Sunday was the 35th running of the Statesman Capitol 10,000. As you no doubt remember, this year I was a member of my company’s Corporate Challenge team. We’ll get to how that went in a moment. First, anyone who has been around me for more than 5 seconds knows I like running marathons*. Half marathons are cool too. 10Ks are not really in my bag of tricks. Not one to disappoint I set a pretty aggressive conservative who knows goal of sub 40 minutes.
Pre Race
With all my focus on the Vermont Marathon (May 27th) I didn’t do very much to train for the Cap10K. In fact, my preparation consisted of simply moving my 20 mile long run from Saturday to Thursday. In true Mikey form I ran from my house to the starting line before the race. An easy 4 miles downhill to the start got me nice and warmed up. Truth be told, just standing outside in the Texas sun would have been more than enough warming for me–it was hot and getting hotter. 22,000+ people were in for a sweatfest.
Start – Mile 3
While getting pumped up for the pain that lay ahead, I saw Cristina and Robert (from my Austin Half Marathon recap). We traded pleasantries until the official air horn sent us on our way. The first half of this race is hill-arious. What I mean is it’s terrible. The hills roll up and down the streets of Austin in a relentless, merciless gauntlet punishing runners of all abilities. Combined with the rising temperature and uninterrupted sun, the first half is really a battle of preservation.
I did an decent job easing on the uphills and pushing the downhills. Early on my legs felt good and breathing was even, so I passed a lot of people. The big question was if I’d later come to regret not taking it a little easier. To this point though all systems were functional and it was race day. Thus, when in doubt, go faster. My splits make it clear where the ups and downs were.
Splits: 6:30, 6:17, 6:30
Mile 4 – Finish
Thankfully the second half of the course shows some sense of guilt as evidenced by its lack of incline. However, while there aren’t hills, there is a two-mile stretch directly into the sun. Getting past halfway and onto flatter ground, the strategy shifts from “take it easy, buddy” to “GO!” Around mile 5.5 I caught up to one of my fellow NI Corporate teammates. He beat me in the time trials by a good margin, but on this day I had the upper hand. Over a bridge and through the bleachers I gave it just about everything left in the tank to finish strong and beat my sub-40 goal by 15 seconds.
Splits: 6:22, 6:25, 6:28 (Last 0.2 pace 5:39)
I stopped my watch and stopped my legs as soon as I crossed the finish line. Official time: 39:45. Despite the heat, I beat last year‘s time by over a minute! Most encouraging is how well the race turned out without specifically training for it.
| 2012 Statesman Capitol 10K | |
|---|---|
| Distance | 6.2 Miles |
| Time | 39:45 |
| Pace | 6:24 min/mile |
| Overall Place | 157 / 9928 (1.58%) |
| Gender Place | 145 / 5159 (2.81%) |
| Age Group Place | 28 / 675 (4.45%) |
*sorry to anyone who’s been around me for more than 5 seconds.
Corporate Challenge Results
2012 marks the 8th year of National Instruments’ participation in the Corporate Challenge. We had won it 7 times in a row. Without two of our all-stars due to injury, and rumors of another company flying in a ringer from out of state, there was some concern that the streak could be in jeopardy. Fear not! Ultimately our team’s depth and dominance were too much. We won again, beating second place by 25 minutes.
| Ashish Patel | 34:02 |
| Roger Isern | 36:45 |
| Gerardo Orozco | 37:26 |
| Liang Wu | 37:30 |
| Paul Franco | 38:58 |
| Tim Stelzer | 39:32 |
| Mike Galante | 39:45 |
| Justin Druba | 40:49 |
| Misha Kotov | 41:00 |
| Ryan Colby | 41:04 |