About 4,000 participants and all the hills that Texas could muster came together yesterday for the Blue Bell Fun Run in Brenham,
TX. My awesome friend, Ashley, picked me up at
5:30am and we headed out of the city.
The morning was cool and beautiful, with ethereal fog rising out of the
rolling hills of the Texas
countryside.
After packet pick up and some warm up the 10k started at
8:30 with the sun shining. We were part
of a group of friends, some of whom did the 5k which started a bit later. Since my marathon (click to see March 2 marathon post)
I’ve been working more on speed rather than on endurance. My goal for this race was to finish in sub-8
minute mile pace (even if it was 7:59!) and under 50 minutes total. I was pretty sure I could do it on one of my
best days, but I knew I’d have to mentally be really confident to get the time. I’d never actually done that time before for
the 6.2 whole distance. Secretly I was
hoping to place in my age group, but I knew I would be on the slower side of
that border, judging by last year’s results.
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| First in line for massages. Sweet! Thankfully Ashley took this very flattering picture of me. |
The gun went off and people took off at breakneck
speed. Since I stayed at my
predetermined pace I ended up passing a lot of those people after mile 1. I LOVE passing people during races. My competitive side totally comes out in events
like these and I come up behind people while plotting how best I can get around
them while still running the tangents (running the shortest distance between
the curves in the road).
I am so glad that I didn’t have any gastrointestinal or
bladder issues during this race. It
makes a difference when you’re trying not to do a rain dance AND run at the
same time.
This course was way hillier than anything Houston dishes out. Yeah I run some hills on the treadmill, but
rolling hills are rough since you have to gather your courage over and over
again. The race was pretty tiring, but I
think I gave it my best the whole way through.
The 5k-ers met up with us at around mile 5, right before the last big
hill. It was so congested that it was
difficult to maneuver around all the people and strollers. But thankfully the final quarter of a mile
was downhill so I booked it towards the finish line.
I was stoked that I made my goal! I felt so speedy! Here are the stats:
Chip time: 49:24
Ave pace: 7:57
Age division: 5th of 167
Gender division: 26th of 573
Total: 94th of 967
It is without shame that I tell you that I ate four Blue
Bell bars afterwards. They said all you
can eat, so I took them up on that. The
fruity ones were so refreshing and the ice cream ones were just indulgent.
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| Swag bag included lime green tech-ts and a packet of Texas Bluebonnet seeds |
The sun was shining and it was just in general a beautiful
day. Ashley and I stopped at Chappell
Hill Bakery on the way back and got some yummy kolaches. When I got home I took a much needed nap, and
then that evening went to a dinner and fundraiser that the young women in my
church hosted. What a rejuvenating day!
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| My maturity level drops when I pass this road, hehe |
