This was another amazingly fun race. If any of y’all are down in the Austin area next time next year, I seriously recommend that you come on down and check it out. Besides, you get free race-logo technical socks in your race packet. How cool is that? I wore mine today (washed, of course); maybe they made a difference.

The weather at the start was 63 degrees (~17 C) and constant. There was a mix of fog and very light drizzle, but no real rain - that happened later on this afternoon. I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d end up wearing, and ended up with a singlet and shorts; this turned out to be a pretty good decision. My arms were a touch cold at times when the wind picked up but I was a lot more concerned about overheating than being cold.

I got to the course at about 6:45, checked my keys at the bag check, and started out with some basic warmups. I did about a half mile gentle jogging at a 10:00 pace, quite a few ITB stretches, and some general joint circles just trying to get ready for the race. There were a lot of people here, almost 1,700 finishers many of whom looked pretty slow, so I lined up further towards the start than I had at Pervasive; I ended up crossing the line less than 40 seconds after the gun.

This is a pretty hilly course. The first four miles are gently rolling hills which served well to get everything warmed up and moving well. I chatted a little with quite a few folk; it turns out that the San Antonio Team in Training chapter was up here in force. My goal here was really just to keep things rolling well, find my pace, and not go out too fast, aiming for about 9:15 overall for the first half. I think that I accomplished this pretty well.

Mile 1: 9:16 … Mile 2: 8:37 … Mile 3: 9:20 … Mile 4: 9:00

The first half of mile five was downhill, we dropped over two hundred feet. The grade was steep enough that I know some people have trouble with it. I tried to keep my legs reined in to save my quads, but still got some in good speed and passed a bunch of people. The next mile and a half were uphill, gaining that drop back and then some.

None of the hills were as bad as Scotland Wells during Pervasive, but they were pretty steep and I saw a lot of people walking. I tried out a technique that I’d read about where you rotate gently 45 degrees left and right of center while running in a straight line, letting some of your other muscles take care of the hills. This seemed to help at first, but my ITB started to make its presence known so I gave up on it and ran straight the rest of the way. I need to take care of that for good one of these days. All told, I was very happy with the fact that I neither walked nor let my pace get too slow.

Mile 5: 8:55 … Mile 6: 9:23

The next mile had the last big downhill - too steep to get truly fast on given the wet streets - and its accompanying uphill. There were others that were bad, but this was the worst of the truly evil ones. A water stop came up just after the uphill, so I took my only Gu of the race.

Mile 7: 9:29

Nowhere on the hills did I feel the need to drop below a 2/2 breathing pattern, and I was able to recover much faster than I have in the past. I averaged a 9:08 for the first half of the race, slightly faster than my goal pace of 9:15. The plan at this point was to pick up the pace and try to get down to an 8:15 for the second half.

The next three miles were pretty nice. I was speeding up, but a lot of folk around me were as well so it wasn’t quite as dramatic as Pervasive seemed to be. I moved to a 2/3 breathing pattern for the most part and enjoyed the relative flatness we encountered. There were still a lot more small rolling hills than the elevation chart implies, but it was a good break after those calf-killers we’d run up earlier.

Mile 8: 8:32 … Mile 9: 8:17 … Mile 10: 8:04

I started passing more people that I knew during this time. Around mile ten I came up on another runner who took me as his rabbit and started pulling right behind me. At one point he even drafted off me when the wind picked up! Needless to say, this was a new sensation for me. Still, it was good and the additional pressure really helped me to keep the pace up - don’t worry though, I dropped him at about mile 12. Even now we were still running what would be considered a moderately hilly course if it stood alone as a 5k, especially during mile eleven with a fifty foot steep climb and mile thirteen with a slow seventy footer.

Mile 11: 7:49 … Mile 12: 8:05 … Mile 13: 8:08

About 100m into the final stretch I passed Gilbert (who won the race with a blistering 1:12:46.5 - that’s a 5:33 pace) standing by the side of the road. Naturally, he yelled at me that I should start passing people - and I did. For the next 200m I just flew, reaching a 5:40 pace myself according to the Forerunner! Wow - what a rush. Unfortunately I miscalculated a little bit and there was one more bend in the road before the true finish line, so I felt really rough trying not to drop in the last 100m or so and slowed way down. What a great finish feeling though, as I crossed the timing mats dizzy, shivery, and oh so happy.

Mile 13.11: 0:42 (6:22 pace)

Overall I came in at 1:53:49 for an 8:41 overall pace. My second half pace was an 8:08, better than my goal pace and exactly a minute faster than my first half, which is really good. I beat my goals for each half and for the entire race, and picked up 37 seconds per mile on my 10 mile pace for what I consider to be a harder overall course. I’m feeling pretty good at this point, my ITB needs a little icing tonight but nothing’s really hurting and I’m not even walking funny.

I think that I need to work on being brave enough to go out harder for the first few miles in the future. The upcoming Decker 20K may be easier for that; its another hilly course but they’re almost all slow long hills from what I’ve heard, so there’s less reason to save myself for the second half.

Bottom line? I had a blast, got what I consider to be a good time, had what I know was a great time, and beat all of my goals in the process, without walking at all on the hills (and only 3-4 steps every other waterstop when I drank Gatorade). You know what? I’m feeling pretty damn good about today.

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