Cowtown 10K

I finished!  To more advanced runners that might not be super impressive but I'm happy with it... this time anyways.

I'm super competitive so it was tough to go into the race knowing that I wasn't physically 100%.  But I made the best of it and tried to find the positives.

It was supposed to be warmer but a cold front came thru on Friday so at 7am on Saturday it was in the mid 30's.  My lungs were not great after back to back upper respiratory/sinus infections and the cold air did not make things better.  By mile two I couldn't get a decent breath and I started coughing.  I tried to breathe through my nose by my sinuses were still super congested.  Ugh.

By mile 2.5 I was having to walk/run.  I hated doing this but when I coughed I ended up with a metallic taste in my mouth and I knew better than to push it.  I don't need to add pneumonia to the list of illnesses.

The last 3.2 miles were basically an exercise in distracting myself with random observations to avoid crying out of sheer frustration.  My legs felt great but my lungs were just not cooperating!

A few observations...

• Port-o-potties on the course should have a warning sign on them:  BAD THINGS HAVE HAPPENED IN HERE.  I ran past one and the door happened to be open... people pee before a race.  If you are stopping during the race then you probably have other issues going on.  Like I said, warning sign needed.
• Headband/ear warmers are not a good look if you have short hair like I do.  I discovered this in the mirror at home before we left.  You look like a running mushroom.  Or worse.
• Picking a person ahead of you and working on trying to pass them really does work.  I felt kinda bad about doing this until I realized someone was doing it to me too. Game on ;)
• Big races are a lot of fun.  If you're middle of the pack like me, you don't run alone.
• A big hill to start the race and {what felt like} an even bigger one to finish is hard.  And elevation charts lie... things seem much easier when you're just looking at a squiggly line on paper.
• Texting, Instagramming, Facebooking, etc while running... really??  I left my phone in the car and it felt good not being tethered to the thing.  But that's just me, well until you stop right in front of me to take a picture, then I'm kinda annoyed.  I can see carrying a phone on a longer race but not for a 5K or 10K.

All in all I had fun.  Like I said, my legs felt great and that's encouraging.  The race was well organized, especially for there being 11,000 people there between the 10K, 5K, and kid's 5K.  I'll definitely run this event again.

After I finished we raced back to pick up Chaney.  She had a birthday party at 10:30 and another one at 4:30.  I crashed on the couch between the two parties with Gus a.k.a Quiltdog.

Steve had also bought Dallas Stars tickets about a month ago so we had that to go to Saturday night.  I wasn't super thrilled about walking around downtown Dallas and up and down arena steps but it was a great game and a fun date night which made it totally worth it!

Friends and family also helped make Saturday less stressful and more enjoyable by helping out with Chaney.  I'm super thankful for them because it would have been tough waking her up at 4:30am and then worrying about her standing around in the cold while I ran.  And of course there's Steve.  He never complained about the early start or the cold.  He really is my biggest fan and it's wonderful having him with me at these races.  Love that guy!