Snips and Snails and Puppydog Tails

Sorry it’s a little blurry, but here I am at the starting line!

I know you’re all sick of hearing me post about it, but I’ve got to get this race report down while it’s still somewhat fresh in my head. Bear with me here, please.

I didn’t officially sign up for the Cowtown 10k until the 19th…the race was on the 23rd. Now, I’d been thinking about doing the race for several weeks, so I had been working up the mileage without a set training plan. Because of that, I decided to just have some fun. I remembered the course being really pretty, taking us through some parts of Fort Worth that I rarely see.

Of course, this IS me we’re talking about, and “just have some fun” is easier said than done. I made the mistake of looking up my times from the 2011 Cowtown 10k that I did as part of my training for the Dallas Rock-n-Roll Half Marathon. Two years ago, I had a gun time of 1:06:24; a chip time of 1:04:59, and placed 771 out of 2045 female racers (1889 out of 3691 overall). Once I discovered this, and looked at what my last few “long” training runs had been, I got to thinking… (bad idea, I know). I came up with an A, B, and C goal for Saturday’s race.

• A goal: a new PR, run the whole route
• B goal: run the whole route, regardless of PR
• C goal: finish not feeling like death

Friday night we went up to see Jacob’s pre-UIL band concert (they sounded AWESOME, btw), and didn’t get home until after 8 pm. After eating dinner, getting all my race gear together and ready to go, and setting up a new playlist (I’ve been running to podcasts lately, and wasn’t sure how that would do for a race, so I opted for music for race day), it was nearly 11 before I got in bed. Not ideal for a 5 a.m. alarm. Saturday when the alarm went off at 5 it was cold out (below freezing), I was tired, and I admit, I considered just rolling back over and sleeping some more. (Have I mentioned I’m not a morning person?) It was a fleeting moment of weakness; I was up soon after.

All bundled up to cheer Mommy on!

We all bundled up and headed out at 6:10 (10 minutes later than I wanted). I got to the start with what I’d call perfect timing–I was in the starting corral long enough to get my playlist all set up and not feel rushed, but not so long that I got cold again after a nice warm-up jog from the car to the start corral. After a participant (sorry, I do not recall his name) sang the National Anthem, the gun sounded and we were off. Bryan had gotten a text to me in time to tell me where he and Sam would be at the start of the race. I got to wave to them and hear my sweet little guy say, “Hi Mommy! Go Mommy!”

I didn’t take any pictures during the race, but I think the image that will stick with me the longest is rounding a corner after passing the UNT Health Science Center campus and having an amazing view of the sun coming up behind the downtown Fort Worth skyline. It was all pink and orange and gorgeous. (That was also when I knew I’d be REALLY glad I already had my sunglasses on, even if I felt a little silly in the starting corral.)

The course was pretty much what I remembered from 2 years ago. The aid stations were well stocked and had great cheer-ers and the police lining the course were mostly smiling–some even cheered! I heard lots of runners thanking the course support and the policemen, which was way cool. I made sure to toss out several thank yous myself – hey, these folks were up at the booty-crack of dawn to stand in the cold and cheer on these crazy runners. That’s REALLY COOL of them.

I really tried to not look at my Garmin much at all, just tick off the miles as it buzzed at me for each one. I was just out there to have fun, right? Also,  I didn’t want to be crushed if I looked down and had run less than I thought I had. I was just rocking out to my tunes and trying to enjoy the run for what it was — awesome. No, really, I probably looked like a big-ol’ doofus several times as I jammed out to the tunes that nobody but me could hear. I also tried to get some good karma points by letting another runner know his shoe was untied.

The hardest parts of the course, for me, were the quick, nasty uphill over the levee about halfway through the course, and then the last mile. It felt like it was all uphill. And that last mile is where we had the least course support, spectator-wise. It probably didn’t help that it was also at the end, I was tired, hot (yes, hot, in 30-something-degree temps; I’d just RUN 6 MILES), and looking for the finish line.

As I got the finish line in sight, the announcer counted down the seconds to finishing in under an hour. I couldn’t believe it. I was about to meet my A goal! I was really stoked, but I’d left it all on the course – I had NO kick at the end. I didn’t make a gun time of under an hour, but my chip time WAS under an hour (and that’s what really counts for me, since I’m not out to win any of these races).

I crossed the line, stopped my watch, grabbed a water and my finisher’s medal, and weaved through the crowds to meet up with my cheering section. My Garmin showed a time of 59:39 and a distance of 6.29 miles. I checked the online (official) results later that day (after two basketball games and a team lunch) and they showed a gun time of 1:00:15 and a chip time of 59:29. I placed 1312 of 4110 total finishers and 462 of 2352 female finishers with an average 9:35 pace.

I learned a couple things during this race: first, I discovered that running to tunes, while awesome, also allowed my mind to wander – to good and bad places – a little more than if I was enjoying a good podcast (I personally like AnotherMotherRunner and A Way With Words podcasts for training runs) so I had a little more of a mental battle than I expected. On the flip side of that, the dead space between each song allowed me to hear snippets of one of the neatest sounds ever…hundreds of runner’s feet hitting the pavement with each step. It’s an amazing sound, and one that I hope everyone hears at some point. (okay, that second one I knew already, but I enjoyed the reminder that morning.)

In the words of my tyke: “Mommy, you had a good race!” Yes. It was a good race. 🙂 Thanks, Cowtown!

Not a bad pic for having just run 6.2 miles!