Runnin’ of the Horns

[caption id="attachment_2024" align="alignleft" width="630" caption="Houston Texas Exes Josie Salazar and David Leal don horns to run in the Lone Star Stampede."]

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The Lone Star Stampede road race sponsored by the Texas Exes Houston Chapter on May 7 was the biggest and best in its 33-year history.

A record high of 920 runners raced 5K or 10K, up from 650 last year. Around 40 children also participated in a kids’ fun run at the event, which benefited scholarships for Houston-area UT students.

The race started and finished at the University Co-op in Uptown Park, near the Galleria. In between, the course took runners around the stately homes of Tanglewood.

Co-workers Josie Salazar, ’76, and David Leal, BS ’02, ran the 6.2 miles with foam Longhorns on their heads. When Leal couldn’t find any pre-made foam horns, he made some himself using craft foam, fabric, and lots of sticky stuff. “Hot glue is your friend,” he says.

This was the duo’s fourth race since January, after Salazar got Leal into running. Depending on the race’s theme, they’d run as bumble bees, in foam cowboy hats, and styled as space shuttles.

But for his first-ever 10K, Leal knew the Longhorns had to be sturdy. “I didn’t make it the whole way with the rocket,” he says.

Most of the runners wore more standard athletic gear, but there were plenty of UT touches to the morning. Six orange-vested members of the Longhorn Alumni Band pepped up the racers with “Texas Fight” before the race.
Afterward, there was a bounce house, Play-Doh, and balloon horns for the kids.

For the first time, the Lone Star Stampede was a qualifier for the popular Houston Half Marathon.

“There are a lot of little details—everything from calculating the number of gallons needed for water stops to getting donations for food,” says organizer Stephanie Magers, BS ’00, Life Member. “It’s a lot to do, but I had a good team.”