Run for the Water 2015 race report.
Man, the last time I did this race was 2007 (the first year it was held!). Hell, the last time I trained for and ran a road race (so, not Turkey Trots) was the Donkey Dash in 2012. (And I only know that because I checked athlinks. Then spent a long time scrolling back and back and back, through triathlons and trail runs.) So I was surprised how not-all-that-stressed I was about this race.
It helped that we weren't supposed to run it like a 10 miler, we were supposed to practice our marathon goal pace (MGP), and then practice closing strong. I can sometimes do that first thing, and I could give that second thing a try, certainly.
Most of our crew (me and Matt, Kate, Mike and Robert) met up dark and early to get our 3 pre-race miles in. In the rain, because evidently it decided to rain, even though it wasn't really forecast to. We managed to get 2 of those in before we futzed around too long and had to get in the super long portapotty line. The rain had stopped by this time, but it was now warm (low 60s) and very humid. Kate and I made it out of there with a couple minutes to spare before the start of the race, and started pushing our way up toward the start line. We didn't want to start too far up, but we didn't want to start too far back. We somehow miraculously found Matt and Ashlie in the crowd, and just ended up deciding to start from that point. Kate and I are both short, so we had no idea how far back from the line we even were. We figured not being up close would mean we'd be forced not to go out too fast, which Kate had been warned not to do. (I'm not a fast-starter-outer, so I received no warnings.)
The race began, and we realized we definitely were not going to have a problem starting out too fast. We started waaaay too far back. We spent the first mile running up behind people, ducking around them as soon as a space opened up, running up to the next crowd, ducking through there, etc. I basically led and just hoped Kate could weasel through after me. Fortunately she was wearing bright orange shorts, so I could sorta glance back and see her in my peripheral vision to make sure I hadn't lost her.
Ashlie, Amy and Kate; this is actually the only picture that managed to get Kate and I together, despite running most of the race together
Our goal for the first 6 miles was MGP, which was ~8:30. We hit our first mile at 9:30. Oops. Well, we didn't go out too fast! But we simply couldn't have gone any faster, and I'm sure we added on a bit of distance with our lateral movements.
Okay, so there was nothing we could do, and moved on. Mile 2 wasn't a whole lot better, but it did at least spread out a little, so the spaces between the crowds were easier to find and navigate. 9:00 for mile 2. Annoying, but better.
Finally people started to settle into where they needed to be, and we had some space to run. That's when I noticed that I was exerting quite a bit of effort and not going nearly as fast as I might expect to. Stupid humidity and warmth! Stupid slippery roads! Stupid Lake Austin Blvd! (I swear, I always struggle on that road.) We did finally manage an 8:34, though, on mile 3.
You can almost see Kate far on the right.
Mile 4, Kate ducked into a portapotty, and I ate a gu and kept walking to the aid station to get water, figuring Kate would catch up. Meanwhile I didn't TELL Kate that, so she had no idea if I'd gone into a portapotty, too, so she came out and yelled my name, and then started running up to the aid station looking in every direction, until I saw her and called her name. Oops. Anyway, that was a 9:16 with the portapotty stop.
And then into the hills. Betsy and David were stationed on one of the first hills, which was wonderful, even though I was working too hard to really thank them. Then hill, hill, hill, hill, hill. I was a little nervous about running down the Scenic hill with the road wet, but it wasn't really an issue.
Kate and I did a good job of getting up the hills fairly comfortably, without overexerting, and even though some were off-pace, I was really pleased that our 3 super hills miles were 8:42, 8:47 and 8:26. Some of those hills convinced me our mile splits were going to be 12s. (And another run by awesome cheering squad Betsy and David!)
See? Kate's orange shorts? Almost in the picture.
As we got to mile 7, I ate my second gu, and told Kate she should do the same. (I'm the cruise director for our runs, navigating and dictating when to eat and drink and whatnot.) Just past that aid station, Muna cheered for us as we passed her. I told her to stay with us! Then I told Kate that we were officially in the "progressive pace, strong finish" portion of our run, and I was blessing and encouraging her to go finish at her own pace. See, Kate runs with me every week, but is actually significantly faster than I am. Our time goal is (most days) the same, but it's a stretch for me, and for her it's a matter of running at a pace that will keep her healthy, since she historically ends up injured. It's a bit humbling, when I'm running so fast I can't talk, and she's beside me chattering away, but somehow we've made it work.
So Kate took off, and Muna had stuck with us briefly but then fallen back a bit, so now I was on my own with just under 3 miles to go. 3 relatively flat miles, which was a big relief. I picked up my pace, and tried to keep Kate in my sights as long as possible. I had no idea what pace I was running, but it was fairly uncomfortable, and I started chanting, "You can do anything for (3, 2, 1..) miles" in my head, trying to embrace being uncomfortable.
Mile 8 was an 8:07, and I was very happy with that. It was also really hard. The road going past Austin High was particularly slick, and it felt like we still had so far to go, but I knew I had less than 2 miles. Kate was fading ever further into the distance, and I was really starting to struggle. I told myself that this was part of the whole point of this run. I struggle at the end of marathons. (Er, I struggle from mile 13 onward in marathons, ha.) I needed to practice keeping my head in the game and staying strong when things get tough.
And tough they were. As we turned back onto Caesar Chavez, I really wanted to walk. Reallyreally. But I kept my legs going. I split at mile 9, but didn't look. It was evidently an 8:09. I'm really happy with that, given how horrible I felt. But then things started to go south.
Yeeeeeeep. That's pretty much EXACTLY how I felt. And you KNOW how I usually smile and throw jazz hands, even if I feel crappy!
One more mile. I can do anything for one mile! But my legs just wouldn't cooperate. I was trying to keep my turnover high, force myself to fall forward, and my body was just having none of it. The good news: I didn't completely crater, and I made it through that last mile. The bad news: It was NOT PRETTY, and it was not fast. My form was horrible. My breathing was ragged. I was not in a happy place. I ran by Amy and Mark, and Amy cheered loudly for me and told me to use my arms to get up the (didn't really exist, but seemed like a mountain) hill. I tried to smile and thank, but probably didn't. Then the sun came out. Directly in front of me. And I just could not cope with that. I didn't have sunglasses, I couldn't see anything, I was just miiiiiiiserable. But I was also close to the bridge, and I knew I didn't even have to run all the way across the bridge, like in the Turkey Trot. Just turn that corner and I'd see the finish line.
So happy to be done.
I turned. I tried to push. I tried to smile as I crossed the finish line. And then I was SO GLAD to be done. And for all that I felt horrible, that last mile was still an 8:25, so not at all progressive, but still faster than MGP! That's.. something to celebrate, at least. I could have fallen MUCH more apart, and I managed to hold it somewhat together.
Both feet off the ground!
Final result: 1:26:51 (8:41/mile)
First 5 miles: 44:58 (8:59/mile)
Second 5 miles: 41:55 (8:23/mile)
Karen says this workout was not to see if we could hit the paces, but to remember how races work, and remember how to push when things get hard. I think I got that out of the race. And a PR! Previous fastest 10 miler was 1:31:23 (9:10/mile) at the Girl Scout 10 miler in 2006.
It was harder than I would have liked it to be, and some of that can be blamed on congestion at the start, some on the weather, and some on the two speed workouts I'd done earlier in the week, some at faster paces than I managed to hit at the race.
But I'm glad to have demystified road racing again, as we head into the home stretch of our training for the California International Marathon on December 6th.
Taking post-race selfies, in denial about still having to do a cooldown run.
During our 3 mile cooldown, which also turned into 2 miles, we ran up Congress and pet a million dogs, then ran by an amazing house which was also basically an art installment, then ran by Gourdough's, to which none of us had ever been. So once we made it back to the car, we turned right back around and drove to Gourdough's and celebrated our races with artisan donuts. As one should.
That strawberry thing shouldn't even be legal.
It helped that we weren't supposed to run it like a 10 miler, we were supposed to practice our marathon goal pace (MGP), and then practice closing strong. I can sometimes do that first thing, and I could give that second thing a try, certainly.
Most of our crew (me and Matt, Kate, Mike and Robert) met up dark and early to get our 3 pre-race miles in. In the rain, because evidently it decided to rain, even though it wasn't really forecast to. We managed to get 2 of those in before we futzed around too long and had to get in the super long portapotty line. The rain had stopped by this time, but it was now warm (low 60s) and very humid. Kate and I made it out of there with a couple minutes to spare before the start of the race, and started pushing our way up toward the start line. We didn't want to start too far up, but we didn't want to start too far back. We somehow miraculously found Matt and Ashlie in the crowd, and just ended up deciding to start from that point. Kate and I are both short, so we had no idea how far back from the line we even were. We figured not being up close would mean we'd be forced not to go out too fast, which Kate had been warned not to do. (I'm not a fast-starter-outer, so I received no warnings.)
The race began, and we realized we definitely were not going to have a problem starting out too fast. We started waaaay too far back. We spent the first mile running up behind people, ducking around them as soon as a space opened up, running up to the next crowd, ducking through there, etc. I basically led and just hoped Kate could weasel through after me. Fortunately she was wearing bright orange shorts, so I could sorta glance back and see her in my peripheral vision to make sure I hadn't lost her.
Ashlie, Amy and Kate; this is actually the only picture that managed to get Kate and I together, despite running most of the race together
Our goal for the first 6 miles was MGP, which was ~8:30. We hit our first mile at 9:30. Oops. Well, we didn't go out too fast! But we simply couldn't have gone any faster, and I'm sure we added on a bit of distance with our lateral movements.
Okay, so there was nothing we could do, and moved on. Mile 2 wasn't a whole lot better, but it did at least spread out a little, so the spaces between the crowds were easier to find and navigate. 9:00 for mile 2. Annoying, but better.
Finally people started to settle into where they needed to be, and we had some space to run. That's when I noticed that I was exerting quite a bit of effort and not going nearly as fast as I might expect to. Stupid humidity and warmth! Stupid slippery roads! Stupid Lake Austin Blvd! (I swear, I always struggle on that road.) We did finally manage an 8:34, though, on mile 3.
You can almost see Kate far on the right.
Mile 4, Kate ducked into a portapotty, and I ate a gu and kept walking to the aid station to get water, figuring Kate would catch up. Meanwhile I didn't TELL Kate that, so she had no idea if I'd gone into a portapotty, too, so she came out and yelled my name, and then started running up to the aid station looking in every direction, until I saw her and called her name. Oops. Anyway, that was a 9:16 with the portapotty stop.
And then into the hills. Betsy and David were stationed on one of the first hills, which was wonderful, even though I was working too hard to really thank them. Then hill, hill, hill, hill, hill. I was a little nervous about running down the Scenic hill with the road wet, but it wasn't really an issue.
Kate and I did a good job of getting up the hills fairly comfortably, without overexerting, and even though some were off-pace, I was really pleased that our 3 super hills miles were 8:42, 8:47 and 8:26. Some of those hills convinced me our mile splits were going to be 12s. (And another run by awesome cheering squad Betsy and David!)
See? Kate's orange shorts? Almost in the picture.
As we got to mile 7, I ate my second gu, and told Kate she should do the same. (I'm the cruise director for our runs, navigating and dictating when to eat and drink and whatnot.) Just past that aid station, Muna cheered for us as we passed her. I told her to stay with us! Then I told Kate that we were officially in the "progressive pace, strong finish" portion of our run, and I was blessing and encouraging her to go finish at her own pace. See, Kate runs with me every week, but is actually significantly faster than I am. Our time goal is (most days) the same, but it's a stretch for me, and for her it's a matter of running at a pace that will keep her healthy, since she historically ends up injured. It's a bit humbling, when I'm running so fast I can't talk, and she's beside me chattering away, but somehow we've made it work.
So Kate took off, and Muna had stuck with us briefly but then fallen back a bit, so now I was on my own with just under 3 miles to go. 3 relatively flat miles, which was a big relief. I picked up my pace, and tried to keep Kate in my sights as long as possible. I had no idea what pace I was running, but it was fairly uncomfortable, and I started chanting, "You can do anything for (3, 2, 1..) miles" in my head, trying to embrace being uncomfortable.
Mile 8 was an 8:07, and I was very happy with that. It was also really hard. The road going past Austin High was particularly slick, and it felt like we still had so far to go, but I knew I had less than 2 miles. Kate was fading ever further into the distance, and I was really starting to struggle. I told myself that this was part of the whole point of this run. I struggle at the end of marathons. (Er, I struggle from mile 13 onward in marathons, ha.) I needed to practice keeping my head in the game and staying strong when things get tough.
And tough they were. As we turned back onto Caesar Chavez, I really wanted to walk. Reallyreally. But I kept my legs going. I split at mile 9, but didn't look. It was evidently an 8:09. I'm really happy with that, given how horrible I felt. But then things started to go south.
Yeeeeeeep. That's pretty much EXACTLY how I felt. And you KNOW how I usually smile and throw jazz hands, even if I feel crappy!
One more mile. I can do anything for one mile! But my legs just wouldn't cooperate. I was trying to keep my turnover high, force myself to fall forward, and my body was just having none of it. The good news: I didn't completely crater, and I made it through that last mile. The bad news: It was NOT PRETTY, and it was not fast. My form was horrible. My breathing was ragged. I was not in a happy place. I ran by Amy and Mark, and Amy cheered loudly for me and told me to use my arms to get up the (didn't really exist, but seemed like a mountain) hill. I tried to smile and thank, but probably didn't. Then the sun came out. Directly in front of me. And I just could not cope with that. I didn't have sunglasses, I couldn't see anything, I was just miiiiiiiserable. But I was also close to the bridge, and I knew I didn't even have to run all the way across the bridge, like in the Turkey Trot. Just turn that corner and I'd see the finish line.
So happy to be done.
I turned. I tried to push. I tried to smile as I crossed the finish line. And then I was SO GLAD to be done. And for all that I felt horrible, that last mile was still an 8:25, so not at all progressive, but still faster than MGP! That's.. something to celebrate, at least. I could have fallen MUCH more apart, and I managed to hold it somewhat together.
Both feet off the ground!
Final result: 1:26:51 (8:41/mile)
First 5 miles: 44:58 (8:59/mile)
Second 5 miles: 41:55 (8:23/mile)
Karen says this workout was not to see if we could hit the paces, but to remember how races work, and remember how to push when things get hard. I think I got that out of the race. And a PR! Previous fastest 10 miler was 1:31:23 (9:10/mile) at the Girl Scout 10 miler in 2006.
It was harder than I would have liked it to be, and some of that can be blamed on congestion at the start, some on the weather, and some on the two speed workouts I'd done earlier in the week, some at faster paces than I managed to hit at the race.
But I'm glad to have demystified road racing again, as we head into the home stretch of our training for the California International Marathon on December 6th.
Taking post-race selfies, in denial about still having to do a cooldown run.
During our 3 mile cooldown, which also turned into 2 miles, we ran up Congress and pet a million dogs, then ran by an amazing house which was also basically an art installment, then ran by Gourdough's, to which none of us had ever been. So once we made it back to the car, we turned right back around and drove to Gourdough's and celebrated our races with artisan donuts. As one should.
That strawberry thing shouldn't even be legal.