Race Report: Cowtown (Marathon) 10K

My goal was 47:00. I went out too fast (first time I've done that in a while, started a bit too far
forward and went with the crowd anyway), first split was 7:05. OK, fine. Second was 7:39, slower
than I wanted but OK overall. I went up that hill you mentioned and turned in 7:35 for a third
split, not bad. Going back downhill, mile 4 was 7:08, and by this time I've worked out that I should
beat my goal handily if I just hang on.

So hang on I did. I got my mental pacing mantra going ("I'm 'enery the Eighth I am, 'enery the
Eighth I am I am") and blasted in at 45:42.7. That's not an all-time PR but it's my best in more
than 20 years.

And at the finish I even managed to out-kick a 10-year-old. Ain't that something!

The support was great, the course was fun, though the surface was rough in a couple of spots.
Post-race food (and beer!) was pretty good. A health food store was handing out my favorite kind of
protein shakes.

Later I joined a friend for the last 10K of the marathon. It wasn't the friend I intended to run
with; I never saw her. Either she went out faster than I expected and I missed her, or she crashed.
Anyway, I had a fairly nice "second 10K" and checked out the 'thon support, which was pretty good.
Only complaint there was the places where we had one lane of a busy street -- I always hate that. A
lot of the course was on MUPs with no vehicle traffic so it kind of balanced out.

Traffic control on the course was good. Overall organization was good. Points off for not using chip
timing -- this is about the last major race hereabouts without chips.

I give it an A-minus. A keeper.

Splits:

7:05
8:39
9:35
10:08
11:23
12:29
13:24 = 45:42.7 <-- negative splits! Woo hoo!

P.S. Alan Culpepper set a course record in the 10K. Shayne Culpepper set a women's course record
in the 5K and finished fourth overall. I didn't hear their times, but I saw Culpepper coming
back down the bridge and second place was nowhere in sight; he had maybe a quarter-mile lead
at 4 miles.

--
Brian P. Baresch Fort Worth, Texas, USA Professional editing and proofreading

If you're going through hell, keep going. --Winston Churchill