97, 98, 99, 100, 1, 2....

(make sure you have some sort of snack, this is a long one :) )
I ran a 10K this weekend. Prior to Saturday I've done three 10K races in my time as runner and have hated every single one. My first 10K was the Capital 10K in Austin in 2004. It was while I was training for the Country Music Marathon and it was during our taper, meaning we had already run 20+ miles in training and 6.2 miles was supposed to be cake. It wasn't. The thing about the Capital 10K is that well it sucks. At least in my mind. It's usually at the end of March, so that means it's generally pretty warm and humid in Austin by then. And it's hilly. From about the first quarter of a mile until mile 3 you're pretty much going uphill the entire time and there's this quarter mile hill where you climb about 200 feet. Of course after mile three you get to go downhill, but by then I was completely out of gas. By mile 4 I lost my breakfast. By the finish I swore I'd do better next time. I think I finished in about 1:20
That same training season I ran the Fiesta 10K. This was a week before the Country Music and the day of a friend's wedding. Which also meant the morning after the rehearsal dinner. Which meant I stayed out too late and drank too much to run very well the next morning. I think this was one of the first runs that Allison and I ran together. And she too had stayed out too late and had too many libations. Together we were going to make quite the pair. So the Fiesta 10K goes along the San Antonio River on "Mission Trail" even though you don't see any Missions unless you go about 5 miles out. Unfortunately this means it also starts near the old Sulphur springs. Talk about YUCK. In some places you have to cross over the river, on these suspension bridges that bounce up and down, up and down as you cross them. But it's not just the two of us, it's us and about 10 other runners at a time going up over these bridges. It made me a little dizzy. Of course we crossed 3 of these bridges on the way to the turn around point, which meant coming back over them again. At about mile 4.5 I told Allison to leave me that I was done and was going to walk. It's safe to say that was not my best race. I have no idea what my actual time was on that run, I tried to forget as much of it as possible.
Earlier this year I decided to give the Capital 10K another go. After all it was the 30th Capital 10K and I was turning 30 this year. I hate that race. It was 2004 all over again, except I got sick at mile 5 not 4 this year. Ick. Time: 1:15.
But I saw a 10K scheduled for Saturday and decided to give it a go. I had just read the New York Times article on distance runners distracting their minds with cadences so I decided to give that a try. And about half a mile into the race I started counting 1, 2, 3, up to 100 and then I would start over. Next then you know I was at the 5K point in 32 minutes. My best 5K time is about 35 minutes so I was thrilled! So I kept counting and counting and counting. And finished (ready for this) in 68 minutes! Which for me is COMPLETELY awesome. It means I ran in less than 11 minute miles. I'm fairly surprised at how the simple act of counting really distracted my brain from the task at hand and let me go a little faster than normal. It's really sort of amazing. So I'll do the counting from now on. I wonder how it'll affect my time in Houston.