Austin-American Statesman Capital 10K Race Report

I'll blog a little bit more later about yesterday's goings on at the Lone Star Triathlon Festival in Galveston where Cassie completed her first spring triathlon.

However, since I won't have enough time to complete Sunday's running trifecta by making it to the Lampson Ranch 5-Miler and 5K in Huntsville (nee the Seven Hills Running Club monthly club race), I'll comment a little bit more about the happenings here in Austin before I have to get checked out of the hotel here.

First thing I noticed is that Houston's Brett Riley finished 9th overall in 34:43. (Well, maybe eighth.) Congratulations!

I'm walking through the parking lots off of Riverside and I see Chris Bittinger, Tommy King, and Brett. They pulled a "Jon Walk", left at 4 a.m. and drove to Austin for today's race.

I haven't done the Capital 10K in four years, and I really didn't come over to run the race to "race", if you will. It was good to do it and help be a little bit ready for next weekend's doule half. I think I found a good pace that I hope to duplicate on Saturday and Sunday.

It was one where I was able to carry on a conversation much of the way, which I never seem to do. So on one hand, the finishing time -- 1:06:00 even "watch time" -- was a reflection of that, but my body isn't as banged up. From a time standpoint, I was off two minutes from where I had hoped to be (I mean I did a 1:10 in the heat of the day out of Schulenburg) and today it was humid before the race, but was cooled off by rains that came just before the start.

I ended up making this a potential TIR recruiting trip. (Can I book this as an expense if it leads to part of a third team?) I ran the race with a friend of mine from Austin, 26-year-old Michele Quinton. She did three halves between late January and early March - geez, you wonder if I'm rubbing off on - or corrupting her - in the wrong way. :)

She's sort of like what Bill told me yesterday after hearing about Cassie's effort: she has a little bit more in the tank than what she gives herself credit for. Michele is considering not so much if she is going to do her first marathon, but really a matter of when. She's thinking San Antonio in November, which would be a little bit more than a year or so after she started running (a theory that Rice men's cross country and track coach Jon Warren subscribes to.)

And at eight months out, she'll be able to train through the heat that may be thrown at her by San Antonio in mid-November.

We took it kind of easy on the uphills, but it was good for me because I usually try to attack them too hard and end up walking a lot of them. So I slowed down a little bit and walked maybe 25 seconds on one and 15 seconds on another.

She told me later that the rest of the way that I probably pushed the pace on them a little bit. Well, I think it had something to do that she didn't want to have to walk any of the race. :)

I didn't catch the mile 5 or mile 6 split so the splits looked like this:

Mile 1 -- 10:12.93
Mile 2 -- 10:58.00
Mile 3 -- 11:20.69 (Brett was almost finished at this point. Well, with the start difference, he was!)
Mile 4 -- 10:13.93 (Half of this mile was uphill too.)
Last 2.2 -- 23:15.19

Overall -- 1:06:00.74

We talked for a bit after the finish until her friend, Brian, came in. He said that he's been having a bad running day for about a month.

Sometimes, you just have to throw the time out the window and enjoy the rest of what the sport throws at you. Today was another case where I continue to be able to expand my universe of friends. The day before, I met Edwin's friend, Jeremy Webb, who finished his first triathlon after getting hit by a car while riding his bike near his hometown of Diboll.

It is a large reason why we'll have a second TIR definitely, and I'm beginning to believe that a third one is completely possible. A 203-mile, rolling running party! :)

I may add a bit more later. Time to get a shower before they throw me out of here!