Blue Bell Fun Run - 10K

Hooray! This morning I completed my first 10K race. It was the Blue Bell Fun Run, over in Brenham, TX. A bit of a drive, but I thought it might be a nice change of scenery.

Overall, I'm pleased with my performance, though not thrilled by it. The course was much more hilly than I am accustomed to, plus this is the farthest I've ever run, plus it was my first time in ages to be running without my dog.

I finished in 57:00, which works out to a 9:11 mile. I was hoping for 9:00/mile, so that's not too bad. Here are my stats compared with the rest of the runners:

• Total runners: 246/918 (26.8%)
• Total men: 168/385 (43.6%)
• Total men 40-49: 42/76 (55.3%)

I find it fascinating that I do worse (percentage-wise) the more narrow my field becomes. That means there are a lot of really fast old guys. I guess that most of them have been running a lot longer (or more consistently) than I have.

One thing I did come to realize while running this race was that I've been somewhat holding back in my 5Ks. I run them at a nice pace, but not really exerting myself. That's going to change this year. Any 5Ks I run, I'm going to really push myself just to see what I can do.

Just a few quick notes about the run. I was hoping for better scenery, but mostly it was just running along country roads. There were farms and horses and cows, but no bluebonnets or rolling hills.

As we were lining up to start the race, I look around me and nearly everyone is strapping on their iPods. This didn't bother me as much as it does for a 5K, but still, can't people be non-media stimulated for even an hour? But that's not even why I mention it. After we start, I hear some "Eye of the Tiger"-type music playing, but I didn't think much of it, assuming it was just something for the race. But after a few minutes when the second song starts up ("Mr. Brightside" by The Killers), I thought to myself, "Shouldn't I have passed the speakers by now?" Then I discovered that some guy has portable iPod speakers on a backpack. Come on, dude! I realize that I'm in the minority 20% who don't have earbuds in, but what gives you the right to deny me of my self-imposed silence? Needless to say, my pace for my first mile was a bit quicker than the rest as I tried to put as much distance as I could between us.