With special recognition to Don Drewniak, Ann Leoni, Tom Pinney, Steve Smith, and Ken Johnson
It was the summer of 2004, and I had just arrived in Houston, a relatively new runner with my first two marathons and a handful of 5K’s under my belt. I searched on “races” in the Houston area, and found “Run the Woodlands 5K”, at Barbara Bush elementary school every 2nd Saturday of the month, at a cost of one dollar. A week later I showed up with my dollar in hand and was met by Mr. Don Drewniak, a well-organized and stern captain of the event. I paid my buck and followed the pack on a long loop around Alden Bridge. Poster board maps and colored paper with names and numbers, a scheme to track results with tacks on a corkboard, it was an amusing entry to the Woodlands race scene. The runners knew each other, and I just followed along, looking for mysterious blue dots on the path and finishing in 21:37 minutes, good for 9th place out of 41 runners. For a buck not such a bad deal. At the time I was lacking in track or speed workouts, so here was a way to get in at least two hard sessions per month. I got in the habit to come back twice each month, rain or shine.
Don Drewniak initiated the race in January of the year 2000 and directed it twice a month for five full years (123 races). At that point in time, he retired back to Delaware and turned over race direction to Luke’s Locker, which had recently opened a store in the Woodlands and was active in sponsorship of run activities with the community. Running Notebook: Taking advantage of prime location (chron.com) Luke’s Locker hosted RTW for over for 12 years until they closed their Houston area stores. Kudos to Bill Dwyer who stepped in at that time and received permission to temporarily host the race until it could be transitioned over to continuing sponsorship through Woodlands based Fleet Feet.
The course changed as well, it originally mapped on a long loop around Alden Bridge along the pathways that line the roadway. Several years ago, the county built out the northern end of Kuykendahl road right through the center of the loop. The race paused for a few months as they pursued an alternate location, before deciding to retain the same start area and run it as an out and back to the Kuykendahl crossing. We OGs preferred the traditional route and sometimes run it bandit style, risking our lives (slightly) to cross the road twice in honor of that perfect loop.
Jon Walk and Bill also stepped up to host a couple of races that happened to fall on Christmas day, what a present for us, and races included in the Montgomery County Triple over Thanksgiving weekend each year.
I enjoyed this race and the community of runners from the very start, and returned as often as I could, except when out of town or running another race. Fifteen to twenty races a year, year after year. We ran through hurricanes, near hurricanes, Christmas morning, cold dark mornings, hot humid saunas.
In November of 2006 I was greeted by overflow parking at RTW series #165, the Hans Weberling benefit run, 600 people and $18,000 crossed the finish line that day.
In May of 2008, series #200 race, I was privileged to witness 100+ “Girls on the Run” out racing at RTW, what an inspiration to see all these young faces out for a run on a warm spring day. Newbies showing up for their 1st race, we welcomed them all.
For the arrival of Hurricane Ike (September 1, 2008) I stayed on my porch watching the trees bend and break, then ran the neighborhood, ignoring at least for a day the down tree on my next-door neighbor’s roof. I am sure they would understand. From the results page, “Delayed nine hours by Hurricane Ike, RTW #208 attracted two participants. In the aftermath of the storm, the “race” was a lot like a trail run on an obstacle course that included climbing over the trunks and tunneling through the tops of trees that had fallen on the path. Nora Wilson was the overall winner in 31:13 and Lou Wilson was the male winner in 39:14. These unofficial times are based on the honor system. Luke’s Locker’s management, perhaps saner than the participants, declined to provide an unofficial timer.”
Fifteen – twenty races each year for me, every year, and time passes. The faces changed a bit, we all aged in chronological years while we (attempted to) grow younger in our personal fitness. In my 18th running of RTW I broke 20 minutes for the 1st time in my life (19:38) and did it again (19:58) just three races later.
I ran with Mike and occasionally Dan and Matt and one time all of us together; that morning we took four of the top five spots and won the team competition. Any run with my boys was a special day for me, and Mike was my most constant partner, strength young PIP. Sometimes we let each other win, root for raffle prizes, and then head out for Shipley’s donuts after the race, which clearly canceled out the training benefits. I ran the day before marathons, the day after marathons, with bruised ribs, a day after four wisdom teeth were extracted (against doctors’ orders of course), sometimes sick and hurt and often healthy, though a bit slower year on year. In later years my finish times regressed, 30 minutes became the new 20 minutes.
I have won exactly two of my 312 total races. The first time this occurred we showed up and the race was called off due to a lightning storm. Everyone returned home except for me and a visitor from Hidalgo Texas; we ran together through the downpour, chatting all the way and crossing the finish line together. My second win came on a day with only three attendees, I headed out and found myself in the lead and never once looked back: proud of that.
The pandemic interruption our community, we lost 11 months of races from March 2000 until February 2021. When we finally returned, we were wearing masks to the start line; we were back and it was a blessing. Nine hundred and seventy miles of racing I eventually accumulated, and I have won at least a dresser drawer full of raffle socks, easily paying out my one-dollar race investments.
To my knowledge there are four other runners who have completed over 100 RTW races; Ann Leoni was the first, Tom Pinney who raced with a pair of whippet dogs until his dogs passed and his back seized up, Steve Smith who always beat me until he moved away to Colorado, and Ken Johnson who is a legend and inspiration to all of us.
In the early years before training groups became popular and with other local races held every week, we would draw 40-50 people to each RTW, with the six hundred attendees at that single benefit race the largest by far. Running friends have come and gone over the years, and the attendance dwindled due to competition for runners, and a lack of advertising I believe. In 2023 Fleet Feet elected to transition RTW to a location at their store and run it along the Woodlands Waterway, on the second Tuesday, once each month. I do not know that there is an official count, subtracting a few interruptions to the schedule, I would estimate that approximately 510 races were conducted across the entirety of the series. I missed out on the first 110. My final RTW, #312 for me, was on July 8th of 2023, down on the new course at the Waterway. Truth be told it was not the same.
Still smiling in the last year of this race series, such great friends.
I have always been a grinder, through school and work and running, no time off, no days off, this race was made for me. Through it all a tradition to appreciate, great friends, hard work, happy running, rewarding me with a sense of community and shared accomplishment. Doors close and then open. In 2022 the local parkrun relocated to the Spindle tree trail close to my house. home | Spindle Tree parkrun | Spindle Tree parkrun. As it gained in attendance, Fleet Feet officially closed down RTW as a bi-weekly local event. We were blessed to share runs all these many years; now a new community of runners continues our 5K running traditions within the Woodlands, Texas.