Benjamin and I finished the the second race of the Austin Distance Challenge (ADC) today. This one was the Girl Scouts-Lone Star Council’s Scenic 10 Miler which replaced the Pervasive 10 Miler from last year. The weather was cold which wouldn’t have been so bad except there was a 15 to 20mph head wind at the start of the race. The wind died down a bit when the sun came up but when we finished running the temprature was still only 51 degrees.
Don’t let the name fool you, the “Scenic” 10 Miler was 100% not scenic although we can both attest to the 10 Miler part. The course this year was on the new Toll 1 and Toll 45 roads. Yes, on the not-yet-opened roads themselves. The start of the race was between where Toll 1 crosses Wells Branch Parkway and where it crosses Shoreline Drive. The race went up Toll 1, on the flyover to Toll 45, across IH-35 and to near the Sears Telecenter, then we turned around and ran back the same way. Yes, it was an out-and-back which B and I both despise. Everything was fine until we got to mile 3 when the lead runners started heading back. Even that wasn’t too bad ’cause B and I both know that we’re not professional runners but it all went downhill from there when we started to see a bulk of people around mile 4 on their way back. The only two redeeming qualities about the route were 1) when you got to mile 5 you could see that you weren’t at the very end of the pack and 2) you didn’t have to dodge any traffic. Speaking of traffic, they had to delay the start of the race by 15 minutes (while we were stuck in the cold wind waiting) because parking was so bad. In fact, it reminded us of the parking before the Decker last year. Overall, I have to give the “Scenic” 10 Miler a ‘C’.
On the flip side, B and I had a great run and felt good at the end.
| Race: Girl Scouts-Lone Star Council’s Scenic 10 Miler | |
|
Casey
|
|
|---|---|
| Overall position | 641 out of 1198 |
| Class position (M 25-29) | 41 out of 62 |
| Chip time | 1:28:10.7 |
| Pace | 8:49/M |
|
Benjamin
|
|
| Overall position | 643 out of 1198 |
| Class position (M 20-24) | 18 out of 20 |
| Chip time | 1:28:13 |
| Pace | 8:49/M |
Paces for each mile according to the Garmin:
| Mile | Pace |
|---|---|
| 1 | 9:20/M |
| 2 | 8:58/M |
| 3 | 9:01/M |
| 4 | 8:59/M |
| 5 | 8:39/M |
| 6 | 9:23/M |
| 7 | 8:42/M |
| 8 | 8:41/M |
| 9 | 8:30/M |
| 10 | 7:54/M |
Next race: Motive Bison Stampede Half Marathon – November 12th
Edit @ 18:56 – thanks to Matt for letting me know the results were up!
Digital Ramblings 
Results are up now.
Casey Peel
641/1198
1st half
rank: 653
time: 44:58.2
pace: 9:00/M
2nd half
rank: 632
time: 43:12.5
pace: 8:38/M
final chip time: 1:28:10.7
overall pace: 8:49/M
Benjamin, shockingly, was pretty much exactly the same times.
The one thing I liked about the out-and-back was being able to cheer for my friends who are slower and faster than me.
Cheers,
Matt
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Thanks Matt! It was surprising (and very encouraging) to hear our names called out! I looked around for you a bit before the race started but didn’t see you. Congratulations on finishing yourself, and (IMHO) with a great time too!
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Congrats on the great race! But an out and back along a highway — ye gads, what a cop out from the race organizers! I can totally agree with your frustration with the route.
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Oh, hey, just noticed that you mention a Garmin — I didn’t realize you’d gotten one of those. What do you think? Do you like it?
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Indeed, it has been really nice for training. Mostly the ability to just get out, run, and have the Garmin keep track of how far we’ve gone instead of having to map it out in the car first. It also gives your current pace which we’ve used to try and be more consistent in our races (granted, with only varying degrees of success — I keep telling B ‘we need to slow down’ which we do for a few minutes and end up speeding back up!).
The battery lasts virtually forever – we’re still on the first charge. We’ve had it for over a month and have used it for all our training runs and both races. We haven’t hooked it up to the computer yet both because I’m running Linux and the model we have (201) only comes with a serial adapter. I’m planning on getting a USB-to-serial adapter and running the software on my Win2k VM image but I haven’t found the time :)
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Cool! Yeah, that’s what I was thinking about using it for — to just be able to go out for a run and have it track rather than worrying about it. Thanks for the info.
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So that was what was going on!
On the way to church this morning, we could NOT figure out why the 45 toll road flyover was a parking lot and what “event” was being held there. Good to know!
Congrats on completing your race! Great job!
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Re: So that was what was going on!
Before the race started I was making quips about how ‘look, the toll road is already a parking lot and it isn’t even open yet!’ and ‘it won’t be the last time the toll road looks more like a parking lot than a major road’. Lame, but it was my feeble attempt to stay warm :)
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The most important thing
Did you get cookies at the end?
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Re: The most important thing
Indeed yes! They were giving out the shortbread cookies again. :)
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