Another Successful Capitol 10K

OK, this isn't really about tennis, but close enough.  I don't have a running blog, so here it lands.

It was another successful and fun Capitol 10K.  This year, the race started earlier than in the last few years, at 8 am.  I prepared fairly lackadaisically and got there probably about five minutes late.  No biggie--though the elite runners had already started running, many others had not even gotten to the finish line yet.  And in the spirit of the last few races I had run, I tried to be near the end of the finish line.  This is because if I start in the middle of the pack, at the place that I should start at for the pace I would run, there is such a crush of humanity that it becomes dangerous.  A crush of 20,000 runners or so all trying to pack in one street's width, trying to pass people and dart in and out of perceived holes in the crowd, and enormous amounts of traffic jams, make it not worth it for me to get in the wolf pack.

Besides, I'm not really running competitively anyway.  I just want to have a pleasant run, and make it to the end.

I wouldn't say I ran this race completely cold, but I haven't been running much regularly lately.  Maybe I've run three times in the last three months.  So it's pretty close to running cold.  I guess as I get older I worry about my knees holding out more.  They seem mostly OK, but are showing a few signs of wear.  You would think tennis would tear them up too, but for some reason I'm less worried about the effect playing tennis had on them.

Here's how I can tell I had a good race:

1. I made it to the end.
2. I experienced no major life-threatening events.
3. I didn't tear any important body parts (at least not in an impairing fashion)
4. Both my knees and my back still kinda work (even if they're a little crunchy).

Here's a better-than-average race for me:

1. I ran the whole way and didn't peter out.
2. I wasn't counting mile markers and begging my body for the strength to get to the next one.
3. I had an average, comfortable, even pace.

So by those standards, this race was better than average.  Even if I start at the back of the pack, I'll catch up to some serious foot traffic around mile one.  But this race, I took most of the far corners on turns instead of the close corners and that helped with density.  Around mile three, I started catching up with run/walkers, and between mile four and five I started catching up with runners again.  I was running at a pleasant, meditative pace, just studying my Polish flash cards occasionally, and all of a sudden I was at mile four.

I thank my lucky stars that I wasn't the guy puking his guts out over the 15th St. (or is it Enfield at this point?) bridge over the neighborhood near Pease Park right after Lamar.  I'm also glad I wasn't the person I saw being loaded into an ambulance at the corner of San Antonio and Cesar Chavez.

The most intense hill is probably between Lamar and Murray St. (a few blocks east of Mopac) on Enfield.  Then there is a brief respite and the next most difficult is probably shortly afterwards between Enfield and 10th St. on the Mopac frontage road (Winsted Ln.?).

All in all, it was a good race.  It'll be great if I can do it next year again.