Friday morning during my swim workout I started thinking about the 10K. For anyone who swims any distance you know that swimming affords a lot of time for thinking. You can't talk to your lane partner and unless you swim with a water proof iPod there's no music to distract you. So I either think about my swimming technique or I think about other things on my mind.
So my two fears were I would either get hurt or not have enough time to recover. Now there is two kinds of fear: actual and perceived. After some self talk I concluded neither of my fears were actual. The chances of my getting hurt were pretty slim. I've been running between 3 to 5 times a week for nearly a year. In all that time I haven't gotten hurt. Even during a 15 mile trail race over some pretty rough terrain I didn't even get a scratch never mind a sprained ankle to twisted knee. The other fear about not being able to recover isn't realistic either. I did a 7 mile training run last week at 80-90% effort and the following day I did a 25 mile bike ride to 90% effort with no ill effects from the previous day's run. I think I could recover from a 6 mile run in a week. So after the swim workout on my way to work I decided I'd sign up for the race.
When I got to work I went to the organizer's website to find out about signing up. The online registration had passed so I would have to sign up in person. I looked up the sign up time and location. Then I noticed a progress bar on the website showing the participant volume. They capped the timed race participants at 10,000 and at the moment 9,956 people had signed up. So I rushed over to the sign up location and was the second person in line. Unlimited number of people can sign up to run untimed. When they opened the doors I rushed in and quickly signed up to get a spot. I got my race bib number a couple of free tee-shirts and some other goodies at the expo.
I decided Saturday would be a rest day even though my training plan called for a bike and running brick workout. It was the first workout I have skipped in 10 weeks I don't think that will hurt my next triathlon race coming up.
I started planning for Sunday morning. I got my running gear together, my pre-race meal which includes a bagel and some peanut, an energy bar, an energy gel and bottle of water.
The CAP 10K is the largest 10K in Texas and last year they had 20,000 people so I knew this year there would be more people. Parking in downtown can be a hassle so I left two hours early for the race and decided I'd rather sit in my truck in a parking garage rather then sitting in traffic stressing about whether or not I was going to make the race. I listened to some music and ate my energy bar.
Right before the race started I went to my corral and made my way to the front of my group. There were lots of people. Then I heard the announcer say "...this is the largest group of runners we have had in 34 years, 23,000 runners!" The crowd let out a roar. This got me pumped up for the race. A woman sang a beautiful version of the American Anthem which gave me goose bumps and then they fired the gun to start the race. After the gun was fired it took me 10 minutes to get to the starting line....tick tick tick I started my stop watch.
My plan was to run the first three miles at 8:12 per mile and then run the last 3.2 miles at 7:52 per mile. This was a good plan because I looked at the profile of the race route and knew all the hills were in the first part of the race. Indeed they were, the entire first mile was slightly uphill followed by a short downhill, then the second hill in mile two followed by the apex of the race at the end of mile three. I was running really well bobbing, weaving and ducking to get around people. They were a lot of people walking in the first three miles. I wasn't able to maintain my planned pace but never the less I was having a good run, I felt pretty strong. Mile 4 had a slight uphill and two hard corners. The uphills make it hard to pass people as a lot of people are jogging slow or walking and the the hard corners just congested. Also the race director placed two water stations on the inside corners which makes it even worse as people at stopping to get a drink. This forces you to run outside of the corner and adds distance to the race. This is my only complaint for the race. Water stations should be on a straight section of the course or on the outside of a corner. At mile 5 the race went from two lanes down to one and we started to get bunched up. This is how it would be until the finish lane. I was running at or near my goal pace despite the crowded road way.
The last mile is along Ladybird Lake. It goes up one side, crosses a bridge and then down the other side. So I could see the finish for a while. As I made my way across the bridge I glanced at my watch. I knew I wasn't going to meet my goal time of sub 50 minutes but I wasn't going to miss it by much. On the straight away towards finish I could see the time board confirming my initial thought of missing my goal. I didn't let up on the pace and crossed the finish line in 50:26, :27 seconds off my goal pace. However, I beat my previous 10K time by 5:50, that is a huge improvement. Not a bad race considering I had no plans of doing it two days prior.
Next up Kemah Triathlon Festival...
