GO!

Wonder what it was like to run the Capitol 10K? Here's a visual representation:

Yes, Sunday was the big day. The day my friend Bryan and I were going to conquer the 6.2 mile race, and it had to go and rain on our parade.

Oh, but running in the rain and trying to navigate with my wet, fogged-up glasses was just one of the things I wasn't prepared to face Sunday. Little things such as the steep hills, other runners and the actual distance all kind of caught me off guard. This race totally dominated me, and I kind of liked it.

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Now, let's be honest here. I wasn't ready for this race. That became very clear to me somewhere in the second mile. I was in the shadow of the capitol. I had finally finished weaving through all the walkers that jammed up the field of thousands of fun run participants. I had lost sight of my running partner and was making my way up the first steep hill of the race. That's when I thought, 'what the hell am I doing? You can't do this. Who's stupid idea was this?'

Well, it was my stupid idea, and while it wasn't going as smoothly as I had hoped, I needed to push through. I knew I could get through this. I haven't been doing all this running to give up on my first big race.

Those hills though. Oh my god those kicked my ass. Most of my runs are on a treadmill. Even my outside runs happen on the mostly flat walkways on the bay of Corpus Christi. So you can imagine how difficult and discouraging it was to be drained of energy by those hills and realize I was only halfway through the race.

Thankfully there was Bryan. We lost each in the first couple of miles. He got ahead of me, but he waited for me at the 5K mark. Having him by my side for most of the second half kept me going. When I wanted to stop and walk, his drive kept me motivated. It was also a matter of pride. I knew Bryan had done very little running leading up to the race, so I wasn't going let this guy completely out run me without a fight.

Me loving the outfit (right). Bryan, not so much.

In the end, I ended up walking several pieces of the race, but I knew that was going to happen. And Bryan did finish about 3 minutes ahead of me, but that's not completely surprising (he's a high school basketball coach, plays a lot of the game in rec leagues in his hometown and is all around clearly more athletic than me). I finished with a time of about the 1 hour, 11 minutes. I clocked it, but when I got to the finish line I was more focused on crossing without passing out, not hitting the button on my stop watch.

It was an exhausting race, but I finished. And as hard as the race was for the two of us, Bryan and I were already talking about how next year, how we're not only going to do the timed run, but finish the race well under an hour. I had a great time this weekend, and its given me motivation to keep going.

I'll take a well deserved rest the next couple of days, but I'm not going to waste much time getting back on track. The running I've been doing has been OK, but its not enough. Its time to take this to the next level. Its odd, but running a marathon now seems so far beyond my current capabilities, but at the same time the goal feels so much more within reach.

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Just one more day, and I am super excited. A little nervous, but mostly excited.

Today I arrived in Austin and met up with my friend and race running partner Bryan. We got a hotel, picked up our race packet and headed downtown to check out the race course.

I checked the elevation chart they had online before hand, but I was still surprised how hilly the course was. We drove it this afternoon, and I can already see the first half of the race is going to be kind of rough.

It also seemed really long. It just might take me a little longer than I expect.

But not to worry. I got a little motivation while I was downtown. Before our big pasta dinner, we caught a showing of my new favorite movie:

And to top it all off, I picked up some super cool head bands at Academy for Bryan and I to wear with our matching "I Hate Running" T-shirts.


You can't tell me these aren't super sweet.

Injury Report

CORPUS CHRISTI - Injuries could force a Capitol 10K team member out of the race just days before the scheduled start of the six-mile trial in downtown Austin.

Team member Bryan Dibley suffered a pulled muscle Wednesday, limiting his mobility and jeopardizing his team's chances of finishing with a respectable time.

"Obviously this isn't what I wanted to hear," said team leader Michael Zamora. "We're hoping a few days rest will take care of it."

In a phone interview from his Dallas-suburb home of Mansfield, Texas, Dibley said he strained his chest and sternocleidomastoid muscles while lifting weights this week. Dibley claims the injury makes movement difficult, causing the impact of running to be painful. Despite the injury, Dibley said he hopes to make it through the race this weekend.

"I'll still be able to keep up with (Zamora)," he said.

Zamora is more cautious, however, and said Dibley needs to play it safe this weekend.

"I don't want him to get hurt," Zamora said. "I'll consult with Amory (Dibley's wife) this weekend, and we'll make this a race-time decision."

Dibley joined the running team back in November 2007. Despite Dibley's inconsistent training schedule, Zamora was optimistic Dibley would be ready in time for the race. Zamora called the latest set back "frustrating."

Zamora's running team already took a hit last week when Beth Francesco of Corpus Christi pulled out of the race siting work conflicts and conditioning concerns.

Zamora himself admitted to nagging shin splints which have limited the frequency of his runs in the last couple of weeks.

"I got in a final run today, and my legs didn't feel too bad," he said. "My outdoor run Monday really aggravated the pain, so I played it safe and ran on a treadmill today for a lower impact workout. I think I'll be good for Sunday's run."

Zamora said he is looking forward to a little rest time once the race is complete, but doesn't plan on taking off too much time.

"I'm already making plans for my next race, and its a big one," he said.

Though his registration could not be confirmed at post time, sources close to the runner claim Zamora has already agreed to run a half marathon in the fall. He has also put his name out among co-workers to take on a four-mile leg of the Beach to Bay team marathon in May.

I Hate Running

I knew this before I started this whole experiment, but for some reason that didn't deter me. I want to make sure everyone else knows how much I dislike their sport, so I threw together a little T-Shirt design over at UberPrints.com. This is what I will be proudly wearing as I run across the finish line at the Capitol 10K in about two weeks:



Don't worry, there's also actual running involved in my race preparation. I've been consistently running 3 to 3.5 miles over the last few weeks, but I decided it might be a good idea to actually complete 6.2 miles before the 10K event. At this point, running the whole thing is out of the question. My plan is to run at least half, then do a mix of running and walking to finish the race off.

I tried it out on Monday, and it didn't go so well. It wasn't the difficulty of the extra mileage, it was the time. I stopped after five miles and about an hour on the treadmill because I was just plain bored. Oh my God it was so boring. How am I going to handle my ultimate goal of running a full 26.2 mile marathon if I can't even focus for an hour?

Today I gave it another go. Fortunately I had an hour-long rerun of The Gilmore Girls to keep me distracted. I finished the distance in about 68 minutes. After cool down and everything I hopped off the treadmill, and, oddly enough, the machine told me I had completed 26.2 laps. Weird.

31:54

"Oh my God running sucks!" I huffed between irregular breathes as I trotted up a mild incline on Ocean Drive. Meanwhile packs of children and an older woman passed me by, seemingly unaware of how difficult and not fun running is. Losers. Freaks, all of them.

So today I ran my first race, a 5K. 3-point-whatever miles. And while its easy to think all I got out of it was twenty less dollars in my account and four hours less sleep, there was actually some greater good that came out of it. Let's recap:

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The Goodwill "Sun Run" wasn't my idea, but it was proposed to me far enough in advance that I thought, surely I'll be more than ready for it when the time comes. Well, the last few weeks have not be great running weeks for me. There was the shin splints and the crazy work schedule and the moving across town and a host of other excuses that kept disrupting my running schedule. Before I knew it, it was race week and I was questioning whether I should even participate. Not only have I yet to run that far outside, but it cost $20. Do you know how much crap I could buy at Goodwill for $20?

Anyway, I was extremely nervous last night and this morning, and I had a ton of answered questions. What should I eat the night before? Should I eat breakfast? What should I wear? Where do I pin my race number? What's the course like? Why do runners like to get up so damn early? I rolled out of bed at 6:30 a.m., ate half a balance bar and headed to my first race.

My friend had bailed on the whole thing, so it was just me. I think I may have preferred it that way any way, although it would have been fun to have some one there to mock all the running freaks. There was short-shorts guy, spandex women and a host of other colorful people. A community 5K hardly brings out the elite athletes, but there were still a few intimidating runners there. Just keep to your routine, I thought. I did a little warm up walking and my regular stretching and I was as ready as I could be.

I can't tell you how exciting it was. As they counted down the seconds and the pack slowly started to move I got this fantastic rush. The music on my mp3 player started to swell, runners jockeyed for position and I felt such a connection with the whole heard of running freaks.

That lasted only a few minutes. Mostly, the race was about me trying to not think. Stop thinking about running, stop thinking about how far you've gone, stop thinking about how far the turn around is, stop thinking about how much time has passed, stop thinking about not thinking about running. It was much more of a mind game then I realized. Combine that with the actual running (which sucks), and the bulk of the experience was about as unenjoyable as I imagined.

But what made it all worth it was that last dash, those glorious last few yards where you see the finish line and all the people and know you have done what you set out to do. I turned up my music, picked up my pace, and totally smoked that 10 year-old boy that kept wandering in front of and behind me in the last half of the race. I wanted to scream "eat it, Kid!" when I finished, but I refrained. It was fantastic.

I still think the time was wrong. That, or the length was shorter than advertised, because I finished with a time of 31 minutes and 54 seconds. That shouldn't have happened. Especially since I did briefly break and walked for a short bit. But now I have a time, a (sort of) official race time to beat, to use as my marker, to tell people so they know my approximate running ability.

31:54

My new ID and entry code into the world of running freaks.