catch as many of them as I can.  It is a beautiful thing to behold the whole line of runners giving it there all!  After we finish we always shake hands and you can see the look of respect in their eye.  It says something deeper than words, something that hits you between your heart and your guts.

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Last modified: 07/06/08

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