Texas 10 Series - Sienna

I love the Texas 10 Series. 

 

When I was starting to reduce my race distances, I quickly learned that the 10 miler is indeed one that I love.

 

I didn't however, love the 10 miler in the warm up series here in the Houston area...I think it was (and might still be) the Space City something or other..Usually held a couple of weeks before the Houston Half at the end of October.

 

The distance though in general seems to be gaining popularity.  As does the 10K but that's a different post altogether.

 

Probably next year I might do more of the 7 races in their calendar but I have done Katy (10) and now Sienna (5).

 

The reason I dropped to the 5 mile option is probably evident.  My focus leading up to this race has been elsewhere as it pertains to running.

 

Which brings me to my next point, I LOVE that they have the 10 and 5 mile option.

 

I hadn't done a 5 miler in probably 2011..something like that.  Back when they had Park to Park which I loved but then they just stopped having it.

 

I believe my PR is about 47min or something like that, I would have to go and look it up.

 

Anyway I dropped to the 5 mile option a few weeks back.  And now I wonder if the 5 miler is my new 10 miler as the 10K is my new half marathon?

 

All I know is I am working on getting faster at the shorter distances (well working might be too strong of a word, but it is my intent to train better with my 400, 800 and 1000m workouts in the near future).

 

So going in to this race first off I was tired as hell.  While I didn't do anything on Saturday, my workouts during the week are 6 days of hard shit man.  And not having a workout on Saturday didn't mean I sat around and rested.  I had a lot of things to do plus the week had just been super stressful with the flooding, and chaos etc.

 

Plus waking up at 4:30am is never fun for me.  THEN the dang race was farther away than I had anticipated which pissed me off too :O)

 

Factor in I had NO idea of a strategy other than I wanted to get as close to top 3 as I possibly could in my AG.  I figured I needed about 48 min to be a contender.  And I was right. 

 

HAD I made my goal I would have been 2nd or 3rd.  Whereas I ended up 6th because I totally blew it.

 

I totally fell apart late in mile 3 and by the time I could recover in the last 3/4 of mile 5 it was too late.  My 6th place was 4 min slower than what I needed; telling me that nothing I did late even mattered. 

 

Even with the 7th place woman 2 full minutes behind me yeah, maybe at least what I did gave me at least that.  Ugh.

 

So I finished in 52:01.  Shit even if I had hit 51:59 I would have felt better.  I actually stopped about 600m from the Finish and selected my go to song.  4 people passed me in those seconds and when that song hit I literally took off faster than I knew I could run.  Looking at my stats I can see that it was a 7:57 pace for the next 600m.

 

Maybe those all-outs at 8 and 9mph OTF are working. 

 

But I will say that my quads were SCREAMING.  I just ran too hard too soon.  I need to strategize better on the next 5 miler (October); then I will have one in Nov and one in Dec.  I WILL get that AG at the distance!  Even today my quads HURT like a muthafocker.  Going down the stairs.  What?  Crazy.  What that tells me is that I left it all out there.  And that's a great feeling.  I didn't know I would EVER be back to running decent for me times again!

 

Honestly the 48 min was a stretch since my PR is at 47 but then I did a 10K at 9:44 pace just about a month ago.  I don't know.  As I said, just wasn't feeling the race.  Plus it was HUMID as hell and warm and well acclimation to that hasn't been attained with it only being April.

 

Thanks flooding and water soaked ground!

 

One thing I hope they change for next year is the course.  It was in a fairly new part of Sienna Plantation and there were a lot of twists and turns through homes being constructed.  Like they really had to WORK at getting a 5 mile loop to work (their races are always 2 loops).  Anyway I would like to see them figure that out for next year.  Just convoluted to me; all twisty turny.

 

Once I get a race photo back I will post it.  All I saw was the one photographer at the finish.  Definitely not as well planned or thought out as their other races.

 

But this being a new course, I will cut them some slack.

 

Now to be ready to do my next 10K the first week of June.  That one will NOT be a PR kind of race that's for sure! #Summer

Now I am off off off to Costa Rica for a glorious long overdue vacation!