Week 1-Capitol 10,000

Today I participated in a 34 year Austin tradition:  The Capitol 10K race.  Make no mistake, I did not race.  But I did run more than I had planned to run (which was 0K).

The day started cool (58 degrees), overcast, and early.  I left my house in north Austin at 7:30.  I arrived at the south Austin race site at probably 8:15 after sitting in traffic and parking at least 10K away from the actual starting line.

First item on my agenda:  go to the bathroom.  You know, I was hydrating already, and you want to be sure to take care of your business before they fire the "GO!" signal.  Unfortunately, of the 22,000 participants in today's race, 11,000 of them all had the same item 1 on their agenda.  Here we are in line:

The photo really doesn't do justice to the magnitude of people who had to go, but you get the idea.  

By them time I had worked my way through the porta-potty meelee, the race had already officially started.  This was not a problem, though, because when 22,000 people have to cross a starting line it's going to take a minute.  Or 10.  That's about how long it took me, anyway.

I have to say, in the first few 100 steps or so I was having second thoughts about the "fun" factor of this whole adventure.  I am not a fan of people in general, and 22,000 of them all crammed in together is worse.  Even worse:  attempting to hustle-walk in between and around 21,999 other individuals.  I had to break into a jog just to find a good position.  But once I found my groove I have to say I had a great time!  The route was interesting, the people watching was fantastic, and it is really liberating to be able to walk/jog straight down the middle of the street in downtown Austin.


A highlight of the race was suddenly hearing the call, "left, left, left right..." and realizing that Squadron 20 from Texas A&M was coming up behind you.

This is actually a photo of me behind them, which is how the whole encounter ended up.  The outfit comes up from College Station and runs the 10K in formation.  There was also a large group of APD officers also running in formation.  That was extremely cool, and it's hard not to fall in step with these groups.


Overall it was a excellent experience, and one I am very proud to have participated in.  Even though my finish time (1:20) was 4 times longer than the actual race winner's time (29.58), I had no problem finishing, and my time was even faster than any of the few training sessions I had set up for myself prior to the race.


And now there are only 9 weeks left until "Every Day is Saturday"!  That's exciting!  We're in the single digits now.  


Up next:  Lone Star Round Up.  I'll report back to you.