Lynn and I drove to Austin and picked up Karen F.and Karen H. and we drove to Auditorium Shores for the Susan G. Komen breast cancer 5K race. A warm November morning with temperatures in the low 80's. Last year I won my age group with a 6:59 pace, beating the winner from the previous year by about 40 seconds.
This year I ran a 7:07 pace and the guy I beat last year by 40 seconds turned the tables on me and beat me this year by 22 seconds. What a fun race and what a great workout. The race starts on Congress Avenue Bridge, over Town Lake, and heads up Congress Avenue toward the state capital. The route takes a few turns up some hills so when I finished the first mile in 7:19 I felt pretty good about it having worked pretty hard that mile. The second mile continues up more hills and goes back behind the state capital and finishes on the beginning of the downhill. I finished mile 2 in 7:19 as well. Mile three is mostly downhill but with some turns that flatten out and finishes while crossing the 1st Street bridge. My mile 3 time was 6:45, and then I sprinted on in to the finish line with a total finish time of 22:03. Last year my finish time was 21:47.
So, I took 3rd place in my age group (out of 22 runners) this year, and Karen F. finished 43 seconds behind me and took 3rd place in her age group (out of 115 runners) and Karen H. took 4th place in the same age group.
After the race we went over to Maudie's for breakfast tacos and Joe and Angel joined us as well. A nice group get together. | 