The race was scheduled for 7:30 AM which is mighty early for me. I’m a night owl who stays up and writes blog entries well passed midnight. Getting up at the crack of dawn is really not something I excel at. I was going to get up at 6AM and leave the house around 6:30 and make it to downtown in 30 minutes so that would have left me with 30 minutes to warm up and get ready. But my co-worker who ran this event the last three years said that traffic can be terrible and I better shoot for being there by 6AM! At this point I really had doubts whether this whole running and racing is worth it or not.

So I compromised and set the alarm for 5:30AM and I was out the door by 5:50AM well on my way. The trick was to have all my clothes set out ready to go the night before. Traffic was not bad at all it was actually really light and I made it to downtown in record time. My wife works downtown so she has a monthly parking pass in an underground garage so I went straight there. It turned out that the pass was unnecessary as it was free parking everywhere but it was still great to know where to park instead of trying to look around for a place. I was only about 500 yards from the start so I walked up to the starting line to size it up and make sure I can get there in time. There were a handful of runners already hanging out and warming up but I think they were just trying to stay warm.

Weather was freezing, it was a chilly 34 degrees (1 Celsius) with some good gusts of wind that really made it feel a lot colder. I had another one of those “what the hell am I doing?” moments and I quickly walked back to the parking garage and spent the next hour in my wife’s office waiting for the start time to get closer. As I was waiting for the time to pass I kept looking out the window to see if the crowd would grow bigger around the start line but I saw no real progress for the longest time. Around 7AM I decided it was time to drink my morning shake which had just the right amount of liquid and carbs for the run. I was also happy that I did not have to stand in line out in the cold for the port-a-potty I could use a much more civilized restroom in my wife’s building.

By the time I arrived to the start area there were a lot of people there. I did some warm up and around 7:20AM I got in line. It was pretty crowded and I honestly didn’t know where I should be standing with my planned target time of sub 50 minutes with the hope of under 48 minutes. I ended up what felt like the back of the pack but after post race analysis of gun times vs. chip times I was at the 25% mark. There were about 900 people in front of me and another 2,700 behind me. It sure felt like it was the other way around. At one point I also felt a bit like Apollo Ohno before the race; yawning and wearing my tight pants. But I must assure you the similarities ended right there. I might have watched a bit too much winter Olympics to make that connection. But hey, he’s also a runner and used to be chubby so there might be more similarities between him and I!

At 7:28AM I thought I heard the national anthem being sang by the front of the crowd but the singing didn’t quite travel to my area by the time it got to the end. Then at 7:30AM they promptly blew the air horn and the race was on. Well it was on for the folks at the front of the queue. For me it didn’t really start for another 40 seconds or so and even after successfully crossing the start line I was not really running for another 40 seconds. It was more like dodging people and trying to pass them any way I could.

At this point it became clear that next time I should be more aggressive about my starting position and go to the front of the line. I will not be stuck behind all the casual 1 hour plus runners next time for sure! I still kept passing people for the next mile and a half but things got better as the race progressed as the pace really started to spread us out.

My goal was to run an even split race. I was trying to run the first half as fast as the second half. This meant running the race smart and not overdoing the first half. This is where a heart rate monitor really comes handy. It’s kind of like a speedometer in your car that helps you to put your pace on cruise control without worrying too much about what the other people do around you. I just had to run my own race and ignore everyone else as hard as that is when there are this many other people around. Based on my training I knew what my heart rate was supposed to be and I ran the race based on heart rate rather than pace. I knew from training that as long as I kept my heart rate in check my pace would fall right in place.

So I ran the first half of the race at 92% of my Heart Rate Reserve which for me meant 174 bpm. Then during the second half I have upped it to 94% which was roughly 177 bpm. These are actually pretty high numbers and well into anaerobic exercising range which means it’s not really sustainable for any longer than a 10K run.

When said I have upped my heart rate for the second half it didn’t really reflect itself in increased speed. It basically just meant that my pace did not fade too badly. Due to the nature of Fort Worth’s downtown which sits on a knoll it is inevitable to run downhill for the beginning of the race and having to run uphill towards the end. This can catch you by surprise if you didn’t plan for it. I knew that the incline was coming towards the end and I was watchign my speed decline and my heart rate increase as I was reaching closer to the finish line. Fatigue really started to kick in around mile 5 out of the 6.2 and I knew that I still had ways to go and I kept myself running the pace by concentrating on not the next mile but on running the same pace to the next parked car or the next telephone pole.

At the last 200 yards I have decided to gun it and I ran a pretty decent sprint to the finish. But as you can see my finish photos had to suffer because of it. I look like I’m in horrendous pain when in reality I wasn’t. I was just getting tired and worn out but the minute I crossed the finish line, gathered up my finisher medal and a cup of water I was feeling great. Oh and how did I do? My chip time was 45:42 which meant I have finished 125th out of the 3416 finishers. In my age and gender group I have finished 10th out of 188 finishers. Out of the 933 people that started in front of me I had to pass 837 of them. The interesting thing in the results data is that out of the 45 people that started the race from the front of the pack (gun time and chip time are identical) their average time for the 10K is 1 hour 10 minutes and 4 seconds. The average for all 3,400+ finishers is 1 hour 10 minutes and 55 seconds. Apparently there are a lot of runners who are not very clear on just how good or bad of a runners they are.

All in all the race was great and I had a great time. While the pictures might indicate a complete agony I actually enjoyed every minute of the race and can’t wait to do it again.

I have 37 days to get in tip-top shape by then. Since my running has been going pretty good I have decided that it was time to take it to a next level. I’m a goal oriented person and I perform a lot better if I have set goals with set plans in motion instead of just winging it. I thought 5 weeks should be enough to get me in shape to finish the race. I have a target time in my head but I’m not going to commit to it publicly until it gets closer to the race and I get a better feel for my stamina and endurance. I have not ran 10K in a long long time. I did run 5 miles straight with no stopping last weekend and a 10K is only 1.2 miles more and I have certainly felt that I had it in me to continue. I have some more lofty goals in sight for the long term but this 10K will suffice on such a short notice.

A co-worker of mine has signed up for the half marathon. He has ran two marathons before but this time he didn’t really feel like committing to the longer distance. I think he’s not taking it all that seriously he’ll run a good bit between now and then but not with a serious plan in mind. I’m pretty excited about the race I really hope it will go well.