Cap10K recap!

Happy Monday! Did you have a good weekend? I did! I hightailed it out of work on Friday afternoon to beat traffic down to Austin, where I was headed for the Capitol 10K. Ended up making good time, as the first half of the drive looked like this:

I stopped at the race expo on the way to pick up our packets. I didn't spend too much time at the expo, as I was famished and eager to meet my parents at Trudy's for dinner (and a Mexican Martini, of course). Dinner was delicious, but unfortunately the experience itself was severely dimmed by the obnoxiously loud group of women sitting behind us who were talking and laughing so loud that we couldn't even hear each other talking. Even the waitress was annoyed.

On Saturday morning, Rachel and Matt made it into town and the 3 of us, plus my mom (Dad was golfing), sister, and sister's friend headed out to the Oasis for lunch + gorgeoussss views. It was PERFECT weather.

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Have you been there lately?! They've built up around it so much.... parking garage, shops, several new restaurants. Hardly recognizable from The Oasis I first knew.... but so nice now!

I took Rachel and Matt downtown to South Congress to check out the funky Austin shops... and we each grabbed a cupcake at Hey Cupcake! to enjoy when we got home. Heavenly, I tell you.

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We headed home just as it was starting to sprinkle outside, which ruined our plans to hang by the pool. Eventually it cleared and we sat outside talking until dinner was ready (Thanks Mom and Dad!). We didn't last long after dinner... we were all exhausted and knew we had an early morning ahead of us... so we were probably in bed by 10!

I was up bright and early to eat my standard pre-run breakfast of an english muffin with peanut butter and banana and a small cup of coffee, before we headed downtown to the race. Mom and Dad were kind enough to drive down to the race early with us, drop us off at the starting line and head to find a place to park and watch us. 

Rachel and I walked past the long porta-potty lines, contemplated using them, and decided against it. As we stood in the corrals about 30 minutes prior to starting time, we decided we did need to pee after all and headed back to the lines, which had grown immensely in the past few minutes. At that point we decided if we were going to be standing around for 30 minutes anyway, we should at least stand in line and hope for the best. We made it JUST in time. The gun went off about 3 minutes after we made it back to the corrals. The unfortunate part was that we were at the back of the "timed" pack at that point... which led to A LOT of weaving during the first mile of the race to find a spot we could run comfortably. It's pretty frustrating to run behind people whose method is to sprint for 20 seconds and then come to a complete slow walk right in front of you. Oh well.

We passed my sister cheering us on right at the start (she was staying in a hotel downtown with friends and popped outside to cheer us on!!) and then passed my parents and Matt about 1.25 miles in (same spot they were last year so I knew exactly where to look for them!). The hills in the first 3 miles were tough but we were feeling good and strong the whole way through. Love hearing the different bands playing along the way! We were keeping a very consistent pace all the way through and really tried to push it in mile 6 so that I could beat last years' time, but unfortunately I came in at the EXACT same time I did last year... still good, though! I felt GREAT at the end, very much unlike last year. Amazing what a difference proper training makes, huh? ;-)

A little blurry (because we're running so fast, of course!)

My sister, parents and Matt were waiting on the sidelines just before the finish line to give us a final cheer as we sprinted to the finish!

Apparently I'm not so cute when I'm sprinting!

Official chip time: 1:07:40. Not fast... a very steady 10:54/mile, but I felt good and ran the whole thing, so I'm very happy with it!

Post-race

Rachel and Matt left after the race to get back to their sweet baby and dogs and Danielle went back to meet her friends. I grabbed a delicious brunch with Mom, Dad, Ryan and Audrey (who met us just after the race finished) at Galaxy Cafe. After a pit-stop at DSW (hello, new flats!) on the way home, I got home, packed my things and was soon on my way back to Dallas.

It was a great, but busy, weekend. I feel like I need another weekend to recover from my weekend. Anyone else ever feel the same way??