Race Recap: The Longest Causeway 10K

Its been a week since The Longest Causeway 10k. It was my first 10k ever and I LOVED IT. I registered online the day before online registration ended. I felt like I trained pretty well. I had a few 7 and 6 miles runs thrown in there as well as some great speed days.

But....on thursday 2 days before the race which was my last speed workout I think I pulled a muscle or bruised the outside of my foot, I was really hurting. I got home and stretched, iced, then put on some IcyHot hoping maybe it was just sore. No such luck. Friday rolled around and was nursing my tenderfoot all day at work. As a teacher, I dont do much sitting around, so Friday was horrible pressure on my poor little baby.

Saturday morning I rolled out of bed half debating staying home because of that little nagging pain. I hoped that once I got the chance to warm up and stretch I wouldnt be so conscious of it. I finally pulled into Port Isabel and still had to make the ride over the bridge. 10k participants had to park at the finish area and be shuttled back to the start of the race. I thought it was pretty cool that it was just a one way race.

Once there I found a couple of friends and we chatted away. My friend Carolyn was running her first 10k ever as well and I think first race in general. She is doing few races, 10k, half marathon, and cycling to ramp up for The Tour De Cure where she'll ride 160 miles for the American Diabetes Association as a Red Rider (a rider with diabetes). She is beyond inspiring. If you are interested in donating to Caroyln's fund for a diabetes cure post a comment and I'll email you her info!

We started lining up and someguy asked me to take a picture of him....I was thinking 'yeah, sure, uh this is wierd' so I did it anyway. While I did the 1, 2, 3 click, he was telling me how he was nervous because this was his first 10k and how he didnt want to walk. I told him this was my first one too and that there was no shame in walking, and said I would if I needed too (I wasnt planning on walking though) which i think he took as an insult :( he sorta smiled and laughed it off. Oh well.

I plugged in my tunage. My Eminem Pandora station has yet to fail me! I was getting all ramped up and boom the race started. I never imagined the race was soooooo big. There were over 3,000 people registered. So I did lots of dodging and side stepping some of the slower runners, until I had comfortable path. I sped through the first mile (under 8:00 min/mi) like always, I need to make a mental note to slow down some at the beginning. Then came the BRIDGE! It was a steady incline for at least 1-2 miles. I could feel the slow burn in quads. And then it turned into a gradual down hill. I was finally crusing, the weather was perfect, overcast and cool. It wasnt till we made the turn on Padre Island Blvd "The Strip" that the sun decided to wreak is revenge on us. I could just feel the sun beating it's evil heat rays on my back. Not nice sun. Not nice at all.

At this point mile 4, I didnt really know my position so I tried to pick off as many female runners as possible. I wanted a medal and the only way to do it was to pass all the ones I could see. I past about 5 or 6 women that way before I settled on the fact I couldnt see any other lady runners. I just pushed on until I could finally see the finish line and was soooooo glad I was getting really tired my legs were starting to feel it, especially my foot.

After I finished I waited and ran the last 200 or so with another one of my friends whom I made during our Team In Training Marathon season. It was her first 10K too. Francis did an amazing job! I am so proud of her and husband Jason for being troopers and driving the 1hr+ to make the race from McAllen.

I saw a big group gathering and had a feeling they put up race results. I had decided that if I didnt place in my division I would leave(Im a party pooper like that), but I had high hopes that I did. I pushed and shoved my way to the front and low and behold. I placed..... 4th in my division in 52:09 (a PR for me!) but NOT good enough to get a medal. I cursed under my breath and left.
It wasnt until the next day where I kicked myself, after really seeing the results, the 3rd place woman in my div. beat me by 10 seconds and we live in the same city. AHHHHHHHHHHH!

Overall it was a great race, there were plenty of water stations, volunteers, and cheering spectators not to mention the course is beautiful. The Queen Isabella Causeways never open to travel over by foot so it really was a fantastic experience to run over looking the gulf. I will totally register again to run it. I had a blast and next year I will get a medal! Thats a promise! I also hope I can redeem myself at Jan 29th's South Texas Sizzler 10K.

Time: 52:09 min
Pace: 8:24 min/mile
Div Place: 4th (20-24)
36th female/200something overall