Perfect weather for a popular road race in Austin, TX
Event: Statesman Capitol 10K
Distance: 10K
Date: 2023-04-16, Sun, 8:00a
Location: Austin, TX
Event Host: Austin Statesman
It started the way it usually does.
“Would you like to do the 2023 Cap10K with me?”
Why yes. Yes I would.
This came by way of a text message in mid-November 2022. I registered within the week.
The Statesman Cap10K is popular. Popular, as in the largest 10K in Texas and as in the sixth largest in the US. According to the Cap10k history, 2020 was the highest number of registered participants at 25,844. However, COVID-19 put the kibosh on that year and the next.
I haven’t seen the official number of registrants for 2023, but my race results indicated there were 13,021 finishers. The highest race bib number I saw on the course was over 14,000. The first place finisher’s bib number was 13929. So…a LOT of people.
Of course, I hadn’t made time for training. It’s only six miles and change, right? (My oft repeated foolishness, from which I never seem to learn.) I was pretty sure I was capable of walking 6.2 miles.
The weather was PERFECT! When I stepped out of the house wearing my preferred running apparel, shorts and a racer back tank, I was surprised and delighted to find it rather nippy outside. 57°F. (Can you say perfect? Actually sing it–in an angelic a cappella.) I couldn’t have asked for a better day for this event. Cool temps (high of 76°F), coupled with a firm breeze that blew along the course fairly consistently, made for exceptional race day weather.
The race starts on the Congress Avenue Bridge (of bat colony fame) and proceeds straight up Congress Ave to the capitol. The official start time was 8:00 am, but with 13000+ people, it takes a while to get them all across the bridge and the timing mat. When a cheer rolled back through the crowd sometime after 8:30 am, we knew all the corrals were getting the go ahead for taking the course. Captured by my friend, this photo of the starting line shows we still haven’t crossed the timing mat at 8:44 am.
The plan was to “walk with purpose.” Neither of us were looking for a PR or placing in our age divisions. Which reminds me, there was a large group sponsored by AARP. Their red shirts proclaimed “Thriving. Any pace. Any Age.” We chatted with one of them on the course and got the details. She said they provided training and paid their entry fees. (That info put me on the search for opportunities of AARP sponsorship myself. Registration fees add up!)
In between mile 1 and mile 2 is the hilliest section of the course. On a particularly steep climb just before mile marker 2, the course has two additional timing mats. One at the bottom and one at the top. These were for the King and Queen of the Hill awards. Fastest times up that short, two city blocks section win “the crown.” Or if not a literal crown, then the title of King or Queen. I certainly wasn’t in any danger of learning what the prize was from first hand experience. My 17:34/mi avg pace stretched out to 18:57/mi on that section. (Garmin Connect reports my best pace as 11:35/mi, as a tiny little spike on the pace graph. Maybe when I tried a photo bomb with the Red Baron.)
It was somewhere around mile marker 3 we first noticed the Red Baron flying in his red plane. Seriously! A silver-haired man wearing a model of a red tri-wing plane. He was a popular photo subject, stopped frequently to pose for or with other runners. And we still could not keep pace with the man. Last time I recall seeing him was several blocks ahead on the last mile and a half of the course, banking left and right, working his way forward through those on the course ahead of him. (See me trailing in the photo? I just barely managed to my photo bomb attempt.)
In addition to the Red Baron, we saw a seven-foot tall rooster, a troupe from Super Mario Bros. in full costume, and assorted superheros.
Every mile had one musical group or band. A very eclectic and multi-cultural selection, as is fitting of “the live music capital of the world.” My favorite was the Connally HS band. They were set up under the overpass at Mopac and Enfield. Their echoing enthusiasm was off the charts! We clapped and howled back when a quartet lined up in front of the band and did a rapid stomping cheer for us as we flowed past.
Despite the hills, I felt very good throughout the first half of the course. Even exclaimed in joy at one point, “It’s been so long since I’ve done this!” The hills, of course, did leave their mark. LOL
My heart rate hit its high for the day, 163bpm, and didn’t come back down much under 150bpm for the remainder of the course. A comfortable working range for me during sustained effort (1 hr and 49 min as my finishing time indicates) is 120-130. I was definitely feeling the fatigue as we crossed the South First Bridge toward the last turn onto Riverside and the straight chute to the finish line. We mustered a short jog over the finish line as if we were really racing. Always look your best for your finish line photos!
