Race Report: Ten for Texas

So while many other things have consumed my posting lately, I *am* still running LOL!

I was super excited to run Ten for Texas this past weekend, and the Thursday before I just maybe started feeling a tad bit under the weather...I was getting the kids' cold. Then I spent most of Friday at work in denial and simultaneously infecting everyone around me with this miserable cold (sorry everyone!). Stubborn as I was (am), I took cold medicine Friday night and still got up Saturday morning to head to the race.

I was a stuffy mess, but I used my Afrin spray in the parking lot (reclined my seat for the full nose clearing effect), and sucked it up (literally and figuratively). Thankfully my friend Jenn was happy to run together at a reasonable pace with plans to walk the water stations.

The weather pretty much sucked. It was pretty warm for October with an occasional breeze that had a habit of being a headwind. Oh well. Had I not been stuffy, I would have been content with the humid warm temps, but not so much with my 50lb head of snot.

Anyway, Jenn and I took off at a pretty normal training pace and managed to hold steady throughout the entire race. We walked each water station, but after mile 2, we were pretty much passing people the entire time. We actually had a great rhythm of weaving in and around people the whole course, so we were in a groove. Lungs did well, nose bugged me a little, felt sluggish overall with an ab cramp at mile 5 and a weird back cramp at mile 7, but overall, not nearly as bad as I expected. I was feeling pretty good around mile 8.5, and I think Jenn probably could have killed me. I certainly would have been more conservative in the early miles had she not been with me, but I have a tendency to always have a little kick left in me at the end, so I started to pick it up a little. That last half mile we were moving pretty good, Jenn started protesting a little, but I managed to convince her to stick with me. And just at the last turn before the finish, I see something I have never seen before...

...as a complete surprise to me, there is my sweet husband with KK in his arms and Larkin standing beside him. I could not believe it, I totally spazzed out and did the goofy wave with Larkin finally seeing me (he was apparently in awe of all the runners), and then I had to pull myself together to not be doing the ugly cry in the finish line photos. They totally made it worth it, and I was so happy to have that moment! They had never seen me in a race before, and I still dream of seeing them somewhere along the course at the marathon this year (the weather and timing were terrible last year).

We hung out at the post-party a little, saw my ob/gyn who delivered both kids (LOL! We see her at races all the time!), and then headed home. I was already feeling pretty rough but was doing a decent job hiding it. We got home, I took a shower, Patrick took Larkin to soccer, I struggled to get KK through lunch and down for his nap, and then headed to bed myself. I soon realized I was headed downhill fast. I took my temp and was not surprised to see 101.2, CRAP! Took some meds and spent most of the afternoon in bed. Thankfully after some great rest, I recovered decently on Sunday (just congestion and little cough), and was fully functional by Monday.

So running may not have been the best decision, but we live to race (or not race) another day!

Final time: 1:45:05 I am proud that I maintained my training pace and did not try to "race". Mostly I have my illness to thank for that because had I been feeling good, the crowd and the adrenaline would have most likely pushed me to go too fast too soon and that could have been catastrophic for my knees. For now, I'm happy to say that I made it through 10 miles WITHOUT knee braces for the first time in my life!