Last weekend, Maggie and I drove to Austin for a very fun race! The inaugural Austin 10/20 – 10 miles with 20 stages.
The race was Sunday morning so we drove out Saturday morning to have some time to explore Austin. We started out on South Congress for some coffee and shopping. We passed an animal rescue and I fell in love with this little guy.
His name was Moe. They said he was a corgi mix. I tried to convince my husband (via emailed videos) that Bailey needs a sibling, but it was a no-go. How could anyone say no to that face?
We ate at Home Slice Pizza and then headed to Luke’s Locker to pick up our race packets. This being the inaugural race, I don’t think they were prepared for the crowds at packet pick-up. There was a long line outside the store, and it took almost an hour to get our packets.
Once we had our packets, we headed out to our hotel to check-in. We were staying at Habitat Suites, just north of the city, to be a little closer to the start of the race. Habitat Suites was advertised as an eco-friendly hotel with “edible landscaping” – fruit/veggies that you could pick and eat. Sure enough, there was a kumquat tree just outside our hotel room!
I had never tried a kumquat before. They were similar to oranges. Interesting to pick your own and just eat them!
Similar to Embassy Suites, Habitat Suites had a happy hour with free drinks and appetizers. We snacked a little and then headed to dinner at Titaya’s Thai. It was good, but didn’t quite to compare to my Houston favorite (Nidda Thai). After a stop by Half Price Books, we headed back to our hotel to get ready for bed.
There was some traffic getting to the race, but we found a parking spot and headed to the start line. Another sign of an inaugural race: limited porta-potties at the start line. The lines were so long, we quickly gave up and made our way to our corral. It was 15 minutes to start time, and in almost 5 minutes, we weren’t seeing any movement in the lines. It’s a good thing it wasn’t an emergency for either of us – we may not have started in time!
After a brief delay (they said for safety reasons), we were off! The weather looked like it was going to open up and pour any minute, but it held up with just some light sprinkling. We passed three bands in the first mile alone, and it was very motivating. We heard others around us complaining about the humidity. It was definitely humid, but not bad by Houston standards. The first two miles flew by quickly.
- Mile 1: 9:29
- Mile 2: 9:30
There were no water breaks until after 2 miles, and I definitely needed water by then. We briefly walked through each water station, but ran most of the rest of the race.
Although they advertised that this was a flat course, I would not have called this flat. Maybe flat by Austin standards, but I felt like at least half the race we were running slightly uphill, and there were a few short steeper hills. At one point we were struggling up a hill, and a spectator encouraged the group of us, saying, “It’s all downhill once you get to the light up there!” We did slow down a little bit over the next few miles, and took our gu at the beginning of mile 5 when we saw a water station coming up.
- Mile 3: 9:45
- Mile 4: 9:51
- Mile 5: 9:58
The first half of the race seemed to fly by, and I was excited to see that we were keeping a pace under 10 minute miles. But we weren’t taking many walk breaks, and although I was feeling strong, I wasn’t confident I would be able to keep it up for another five miles. The bands along the way really did a lot to keep my energy up! Somewhere around mile 7 I had a really bad stomach cramp. I felt a stabbing pain just below my chest. I’m not sure what caused it, but we took a short walk break (less than 1 minute), and the worst of it seemed to pass. I tried to just breathe through the rest.
- Mile 6: 10:01
- Mile 7: 10:14
- Mile 8: 10:02
The last 2 miles looped us around back toward the starting line. There were a lot more spectators here, and I was getting excited to be so close to finishing. There were some good signs at this race. A few little kids were holding signs that said something like, “My dad owes me big – he said Bieber would be here” and “Mom – you always said to finish what you start – finish this!” According to my Garmin the course was 0.30 miles long, and according to Maggie’s it was 0.20 miles long. Either way, we had a strong finish!
- Mile 9: 9:45
- Mile 10: 10:01
- Mile 10 – 10.31: 2:54 (9:15 pace)
- Total: 1:41:33 (9:50 pace / 10:09 official pace)
It was an awesome race! Unfortunately, we didn’t get to enjoy our triumphant run across the finish line – the girl right in front of us decided to stop right before crossing the finish line. I’m not sure what was going through her mind, but we almost ran her right over – you can see me trying to squeeze in beside her:
We collected our medals, some water and fruit, and then headed to the car to drop our stuff off before coming back for the concert. Another complaint about this race – no hand sanitizer in the restrooms! Luckily I had some in the car. We walked around a little bit, but it looked like the main food stand was the free BBQ. The line was super long, and I wouldn’t have been able to eat it anyway, so we decided to pass and went to wait by the main stage for Everclear.
The concert was awesome! My 16 year-old self (who loved Everclear) would have been very jealous of my 26 year-old self who got to be 2nd row at the concert. They played a lot of their old classics and I absolutely loved it.
Maggie even caught a guitar pick!
It began to pour during their last song, so we took off. We found a Denny’s on our way out of town for our traditional post-long run breakfast. It was a successful weekend in Austin, and I would definitely go back for this run again next year!
Racing to Thirty 