Sunday
was the Austin 10/20. That’s a 10 mile race in Austin, TX. It’s 10
miles with 20 bands spread out in approximately half mile intervals.
The organization for this race was
awesome.
The
expo was small, but didn’t leave me feeling disappointed. When I
picked up my bib, they actually required me to show my ID. That’s a
first. I’ve had lots of emailed instructions
that state I will have to show ID to pick up my bib but they never do.
This one didn’t say anything about showing ID in the emails they sent
out, but when I arrived, they asked to see it. Good thing I didn’t need
to pass off my bib to someone else! Anyway,
after I got my bib I went into the expo room. I made a beeline for the
t-shirts. I told the lady I needed a women’s large and she said she
had to warn me because the shirts were “running small” and that she was
wearing a large. She was definitely smaller
than me, so I asked if I could get an XL instead and she said I could.
When I went for my run Wednesday morning and I wore my 10/20 shirt for
the run, let me tell you, I was very happy I traded up to the XL because
it fit perfectly. A large would have been
tight and uncomfortable and annoying and I would have been very
disappointed since I wouldn’t be able to wear it and it’s a great
looking shirt…one of my favorites for sure…actually, probably my
favorite shirt I’ve gotten so far. Anyway, there wasn’t much
at the expo that really interested me. They had some tech shirts that
were really nice, but I wasn’t interested. I thought it was really cool
that they were selling the participant shirts for the other 10/20 race
that happens in California. I thought about
buying one, but I don’t want any shirts for races I haven’t ran…that’d
just make me a poser in my opinion.
What
I DID buy was a Red Fox Wireless set of headphones. Red Fox had been
at the Austin Marathon expo and the Capital 10K expo. Both times I just
walked on past their booth, but
drooled over them in my head. This time I stopped and asked
questions. They’re Bluetooth, like the headphones I’ve been using. A
little background. The headphones I’ve been using are a $30 set I found
at Fry’s Electronics. They were really easy to use.
On the right ear piece was the skip forward and backward buttons and on
the left ear piece was the volume buttons. The sound quality was
pretty good. My main problems with those headphones was that they would
slip out ever so slightly as a ran, so I would
have to pull my headband down to hold them in place. That was all well
and good but now it’s starting to get hot in Texas so having my ears
covered up isn’t a wise idea. When I asked the guy my questions, I made
sure that there were track skip buttons (there
were…there is also a pause button!!!) and volume control buttons (there
were). They had some demo pairs so I got to try them out and give them
a listen. They felt secure against my head, like they wouldn’t be
prone to slipping out of my ears. The sound
quality was phenomenal and they were extremely comfortable. So, I
spent the $80 (expo pricing) plus $15 for the hardshell travel case.
Back
to the race. Sunday morning, I woke up around 5:30 because the race
wasn’t until 8. I parked in the on site garage that had no restriction
on access (as it was not part of
the race route so it was not closed at any time). I hung out in my car
for a while…I didn’t want to get to the start area TOO early and have
to stand around making my legs all tired. When it was time to make my
way to the start, I started walking and then,
as soon as I got out from the cover of the garage, I noticed the sky
was kind of dark, so I went back to my car to see if there was anything
to wrap around my phone to keep it dry in my gear belt in case it rained
while we were running. I found a shopping
bag and tore a piece off and wrapped it around my phone, then started
back toward the start area again. I stopped at a port-a-potty on the
way, of course. I got close and did my warm up exercises (leg swings
and calf raises), then made my way to the corral
area. They had the whole thing fenced in so I couldn’t just walk into
my assigned corral. I had to go all the way to the end and push through
the crowd and make my way to my corral. That took some doing. The
start line was pretty wide, so we made it through
the shoot in record time. I think there was 2 minutes between when
they said the “Ready, set, go” and when I (in corral 7 out of 10) hit
the start line. Very nice.
As
we made our way along the course, there was a band of some sort pretty
much exactly ever half mile. And they were all good. I wish I could
say the same for the Rock’N’Roll half
I ran last November. The bands were not evenly spaced, leaving lots of
“dead air” where all I was listening to was my breathing and footfalls
and those of the people around me. Don’t get me wrong, Rock’N’Roll was
fun, but it could have been planned better.
When us “normal” people were around mile 2, the elites were already
coming back at us at around the 4 mile mark. DAAAAAAAAMN!!! We cheered
them as they ran past us. I was doing and feeling pretty good until
around mile 7. Normally, I would have taken in
a gel around this time, however I forgot to bring one with me. The one
thing I was not happy about with this run, no gels at any of the aid
stations. At every half marathon I’ve run (even the relatively low cost
Biggest Loser) there have been gels round
mile 7 or 8. Now, sure this wasn’t a half marathon, but it was still a
decently long run. I took some extra walk breaks the last 2 miles due
to being “out of steam.”
I
crossed the finish line per my Garmin at 1:55:06, 6 seconds above my
goal time of 1:55:00. However, when I stopped at the results tent near
the finish area, it said my official
time was 1:54:34, 26 seconds faster than my goal time. And if that
wasn’t enough, when I checked my official finisher’s certificate, it
said 1:57:something. Geez. I’m going with what the computer said. The
1:57:something had to be the “gun” time as, I
said previously, it took about 2 minutes for me to cross the start line
when the race started.
 |
| obligatory standing runner's pose |
 |
| sporting my participant shirt on Wednesday's run! |
Overall,
very happy with this race. I would say I plan to do it again next
year, but really, I’d like to see about doing the MS150 bicycle ride
with some friends/co-workers and that
happens the same weekend…or at least it did this year.
And
now I’ll go back to the Red Fox headphones. Since there were bands
(and good ones!) along the race course, I did not wear listen to music
as I ran, so I didn’t get to try out
the new headphones until my next run, which was Wednesday morning
before work. I wore my 10/20 shirt for the run, like I said above. I
mapped out a 4.5 mile course in MapMyRun and set out. As I started, I
noticed some bounce in the headphones. It was annoying,
but not significant. After a few minutes, I basically got used to it
and didn’t notice it at all for the remainder of the run. Very
satisfied with my purchase and I would highly recommend them to anyone
looking to buy Bluetooth headphones that are good to
use while running. Definitely worth the cost…a very good investment in
my opinion. Oh and they said the charge lasts 6-9 hours, so you get a
good amount of time between charges. My other ones lasted 5 hours at
the max. When I was connecting them to my
phone before my run on Wednesday, it did take a little bit longer for
them to connect than my other headphones did (I had already set them up
on Sunday so all I had to do was select them after I turned the
Bluetooth on).
My
run on Wednesday went well. I was going strong until mile 3 where I
stopped and walked for a minute, then continued on my way. That was the
only walk break I took during the
4.5 miles because that’s the only one I needed. I did take a stretch
break at around mile 1.15 because my shins were a little tight. I think
that 4.5 miles was the perfect distance for a first after a 10-mile
race. Tomorrow, I’ll run again. I’m just planning
on 3.3 miles. Sunday I’m probably going to run either 5 or 6
miles…haven’t decided yet.
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