10 For Texas

I was so excited to be able to do 10 for Texas in The Woodlands. I had my mind set to do it months ago when we learned there would be no marching band contests on the calendar. It was even more special to run it with the girls. Having come to terms with the fact that I am just slower than I was last year, I decided to be conservative with my finish time goal. The combination of record heat and drought, nursing school, increasing stress, and sleep deprivation on top of being a wife, mom, and working is lethal to my pace. It can't be helped. I will have the hot runner body and work on that BQ (haha) after the letters R.N. trail my name.

So it was a great race. I set a time goal of 2:10 and a more important goal of finishing strong and not cramping. I did my best to hydrate and fuel in the days preceding the race and went to the starting line confident. We met at Potbelly's so we could line up and start together. On our way to the starting line we were stopped by a photographer for one of The Woodlands magazines. So exciting!! Unfortunately, we lost Kim in the crowd somehow and she wasn't in the picture. One of the highlights of the day was the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. There were some technical difficulties and the singer had to start over. When the microphone went out again the entire crowd started singing. It was awesome! There were sooo many people lined up I thought it would take five minutes to get over the starting line. It only ended up being about a minute and a half. Kim and Kelly were ahead of us but Teresa, Tara, and I managed to stay together for roughly the first half of the race. At about mile three I realized that I had started out too fast and decided to slow the pace to where it felt sustainable. Maybe one of these days I will actually NOT start out too fast. After mile 4 I decided to stop with the run/walk intervals and just walk at the water stations. I found a groove and was afraid to lose it with the walk breaks. It seemed to work although it was a risky move as I have been doing the 5:1 intervals during training. After about mile five Tara moved ahead of us and I lost Teresa about half way between five and six. By this point I realised there wasn't anywhere for Glenn to park and cheer along the course and I wasn't going to see them until I reached the finish line. There were lots of people cheering, the little kids were the cutest. It was just after the six mile mark that another highlight of the race occurred. I was expecting Teresa to catch up to me and when I caught someone approaching out of the corner of my eye I thought it was her. Nope the shirt was yellow. It was Coach Steve!!! My was I happy to see him. He wasn't able to race with us but that didn't stop him from crashing the course for a quick 30 minute run. Amazingly enough I possess the skill of running and side hugging simultaneously. There we were running sweaty cheek to sweaty cheek. It was just the pick me up I needed to get me through to the end. I guess it could have been the power gel. No. It was Steve. The last mile was really tough. There was an incline and a head wind. But, I fought the urge to walk and thought that Lake Woodlands was the longest road in the world (as I often thought during training). A girl in a red shirt passed me and said we have to be getting close. I checked my garmin we only had about a quarter mile to go. After I turned into Market Street I decided to go ahead and kick it in to finish strong. As I passed her she said "Go get it." Obviously I don't spend enough time in Market Street because there was one more turn than I was expecting and here I was going at puke pace. I made the last turn and red shirt girl is approaching me. That is when the inner competitor in me kicked in and there was no way that chick was going to beat me to the line. Naturally I gave it all I had and made it over first. YES!!!!! My official time was 2:11:30. I was a little slower than my goal but I finished strong, I didn't cramp, and I listened to my body and it was a success. My legs were tired but they carried me to the end. You can't get better than that!!

Tara, Teresa, Kelly, Me, Kim