Obvious I haven’t been running much:

Town Lake – 27:09 (8:45/mile)

But I went back and took the jogging stroller from my mom once I’d finished. I got Stella out and she ran the last leg of the race. About 1/2 mile. Awesome little kid.

Ran the Nike 10k Human Race last night. It was something like 13,000 people in Austin, competing against cities across the world. You got to pick a charity to run for. I was running for the UN Refugee Services. I had planned on running, but then I didn’t really get my act together and they were no longer taking registrations online so I sort of gave up. Then on Friday my sister emailed me and asked if I was running, and if I could perhaps pick up her registration packet. That was just enough of a kick in the pants to get my and my mother signed up to.

Which is how my mom, sister, brother-in-law, and I ended up on a bus heading downtown yesterday. We lined up in Congress avenue. For some reason I decided I was kind of slow and started in the 11 minute mile crowd (you start based on how fast you can run a mile). We ran across the starting line, headed down Congress, and then turned on second. That was the first time it hit you. Nike supplied red racing shirts and the entirety of second street was full of red. And that didn’t let up. Turning from the Bob Bullock History Museum onto MLK there was red stretching all the way up to Red River. Turning from Red River onto Dean Keaton there was red all the way to Guadalupe. It was amazing.

That said, a lot of the people were obviously not runners. A large number of people around me started walking before they even hit one mile. I really think one might want to be able to run further than a mile before signing up for a 10k. There are shorter races you can run first. It was much more of a mental game than the 5ks I’ve run. I was constantly having to dodge walkers and think about what I was doing.

That said, I think being slow at the beginning really paid of in the end. I was really able to power through the last two miles when everyone around me was fading. The fact I run in the heat and up and down hills a lot paid off too. People were really complaining about the heat and the hills. I found the hills pretty easy, and the heat was nice. The coolest race I’ve run was 89 degrees, so last night was pretty cool.

Getting the bus back after the race was a bit of an adventure. A CapMetro supervisor got us back on our bus, but it picked us up at exactly the same stop where we got dropped off. Which should never happen.

So what was my time? My dream was to make it in under an hour, and I think I did pretty well:

Time: 1:01’40”

Austin Ranking: 2959

World Ranking: 102751

So last night was my last Sunstroke 5k. It completely whipped me. I don’t know if it was the temperature or what, but I barely made it through, and I’m still feeling crummy today. I’ve never come as close to blowing chunks after a race as last night. But, last night was my favorite race. As I crossed the starting line I heard a little voice – “Go, Daddy, Go!, Go, Daddy, Go!”. Stella was cheering me on, unprompted by the adults she was with. She’s a cool bean.

So back down in the low teens again. It bugs me to slow down, but it’s easier to keep in perspective when it’s only about 6 seconds we’re talking about. Plus there was this guy with a jogging stroller who totally slowed down my first mile this week. Yeah that’s my story.

Yesterday was not a good run. I just didn’t feel great running. It was hard work from the outset. Normally I enjoy the running (which is why I do it). Before I ate dinner I nearly passed out sitting up at the table and Julie was pretty concerned about me. I perked up after dinner though. Who knows what that was about…

I guess I should view it as the best time for that course rather than worse than last week.

Man, I’m stoked about last night’s run. I thought I didn’t do very well, and the heat overwhelmed me and I even had to stop running for about 30 seconds on the dam. But my pace was still better than it has been and I’m pushing against that 8/minutes per mile mark. Gotta keep knocking out those seconds.

Whoops, forgot to update on this Wednesday’s race. This was the first time I’ve ever actually been competitive in a race. I was pacing myself against a guy in front of me for about 1/5 of the race. We started going back uphill and he slowed. All my running up and down Oltorf and Parker really paid off. The guy stayed behind me up until pretty much the 3 mile marker. He had a friend who was a much better runner trying to help run him in. I picked up the pace to stay even with the guy who was running him in and managed to stay ahead of both of them. We turned in pretty much the same time, but I beat him by a hundred feet or so. Here’s my race totals so far. All in all, I’m really happy with my performance this year. Even if I’m still 10th in my age group.

First 5k of the season at Town Lake yesterday. We decided to break off the potty training and head out. It was hot, but there was a nice steady breeze which I think contributed to my 25:54 finish. That’s 8:18/mile. Still really want to knock off that last minute and hit under 8/mile. Don’t know why that’s such a psychological goal.

We also attempted to assemble the shelving unit last night. We got a bit of it up, but we ended up having to custom order some fasteners. They really have to be flush or drawers won’t work. And my drawing was quite helpful (if backwards). There really appears to be at most two ways to assemble the thing.