The Capitol 20,000

Yeah, I know the race is not a 20K, and it is called the Capitol 10,000. However, I was invited to participate in the 3rd annual Capitol 20,000 with Duane, Chad, and Toby, which consists of running the original 6.2 mile race course twice. It was a privilege to be asked, so how could I pass that up?

The first lap, the actual 'race' part of the morning went well. My intention was to run steady through the first 3 miles and try to progressively drop the pace down to as fast as I could go in the last mile. I ran the first mile in 8:27, which is pretty good considering it is entirely uphill. My second mile, also significantly uphill was 8:30. I hit the big Enfield hill in good stride and kind of chugged along until I got to its crest. From there it was all good. The next two miles were a 16:38 split. I missed the 3 mile marker, so seeing that overall I averaged miles 3 and 4 at 8:19s meant that my progressive pace plan was working. Mile 5 was fast and flat at 7:59. Mile 6 was 8:14. Even though I should have been faster at this point, there was a hill that I had to climb, and I am not totally sure that the mile 5 marker was in the right place. My last .2 miles was 1:31 (a 7:35 pace). I had a great kick at the end! I was led in by a large group of really fast runners, and the momentum that we all carried me to finish really strong.

So, in every other year I would have finished the race, gotten my bag of goodies to eat and watched the masses finishing the race. Not this year. We were halfway done.

This year the 2nd loop of the course was completed by Chad, Duane, Toby, Jennifer, and myself. We met up and walked over to the original start line area to begin the loop. The workers had already removed the timing mats and were taking down the fences. There were a few cars on the road as the roads were slowly starting to reopen.

Everyone ran slowly on the second lap. We managed to catch the last walker at the top of the Enfield hill just past West Lynn. It was about mile 2.75. From this point on we were back in the race and enjoyed stopping for water and weaving our way through the walkers. It was neat to see the ocean of cups on the street that almost 20,000 runners had dropped. As we rounded Austin High and got onto Cesar Chavez Street for the last mile, I started looking for my mom. She was walking with a group of ladies that she knew and had been training with during the last month. I missed her, but she saw us and yelled ahead to get my attention. It was neat to get to see her finish it as part of the official race instead of just being my support person. It looked like she and her friends had walked a good race.

The best part of the Capitol 20,000? Seeing it all twice. The first lap goes by in a blur. The second lap is just fun. Nah! Who am I kidding? The best part is getting to eat lunch at Shady Grove with friends!