When I started, I told myself to keep it in check and concentrate on keeping good form (have been working with Marc and Kelly to address some major form issues and weaknesses; think I'm moving in the right direction). I was feeling good and wanted to make sure I didn't blow it by going out too fast....a few minutes in, pace showed 8:4X and my first instinct was "gotta pick that up....don't want to disappoint yourself or Marc with this kind of crap pacing!!" and then I questioned if my watch was telling me the truth because the signal is pretty bad with the tall buildings, so I just settled in and ignored it for a bit.

Pace felt good, form felt good, HR was coming up to where it should be, and then the first mile clicked off at 7:34 and my thought immediately was, "oh god, you're going to blow up! Or....maybe you underestimated your abilities." So again, I decided to ignore pace and go by HR and RPE. Next mile came in right at 7:36, so I was feeling pretty satisfied with my decision -- at this point, I wasn't fully aware that I was getting a decent tailwind/crosswind benefit (that would not stay with me throughout the whole race), but then we turned a bit and I felt the force of the wind. Right then, a guy was pulling even with me and about to pass me....he was about five feet to my left, so I immediately pulled left and got in right behind him and was able to stay on him for a bit and let him break the wind.

Houston is super flat, but in an effort to keep some of the streets from having intersections, they'll have overpasses or underpasses....we ran along a street with a number of underpasses (maybe three along this section?? so six total in the race) -- every time we would go down, I would catch/pass a number of people, but as it turned to go back up, many of them would pull even or pass me. I've never been particularly strong on hills (up or down -- have a nice black toenail to prove how bad I am at the downhills...), but I'm hopeful that this change in gait will help the downhills and that eventual hill work will help the uphills.

Third mile came in a bit slower with feeling the effect of the wind, but still sub-8. At this point, I started doing some math in my head -- how much of a buffer did you accumulate to go sub-50 in these first three miles? Gotta know this because I could tell it was not going to get faster/easier from here and because I need some way to distract myself. All I wanted was to keep pushing the effort and not give up....because I know that will simply result in being disappointed in myself later in the day (the momentary satisfaction of ending the pain is not worth the prolonged disappointment in myself for being weak....it was NOT an option).

As I was running, I realized that I think about a lot of things and a whole lot of nothing at the same time. I had a bit of a hot spot forming on the outside of my left foot that I thought about a few times. There were three people I was kinda running with (leap frogging back and forth) and I appreciated that they were there. There was a guy whose shoelace had come untied and I was sure he knew, but couldn't believe that he didn't stop to fix it with 20+ minutes left to run. I kept watching him to see if he was going to eat it. I started counting down the time, reminding myself that I could endure "less than X more minutes" of pain. I knew my HR had room to go up, but I couldn't get my legs to turn over any faster, so I was thinking about what my limiter is. With about a minute to go, they were calling out "5k to the right, 10k to the left" and I kept chanting that in my head as a way to distract myself. And that's some of the stream of consciousness "thinking" that I did throughout the race :P

The last three miles were over an 8:00/mile pace, but I was still doing the math in my head and knew I had a bit of a cushion remaining to stay under 50 minutes, but that it was getting close. I was annoyed with myself for positive splitting every mile (and was thinking that Marc was probably going to be annoyed too), but if I could manage sub-50, I could forgive myself for that! I'm also a pretty inexperienced runner (first 10k ever), so I also reminded myself that this is a learning experience. Now that I know what I'm capable of, I can probably pace it better!

Finally crossed the finish line and tried not to run over anyone who had just stopped right in the way. I think I got about two deep breaths in and then went into my "oh my god, I just put it all out there, and now I think I'm going to cry" phase....no actual tears, but I was close! I guess I did not push quite hard enough ;)


Probably should have reigned it in a little in the first two miles so I could pace it more evenly (or negative split).

I also wish I could be mentally strong enough to just decide that I'm going to stay on someone's feet, regardless of how I feel, until we either cross the finish line or I implode. I am really competitive after the race (checking the results, seeing where I stood, seeing how close I was to the people ahead of me and what I would have needed to do to beat them, etc.), but in the moment, I can't seem to convince myself that it's worth really crushing myself and potentially having to shut it down and limp it in.

After I stopped "crying", I grabbed some water and then went for a short warm-down run before getting back to my car and changing into dry clothes.



Lack of running experience, run training that's not 10k-specific, confidence in myself when it comes to running



They started a few minutes late, but nothing excessive. This is a well-run race with 100% of the proceeds donated to the Houston Parks Department. This is my first time doing the race, but I can see it becoming a staple on my race calendar.