The Austin Distance Challenge begins October 19 with the IBM Uptown Classic 10K. Former champ Gilbert Tuhabonye and Paul Carrozza join Ricky Doyle to discuss the upcoming races.
RICKY DOYLE: Alright, welcome in to Carrozza’s Corner. We’ve got a couple of the gurus of Austin running. We’ve got Paul, of course, and we’ve got Gilbert from Gilbert’s Gazelles, and we’re talking about the Austin Distance Challenge, which Gilbert is a former champion, but Paul, for people who don’t even know what this distance challenge is, tell them what to expect.
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Carrozza's Corner
It's time for the Austin Distance Challenge.
 
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PAUL CARROZZA: Sure, this is the road to the marathon. It starts with a 10k in October and ends up with a full 26 miles. You can even use it to get ready for the half marathon at the end, but it’s a series of Austin’s premier races. It’s got a 10k. It’s got Gilbert’s Run for the Water 10 miler in November. It builds on up to the Decker Challenge and the Runtech’s 20 miler and the 3M half marathon and then the full marathon. So much of Austin runs on Town Lake on the trail. The series is really beneficial because it helps you get road-ready and you learn how to use water stops and get to the race on time, and get parked and use the Porti-Potty. It’s a very good practice. You get rid of the nerves of races and you can focus on your performance.
DOYLE: Gilbert, you’ve obviously done this, but how important is it the way these races kind of build up in distance? You start with a shorter one and just get gradually longer as people get ready for their marathon.
GILBERT TUHABONYE: I believe that distance challenge, if you want to do a greater marathon, it’s a way to be prepared. I remember the first year. I think Paul convinced me to do it. It really paid off. I remember going a 30k. For the first-timer marathon, it was great. I highly recommend it for anybody who wants to do a marathon, to know where you are in the training. There is nothing like distance challenge. We are so lucky to have distance challenge also in this community.
DOYLE: Gilbert is going to be modest, but he killed everybody when he won the Distance Challenge Championship, right?
CARROZZA: Yeah, his margin of victory was that he was first through 10th. He was so far ahead of everybody. There is two was to look at the Distance Challenge. One is from a competitive standpoint. We do track the age group winners as you accumulate your time through races. The other is if you start the distance challenge and finish the marathon and do the whole thing, we give you a really nice jacket that is a commemorative wearable trophy and so there is two ways, you can either complete it and be proud, because it’s like 88 miles of racing or if you are a competitive type and you want to have run all of these six races with the least amount of time in your age group, that’s also part of the program as you can either be competing or just trying to finish.
DOYLE: What’s really cool about it is it’s all sorts of different races. You’ve got your race, which is a 10 miler, but then you’ve got a race up in Georgetown. It’s different races for people to try, right?
GILBERT: The other thing is this year is special because what happened it has been three weeks, now it is a month between races. That gives you enough time to get prepared. It also gives you enough time to train. In the past, it would be like two weeks and the next week you are tempering for a race. Also, we try to incorporate paces…people to have the pacing. That help for a runner not to over train. So, getting to the marathon, you be ready, you have the confidence. This is great. This is really great. I’m really excited.
DOYLE: Alright, it’s going to be fun. We’ve got the website you can go to if you want to sign up for it or if you just want to look at what all of the races are. It’s Austin Distance Challenge. The other thing is cool is it’s kind of like the Tour de France; the leader wears the yellow jersey.
CARROZZA: You can see whose winning in the age groups as the weeks…
DOYLE: It will be a lot of fun. Go to the website to check it out and then as always for us at Carrozza’s Corner, you can email us at run@news8austin.com.
