2018 Texas 10 Series Race Recap!

This year's medal, which is part of a race series.  They had all of the other medals on display at packet pickup; they are all in the model of the Texas state flag, only in whatever color theme for each city.

On Sunday, for the third year in a row, my fellow Renegades and I participated in the Texas 10 Series race, which had all kinds of distances - there used to be only a 10 miler and a 5 miler, but there was also a 5K and a kids 1K race as well, so there was a lot of activity happening.  This race is right down the road at one of the local high schools, and it starts at 7:00 am, which is nice considering the last two years have been hot and humid - I appreciate that the race director knows Texas weather and schedules accordingly.

Race shirt - it wouldn't be a Texas 10 Series race shirt without it being several sizes too small.  Meh - I didn't even try to exchange it this year, as there's too much printing on the front and I'm hot just looking at it.  Straight to the donation pile with this one.

I wasn't really nervous or anxious about the race, which hey - maybe running the route the week before actually helped?  Any case, I'll take not wanting to vomit before a race any day.  There were about 300 people running this race, so it was very casual at the start line.  Funny thing - a few minutes before 7:00 am we lined up to begin, only to be told to go to the other side of the start line, which didn't make sense as that's not how the route goes.  But we all strolled to the other side, the national anthem was sung, and then we were told to go back to the original side.  Well OK then.

So last year Diane, Cary, and I ran this race together when Cary was pregnant, and it was really sweet to run it together again this year, only this time we had Logan in the stroller with us!  He napped during the first few miles but was awake toward the end - we could see his little feet kicking as we ran...soon he'll be running his own race at the rate he's growing!

Except for it being so warm - it was 70 degrees, with 90% humidity - the race was fine.  We kept up a pretty good pace, stopping for water a couple times, walking a couple of the hills, and then chatting with Andi who wasn't running the race but had come out to cheer us on (the route went by her neighborhood).  We played leapfrog with one woman, and when we were close to the finish line, Cary ran on ahead to try and beat her - LOL, gotta love it when the competitive side comes out!  Diane and I finished about 30 seconds later:

Photo courtesy of Karen, who had already finished.

The Fab Four, Renegade-style! 

While we waited around for Jeff, Brian, and Julia to finish the 10 miler (which consisted of running two loops of the route - egad and no thank you), we entertained ourselves by taking pictures:

Shoe pic!  Karen, Diane, Cary, Me...and Jimmymeow!

Logan and his mama - so sweet!

Now that he's run several races in the stroller, Logan is getting a taste for medals, and Diane willingly indulged him!

Brian came running in, and Logan was delighted to see his daddy:

Hi Dad!  Great race!  

Jeff came in next, and was really pleased with how his race went plus the fact that he didn't feel like dying thanks to the weather conditions was a bonus:

It was nice that he had such a good race after the disaster that was Houston.

A fun part of the Texas 10 Series race is that not only do they do age group awards in 5 year increments, but they also give away cash during the awards ceremony.  After you finish, you tear off the little number tag on your bib and drop it into the 5 or 10 miler bucket, and they draw numbers periodically while they are giving awards.  The 5 mile runners are eligible to win a $50 bill, and the 10 mile runners are eligible to win a $100 bill.  Pretty sweet, right?  Well, no one from our group has ever won, and I kept saying that we were due.  Guess what?

BOOM!  Fifty dollar winner, right there!

BOOM!  One hundred dollar winner!

BOOM!  Another one hundred dollar winner!

We were so excited and cheering like crazy - it was awesome to finally have some winners drawn from our group!

Our Renegade winners - Cary, Jeff, and Julia!

Considering we all registered during their first day bonanza event, we made out like bandits this year.  I know that Jeff and I weren't even in the first pricing tier, but we only paid $20 for the 5 miler and $30 for the 10 miler, so winning $100 was really nice.  Jeff is going to put that sweet cash toward a new pair of running shoes.

Diane was the only one out of our group this year to win an AG award - third place, woohoo!

After all the awards and cash had been handed out, we adjourned...not to Blue Baker, but to a local Mexican restaurant!  Salty chips and salsa tasted pretty darn good after that sweatfest.  We also played "pass the baby" so Cary and Brian could eat, and were told not to squeeze him because he'd just eaten.  I was safe, Jeff was safe, Karen was safe:

Teething like a champ!

But Jimmymeow couldn't resist squeezing him, and *blorp* there it was.  No picture because I was too busy laughing at him.  All in all it was a fun morning and a great way to spend time with my Renegade friends!