Rodeo Run 10K Race Report

Let me start with a little background. On Saturday, February 23, I ran a 5 mile personal best in approximately 50 degree weather. On Monday I ran a recovery run in similar weather. On Wednesday I skipped my scheduled run because the thermometer read 30 degrees outside, and I opted to bike indoors instead. On Saturday at the Rodeo Run, it was freaking hot. Almost freaking 80 degrees.


I didn't even notice the heat amongst the angst of getting to the start line. Preston has a parking pass at the Medical Center that makes it free on weekends, so we parked there and took the train into downtown to avoid traffic. There was some issue with where we'd park, though, so we were running a little later than I hoped. Then we had to walk from the train to the start. Where about 8499 of my closest friends had gathered. Then I had to get a chip and stand in line for the porta-potty. After all that I only had about 5 minutes to get into place. I was frustrated because I saw some pace signs near the front, but ended up freaking out near the 7 minute milers because I couldn't make my way farther back and couldn't find another sign after that. It sucked - I didn't want to be that person that was all up in everyone's way.


It turned out that it didn't matter, though. There were enough people (read - at least 95%) there ignoring the signs that I was passing waaaaaaaaay more people than were passing me. The first mile or so was lovely (aside from people-dodging), shady, and heavily crowd-supported downtown. Mile 2 was more of the same, but less shady. In the third mile, we ran past a sign that read (I kid you not) "Mount Rodeo Run: Elevation 100 ft.". I think that is BS, though. The amount of suckage that immediately ensued means that it *must* have been more than 100 ft. of elevation gain!! Ran through a lovely misting station just past 3 miles, which at that point was sorely needed. It was HOT. Walked through an aid station just after that to drink some water and pour the rest on my head. This is where you know that I knew that the wheels were about to come off. My experience with watering myself during races is bad. Quite simply put, once I drink water I become almost intolerably queasy. I knew when I took the water that it was giong to be the same old story. But it was so hot and I was so thirsty I just couldn't see another way, and so began the hell-march to the finish. At least, that's how I felt about it. I felt like it must have been 80 degrees. The Texas sun was out, beating down on us. There was a breeze, slightly cooling, but strong enough in places to make me feel like I was running just to stay in place. My mind wandered. My form faltered. My abs felt sore (for no good reason that I can discern). I quit paying attention to pace and just fought to stay running. I did, and I finished, but those last 2.2 miles weren't pretty.


My splits:
Mile 1: 8:45
Mile 2: 8:50
Mile 3: 9:15
Mile 4: 9:03
Mile 5: 9:49
Mile 6: 9:33
.2: (Garmin read .3 - so assume 2ish minutes, whatever it takes to make up the rest)


The race also provided 5K splits:
First 5K: 28:15
Last 5K: 29:43


Totals: 57:59 at a 9:19 pace per mile.

When I got home, I weighed myself. Before I ran, I weighed in at 128.2. After the run and after 4 bottles of water, I weighed 126.4. Seriously. And I did get mildly sunburned. So, all in all, I'd say that just over a minute over my PR is really quite good for the day, but I've been training for a PR, and I really felt like I could have done it, so I'm disappointed with how the race went down.

This is probably my last 10K of the season, too... I don't think I'm up for Bayou City Classic this weekend, and after that the races shorten down to 5Ks for the summer heat. Might look at the Law Week 8K on March 29th and definitely want to run the Bellaire Trolley Run 5K in April, where I'll be gunning to blow my 5K PR out of the water. As you can see above, despite my rather disappointing total time, my 2 5K splits are my 1st and 3rd best chip-timed splits of all time, so I *know* I've got a stand-alone 5K PR in me... a time 27-28 minutes would be sweet sweet sweet heading into the summer...