Nike Human Race 10K in Austin

Subliminal, you can run shirtless. Why carry a "wet towel" around your neck? (Don't think I've worn a shirt on any of my runs all summer. )

I won't be racing it (training/tapering for a Sep 13 marathon in Oregon), but do run quite a bit otherwise. It's an interesting course. Here are my opinions...

M0 - M1.5 A relatively fast first Mile to mile and a half down congress from 6th'ish to 2nd, then up Trinity and Red River to 11th.
M1.5 - The turn up 11th from RR to San Jacinto will be pretty painful. ( I believe that's the same final hill climb from the annual Turkey Trot right there by clube de ville or the mohawk.)
- Fast down San Jacinto, only to have to run up (west) 15th to Congress (north side of capitol) with slight down hill (north) towards Texas History museum and right turn at Blanton.
- Hills start again up Red River by Erwin Center and Football practice fields.
- Then down 26th and back up the hill on 26th, but once you reach the top of 26th and Guadalupe it's a SCREAMER down to 2nd street, before you turn back up Congress for a few blocks.

It's like the Turkey Trot in reverse, on steroids. Enjoy!
I'll be out there cheering you guys on in one of the hills with cowbells.
Have fun out there!

P.S. It's Brooks shoes all the way for me.
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This just ran by my place and I watched it. VERY cool. Random thoughts:

1. The lead runner - who was clearly a pro runner - was flat SMOKING the field. Just all by himself.

2. The second or third runner (don't remember) went the wrong way by taking a left on 3rd street as opposed to running down to 2nd. People were yelling at him but he kept going. Really piss poor race managment not to have **** clearly marked.

3. Lance was around 5th when he passed me (I was on mile 5, I think). Very impressive. I realize he is an elite athlete but to be able to run that fast is awesome.

4. Looked REALLY cool with everyone in red shirts.

5. Weather cooled off and was nice. Of course, I wasn't running, so I can't truly judge it.

Very cool event for Austin.
 
I ran it and I was smoked by the heat and the hills. I usually average less than 8 minutes a mile and I bet my actual race time in this was around 8:30-8:45.

Very well run, otherwise. The number of people wearing the red shirts was cool (though I think that the last time I wear Nike DryFit--cotton is so much better).

By 8 pm when the medal ceremony was commencing the temperature had dropped enough that it was very comfortable. Also, the finishers all received a bracelet so ugly I'd fire whatever marketing rep approved the design.
 
Wife and I ran as well. Great race, but the bag check was an absolute joke...

Our first ever 10k and it was a blast. Also, awesome to see the sea of red...
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I agree with the heat comments, and the sucky bracelet comment. I was close to 5 minutes slower than my time from the Cap 10k. The run up Red River was pretty bad.

It was pretty sweet to see the sea of red throughout the course. Too bad so much of it was in front of me.

I'm a big fan of the Nike Dri Fit shirts over cotton generally, but there was something about this one I wasn't all that thrilled about. That and the big number graphic on my shirt was not particularly nipple-friendly. Rough time in the shower after the race.

Overall, it really enjoyed it. I'm hoping they do it again.
 
Also, I'd like the mention that the number of beautiful women running the race was astounding.

Something about that is so much sexier than seeing them dolled up the night before at the game (that's sexy, too, don't get me wrong).

Just to balance out the sexism, I'm sure there were quite a few hot guys there, too, if you're into them. Matthew McConaughey was there (shirt on) and apparently had a fast time, around 45-50.
 
I agree with LCHorn there, too. The best part of running slower than usual was that I had more time to take in the scenery. Very nice.
 
I'm curious to hear a number of people treated for heat-related issues. I was a spectator near one of the medic tents for a while and it was a bit scary seeing how many people getting treated.

One guy was barely conscious being carried on the shoulders of one of the volunteers to the medic tent. very scary.
 
I was trying to get below an 8-minute pace for the first time in a chip timed race, and I think I barely missed it (maybe 8:03 or somewhere in there). I run and swim several times a week, and whenever I run by myself downtown I feel like a pretty good runner, but whenever I do these 10k's I see so many people running faster ahead of me and it gets the competitiveness in me flowing and I push myself harder then I should.

I walked for a little on Red River, and I wish I didn't. I normally never walk during my runs, but I couldn' t take it anymore at that point. I should've pushed through it, I could've got closer to my goal or even broke it.

And yes, there were lots of good looking women out there to make the run a little more fun.
 
Yeah I average about a 9:15 mile normally but I know yesterday I was around 10:00 a mile. That course was frickin' brutal. I knew there were gonna be some hills but i didn't realize how bad the hills in miles 1 and 2 were gonna be. I was cursing the masochistic son-of-a-***** who designed the course. I had to stop and walk for about a minute on Lavaca. I finished in 1:01:52 which pissed me off cause I wanted to finish in under an hour but considering the course I now think that it's not that bad.
 
The Nike site sure makes it easy to find your times. Looks like the race in Buenos Aires was a crowded one as well.
We had friends running the one in NY and they mentioned it was very poorly planned. She had to stop twice mid-race because of log jams in the route.

I'm impressed w/ Lance's time. Jeez Louise! 6th place finish. Impressive. Wife and I finished in the top 7,200.
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Just saw that Austin finished near the bottom of all cities in average time (1 hr 11 minutes.) 10 cities had AVERAGE running times under an hour! Good freakin' grief.
I'm guessing the route and heat had alot to do w/ the slower times in Austin (i know it did w/ mine.) I thought we would've finished near the top.
 
Personally, I would think that Austin would be near the bottom, for a number of factors:1) A lot of fat people who support Lance's charity
2) The heat
3) LOW ENTRY FEE entices NON Runners!!!

The entry fee in Buenos Aires was AR$60 (~US$20) if you entered very early. Then it went up to AR$70 (~US$23.66) and finally AR$75 (~US$25), where I signed up.

But remember, what you can buy for AR$75 in Buenos Aires is very similar to what you can buy for US$75 in the average big US city. (Imports are a different story.)

So in Buenos Aires, you were getting people who can spend (the equivalent of) US$75 to run when they can do it for free. And they will be running in ~US$300 shoes.

Sign up costs in the USA were probably about the lowest in real terms in the world. So then you compare the 4 US cities. I would think that LA would beat NYC and then normally Austin would come in third ahead of Chicago, but the whole Lance Armstrong connection might have lowered the bar for non-athletes considering entering the race.

Just a theory.
 
Re: slower runners.

They always seem to start farther up than they should. I hate that. Nothing like lining up at my expected pace and having to weave around power walkers and people pushing strollers for the first 1.5 miles.
 
It was definitely tough. I wasn't expecting those hills. Once the adrenaline wore off, I was struggling a bit around the 4th mile.

It was my very first race, I finished at 55.23. Not bad. I really didn't have a goal, just wanted to see how well I could do.

As for the shirt and chafing....duh, that's why you take it off
 
This was my first 10K and I pretty happy with my performance. I had a time of 48'18'' which i guess comes out to around 7'47'' miles. I wasnt very familiar with the route which really made it hard at the end becasue I was further away from the finish than i thought... so I started turning it on a little too early so I didnt finish as strong as I would have liked... Also, Id guess that having to weave through all of the people at the start slowed me by a couple of minutes... Overall im really pleased. It was a lot of fun.
 
I ran it with my wife.  It was ******* brutal.  The heat and the hills were murder.  the run to the top of 12th street and then the run up red river.  I saw two different runners on stretchers with oxygen near the end of the race.  I finished in just over an hour with a pee stop.  I am also older than alot of you sumbitches.
 
It was slightly chilly before the race in Buenos Aires. It takes me a while for my legs to warm up (and my knees are the best), so I almost always run in "running pants" (nylon shell). I actually also had a short sleeve cotton t-shirt under my long-sleeved Nike dry fit (?) shirt.

At about Kilometer 4, I had to stop and remove the t-shirt and by about Kilometer 7, I was dumping some of the water from my ~750ml water bottle on my head instead of in my mouth. (The running pants were NOT helping at this point.
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)

We only had two liquid stations.

WATER BOTTLES (~750ml) @ Kilometer 4

ORANGE GATORADE BOTTLES (~600ml) @ ~ Kilometer 7 or 8 ?

I'm trying to remember if we had cups of water at any point, but I don't think so.

Much cooler weather, but the Dallas Turkey Trot always had water about about 4 stations and that's 8 miles, usually in colder weather. I found it odd that Buenos Aires only had two stations and both with BOTTLED drinks. (And I wasn't going to pour Gatorade over my head to cool off.)
 
I hate to brag but....my 15 year old stepson finished fourth in this race...his time was 34:44...we have a bunch of pics of him running side by side with Lance Armstrong...ended up finishing about 10 seconds ahead of Lance.
 
EYES: Congrats to young Mr. P.

Tell the lad it's fine and all to beat Mr. Armstrong, but if he'd not been slacking and only run a little harder he would've had a trophy by his name.
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31 seconds out of third place is pretty impressive.
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