27th Annual Decker Challenge 20K - Run20k

Race #4 in the Austin Distance Challenge. The blurb on the Challenge web site said this race had hills, but wasn't as challenging as the 10 miler or 1/2 marathon. I say bull. I think this race is tougher than both of those. The 1/2 marathon had the big hill up Rain Creek Parkway and a few minor ones after that but the first 3 miles were flat, as were the 4. The 10 miler had about 4 miles of hills. This course, on the other hand, was rolling hills for pretty much the enitre length. In most cases, they weren't short, steep, ones, either. They were long and grinding. My mile paces were all over the place. I'd go from 7:30 one mile to 8:05 the next. Not only did we have the hills to contend with, but the wind was pretty brutal and dead in our faces for the first 2 1/2 miles. I found a couple of guys that were going pretty much exactly my pace that were running side by side and I tucked in behind them. I think that helped a lot. I did that anywhere I could on the course.

Overall, it was a good race because of that challenge. Also, this race had the best schwag yet: a long sleeve running shirt instead of just a cotton t-shirt. Despite the inherent dorkiness of wearing the race shirt FOR the race, I pulled that sucker on. It was cold and I had a choice of wearing just my sleeveless shirt or my hooded sweatshirt. I'd be too warm with one and too cold with the other.

Nothing. I think my pace was dead on. I positive split by less than a minute. I actually may have been able to go a bit faster.

Went inside and had a donut, two bottles of water, and some Gatorade. Stretched for about 10 minutes (something else I have to do a better job of).


Lack of horsepower in the engine.


Well organized race, as has been typical of the ADC series so far. Having the indoor expo was nice considering how cold it was yesterday morning. The clothing drop was nice, too, although I didn't need it. I would have liked to have had that at the 1/2 marathon.