Cowtown 10K Race Report

I haven't run in a 10K race since the Redondo Beach Super Bowl Fun Run in February 2007 (1:00:29), but I wanted a good start to the 2011 racing season. Boy was it!

The Expo:

The weekend started with me battling rush hour traffic on I-635 and I-30 from Dallas to Fort Worth to get to the expo on Friday night, and like most other race expos, I grabbed my number, non-technical T-shirt and headed towards the door to leave. But for some reason I decided to cruise the endless maze of booth after booth. I've put my fair share of miles on my Zoot Ultra TT 2.0's and was in the market for another pair of racing flats/tri shoes. I talked for a while with a knowledgeable guy at the Pearl Izumi booth who sent me towards a New Balance rep on the other side of the exhibition hall, but about halfway in between, I ran into the sprawling walled-in empire of Luke's Locker. I swear it was as big as one of their regular stores!

I poked my head in and saw the K-Swiss Blade Light Run sitting there. I've been rotating through 3 pairs of Brooks Adrenaline GTS 7's since they were on closeout 2 years ago, so I figured I'd try something new. Put them on and they felt great! Jumped around like and idiot for a little bit. Still good! Looking closer, I saw they also had the K-Swiss Blade Light Race shoe as well. Light, comfortable, no laces to tie -- great shoe for T2. I'm sold! Ended up getting a pair of each at a pretty good deal. Looks like my Zoots will be officially retired once I break in these bad boys.

Race Day:

Got up at 4:30a, had a Clif Builder Bar (I am addicted to the Peanut Butter ones!), and headed out the door around 5:15a. 45 minutes later I was in Fort Worth at the Start/Finish/Expo area. I set my Forerunner 305 alert to a max heart rate of 148bpm and did an easy 2 mile warm up including the first mile of the course. All set for the 7:00am start.

The weather was dry and a crisp 48 degrees F. The sunrise started painting the sky in hues of pink and gold. People were friendly with a healthy buzz of excitement in the race chute. Not a bad way to start a morning.

I think there were about 5000 people running the event, and they didn't set up any corrals so there were people up at the front who probably shouldn't have been. Needless to say there was a lot of bobbing and weaving over the first mile. There were also several 90 degree turns forcing everyone to slow down and pinch into a tight corner. On the other hand, the rolling hills helped spread out the crowd and I was able to find some open space to run.

My goal was to break the 50 minute mark so I needed to hold close to 8:05 even though I've never held anything faster than 8:15 over 3 miles and this was 6.2. After that first mile, I found a great groove and got lost in my own metronome breathing -- 2 steps in, 2 steps out -- over and over again.

Around mile 3 I was awakened from my trance by a guy running up behind me and had the following exchange:

"Sir! Excuse me!" he said. I stepped to my left to let him through thinking he wanted to pass.

"Sir, I think...this is yours!" he yelled. Still chugging away, I turn back and look at him and see him start to hand me something. I automatically put my hand out and with Olympic-like precision we do a handoff of...my car key that had fallen out of my pocket (!!!).

"Oh man! Thanks dude! That would have been a bummer!" I said.

"No...the bummer is...that I had to run...this fast to...catch up to you!" he said choking for breath as he immediately dropped back into the massive swell of runners behind me and disappeared.

I have never NEVER experienced anything as amazing as this. Forgetting for a moment that you're in a race, how often has someone dropped something and you reached down to pick it up for them as they walk away? Now put yourself in his shoes, a guy ahead of you in a race drops a key. You stop and pick it up as he continues to run away from you. Now you have to not only run his speed, but actually go faster to catch up to him. At mile 3 I was running about 7:20/mile and who knows how long he was playing catch up. It was an awesome sacrifice on his part and I am completely grateful! Thank you!

At this point I was halfway, glanced at my watch and saw that I was ahead of my pace. Not expecting to be going this fast, I'd unassumingly given myself a buffer and backed off a little for the 2nd half just so I could finish strong. Final splits were 8:00, 7:27, 7:19, 7:39, 7:37, 7:49, 7:22 and an unofficial time of 48:05. A new PR!

Crossing the line I almost felt like throwing up, so I knew I pushed about as hard as I could go. I think that's all you can really ask for. Can't wait to see my results as I continue training and watch my times drop even further!

Honey Stinger Hive

Just wanted to send a huge shout out to the guys at Honey Stinger for selecting me to be part of the Hive, their new grassroots sponsorship program. Thanks!

Policemen dunk donuts in coffee. Kids dunk chocolate chip cookies in milk. Athletes dunk energy waffles in tea?

Seriously, these things are addictive and everyone needs to try a Honey Stinger waffle. I'm going to start handing them out randomly to people I see on runs and bike rides. I think they're that good. Challenge...accepted!

Bricks and Books...

Happy Presidents Day!

I enjoyed my day off doing a little work from home in the morning and followed it up with a great brick workout. If you check out the details of my workouts on Daily Mile, you'll see I'm trying something a little different for a while...going slow. Well, I already go slow so maybe just slower. I've been reading a lot about Low Heart Rate training and am waiting for a book from Amazon to arrive in my mailbox.


From what I've heard, The Big Book of Endurance Training and Racing is to physical fitness as Think and Grow Rich is to entrepreneurs. It creates a foundation and basically explains in no uncertain terms what you need to do to accomplish your goals. It makes it seem simple. The hard part, as anyone knows who's ever tried to do anything, is that you've actually got to start and, more importantly, be determined to stick it out through the tough times.


The author, Philip Maffetone, doesn't make grandiose claims to help you create a beach body or give you a secret to run a 5 minute mile. Instead his methods to make you go faster are to actually go slower. The goal for each training session, whether it's running, biking, swimming, pogo sticking, or skipping to your lou, is to keep your heart rate as close to a certain number without going over. Welcome to The Price is Right...For Faster Run Times.


Take 180 and subtract your age. This is your new favorite number. The idea is that your body will become more efficient at this "low" heart rate and over the next couple months of training you'll actually see improvements and run faster while maintaining this rate. You become aerobically fit.


My first experience at maintaining this heart rate (on the run today) dropped my pace from my usual 8:45 pace to a molasses-like 12:30 pace. I honestly felt like I could walk faster. In preparation for Ironman 70.3 Austin in October, I expect to see my pace at 149 beats per minute drop from 12:30 to around the 7:00 minute mark. Maybe I'm just being optimistic. After all, the book is still on its way to my mailbox.

It Takes Two To Tradition

"If you do something once, it's a happening. It takes two to tradition." -- Me

Last year for my 30th birthday I thought it'd be a good idea to commemorate a milestone birthday with a milestone event: run 30 miles. Yeah...seriously. I wasn't going for time. I just wanted to finish, and I did -- barely -- in 6 hours and 30 minutes. Wanting to create a lasting tradition where every year I'll run my age in miles*, this year I set out to do 31. The * being that I want to run each year's distance faster than the overall time from the previous year.

Compared to last year's 10 day training program (4 mile run 10 days out, 18 mile run 4 days out), this year I took 3 solid weeks to train. It's still waaaaaay less preparation than I should do, and could easily lead to injury, but at least it was better than last year.

End result: 5 hours, 20 minutes.

To say I was ecstatic afterwards was an understatement. I mean, really...who drops 70 minutes? Me, that's who! There were definitely times during the run that I wanted to quit or told myself I wouldn't do this next year. I didn't and I will.

If you feel like running 31 miles and haven't properly trained:

• Plan your route. The southern side of White Rock Lake is the only part of the lake with noticeable hills. I cut them out. Instead of running 3+ 9.3 mile loops including the hills, I decided I'd do 5 mile "out and backs" 3 times on the flat part of the lake. This was by far the most important decision I made regarding my run.
• Start slow. I went out way too fast last year and had to walk the last 4 miles. I wasn't going to let that happen again. I kept my heart rate around 150 for the first 10 miles, 160 for the second 10, and 165 for the last 11. Never walked.
• Hydrate effectively. Nuun hydration tabs are awesome. They're little dissolving tabs that you put in your water bottle and are full of electrolytes. I used to get calf cramps every time I ran over 15 miles, but since I started using these last year in various runs and bike rides, I haven't cramped once. I drank 3 20oz bottles of Nuun/water on my run and another 12oz of water every 2 hours after until I went to bed.
• Make sure you can see. If you start a run at 4:26am, odds are the Sun won't be up for a couple hours. Take a headlamp. It's better than a flashlight because it keeps your hands free. I thought to take my headlamp that morning, and it was definitely the right thing to do.
• Check the weather the day before. I wasn't sure if I was going to run in the morning or the afternoon, but when I realized it was going to be 15 degrees warmer at 2pm than 6am, it was an easy decision to run in the morning. I also knew I wasn't going to need my jacket.
• Entertain yourself. You'll be running a while. My iPod playlist was great. The first hour was the All Day album by Girl Talk, a DJ who does amazing mashups of top 40 hip hop and 80's tracks. The artist posted the album online for free download. Get it here.