Well, I must say I had higher hopes for this race than what transpired. It was cool out, which was nice once things got started. It was also windy, but luckily it was on my back most of the time. I started out feeling good and keeping a pace I was happy with. I started pacing off a girl that was hitting 10 m/m at first, but then started picking it up. I really should have let her go and just focused on my own race. But, I didn't and stayed with her for the first 6 miles. I think this was certainly a mistake looking back on it! At the half-way point I was still feeling okay, not great. I was having some trouble with a shooting pain in my side, that I thought was a cramp, but it wouldn't go away (turns out I pulled an abdominal muscle at some point, either in the race or earlier, but this was the time it started to act up). Around mile 8, I was starting to feel less than great and my pace started to drop. Each mile after this, got a little slower and a little more painful. Around mile 10, I saw the 2:10 pace group run by...nothing like watching your goal run past you and leave you in the dust! Then around 11.5, my husband caught up to me. He was having the race of a lifetime and looking great. I knew I was in trouble when even my competitiveness with my husband couldn't get me to pick up pace. The last miles was horrible. I'd slowed down to more than 11 m/m and I really hurt. They changed the last mile of the route this year (I heard because of an event on the UT campus) and it resulted in a bit more uphill at the end. The hills almost did me in (mentally and physically). I was determined not to walk, but I also knew I wasn't running any faster than I could walk! Luckily with the uphills, than came the downhills right to the end. While I'd watched my big goal run away from me, I was getting nervous towards the end that I was also going to lose my other goal (of a PR over last year of 2:14). I stopped looking at my watch and just kept going.

I'm glad I finished and feel I have a lot to learn from having a "bad" race. I'm still proud of having finished and super proud of how well my husband did. I think next year I'm going to try a different venue, because I don't feel like chasing down my demons from this race any time soon. :) It's not so much my time that I was disappointed in, as how bad I felt for the last half of the race. I really trained well for this race and had logged over 1200 miles of running since last years race, but it just didn't happen for me. Live and learn, and most importantly - move on!

Try and stay with my race plan better.

It was cold and windy when I finished and I went to get my clothes as soon as possible, but I was still freezing. Skipped most of the post-race stuff and went to get in line for the buses ~ glad we did, because the line got way longer almost instantly.


Fighting a sinus infection, but who knows if things would have gone much better if I was 100%.


Well the post-race food took a bit of a dive this year. Last year they had breakfast tacos, but this year all they had was fruit and crackers (packaged). For $100 race, I think they could cough up some food at the end.