Toughest 10K Kemah Race Report

This one was very appropriately named!

We got up at the butt-crack of dawn... oh, hell, we got up waaaaaaay before the butt-crack of dawn, because we had already made the hour drive to Kemah and picked up my packet and visited the porta-potties by dawn.

Dawn.

More dawn, you can actually see the sun just over Z's head.

It was really quite lovely.

After watching the sunrise over the ocean, I headed over to the start.  This race was basically a mile over to the Kemah bridge, 4, FOUR, passes over the bridge, and a mile back.  My goal was to only walk the water stops and to get a solid hill workout.  I had no idea how long it would take - I was hoping for less than 70 minutes, but that was just a hope, not a goal.

So, off we went.  The flat roads were pretty sucky.  And that was really the only bad thing about this race.  Well, that and the occasional whiff of rotting fish.  I seeded myself pretty well, maybe a bit too far forward because I was getting passed some, but I was hanging with a lot of people around my pace, so tough to tell.  There was a dude near the beginning with "Spidey" on the back of his shirt that was leaping over traffic cones.  My initial goal was to stick with him, because I could not wait to pass him on the bridge.  Which I did, first pass.

First time up and over the bridge, I knew 2 things: that I was definitely getting a good hill workout, and that I was going to be struggling by the end.  I also made the mistake of taking gatorade at the first water stop, and my stomach rebelled, so I knew I'd be switching to water only.  Second pass I started singing "Eye of the Tiger" in my head, except I only know the one phrase, and for me it is the "will of the fight", not the "thrill of the fight", so that just went on repeat as a mantra on the uphills.  On the downhill I was trying to focus on running loose and letting gravity help me.  I was repeating "don't brake" with each footfall on the way down.  And that's how I got through to the last pass.  I basically removed all thoughts from my head except those power phrases, shortened my stride on the uphill, and didn't even think about walking.

After the final bridge pass it was just a mile of flat to the finish and boy, was I ever glad!

Final time: 107:39.  My slowest 10K ever.  But also my hardest.  And at the finish line, MEDALS!!!

First medal after a long drought.  Yummy!

And popsicles, though my Kid stole mine.

This race was really well run; I would definitely do it again.  They have a smart course - with water stops on both ends of the bridge, water is truly plentiful.  They offered both water and full-strength gatorade.  They gave away tech t-shirts, a really nice tech hat, and MEDALS!  The finish party was well stocked: popsicles, breakfast burritos, and the usual fruit stuff.  They had women-only porta-potties AND the regular flush restrooms were open if you were willing to stand in the line.  They convinced the Starbucks right by the start/finish line to open early, so P and Z had the best spectating convenience ever.  (And the Starbucks was bumpin', according to P.)  Tooling around the boardwalk was a great way to kill time pre and post race.

And I'm happy to be back in the game!