Sunday, April 18, 2010

Fiesta 10K Race Report

Distance: 10K
Goal Time: 1:15-1:20
Actual Time: 1:15:35 (12:10 min/mi) Personal Record!


Fiesta kicked off this week in San Antonio.  I think it's related to the Battle of the Flowers, but nowadays, it is a city-wide ten days of partying.  I have never done the more popular events like Oyster Bake or Night in Old San Antonio.  Last year I did the Fiesta Fandango, a 2.6 mile fun run that preceded the Fandango parade downtown.  This year I decided to forgo the ridiculous heat of that and went to the 10K instead. 


There were patchy thunderstorms on my way to the race which held out long enough for me to finish and then pour during the post-race party.  The run was at Mission County Park, the usual location for races put together by the San Antonio Road Runners.  The park follows the river that flows between the stops on the Mission Trail.  If you go far enough, the trail runs right next to Mission Espada, my favorite.  It's been raining the last half of this week, so the river is pretty full and the grass is really green.   Usually the water is pretty low, and the area isn't really well cared for, so the river smells like rancid broccoli.  We lucked out and only the area near the turnaround smelled like overcooked spinach. The trail itself is an easy stretch of gently rolling hills.  Much easier technically than the Cap10K course, but tt was a lot more humid than last weekend. 


I'm coming up on my LASIK surgery and I'm in the period of time before the surgery where I can't wear contacts.  So this was my first and last race with my glasses.  They didn't do me much good.  They fogged up in the first half mile.  I hooked them in the collar of my shirt and raced the rest with blurry vision.  I tried to imagine what it would be like to not have to have glasses or contacts to see.  I won't have to imagine for long.  


Adding to the difficulty of the humidity, I forgot my headphones at home.  Normally I hardly pay attention to the music that is playing, but it's helpful for times when I need to push myself.  A lot of my inner monologue during the race was coaching myself to keep up the pace.  I put a lot of stress on myself to PR again this weekend.  Between that and the weather conditions, I did not have nearly as much fun as I did in Austin.  But I did PR again!  Another minute off my PR time, shedding 7 minutes over last year's PR of 1:22.  Most likely that will be my fastest 10K time as we get into the summer races where it's really too hot for me to keep a pace like that. 

I hope to take a few weeks off of racing to finish out the semester at school, have my vacation in Orlando, and regroup my training plan.    It was a good race, and I did well, but I need a time out from race weekends.


Official Results
Race Photos 
Scotty's Report

3 comments:

Amanda said...

You did well, Ann, and you deserve a break. Back when I used to swim, we were taken out of the pool and off land-exercise twice a year, one month each. They said it helped our muscles recooperate and get stronger. So breaks are good! :)

Faith said...

Congrats on the PR! I ended up with contacts and learning how to touch my eye (gross!) b/c of problems like that with glasses...I cannot go w/o though. I do not know what I would've done had I forgot my headphones. You did an awesome job! Congrats again on another race!

Ann said...

Amanda - I will most likely still work out at the gym, and still work on making a daily habit. It makes my weekends a lot less hectic too! My next planned race isn't until the end of May, and that's only a 5K.

Thanks Faith! Running in glasses definitely isn't something I'd like to do again. But luckily it won't be long until I won't have to! Running without headphones is not my preferred, but doable. It was the weather that made this race so hard.