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!