Joe's Run 10K: The first-ever 10K on the surface of the sun!
Goal: Finish and not get hurt; actually run outside
Previous Training Best: Race 10K time of 1:21; Training 10K time of 1:09
Hey! It's me! Keels! Remember back in May when I said I wasn't going to run another race until
Disneyland in September? Yeah, I kinda changed my mind.
The Great Monsoon of 2015 had finally ceased for the time being and I was due to run 7 miles on Saturday as part of my training plan, so I thought - why not? I'm going to run this route anyway, so I might as well get out amongst people and give it a go that way.
This run was a really special one - it was the first run that my husband, M and I were to do together before Disneyland! It also turns out to be the last one, but that's on the husband. Because he's a big baby.
Anyway. This race is run every year and includes a sweet, sweet party on the "beach" of our river in downtown. Unfortunately, because of river levels due to TGMo2015, the beach was completely underwater - including up to the tippy-top of the 8-foot-tall lifeguard chair! It's also one of the events that celebrates the birthday of Fort Worth - and this year was a biggie.
But most importantly, it benefits one of my favorite local charities -
Samaritan House. Samaritan House is located right outside my neighborhood and seeks to help provide housing and resources to homeless individuals with major health issues, namely HIV/AIDS.
$25 got me a REALLY nice Tech-fabric race tank top and one of the best post-race scenes I've seen so far at local races.
Leading up to this race, I'd been doing my training for the past month LARGELY inside. Yes, I was running 4-5 times a week, but it was almost exclusively indoors, on the Dreadmill, in the A/C. I made a few attempts at running outside when I would get a break in rain during TGMo2015, but most of my runs got cut short because of mosquitos or the trail/terrain just not being that great for running (large swaths of standing water, downed tree parts, flooded out trail ground that was almost like quicksand, etc.).
The husband decided at the last minute that he was going to run with M and I (I registered Monday before the race, M registered Wednesday ... husband registered oh, about 30 minutes before packet pickup started on Friday), so the Friday before the 10K, he went on his first non-CrossFit run. He came back to the house 20 minutes later, soaking wet as if he jumped into the pool with his clothes on and then walked into the house.
"You are in for a ruuuuuuuuuuuude awakening tomorrow, girlfriend," was all he said to me before I told him to go take a shower and stop trying to hug me.
And boy ... was he right.
The Run:
After a little bit of an injury scare earlier in the week and a scale back on my running, I was still on the fence as to whether I was going to run. I was about 60/40 "yes" on Friday. I spent quite a bit of the day before with ice on my knee, rolling out my IT band and just generally taking it easy when I wasn't running errands. I rode my bike for a little bit Friday night when we went out to dinner, but that was about it.
Woke up Saturday feeling like $100 bucks (more on my theory as to why my knee is wonky at the end), so I figured I'd go for it. I really wanted to get a run in, and I really wanted to run with the husband and M since we'd all be at least starting together on this race.
Drive over and parking was easy. M and I stretched next to my truck while my husband did his pre-race ritual of "shot-gunning" a beer (Grapefruit Sculpin, for those curious), and then we went on down to the start line.
The sun was already out in FULL force and there was little to no wind, so the steam off the river and the humidity of the day was already starting to make its presence known.
And then ... we were off! The three of us stuck together pretty well (all things considered) for the first .75 - we all had different things we wanted to focus on in this run:
- Husband (I'll call him J from here on out): Wanted to work on negative splits and adjust to running in a pack. In local races where there are no corrals, he always starts front of the pack so he doesn't have to dodge around people. Even though his PoT for Disneyland will put him in one of the first three corrals, he'll still have to deal with more crowds and packs of runners. So far, one DLH/W&D corral is the equivalent of the entire race field for races we've done.
- M: Trying out a new interval (3:30/1)
- Me: Trying out Auto-Pace with my new Garmin watch versus Intervals (which I *still* don't really like) and work on my tangents.
We crossed a small pedestrian bridge as a very large pack (which meant walking over the bridge from the crowding), so as we made the short turnaround to head back for the long stretch of the run and over the little bridge, J had given up on his two goals and got tired of being around people, so he just took off.
M and I high-fived at the turnaround because I got stuck behind a pack of walkers on the tight trail, and then she kept going. I got to about 1.25 and started settling in to my run. At this point, we were back to the start/finish line and were heading out to the long part of the run. The first 1.25 was in a lush, shaded portion of the trail. I knew shade was going to be few and far between from here on out, and with no breeze I was already to start to feel a little hot. I knew once I got out in the sun, it wouldn't take long before I would start feeling like cooking bacon (I go to enough day baseball games here in the Texas summers to know my sun and heat threshold). So, I stopped by a "water bed" the race had set up at the start line, grabbed a bottle of water out of a kiddie pool they were about to start using for a cooler and poured half of it over my head, put my running cap back on and then kept at it.
It was really hot. Like REALLY hot. But more than that, at some points it felt like I was swimming through the air rather than running. But I kept plowing forward. Around mile 3, I started to see people I knew started WAY ahead of me start falling back. This happens every race for me, usually because I like to start at the back - I'd rather pass people than BE passed. But it's usually maybe 5-7 people or so. This time? We're talking about 25-30. Large groups of people. It was almost as if there was an invisible wall that they really just ran into and just stopped and started walking.
A logical, sane person would realize what was happening. Me? Oh, my "horse racing" instinct kicked in and I kicked it up a few notches and just started plowing past all of them.
I would pay for this around mile 4.5.
Quick Shoutout to the race organizers: Obviously, they knew this race was going to be a hot one. I want to give them props for the hydration stations at mile 3.5, 4.25 and 5. They came just at the right times. Thanks, guys!
I ended up walking basically from the hydration station at 4.25 to the hydration station at 5. Also, at about mile 3.75 the race hit the trails. I dropped my speed down quite a bit as the terrain was not only messy, but it was REALLY craggy from rain runoff - either riverbed-type tracks of gaping space or large exposed rocks. I was worried about getting hurt, so I decided to take it easy until we hit the concrete again - which was a little after mile 5.
Back on the concrete after the Mile 5 marker, I set back in to finishing at a good pace. I went with an interval I was comfortable with so I could finish strong.
Crossed the major bridge across the river and then it was down into the shade to the finish line.
J was waiting in front of the finish line post, waving me across like a third-base coach! So I used everything I had left and powered through the last .2, feeling pretty solid and strong - and like I still had something left in the tank, which was very surprising to me.
Crossed the finish line, turned off my watch and someone was shoving a beer in my hand. M! This gal truly knows what I need.
Finish Time: HOLY not great. 1:28ish or something? And I was still in the top half of my age group, which has only happened in my FIRST 10K.
My Thoughts:
This was easily my worst time in a race, but I felt really proud of myself and super hyped-up afterwards. Why? IDK. Maybe it was because I finished a grueling run and NOTHING hurt. Not my knee. Not my calf. Not my feet. Not my little ankle. Nothing.
Did I have to give myself a few pep talks to get through it? Of course! I mean ... IT WAS HOT! And muggy. And buggy. And all that.
But on that day, at that time, on that trail, nobody's dream out there was bigger than mine. I know, that's selfish - but it's true to me. And sometimes you have to say what you need to say to yourself to get through it. Right?
Walking back to the car, the three of us talked a lot about the race and what we need to do to get ready for Disneyland. It's pretty obvious we're not conditioned for being outside - M also walked the distance between the last two water stops, and J took non-hydration stop walks breaks TWICE.
It's not so much the heat - it's going to be the sun. The sun is what will get you. So, that's what we will work on - running in the sun.
Also - had this post-run revelation ... you know what's AMAZING after a run? Other than beer, of course ...
POPSICLES!
I think I had at least four as they kept bringing them around while I was cooling off and stretching out.
Finish Line selfie with the DLH Crew!!
