Austin American-Statesman Capitol 10k

WooooooWeeeeee! I am very tired right now....well my body is, my brain is fired up.

This morning I ran the Austin-American Statesman Capitol 10k. I think you all remember my last post stating that I haven't run in a month. I really thought this run was going to be miserable, but from this race I learned that once you build endurance and the mentality to keep pushing on, it stays with you even if you take a little break.

There were over 17,000 participants, HOLY MOLY! The gun fired and it took me about 8 1/2 minutes to even get to the start line. I started off down Congress towards the Capital. That was definitely the easy part. Actually the first two and half miles were really flat and it felt really good. Then the dreaded 15th street came. HILLS, HILLS, HILLS! Especially the part where you pass House Park Football Stadium. I loved going down that hill, but getting back up on the other side...wellll....sucked. I missed a lot of the bands that were playing along side the course but I didn't miss the family eating eggs, bacon and toast outside on their side walk....drooollll! At this point I finally turned on my IPOD. Along the way some guy was passing out Krispy Kreme donuts. I sure didn't want one....and a little further down the course was the good ol' shots of beer. I didn't stop because it was still crowded and you really have to watch your step.

At about mile 4, I thought it was time to bust out my Scooby snacks. It was right about when I was telling myself I could walk if I really wanted to. But I didn't. I ate my snacks grabbed a quick water at the water station. I have a strategy for the water stations. It's called "grab a cup, keep running, take a sip, spit it out, take a sip, gulp it down, throw the rest on the back of my neck". You should try it, it works wonders.I knew the last 2 miles really well because when I run town lake that is the exact same course I take. I knew it was smooth sailing from them...except that it wasn't. I started to get really tired and worn down but told myself "one foot in front of the other" And I made it. I finished and I was darn proud because I haven't been running and it looked as if I got the close to the same as last year's time when I was training.

I went and grabbed water and proceeded to the "Penguin" sign which is where I told my coworkers, all 23 of us to meet. I still had to wait for my Mom so I walked around a bit and then finally headed over to the finishline to run the rest with her. I am so proud of her. This was the longest walk/run she has ever done. She finished in 1:38 minutes. Way to go, Mom.

I came immediately home to foam roll, make pizza, and hop in the shower that I very much needed. I got online to check my time because I didn't know the exact time. 1:08:18. The EXACT same time I ran it in last year, down to the SECOND! I had to look twice and make sure, but yeppp, this girl stayed consistent. If you would have asked me months ago, my goal would have been to beat that time. But seeing how I haven't been training, my goal was just to run the whole darn thing without stopping. I'm so proud of myself for not even loosing a second. :]

Have you gotten your family interested in running/walking race events?

Do you have a good technique to get you up those darn hills?

Do you have a game plan down for water stops?