Austin 3M Half Marathon (Race Recap)

Austin, TX

Sunday, January 21

Half Marathon #195

Weather - Cold!

Months ago, I saw that a few of my Texas friends (from running Banff) were running the 3M half marathon. I ran back in 2011 and didn't remember hating it. I checked to see if Ariel wanted to join for a weekend, and once she said yes, I registered and booked flights. I had stayed at Heather's house the night before and we had plans to leave around 5:30 am so we could stop to get coffee at Dunkin.

Alarm was set for 5:10 am. I hadn't slept wonderfully, but I'd had the sense to lay everything out the night before so I was ready to go on time. Sadly, Dunkin wasn't open, but McDonald's was, so we got coffee there. We stopped to pick up Heather's friend Rachel on the way to the start line - and she brought breakfast burritos! Even though I had already eaten my waffle, a burrito sounded good, so I ate that too.

We parked at the Sam's Club nearby and sat in the car until maybe 6:40? 6:45? We had just enough time to go through the (incredibly organized) bathroom line, and then it was basically time to jump into the corral. My last road half marathon was Space Coast in 2021(??) so I had no idea what pace I'd be capable of. 

For whatever reason, the winter is hitting me harder this year, and I bailed on almost all of my speed work, so I was VERY optimistic when I jumped in around 2:15 pace group. I was planning on listening to the Eras Tour setlist, and got my headphones ready. One quick picture of the start line, and off we went!

Mile 1 was consumed with the fact that my headphones were encountering MAJOR interference. I have never had this happen that I can remember, so maybe this is just the biggest road race I have done and someone else's Bluetooth was somehow messing with it. IT WAS SUPER ANNOYING, but I dealt with it and after maybe 10 minutes it went away. In that time I also tossed the long sleeve throwaway Heather had given me - it lasted all of 7-8 minutes. I was very glad I had worn thin long sleeves and gloves, although I did play the "I'm hot, wait, no, I'm cold" game quite a bit.

This course boasts "Downhill to Downtown" - yet I hadn't remembered that from when I ran before. I had looked at the elevation profile from my Garmin and I thought it had much more gain, and couldn't remember any of it once I started running, except for mile 12 being the hilliest.

I literally didn't look at any race information, but I assumed there would be aid stations every few miles, and I planned on walking through all of them. The second aid station ran in front of Austin Beerworks, which I doubt existed 13 years ago.

I took electrolyte (was it Nuun? I have no idea) at every stop, and sometimes water. I was running a lot faster than I expected, but I was zoning out to Taylor Swift and trying to keep an eye out for Mel, Crystal and anyone else I might know. I almost forgot I had even brought nutrition, but then I saw a girl next to me take a gel, so I decided to eat my applesauce. Yay, fuel. I ended up taking a gel at mile 7ish (ewwww, cold salted watermelon GU). Actually, I think I only ate half of it, then I had a gag reflex to thankfully there was water after. Mistake on my part. I don't know why I still think I can eat those. I remembered the liquor table from the last time, and sure enough, they were back! I can't remember what mile this was, maybe 8? I took the one next to the tequila, because I definitely did NOT want that. Turns out I grabbed bourbon. Which wasn't much better, but I didn't throw up, so that was good.

I was still feeling surprisingly good, and my overall pace was still under 10 minutes! (Which is INSANE). I definitely was zoning out and mainly just trying not to trip over curbs, but overall their roads are in much better shape than Denver's. Before I knew it, we were on the UT campus, which meant we were close!

I was consistently about a tenth of a mile over on my watch, but I pushed the last few miles and had enough oomph left to get up the hills, which a LOT of people did not! I cruised through the uphill finish with my best time since 2018! (And I probably top 20-25% EVER), so I was VERY pleased.

Official Time - 2:10:48

Official 5k - 30:50

Official 10k - 101:50

Official 15k - 1:33:24

Overall Place - 2727/4720

Division Place - 147/303 (top half, wooo!

Garmin Time - 2:10:51

Garmin Distance - 13:22

Garmin Pace - 9:54

Mile 1 - 10:07

Mile 2 - 9:47

Mile 3 - 9:43

Mile 4 - 9:48

Mile 5 - 9:55

Mile 6 - 9:49

Mile 7 - 10:04

Mile 8 - 10:03

Mile 9 - 10:03

Mile 10 - 10:07

Mile 11 - 9:58

Mile 12 - 9:42

Mile 13 - 9:42

Mile 13.1 - 9:11 pace

I did a quick selfie trying to get my full outfit. In retrospect, should've just asked someone to take my picture, but oh well.

Since I've only had Strava since 2014 (?) - it's pretty impressive that in TEN YEARS, this was my second fastest half!!

Can you find my name?

I followed the signage to get my drop bag. I was already getting cold since I sweat so much. I had last minute thrown my R1 in my bag so that I would have a long sleeve top, jacket AND joggers in my bag. I walked over near the capital to add my layers.

I figured I would hang out in the beer garden to wait for Heather and Rachel. There was only ONE heater in the whole area and I have to say that my layers basically did NOTHING. By the time Mel texted to find out where I was, I was soooo cold. I felt really badly for people that hadn't brought enough clothes!

I ran over to the finish line so that we could watch them finish. Once they crossed we were out of there pretty quickly.

Thoughts:

• VERY chilly for Texas. but that meant perfect running weather for me! I was still sweating even though it was in the 30's. 
• Medal is awesome!! 30 spins and so does the star in the center! 
• Race was relatively expensive (I paid $140), but they were doing registration at the expo for only $79, which is pretty good for a city race that's point to point and requires a lot of police and road closures.
• I didn't like the shirt and gave it away, but with the 3M sponsorship, the rest of the swag is fun.
• Would I run again? Sure, it's not too much money since I have friends/family..