Bayou Classic 10K Race Report

Ouch!  That's all I can say after a disastrous 10K this morning in downtown Houston.

In doing cross-training on Tuesday I over-extended my back in one strengthening exercise, so owing to that injury and a very badly bruised toe I took the rest of the week off.  Doing so was a good decision.  Unfortunately, I proceeded to make a very bad decision by running the Bayou Classic 10K this morning despite my back muscles' continued sensitivity.  Nothing against the course, the organizers or my fellow runners, all of which were excellent.

After pushing hard with a 6:38 average pace the first two miles the muscles of my back were unable to hold my posture correctly, which resulted in a significant fall-off in my pace through the finish. After filming the final art car piece and walking gingerly towards my car my back muscles began spasming, which shook me up as I'd never experienced such a thing before. Fortunately I was safely able to drive home, where I was rescued by my wonderful and sympathetic wife who has since been nursing me back to a small semblance of normalcy.  A major lesson (re-)learned: Don't race unless you're absolutely positively 100%, and if you do violate that rule then make it into an easy and slow training run, being ready to walk to the finish on the first signs of trouble.

Incidentally, the above video represents my initial attempt to piece together two videos that I captured initially using my iPod Nano then copied to my iPad 2 for video editing using iMovie.  I've clearly got a lot to learn to better use this great new technology.