On the other hand, it was my recovery week and my scheduled run was only 1:30. I know I have bigger races on my plate right now and it sorta made sense to just treat this as another training run. And, I also wanted to run the race with the Hubs, who was running the Ten for Texas for the first time. The Hubs had already decided to run the race as a training run. And let's face it...I haven't exactly been training to PR this race.
The problem?
It's hard to run an actual race, without actually "racing" or attempting a PR. Is it like that for everyone, or am I just a weirdo?
We met up with the Woodlands Fit peeps before the race and took our annual group picture. For some reason, right as we were heading to the start, I really needed to visit the porta-potties...even though I had just gone in Luke's Locker. So, the Hubs patiently waited for me while I stood in line for what seemed like an eternity. We finally made it to the start as the national anthem was starting and we were off! When I say it was warm and humid, I mean it was WARM and EXTREMELY HUMID! We're talking around 75 at the start, with 187% humidity. Nasty!
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| The Woodlands Fit crew, ready to race |
At the start I still hadn't committed to a strategy - race or training run? I started out as if I was going for the PR for the first few miles. At mile 4, the Hubs wanted a walk break to get his heart rate down. At that point, I thought I was going to keep up the race pace. I took a couple more walk breaks with the Hubs and then got going again. But, about midway between mile 5 and 6, I decided to hang back and run with the Hubs. To be honest, this made the race much more fun. The conditions were just plain ugly. I remember seeing the sun break through the clouds and seeing the hazy, foggy look in the air. It was more like swimming that running.
The hubs and I took a walk break at the mile markers / aid stations. I knew that the conditions were rough when we saw a runner on the ground with a volunteer helping stretch out a leg cramp. The miles ticked off pretty quickly and before I knew it, we were heading over the bridge at Northshore park...less than a mile to go! Before the bridge, we saw a runner lying on the ground with people around her trying to render aid...another victim of the crappy conditions. We made it back to Market Street and rounded the corner to the finish. As we crossed the finish line, the runner in front of us collapsed into the arms of a volunteer. I knew it was warm, but jeeze it was worse than I thought.
After the race, the Hubs and I made our way to the food tent, followed by a stop at the beverage tent. (Yes, this race has an option for the non-beer drinkers like me....Mike's Hard Lemonade in assorted flavors!!!!) As much as I've hated the weather at this race for the past few years, the post race party makes it almost worth it. The race is practically in our backyard, so it tends to be a mini-reunion of running friends every year. We ran into friends from running groups, tri clubs, work friends, childhood friends, etc. This is why I love this race!
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| The Hubs with his new ride! (He wishes!) |
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| Me with Rachel, friend and Woodlands Fit Coordinator |
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| Me and the Hubs post race...we're a hot mess, but still having fun! |
How was your weekend? Any workouts or races?
3 comments:
Hey fun is what it's all about. Congrats!
I think it would be tough not to race a race. Great job tackling 20 in the heat!
Yeah, when I was training for Leadville and entered a crap load of races for "training", I ended up running them too hard because the racer mentality of me just didn't now how not to. I paid for that down the road when I was utterly exhausted...but it was fun for awhile :). And isn't this all suppose to be about fun?
Nice job on the race...that's a really respectable time (I'm going to pray for that time on Sunday, and I also ran a 1:44 a few years ago on this course. Wild!).
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