Rodeo Run Recap!
Happy Monday everyone! I hope you had a weekend filled with plenty of rest and relaxation! My weekend was pretty busy but ended on a relaxing note so I am plenty happy. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo kicked off this weekend and if you live in Houston, it’s a pretty big deal! On Saturday, I got to run the Rodeo Run 10K race with my friend Cece.
So to give you some background on this, I signed up to run this race back in December and I was using it to gauge my training for a relay race I planned on doing in March. Since life happened and my plans got turned on their head, I was no longer planning on doing the relay race. However, I was still signed up for the Rodeo Run. I contemplated not even running the race since I wasn’t feeling but while complaining about my gross cold/allergies/crud earlier in the week to my friend, I joked that she should sign up and join me at the race. Well, she did! Soon after that, she texted me her confirmation email and we had a Saturday date planned!
I woke up on Saturday feeling pretty good. The race had such a late start compared to what I’m used to so I was able to take some time to eat breakfast and get ready. It was my turn to drive so I went to pick up Cece but she wasn’t ready yet. She offered me a piece of avocado toast while I waited and of course i couldn’t turn that down! Once we got on the road and dealt with all the Houston construction, traffic, and road closures due to the race and Rodeo parade we arrived with plenty of time to spare!
All smiles at the race start!
Apparently, Cece had not looked at the 10K course mat so she had no idea that this race was EXTRA hilly. It’s basically the only part of Houston that has any sort of elevation change. While it’s not terribly awful, the weather decided to be cruel. It was nice and overcast so there wasn’t any awful heat from the sun BUT it was humid. I’m talking 100% humidity. Once we started running through downtown, I could tell breathing would eventually be a struggle.
The first part of the race took us through the streets of downtown. Then…the hills began. It’s always the gradual incline that gets you. Luckily I really work on hill training with my bike so I feel like I can get up those hills pretty well and not drop pace. Cece and I ended up leap frogging on the hills. I would go ahead up the hill and grabbed water at the top and then caught up with her as she came by. We did this until the turn around to head back into town around mile 4.
Mile 4 is where we started to really struggle. We took walk breaks and I started pouring water all over myself. While I did stay steady for the first part of the race, the humidity was making everything really hard and I was worn out and definitely getting dehydrated. We actually passed an EMS station and there were a few people that looked worse than we did. However, we pushed through and eventually got to that finish line strong!
Pretty good time considering the awful humidity!
When we finished, I needed food BADLY. It took some time and I was definitely hangry but Cece made sure to get me a banana and plenty of salty chips to recover. Once I had food in me, I could appreciate how hard the race was but how well we ran even in the crazy conditions.
Medal well earned!
We packed up our goodie bags with all the free food and samples and we made our way back to the south part of town. Even though it was tough, it was such a good race and I was glad to have Cece run with me! She’s a great running partner and a good person to race with!
After I took this picture, the food didn’t last long!
I stopped by Panera to pick up lunch on the way home. While I did make it home with my food, it didn’t last longer than five minutes because I INHALED it. Believe me when I say I was starving. I was able to hydrate and nap before heading off to the rest of the Rodeo Festivities that afternoon!
How was your weekend? Did you run any races?
