Race: Austin 10/20 – http://www.austin1020.com/
Runner: Dana W
Date: 4/3/2016
Location Austin, Texas
Results – 316th out of 1962 females 1:32:06
3 Bests – Running with my brother, nice cool 50 degree start, cool race packet: cute 5th anniversary tech tee and beer ticket.
Not so much – This was only my second road race, ever. I did not enjoy running on the road.
Weird factor – The idea of the 10/20 is 10 miles, 20 bands with a headliner. The headlining band was scheduled to start 2 hours after the race start, well after I was ready to go home and get some food. The bands weren’t musically amazing, but to be fair they had to rally at 8am in the morning for the crowd of runners, so props to them for that.
Highlights of your race – I did a good job of pacing myself. I had negative splits for all, but miles 7 and 8. Then I kicked it into (my) high gear.
Lessons for others – The finish line is only .1 away from the starting line and the port-a-potty lines were non-existent at the finish compared to 50 people deep at the start. Walk the extra distance as part of your warmup.
Aesthetics – It’s okay. The course goes through a commercial and residential area of Austin called the Domain. It’s landscaped, but it’s suburbia.
Difficulty – Mostly flat.
Organized and well run – did it feel like a well-oiled machine or were they flying by the seat of their pants? Well organized.
Competition – No, I am not a top 16% runner in most races. The winners pack was limited to about 15 runners.
Logistics – A parking map is provided on the website in advance. It did not sell out.
Aid Stations – There were many. Port-o-potties at every band site. Water and Gatorade at 5 of stations. One cold towel station around mile 6.
Weather and typical race conditions – Very sunny. Cool to start, but in the 90 minutes I ran it warmed up by 10 degrees.
Gear – did you need anything special or is there anything you’d recommend for the next guy? Nada
Spectators – My sister, her boyfriend, and our nephew were our 3 spectators. We got to see them 3 times as the course snakes back on itself a few different times.
Awards – Top 3 in most of the usual categories.
The Overall Score – how many stars do you give this race and do you recommend that others run it 4 stars out of 5.