Suck It Up Cupcake Recap of Toughest 10K Galveston

The Toughest 10K Galveston was the second running event in the Texas Bridge series, which means that I have 2 down, 1 more to go...the big half marathon. I was slightly nervous for this event, but not as bad as I was for the Toughest 10K Kemah. I still hadn't really ran all that much, except for a 3 mile loop around Memorial Park with Amy on Thursday evening before the big race and a couple of runs here and there with my dog. I'm actually getting more nervous about my half marathon, because I found out it is also over a tall bridge and I haven't ran more than 6 miles.

The event started at 7 a.m., which meant I had to get up super early to make it there for packet pickup. God help us. Amy decided to run at the last minute, with me really begging her on Thursday and well, all week. And to my surprise, Haley decided to run in it, too. She said she couldn't go, because she was working Ballunar this weekend, but she was allowed to show up for forced volunteering in the afternoon. Yay for me. Amy's friend, Nathan also showed up to run and he's doing the entire bridge series, as well. Although, I figured we would see Nathan in the beginning and that was it; he's a fast runner. I am not.

The Toughest 10K Galveston takes our running path across the famous Galveston Causeway, which links Galveston Island to Texas via motorway and intercoastal way (used to be rail, too). This event was the one that I was most excited about running, because I get to run on the Causeway. How cool is that? However, they were really strict on the rules, because they had a certain allotted time to not only shut down a lane on the bridge, but cross that bridge; we had an hour to cross it or you would forfit the rest of the run to be shuttled over.

The Galveston Causeway

Aeriel shot of the Causeway.

When we got there, it was dark...oh so dark and full of mosquitos. I don't know what happened, but apparently our rainstorm brought out the squiters. It's so weird, because it is cooler outside and normally, they are scarce during cool months. They swarmed us, eating our bare skin or skin through our clothes. My poor butt got the brunt of the bites. This one lady had on just a sports bra and she was just getting eatin alive. Someone had some OFF and it was like bees to honey trying to get some, but we girls managed to spray ourselves down.

Red, White, and Blue before shot...we didn't plan that either. But it's good to know that we celebrate AMERICA!

I'm still not getting why they separate the time chips table from the packet pickup table; it's just an extra step that I have to take when I could be in line for the restrooms or at least stretching. It's also really confusing since they don't have signs that say this table is for this thing. I also want to mention that the shirts are much better; however, I was upset that they ran out of mediums (that I requested). I think that the people showing up on the day of the event are taking our pre-registered shirts when that shouldn't be the case if we registered a month a go. I should have my shirt available. Anyways...off my soapbox.

We lined up and an ROTC group sang the National Anthem and then the countdown started....5...4...3...2...1...RUN. We started out slow letting the pack thin out. It was nice and smooth, just keeping the pace. Amy and I had our ipods on, but Haley didn't. So, I just tried to keep her engaged in conversation and well, take my mind off the fact that I was running. We just kept running and running and running. My goal was to make it over this bridge without stopping.

The Causeway was a slow, long incline (smaller in height than the Kemah bridge) making for a long, slow burn of a run. People were already walking, but not us; we just kept running. And you know what, we made it over the bridge and kept running. Since I haven't mastered the art of running and taking the cups of water, I had to stop and chug it down. The girls kept running and I sprinted to catch up with them. It was a half a second stop, so I don't really consider it a stop.

I was starting to lose steam fast and made the statement that I'm going to need to walk soon. The goal was to make it to the bridge and do a quick rest, but then we changed it to the 4 mile flag (near the top of the bridge). However, when Amy got within sight of the flag, she sprinted ahead of us and I just couldn't catch up to her. Haley kept telling me to slow down and I obliged. Amy was now gone and we didn't see her again until we were about to cross the finish line. I know how she felt, because when I finally saw the flag, I was going faster to get there, too. But Haley just kept reminding me to slow down and I again would oblige. I hate people when they are all right and stuff. Haley and I made it to the 4 mile flag without stopping, but it wasn't much of a stop. I had to fast walk and then Haley told me to speed up enough to a slow jog and keep doing that until we can break again. There was not much of a break with her. In fact, we didn't do another stop until the next water station after the bridge (and around the corner). And each time I wanted to walk, she would just tell me to do a slow slow jog.

I love the views from the bridge during our run; however, it stunk down under the bridge and by the houses.

At one point, Haley told me that we were almost there and I had Vietnam flashbacks of that girl yelling those statements to her friend at the Race for the Cure. I told her to stop that or I will punch her in the face...as soon as I could catch her. She gave me a "come catch me look" and sped up. Grrr!

We finally made it to the final stretch and then we saw this girl that had been with us a great deal of the run even when Amy was still running with us. She walked way more, but she ran faster. So, she was always with us. Haley said, "We can't let her beat us," but I was worried that she would beat us. We needed her to walk so that we could catch up and you know what, she did walk...2 or 3 times. We were able to get ahead of her. When we made the left on the final turn, I saw her out of the corner of my eye running to make up time. She didn't know it, but she was in a full on competitive race that I was not above tripping her if she tried to overtake us. I'm just kidding...maybe. I said, "She's catching up, we can't let her win," and I sped up. Haley was trying to say, "No, just long stretches," but that wasn't good enough. I wanted her dessimated. I'm not sure what she did to me in a past life, but it was something bad. Haley and I ended up winning and getting the 10K done in 1 hour, 12 minutes (1:12:22.3 to be exact). Haley was yelling at me to walk it out, keep moving, and for God's sake, stretch. I was moving and finally did stretch.

It was now time for our after shots.

Haley and I right after the race.

We caught up with Amy and took this photo.

It's just me after the race. I wasn't sure if Haley wanted her solo picture up since I got so much grief for putting every picture up on this blog, which I don't.

I ran in to a skydiver friend of mine, Matt. It was good to see him. They had pizza, beer, chocolate chip cookies, and Halloween candy. Surprisingly, I didn't have beer, but I just didn't feel like it at 8:30 a.m., even if it's 5 o'clock somewhere. The biggest difference in this race was that it was a long, slow climb verses the Kemah one, which was short, tall inclines. I actually felt better after the Galveston one, but I still zonked out on the couch when I got home. And I was so tight to properly do the moves during my Yoga for Athletes class the next morning. It did help me though.

I got alot of compliments on my t-shirt. Hence the title of my blog. Thanks to Kirsten Johnson for making this awesome shirt and now it will be my official race day shirt. I think it's so fitting for me. Thanks to Amy and Haley for joining me on this run...I really appreciate it. And I really want to thank Haley for pushing me to keep on running when you know Amy left us. This was the most that I have ever run and in not a bad time. I'm proud of myself and my time.

Now, it's time to start training for the half marathon. I must run at least 10 miles this week. Who's with me?