Today I ran the Texas Round-Up 10K foot race. I did it in 01:08:46 with a pace of 11:04 per mile, which is very close my goal. I finished ninth in my class of 60-65 year old men. There were ten in my class–alas– and 873 timed runners overall.
The actual number of participants was somewhere in the neighborhood of 6,500 people, according to Rick Perry, the current Governor of Texas, in his welcoming speech, but not all of them were timed. Governor Perry has been working to get a statewide physical fitness program going, and the Texas Roundup is his Austin event. This was the largest turnout in the five year history of the race. There was a 1 K race for kids and families, around the Capitol complex at the top of Congress Avenue, plus a 5 K (down Congress to the river, and back again) as well as the 10 K that I ran.
Actually, I felt good about the race. I was worried about the two long uphill sections, but I was able to power up those fairly easily. I guess all the training has helped out!
I remember that several years ago, doing the Keep Austin Weird race, I had to to run from Riverside up Congress to about Oltrof and how it about killed me. It’s an elevation gain of about 200 feet in one and a half miles. I guess the main difference (other than my training level) was that on race day the temperature was about 110.
The temperature for today’s race was in the low sixties and a little wind. Almost perfect conditions!
The Round-Up played host to the USATF Masters Race which had really talented runners from all over the nation.
Although the start area, just down from the Capitol, was a very pretty location, it was too really small for the number of people queued up to start the race. There was a section for the eleven minute runners, which I wanted to try, but I was never able to even get close to it. It only took me about two and a half minutes to get to starting line. There was a lot of zig-zagging the first mile, passing slower runners and walkers.
The end was great; we came down 11th street, a steep hill to the south of the Capitol, made a left turn and ran about a half block down Congress. At first I was holding back, but then I decided to let go, there wasn’t more than a block or two to the finish. So I quickly passed the lady that had just passed me and flew to the finish line. For a little bit I was wondering if I could make the corner onto Congress, but I had no problems. I don’t think I have run that fast on the street since high school!
I really liked the race and will try to do it again in the future; the only problem is, it’s the same day as the Red Poppy Bicycle Ride in Georgetown, which I also like.
Here is my Garmin results: