10 4 Texas

I did my 10 miler on Saturday - first "real" race of the year back in my own element. Ironman/Ultra first time racing certainly wasn't my element. The weather was bad with Dew Points over 70°F which sapped some motivation so I kinda decided to take it to about 1/2 way controlled then decide if I was going to go race effort the back half or just get a good work-out out of the race. Last year I won Masters with a sub59 climbing from ~7th to 2nd OA over the last half of the race. This time I kept the first 5 controlled by capping the HR at 172 (cold weather average for last year's race was 170 but with the heat I knew I could do a little more) which started fast enough but slow down as the heat effect set in with splits of 5:51,5:54,6:09,6:25,6:30 - at that point still kinda tipping between workout or race I decided one more mile with the HR cap and did 6:36. Then at 13th place I decided I was going to bring it home and started trying to pull guys in - a bit of a headwind for the last 4 miles but the HR show the effort jump a bit more - pulled in one guy with a 6:20/175 7th mile then a guy caught me from behind which I found a little discouraging since I though I was upping it a little - 8th and 9th I didn't make progress on anyone and just lost that one place - 6:36/174, 6:30/173 - last mile gives me some finishline magnetic motivation and I pull in two guys with a final 6:13/176 mile to finish the race in 11th place to finish 1:03:17

I didn't recognize any of the typical fast masters among those out ahead of me but I've finished races in 11th place OA without even ending top 3 AG so as I looked at the results I was kinda self-talking myself to be grateful with anything - turns out the 1st place Masters was the next guy 9 seconds ahead of me and I scored the 1st AG award. He turned out to be a local good tri-guy which explains why I hadn't heard of him (as a Competitive Jerk I of course keep tabs on who in my AG is my competition:)). 4 minutes slower than a year before but knowing I'm typically a bit more slowed in the heat than others I gauged my race performance more by how it felt than the time and it felt like I gave it near all - yeah I'm certain I could have squeezed out another 9 seconds but that's spilt milk - I'm pretty happy pulling out the AG win on such a disadvantaged day to me with the heat. Nice to be out kinda back in my (road racing) element again. A great kick-off to my training to Houston....