After two solid half-marathons early this year, I was excited for the start of the 10K season to see whether I could keep improving my times. I had mixed results.
Cap10K
On Sunday, April 12th, I awoke at 5:20 before my alarm, had a cup of coffee and a banana. I left the house at 6:40, but the entrance ramp to MoPac was closed so I had to take a slower detour. I got to my usual parking lot at 7:10 and there were plenty of spaces. Considering the drizzle, I put on a poncho and headed to the PortaPotty for a (alarmingly productive) pre-race bathroom break. I managed to get into the back of Corral B before it closed. While waiting for the race to start, I had a pack of Jelly Belly Energy beans and an Apple Cinnamon Gu packet– the latter a mistake, as it felt like it was going to come up later in the race. This was my second bad experience with pre-race apple cinnamon snacks.
Every mediocre race can yield a list of excuses about why it didn’t go well, and this was no exception.
- It was drizzling and somewhat muggy throughout. I’d failed to prepare all of my gear the day before, and couldn’t find either of my usual tank tops to run in.
- The runners in Corral B were slow (with a non-trivial number of people already walking in the first half mile) and it was very crowded, so my start was slow. Still, I managed a respectable first 5K at 28:17, but would need a negative split if I wanted to achieve my goal of PR (<52:25). Alas, my second half fell apart.
- My MP3 player was in a state where it wasn’t allowing me to choose one artist to play, so I switched over to play music from my COROS Pace 3 watch, but even at maximum volume, it was too quiet to hear. So most of my run was just the sound of runners’ feet and the occasional band. :'(
The “King of the Hill” hill wasn’t nearly as steep or long as I remembered, and I managed to run it and the following long slope without stopping. My favorite sign was one around mile 4 that had a drawing of Rocky from Project Hail Mary with the words “AMAZE AMAZE AMAZE” on it.
Alas, I ended up well behind my goal and even my backup goal (under an hour), but it wasn’t a bad time (1:01:36), just somewhat disappointing.
Chart from my Coros Pace3 running watch:
Austin Sunshine Run 10K
I first started running the Sunshine Run after a disappointing showing in the 2024 Cap10K but it hadn’t proven to be a good consolation race, with slow times in both 2024 and 2025. Still, I had high hopes for this year, because I felt like most of the blame for my slow Cap10K belonged on the weather.
The morning of the race, I was well behind schedule because I needed to drop my son at a swim meet, so I didn’t get to the parking lot until 7:32, not long before the 8am start. I managed a worryingly-productive visit to a PortaPotty and got into the race corral a hundred feet behind the time-targeted groups. As a much smaller race (~3K participants), I successfully managed to weave through the slow starters and managed a 7:43 mile. I was feeling good. The weather was absolutely perfect, sunny, with temps in the high 50s and a light wind.
The “big hill” I was dreading in this race was again not nearly as intimidating as expected (this is a recurring pattern), and I ran the whole thing. I didn’t take a break until mile 4, and even then it was a very brief break. Around mile 5, I dropped to a walk but after about 15 seconds a group of high-energy college kids (who’d paused for a dance break in front of the last band) started cheering me on as they came by and I got back into a run for the remainder of the race.
Frustratingly, I had no idea how close I was to getting my 10K PR or I probably could’ve snagged it without too much effort. Still, I crushed my goal (sub-1:00) and beat my last year’s time by a 10:21.
https://results.laurelt.com/asr/results?pk=8807833
Last year, I’d won a prize in the raffle and spent a ton buying a signed football for the fundraiser; this year, I again won a prize in the raffle.
I really enjoyed this race and was smiling for the next few days.
-Eric
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