Running a 10k

This weekend, I ran the third 10k for the Rogue Trail Series (http://www.tejastrails.com/Rogue.html). Now I use the term “run” very loosely because this race (the Bluff) at Milton Reimers Ranch Park was possibly the toughest course of the series (the previous were the Maze at Walnut Creek Metro Park and the Loop at Emma Long Motocross Area). The Bluff at Reimers was designed new for this year—lucky us! Out of the 10k, there was about a 3-4k of it that you basically had to carefully navigate up and down treacherous rock paths. Needless to say, I was running slowly (or should I say fastly walking?) until I rolled my ankle and fell flat on my face. At that point, I figured I should be safe and take it easy on the mountainsides (after all, one little tumble could send me flying off the side of the ravine). About one hour and sixteen minutes later, I finally crossed the finish line. During the hot summer Austin days, most races are run early in the morning to avoid the scorching heat, so this 7:30am race required a 5am wake up call for the hour drive from my house to the course—and as I finished the race, I now had to start the rest of my work day of an onsite salesperson!

Despite the mumbling and grumbling of running on rocks at ungodly hours of the morn, I seriously contemplate running in the dead of summer with Rogue’s 8 week summer program to train for the Winter Series (http://www.roguerunning.com/programdetails/241/2.html). Tell me that I’m crazy! This insanity brings flashbacks of my vehement promises to never run another marathon after my first Boston Marathon—only to run it again the following year. The logistics of coordinating a babysitter for a 7am start (on a Sunday at that) is the fun part of planning. Let’s the games begin to pounding the body into submission this summer!