Superheroes Vs. Villians 10k

This last Sunday a friend and I got together to catch up and run a 10k (12k for us, but I'll explain later😜). The Heroes Vs. Villains run an inaugural half marathon and 10k put on by Heart and Sole races, a group out of Houston, TX and benefitting the Snowdrop Foundation. I originally signed up for this one because a friend of mine is on her way to getting back in shape and getting her mileage up and mentioned that she would like to run it. However, after I signed up she decided to run the Rodeo Run with my other friends instead. Le sigh. Luckily, another friend of mine had signed up as well so we got to run it together. I ran as a villain while she ran as a superhero, so that was pretty fun!

source

The cost of the race was pretty average for a 10k/half marathon four weeks out, with the 10k being $40 and the half running a good $80. Usually for that cost the medals are a little different, but in this case the medals were the exact same.

In anticipation of the craziness race morning can bring, I stopped by Run On! located on Gray St. in River Oaks to pick up our race packets. For the first time ever I also decided to get my gait analyzed, and picked up some Brooks Ghosts (I already ordered some from Brooks, but since I saved 20% on these, those will be going back). I got our packets, which was super simple and easy, not to mention everyone there was really nice.

My new Brooks Ghost 11's. Used them on race day and they were AWESOME, with more room in the toe box than the Brooks Launch.

On race morning I got up at 5:00 AM with the help of my alarm clock and my boyfriend's wake up call. I got up, got ready and was at MacGregor park, near my old university, in plenty of time. It was a smaller race than we were expecting, and there was tons of parking. It followed the same path that the 2018 Women's Quarter Marathon did, except the half marathon did two loops.

Once we got some last minute path instructions and got going, it was tough to pass anyone. That combined with our tiredness from training and past races meant that we ran at a comfortable conversational pace and just enjoyed the run. There were plenty of water and Gatorade stops along the way, but no snack stops which was fine for the 10k but could be useful for the half. There were plenty of police directing traffic at the roadways (but always watch crossing a road). I thanked most if not all of them on the way and they were so nice!

The only issue we had was the cut off for the 10k runners to turn into the parking lot to get back to the finish line. The volunteers were talking and not directing, and the 10k sign was turned toward the road. We figured this out after talking to a girl running the half and realizing that our watches had almost 7 miles on them. We ended up going a little longer than needed and turning in, so our 10k turned into a 12k haha! Really we ended up running 7.63 ish miles total.

Post run with our medals and smiles 😃

After we finished and got our water and our cool pop-arty medals, we headed to a taco truck set up and purchased a couple of the best breakfast tacos ever. The majority of the food at this race was limited to apples, bananas and juice drinks, and we were taco level hungry lol.

Moon Rooster, the NASA themed taco truck. YUM. 

All in all, this race was put on very well. Everyone was so nice and it was a great excuse to get out and run on what felt to both of us like a lazy Sunday. I feel that the cost of the run itself was a little high for such a small race, but the medals were bomb and the theme was really cute. I think that the 10k and the half bibs should have been different colors; that might have helped prevent the turn around confusion we had. The volunteers also couldn't help us out when we asked them where to go when we got off course, but is it a new run, and like every new thing kinks have to be worked out.

Such an awesome medal! 

This is a race I would recommend for its cute theme, awesome medals and friendly community. Way to rock it Heart and Sole!! You made my Sunday Runday a good one! It was also cool seeing everybody in their costumes. I know, I dropped the costume ball on this one, but I didn't feel like making anything. These last few months have been really tiring.

The rest of Sunday Runday went a little something like this....