Mayfest 10K in Fort Worth Race Report -- Update

It's just after 10 a.m. here in Fort Worth and I'll keep this brief for the moment as I need to shower and head to the TCU campus for Waverly's competition.

My watch (should be chip) time was 1:02:42.24. (It turns out looking at the actual results online that they screwed up the start offset time for the 10k.) For getting my mileage up, I'll take it although I'm not completely happy about it. Too fast on mile 1, but the rest of the pace was OK.

Mile 1 -- 9:29.20 (knew I was too fast, but I had started a little too far back)
Mile 2 -- 10:03.04
Mile 3 -- 10:02.09 (I was comfortable with being able to hold this...)
Mile 4 -- 10:18.46 (...however I was a little disappointed that it slipped a little more)
Mile 5 -- 10:16.02
Mile 6 -- 10:23.48
Last .2 -- 2:10.17

Total -- 1:02:42.24

Again, I've done better and I'll do better in the future. It was low 70 with a cool breeze with very high humidity. So it was a little bit warmer and much more humid than the 20-plus miles I got in Vancouver this week.

(Evening) I need to do more speed-related running. I think that I've done so much of the long stuff recently that I've compromised a little bit of what little speed that I had. (Alright, no laughing in the peanut gallery!) I guess that is why Run The Woodlands 5K is coming up on Saturday.

The event this morning was put on in conjunction with a huge festival called, "Mayfest". I went and registered at 6:30 a.m and then came back to the hotel. While I was there, I met Mike Lucas' brother, Andy. (Mike is in charge of the two Houston stores, including The Woodlands.)

Gena and Waverly dropped me off and then I got ready for the race to begin. It started up on one of the levees along the Trinity River (in Trinity Park). We ran south towards I-30, but then turned around and headed north going just about a mile and a half before turning back south. At one point, we were running through the Mayfest grounds after we passed mile 4.

Somewhere in mile 3, there was a younger lady (I think she was younger) who I passed and she sort of sped up and got back in front of me. At the time, I thought nothing of it as I was just trying to maintain a good consistent pace. I think I even stayed behind her a little bit to maintain that pace.

As we were going through the Mayfest grounds, closer to the mile 5 marker, I came up upon the same woman. I started to go by her to the left and she sped up a little bit. I'm thinking to myself, "Well, damn, this gal wants to race out here?" She surged ahead and I responded. And I'll be darned if she didn't surge ahead again. I'm thinking, "This is nuts." (Granted, I'm sure that there are some people out there who don't like getting beat by a bigger guy like myself ... oh well!)

So when she went a second time, I answered and took it up one more time. I went by two guys that were in front of me, but she didn't answer. Just a few yards up was the turnaround to go back north which also was about a hundred yards from the water stop. However, I didn't turnaround and look to see where she was at. I took on some water and then proceeded towards mile marker 5. (By the way, I hate water stops that are just before a mile marker.)

I kept thinking that I'd see her along the way somewhere because I was sure that she'd be upset that I beat her back there, but I didn't see her again until she finished the event about two (2) minutes later than me.

So that was the positive out of the event. Overall, a fairly good run, but it gives me room to work on.

Because Gena had the truck and was with Waverly, I ended up walking about a mile and a half back to the hotel to get a shower and then I walked another two miles from the hotel to the TCU campus.