Crossing the finish line of the LIVESTRONG Austin Half Marathon also marked the end of the Austin Distance Challenge.  Five races spanning from early October to mid February, pitting Austin’s finest runners against one another in a little royal rumble friendly competition.  Part of what I love most about living in Austin is the number of races that start right out my front door.  In all I ran the IBM 10K, Run for the Water 10 Miler, Decker Half Marathon, 3M Half Marathon, and the LIVESTRONG Half Marathon.

The whole ADC was broken into two tracks: the Half Challenge and Full Challenge, which was determined by doing the LIVESTRONG Half or Full Marathon.  Got it?  Good.  I chose the Half Challenge because I had bigger fish to fry later in the year and didn’t want to get beat up by the Full Marathon.

This was my first foray in to any kind of race series.  It was a lot of fun working towards a progressive goal with each race only part of a larger challenge.  Bottom line is it was a lot of fun.  From a runner’s standpoint, I wish there were more of a social aspect to the competitors, either in an online community or in person at scheduled meet-ups.  I think it would have created a fun element of competition through the interaction of the runners.

So how’d I do in the Austin Distance Challenge?  Duh.

I actually only won my age group.  Overall I came in 7th place, behind some crazy fast people.  To brag be fair, there were a few races where I held back a little (like running 8 miles home from the IBM 10K or running 4 miles home from the LIVESTRONG Half), but I don’t think it made much of a difference in the overall standings.

Would I do it again?  Definitely!  But not this year.  I’ll be out of town for one of the races so I can’t complete the entire challenge.  It’s too bad since they added a sixth race to the series.  Maybe next next year!