I “ran” the Capitol 10K for a third time on Sunday. It did not go well, but not for any of the reasons I worried about. The rain stopped hours before the race, and the course wasn’t wet. My knees and feet didn’t complain. My heart rate felt pretty much under control. I had found the charger for my running watch and got my headphones charged.
No, like my first run, I got screwed by nutrition. After mile 2, I was feeling heartburn for the first time in months (years?), and I began frequently dropping to a walk while I worried about it. Was it the flavored coffee I had in the morning? My dubious dinner (Subway) or the beer I had with it? In hindsight, the real problem was probably some red wine I’d had the prior afternoon — I don’t drink wine often anymore, and I’m more sensitive to it. Ah well, whatever the cause, you can see the impact.
You can see where things went off the rails. My first half was a non-disastrous 4 minutes slower than last year, but my second half took my 6 minutes longer than the first. The only bright spot was the short uphill “King of the hill” segment, which I completed at a pace of 8:15/mi vs. last year’s 9:32/mi.
I spent miles 3 to 5 mostly walking through the neighborhoods that I’d joyfully sped through last year, watching my fellow “A” group people blow by, wondering if I was ever going to be able to run a half marathon again after this puny 10k was killing me.
By mile 5, I was starting to feel somewhat better but I still held off on picking up the pace, recognizing that this was not going to be my day. Unlike last year, I didn’t hear my (phantom) children cheering as I turned the final corner after the bridge and sped up for the finish line.
I finished in 1:06:15, a pokey 10:40/mi pace, 14 minutes slower than last year, 8.5 minutes slower than my fall Daisy Dash, and just 83 seconds faster than my first Cap10K. Not a great result.
I’ve signed up for the Sunshine 10K next month to hopefully find myself back on track, and also got the early-bird discount for signing up for the 2025 Cap10K.
Better luck prep next time?
-Eric
PS: Bonus pic from yesterday’s (cloudy) total eclipse in Austin.
Impatient optimist. Dad. Author/speaker. Created Fiddler & SlickRun. PM @ Microsoft 2001-2012, and 2018-, working on Office, IE, and Edge. Now a GPM for Microsoft Defender. My words are my own, I do not speak for any other entity. View more posts