good for life
i couldn't remember the last time i had to set my alarm clock for 330am. whether i could or not didn't matter at 10pm friday night: i had to fall asleep soon.
[...]
the fifth annual dublin dr. pepper 10k was held in conjunction with the 115th dublin dr pepper birthday celebration. for those not in the know (which pretty much means anyone outside of the texas border), dublin texas is the home to the oldest bottling factory of the oldest soft drink in the country, and to this day they still use cane sugar (not corn syrup, as is used in most every soft drink today) in the fabrication of their beverages. thus, to have a "dublin" dr pepper is considered a novelty.
from austin, this race also has the "novelty" of being ~3 hours away, which warrants a disturbingly early wake-up time. however, runtex annually sponsors a coach to take austin runners up to the race every summer. just $15 on top of the race fee fetches you the bus ride and a lunch at the festival, which is a damn fine deal.
the bus ride up was a quiet one. the coach was at ~60% capacity, the majority of whom were the cedar park high school cross country team. i hung out with vonda, her friend ann, steve from runtex, and timothy and lillie doss. i quasi-slept for most of the ride up, save the intermittent need to use the restroom. to my humor, getting to the back of the bus was an obstacle course of adolescent bodies sprawled across the aisle and all over the floor. how soon i forget--some road trip traditions don't change.
arriving into town with 20 minutes to spare, i register, warm up and hit the start line. the dublin course is a flat'n'fast course that twists and turns through residential areas, but i would not be up for making the most of it. sinus congestion had drained my energy in the days leading up to the race: that, coupled with the early alarm clock and an 80-degree start temperature was not a formula for performance. nonetheless, i pulled something together at mile 4 in chasing down a few runners. thought of my pal ian, who was running his first marathon that morning, to help ease the struggle of the late miles, and finished reasonably well. afterwards, i had a rare "bad acid trip" post-race sensation: everything hurt, my head felt a little sick, and the sun was hot. 15 minutes in the shade with plenty of fluids helped a good deal.
after employing the race-provided shuttle to the local high school to shower (nice!), i took to the small town streets to see what there was to see. i waited 45 minutes in line for a 5-minute tour of the bottling plant, most of which could be seen from the outside through the giant window front of the facility. the return-on-investment was a shade disappointing, but you got a free dr pepper in a bottle and see some sweet vintage artwork, supplies, and automation equipment.
after the tour, i went to claim my bbq lunch, only to find that a meal ticket wasn't included in my packet. vonda and ann took pleasure in devising schemes to get the lunch i was entitled to. i wound up speaking to an offical-looking volunteer, who found steve. steve, lacking any better solution, took off the staff VIP pass from around his neck: "here, i already ate... just go through that door." sweet! i mockingly showed off my pass to vonda and ann, and waltzed in to makeshift picnic hall that had one hell of a spread of food. i shamelessly took advantage of my fortune--i enjoyed dunking strawberries under the chocolate fountain and meeting a direct relative of the dr pepper founder of the most of all.
the bus ride back was quite enjoyable and we got back into town around 4pm, with plenty of dublin dr pepper for friends and family. i surprisingly felt allright the rest of the day and into the night. to boot, i got up the next morning on six hours of sleep and ran one of the best 16 mile training runs of my life. behold the power of pure cane sugar.
41:04 (18th overall, 2nd 26-30 male)
6:08, 6:30, 6:51, 6:33, 6:55, 6:50, 1:16 (+0.2)
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