Goal: Negative splits; to conserve enough energy so that my last mile will be my fastest.
The Atlanta Track Club sponsors several free races for members throughout the year. I ran the Heart and Soles 5K in Panthersville in February but had to skip the Singleton 10K in Norcross shortly after I broke my collarbone. Today's race route began and ended at the Clairmont Avenue YMCA, and circled the neighborhoods immediately south of the Emory University campus. I'm quite familiar with the area and have even run on most of the streets on one or more occasions over the past year.
The major problem that I have suffered in every single race to date is that I start out far too quickly, and then I struggle in later stages of the race. I've been able to run fairly consistent splits in training, but in races I'm always overcome by the excitement of the start. For this race, I resolved to begin in the slowest of the three waves, even though I would normally start in the middle wave for 9 minute per mile runners. My plan was to begin with a 10 minute mile 1, gradually increase speed in miles 2 and 3, and then hopefully rip off a fast final mile to the finish. I would wear my heart rate monitor and hopefully that would also alert me to slow down if my pulse rate was too high early in the race. For a change, I wasn't going to try for the fastest possible overall time. And Atlanta Track Club events always have many really fast runners, so I already knew that my best finish time would probably be below the median for my age group.
For the past couple of months, I've been using the Polar Beat app on my iPhone to track my runs. This free app connects to the website polarpersonaltrainer.com where I can download not only the GPS map but also an elevation profile, and I can even analyze the data in specific sections to determine my pace or actual speed. I had originally thought that I could download data from my Polar FT4 heart rate monitor, but it turns out that the data transfer process is manual, not wireless. That's OK: it wasn't an expensive heart rate monitor and I'm not yet ready to spend hundreds of dollars on a Garmin watch, emphasis on the word "yet". I'm getting plenty of information through the free app that I didn't get with the paid RunHelper app.
When I awoke at 5 am this morning, it was raining quite hard. Many reasonable people would conclude that it would be foolish to run on a day like today, but I decided that I would at least drive in, pick up my number, and then make a decision on whether or not it was safe to run. When I ran the Fast Fun Phiddippides 5K last December, the rain tapered off in the minutes before the start, and perhaps we would be similarly fortunate today. But I wore my oldest pair of racing shoes, so that if they were ruined by the water it wouldn't be a loss, and also brought a towel, an extra shirt, and an extra pair of socks, so that I could drive home in dry clothes if I got soaked.
I arrived around 6:30 am, and was surprised to discover that the closest parking areas were already full! Lots of other unreasonable people made the same decision! It was still raining as I walked a couple of blocks to the YMCA, trying to keep my shoes dry, mostly successfully avoiding big puddles on the sidewalk. Shortly after 7 am, the rain virtually stopped, at most a very light drizzle or mist. I was able to chat for a few minutes with Curt and Kathie Walker, the head coaches from the Peachtree training course. After a few pre-race announcements, we made our way to the starting areas. I kept my promise to start in wave C, but lined up close to the front. At 7:30, wave A runners had started, and we moved up to the wave B area to watch the wave B 7:32 am start. Then it was our turn! As we reached the starting line, I was about five rows back. We stood still for a moment as the volunteer counted down the last seconds, the runners on the starting line coiled up in their starting positions, the airhorn sounded and we were off!
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| At the start! (Thanks ATC for the photo, and to Kathie Walker for finding me in the crowd!) |
Mile 1: We started on a quiet residential street behind the Westminster School, gently uphill on a long block to Scott Boulevard. I immediately reminded myself to take it easy, and didn't try to pick up my pace as the lead runners quickly opened a gap. Shortly after turning onto Scott, I heard the first alert for 0.2 miles at 1:43, which was much too fast, and reminded myself to slow up a bit. We began a gentle ascent to the intersection with Coventry Road when I heard the 0.4 mile alert at 3:24.
I willed myself to slow down, and kept reminding myself that this should be like my training runs at Stone Mountain, where my goal was just to establish a comfortable pace at the beginning. After Coventry the road turned downhill and while I didn't slow down very much in this section, I resolved to take it as easily as possible. We quickly reached the mile 1 marker at the intersection of Scott Boulevard with Ponce De Leon Avenue, with a time of 9:04 elapsed. Although that was quite a bit faster than the 10 minute mile in my plans, I suppose that it was a big improvement in discipline over 8-minute mile 1 (and sometimes less) in most of my previous races.
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| Today's route. |
Mile 2: We passed under the concrete railroad bridge on Ponce De Leon, after which the road became significantly uphill. As we turned right onto Artwood Road into the Fernbank neighborhood, I could see that this would be quite a substantial hill (80 feet in 0.4 mile). I focused on form and cadence and felt strong as I passed a few of the other runners. I kept a close eye on the heart rate monitor and slowed down a bit when my pulse reached 160. As we turned onto Vickers Drive, we ran past the former site of Fernbank Elementary, now completely razed except for a small sign marking the name of the school and founding year of 1957. That building was 'only' 57 years old, about the same vintage as the 'new' elementary school building that I attended in the late 1960's in Texas. I suppose that I now had the luxury of daydreaming because the road had leveled out. We then went downhill toward past Dyson Drive (and I fought the temptation to take a short-cut!) and then left onto Coventry Road. In all we would enjoy a 150 foot descent over the next mile, and a few runners took advantage of the downhill slope to pass me. I just focused on keeping a consistent pace, looking forward to the burst of speed that I would release upon passing the mile 3 sign. We turned left onto East Clifton Road (here I normally turn right when I'm driving this route to Emory) and I saw a volunteer at the end of Dyson Drive, guarding against anyone who might have taken that short-cut! At the mile 2 marker, elapsed time was 18:26, for a 9:22 mile. That was pretty good considering the hill, and I was still feeling pretty strong.
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| Today's elevation map |
Mile 3: East Clifton continued straight ahead, now as Clifton Road heading toward the Emory campus. I've run this stretch quite a few times, and always enjoy passing through this neighborhood. But I appreciated the opportunity today to run in the street, noticing just how badly the sidewalk was cracked in sections. As we continued to the bottom of the hill on the wet asphalt, I began to reconsider my decision to wear the older shoes, and was wondering if I had enough tread to avoid slipping when I made my move to speed up. Oh well, I would just need to be careful when the time came. Clifton Road is a winding two-lane street, and with one lane reserved for runners, there was a small traffic jam at the intersection with Oxford Road, with no police or volunteers to help direct traffic. One car encroached a bit into the running lane, but I and the runners in front of me were able to stay out of the way, and as I entered the intersection, the jam appeared to clear. From my familiarity with this area, I knew that there would be a significant uphill section from this point to North Decatur Road (50 feet in 0.3 mile) so I was prepared for that challenge, and I passed a few runners in this section. Throughout I had been getting alerts every 0.2 miles, and I was running each 0.2 mile section between 1:45 and 1:59 minutes. We reached the crest of the hill at the intersection with North Decatur Road, as the buildings of Emory University on the Clifton corridor came into view. Shortly after making the right turn onto North Decatur Road, I heard the alert for 2.8 miles. More than 2/3 done, I realized! As we ran this section, I reflected on my first 5K last October, where we reached the 1 mile marker on this same stretch of road. In the Winship Cancer Center 5K, we ran on the far left lane to turn back to Emory on Haygood Road at Druid Hills High School, whereas today we were in the far right lane today, and I was looking for the mile 3 marker. There it was! near the intersection with Ridgewood Drive. Now I would see just how much energy I had left. 27:38 elapsed, 9:12 for mile 3.
Mile 4: My conditioning has really improved since the Winship 5K, when I couldn't imagine having enough breathing capacity to say anything while running. Today I was able to smile and say thanks to the volunteers, wave to cars in traffic, and enjoy the experience without feeling too tired to do anything but run. I gradually began to accelerate. There was a mild rise as we passed Haygood Road, and a few runners had to stop and walk. I flew past! One walker must have felt my footsteps behind her and she began running again, but she wasn't able to hold me off for long! But to be sporting, I tried to shout out encouragement along the way, "This is the last hill!" I passed a few more walkers at Princeton Way "We're at the top, it's downhill the rest of the way!" I was now moving at a pretty good speed, which later I learned was 7 mph. That's my typical speed when starting out too fast in mile 1. To avoid the busy intersection of North Decatur with Clairmont Road, we were routed through the McDonald's parking lot. I put on another burst of speed (showing off now, as I heard the 3.6 mile alert) and dashed by a few other runners as we turned into the lot. I was momentarily overcome by the odor of fry grease as I turned the corner past the drive-through window, but quickly recovered and turned right onto Clairmont Road. Now I was beginning to feel a little tired, but I knew that the finish line wasn't far away. Some of the early finishers were returning along the sidewalk, which helped me regain a tiny bit of humility (they were all MUCH faster than me) but I was determined not to be passed by anyone today. As we turned right onto Maediris Drive, a young feller dared to move ahead of me. I kicked into warp speed and ran past him. Ha! I didn't see him again. And I just kept progressing past runner after runner, turning up the speed as best as I could. (Definitely showing off for those watching the finish.) As I saw the finish line ahead, I determined that I might be able to pass three more runners if I pressed, and one, two, and then with a mighty final effort, I blew past the third, into the finish chute, and across the line at 39:55 on the clock. Accounting for the four-minute delay by starting in wave C, I had beaten the 36 minute mark. My official time was 35:49, covering the last mile in 8:11.
Epilogue: In the Beltline Southwest 5K last week, I wrote that I was passed by two runners at warp speed as I approached the finish line. Today, I was that warp speed runner. The strategy of starting out slowly (or at least not starting at high speed) worked beautifully. Most importantly, I had more fun finishing today than in any of the previous 14 races to date, because I had that reserve of energy to finish strongly. Not that I had anything left after the finish line, but at least I didn't struggle to finish. According to the GPS tracker, I reached a speed of 10.1 mph as I crossed the finish line.
To be more modest about my results in comparison to the others, today's winner finished in 22:11. Therefore his average speed was 10.8 mph. In that light it seems silly to be overly proud of reaching 10 mph for a few seconds, but I probably couldn't run half that speed one year ago. I was impressed to learn that the winner in my age group (Male 50 - 54) finished in 24:23. As I scrolled down the list of runners in my age group, I first thought that somehow my results had not been posted. It was sobering to find my name on page 2 of the age group results, 25th out of 42 finishers.
As they were calling out the names of awardees, I heard the name of one of my former students: he won his age group, and finished 7th overall. Coaches Curt and Kathie had great races, and Kathie won her age group, completing the course in less than 34 minutes.
It's always exciting to be in the same event as some really fast runners. And despite (or because of) my slow start, my average pace of 8:58 per mile was virtually identical to my average pace in my three fastest 10K races, so despite beginning the race with no expectations of a fast time, I did quite well. I certainly didn't expect to finish in less than 36 minutes!
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