Holy moly! I haven’t shared a race recap in nearly a year! My sister Kylee and I ran the Cap10k last weekend, and it was a total blast. Here’s the full recap, if you’d like to know the details of the largest 1ok in Texas.
Since I have a triathlon coming up next month, I figured a 10k race would be a good bench mark to make sure I can actually, ahem, run a 10k. You know? Also, I’ve never actually run a 10k. Craziness! I’ve done a 5k and a half marathon and a full marathon and a relay marathon, but I skipped over the 10k distance. It sounded like a fun race to try.
So my sister and I both signed up for the Cap10k, which always happens in April in Austin. Kylee drove down from Dallas on Saturday so we could go to the expo together.
The Palmer Events Center was buzzing with energy on Saturday afternoon!
Kylee drove straight from Dallas and met us at the expo to pick up our packets. Milo saw her and ran up to her!! He started chatting her ear off and basically never stopped. Not sure what he’s telling her in this picture, but I’m confident it’s something very important.
Aww, how cute is this! A bunch of t-shirts from previous years of the Cap10k all made into a quilt. 2023 was the 46th year of this race.
Milo loved the race expo and did all of the important things like taste the samples and touch all of the running clothes and lay on the mattresses.
“Mommy!! Lay on this mattress. It’s veeerrrryy soft!”
Packet pickup! I love how the safety pins were laid out like this.
I asked my sister if she wanted me to pick up her packet for her early on Friday, and she said “no, I’d like to be there to pick it up!”
And I love that she said that. And that we are basically the same person. She and I both get that same buzzy excitement from picking up the race packet before the race day! It’s the best mojo.
Dinner: chicken, sweet potato, and broccoli. We watched a bit of TV and then went to bed pretty early!
Good morning, Austin! Race day was literally the PERFECT WEATHER. Like, I couldn’t have created a better day if I had tried. It was 55 degrees when I woke up at 6 am, and by the time the race started the sun had come up and it felt a bit warmer than that.
^ Ready to go! Like I said, I’ve never done a 10k and this was really just to make sure I would train enough for my triathlon next month (and not try to cram all the running training into the final 6 weeks or something dumb.) So I didn’t really have a strategy for this race, but my thought was a 9 min mile pace sounded reasonable and an 8:30 min mile pace sounded like a stretch goal.
^ How cute is she? Stretching and getting ready to go!
Congress bridge was empty around 7 am but it was about to get PACKED.
Sisters who run.
Ha! I looked at Kylee’s wrist and just laughed at her preparedness. In addition to the hairband in her hair, she had TWO more on her wrist. “I just don’t want them to break and then I’m stuck with out a hairband,” she said.
Understandable.
Listen, y’all. Austin is in FINE form in April. Granted, there are some random crappy rainy days, but in general, give my a 10k in Austin in April when it’s 55 degrees any day. I am HERE. FOR. IT.
Please note that my hair is finally long enough for a teeny tiny braid. I chopped it all off when I had Milo in 2019 (because I couldn’t deal with being a new mom AND having long hair. It was too much) and I’ve been growing it out for the past year. Slowly but surely getting there!
Aww! We made it to Corral A (and listened to legit the worst rendition of the national anthem I’ve ever heard) and had about 20 minutes to wait. ^ This little friend landed on Kylee’s visor and hung out for a minute!
^ Last picture I took until the race was over!
So here’s the actual race part (and no pictures, duh, because I was RUNNIN’!):
I won’t give you a ton of detail about the race course itself, because you can just look at the Cap10k website where they very clearly describe the entire thing, including hills, maps, and other little helpful tidbits.
But I’ll say that the first half really is VERY hilly! Both Kylee and I negative split the race (our first 5k was slower than our second 5k) because there were just so many dang hills! I crossed the 5k mark and saw my time, and I was like, “aww, dang, I’m not going to get anywhere near an 8:30 pace.”
I consumed a GU (a chocolate one, which I don’t actually like the taste of because who really wants to gulp down two tablespoons of chocolate frosting while they’re running a race) about 20 minutes in, and I think it really helped in the final 2 miles. I felt SO good and fast for the finish!
I was able to pick up my pace a bit at the end and really never felt totally depleted, which is a wonderful feeling to get near the end of a race. I just felt STRONG. The best feeling in the world.
Finished at an 8:39/mile (53:42), which is fast for me, so that was another good feeling.
Basically good feelings on good feelings on good feelings! It’s why those race days are so powerful and I keep wanting to sign up for more of them.
Also, having my sister there was the best. The people you run with make all the difference in the world, and having my sister as a constant source of motivation and encouragement has made this triathlon training process so meaningful. Thanks for driving all the way to Austin to do this race with me, Kylee!
You know what else is great? Those post-race breakfast tacos.
Thanks for stopping by to read today! Want to see another race recaps? Here’s my first triathlon that I did last year!
