San Antonio Half: Week 10

Distance: 10.02 miles
Time: 1 hr 49 mins 48 secs
Route: Clyde Fant Parkway Trail

10 in week 10...ironic really. I was going to try and start a little later since it is finally cooling off. By cooling off, I mean it was a lovely 65 degrees instead of 78. But let me tell you, those 13 degrees make a ginormous difference. Any hoo, I received a phone call from a friend that needed a ride to the airport at 8am. Instead of pushing it super close, I decided to just start at 5:30. That way I'd have enough time to drive home, take a shower and not subject her to the nasty running funk.

Let me start off by saying that I have a very turbulent relationship with 10 miles. The first time I ever ran 10 miles, I ended up horribly sick...to the point that I almost went to the ER. The second time I did it, it was much better, but I was still a little leary. Each time I've run it, something funky has happened to where it's just not as fun as I had hoped it would be. 10 miles is an important run. It's the first time you reach double digits and it's really quite long. When I started running them consistently in preparation for NOLA 2 years ago, I could never break 2 hours. The closest I came was 2:02. It always pissed me off. I know that I wasn't supposed to run for time, but damn it, I wanted to break 2 hours! It remained elusive...until today.

It was beautiful this morning. There was a breeze and it was cool. I decided to start at Hamel Park, which is a reverse direction on Clyde Fant. It's closer to my house, so I figured it would get me home fast than if I had started at Sci-Port. There were a lot of people that had the same idea, as the trail was pretty well peppered with people (do I get points for alliteration here?). I had a bit of a rough start. I borrowed Mark's amphipod thing that you can hook to the waist band of your pants and I've decided that I won't be doing that again. Stupid thing kept falling off. Finally, I managed to rig it to stay put and put my iPod and my shot bloks in there. I was very grateful that I decided to wear the new shoes today. I haven't had a chance to break them in this week, so I knew it was a little risky, but it definitely paid off. They felt fabulous!

At 8 miles, I started to get a little tired. I didn't do a long run last week, as Mark ran his REALLY long run in Ohio and we were on the road back to Louisiana. Instead of giving in, I just dug my heels in deeper and kept going. I finished my 10 miles in 1 hour, 49 minutes and 48 seconds. I was so happy to finally break that 2 hour mark! It gives me hope of more things to come.