Capital 10K (by Hannah)

Good morning, Austin! We woke up this morning to learn that it was 37 degrees in Austin. Gail and I spent a moment whining about this since it was currently warmer in Detroit AND New York. Only Carole won out b/c it was a little colder in Washington.

My pre-race routine for this particular 10k consisted of running all over the hotel. It was as if I was Billy in one of those stupid family circus cartoons. You know the ones where they have the dotted line showing his path as he runs all over the neighborhood? My room, the lobby, T's room, my room, the lobby, the garage (floors 3, 4, and 5 as I looked for the car), my room, the lobby, the race. Thanks to Cheryl for buying me some banana bread that I downed as we walked TO the race. It was chip timed so no need to be early but we totally watched the start on our approach. I actually got just on the other side of the start, ducked through a fence, and crossed the start line. T showed up a little after me and decided to just start running. I think she did 5.8 miles?

Given my shell shock from yesterday's ride and my moment whining with Gail that it was too cold here, I was TOTALLY overdressed. The weather was BEAUTIFUL. The hills weren't very bad at all, and T and I did a 2:1 run/walk for the first 2.5-3 miles together. Very nice to have my chi running coach with me to say, "you're totally kicking out to the right, keep your hips level". Shortly after she said that, I started to focus on engaging my core (something that has already had a HUGE impact on my running) and keeping my hips in line. I immediately felt better and picked up the pace a little. Ended up dropping T (who tells me she had an good race as well), and just kinda took off. I was almost in shock when I saw the 4 mile marker at 43 min! Finished in 1:10:45, about 30 sec over my 10K PR from 3 weeks ago. Not bad!! At the end my left hip hurt a little, probably b/c it's never worked this hard in my entire running career. Look out left, you've got a lot of work ahead of you!

From what I hear, everybody else had a really good run too! Mia PR'd by 2 min, despite the margaritas. Dani apparently managed to stop, puke, catch up to Mia, and then start to pass her...no WONDER Mia PR'd *grin*. Carol beat her "estimated time that she didn't think she could even do" by, like, 5 minutes.

And the best part was definitely the post race brunch. FINALLY Austin gives us the weather we came here for!! Lazy sunday brunch after a long run has got to be one of my all time favorite activities...