USA 10-Miler Race Report

Photo courtesy volunteer extraordinaire Joe

It’s called the 10-Miler, but I only ran 5 miles. I know, I know, a bit misleading to call this blog entry my 10-Miler race report, but you’ll survive. Debbie ran the other 5 as part of our nameless relay team and we both rocked it pretty dang hard, all things considered.

Hurricane Ike really threw off my training schedule, and after the Hi Fi Tri was canceled, there wasn’t anything pressing for which to get back on the horse. I’ve been running, but more for fun than anything else — easy 3-4 milers around the neighborhood, and run/walks with Jose. At best, I thought I could cover my 5 miles at 11:00 pace. Realistically, I figured I’d reach Debbie after more like 57-58 minutes.

When the starting gun sounded, I managed to keep myself reined in and started at a reasonable pace. I’ve been doing a lot of run/walks lately, but I wanted to try to run as much as possible. The first mile passed in 10:39, and the second followed in 10:43 — no walking at all to that point, so I was feeling happy. Right as I reached the first water station at mile 2, I noticed my friend Cathy running in front of me. She had just started to walk, so I asked what she was doing. She and her friend Holly were doing a 5/1, so I decided I’d fall in with them for a bit. I ended up running miles 3 and 4 with them, and clocked 11:05 for each of those miles.

BARC was manning the mile 4 water station, where Joe snapped the above photo as I walked by mixing a cup of water with a cup of Gatorade. I can’t drink and run at the same time, so I guess I was walking there, but that was the last walking I did. I still felt good and strong, so I ran the last mile to the handoff point in 10:37. Total time for my 5 miles was 54:09, and I handed the timing chip off to Debbie for the second half of the race.

Debbie ran a great second half of just under 50 minutes, so our team finished in 1:43:57. Two years ago when we ran as a relay, we finished in 2nd(?) place among female teams, more by virtue of lack of teams than anything else. No such luck this year, but we still had fun. I was a bad relay team member and didn’t even see Debbie finish — I had to head for home immediately after finishing my leg to get ready to go flying with Jose and Becca (which will follow in its own blog post).

I’m very happy with my run. It’s just what I need to get myself moving into the longer distances as I prepare for the Houston Half Marathon in January.