February 21, 2015: The 35th Charles Harris Run for Leukemia

Goal C: To improve on my 2014 time of 55:30

Goal B: Working toward my 'dream' time of 53:59

Goal A: To run the second half of the race faster than the first half of the race  

Last year I ran the Charles Harris 10K as the second 10K of my short running "career".  It's known locally as one of the fastest 10K Peachtree Qualifiers, thanks to the net 100 feet descent.  At this time last year, I knew nothing about pacing.  I remember happily dashing off to a quick start, only to struggle after the 4-mile marker.  Last year I was so tired by the time that I reached the long downhill sixth mile that I couldn't take advantage, and was demoralized by a steady stream of faster (and smarter) runners passing me in that stretch.  Nevertheless, my time in the 2014 race was my 10K PR for 8 months, so the 2015 race could potentially be the site of my dream goal of 10K in less than 54 minutes.  

2014 Charles Harris Run

However, my top goal changed after last weekend's semi-fiasco in the Inman Park 15K.  I've finally taken to heart that my lack of discipline at the start has caused me to finish slowly in too many races.  I have to remember the big-picture goal of my running, which is for my health and fitness, and my desire to enjoy every single mile that I run.  

For today, the plan was to maintain a pace no faster than a 9 minute mile, until passing the 4-mile marker, at or after 36 minutes.  My intention was to run a smart and patient race to that stage, then turn up the speed a bit in the level or slightly downhill fifth mile, and have enough in the tank to fly on the steeper sixth mile.  The last quarter-mile would be moderately uphill but I could probably power through that final stretch for a strong finish as long as nothing was hurting.  I wasn't going to be that focused on finish time, but also realized that an excellent finish time was likely to come from successfully executing the negative split strategy. 

ATC Spring Tune-up 15K

It was cold at the start, around the freezing point, but fortunately there had been no precipitation overnight other than a few light flurries, and so the road was dry and safe, other than quite a few potholes.  It was difficult to stay warm while we were waiting to begin, but I didn't feel the cold once we started running.  I had positioned myself about 75 feet behind the starting line, slightly behind the middle of the pack, hoping that would help me to avoid starting out too quickly.  As we began running on Lavista Road, it seemed like we were all moving pretty slowly.  I just had in mind to jog easily, like it was a training run.  I did manage to avoid passing people in the first half-mile.  As we made the turn onto Lawrenceville Highway, the 1/2-mile alert sounded indicating 4:20 minutes elapsed.  So in fact I was still running faster than a 9 minute/mile pace despite my best attempt to keep my speed down at the beginning, but I considered that a successful start. 

The race route, with mile markers in magenta

I managed fairly good discipline throughout the first four miles, covering miles 1 - 4 with splits of 8:49, 8:29, 8:53, and 8:38.  I did allow myself to speed up a bit on downhill sections in the second and fourth miles, lengthening my stride while still relaxing, and focused on technique on the few uphill sections.  There is a fairly substantial hill in mile 4 between Northlake Parkway and Interstate-285 (The Perimeter), but it didn't seem to slow me down very much this year.  As I approached the mile-4 marker, I realized that I was feeling pretty good this year, whereas last year I was already beginning to struggle.  Even though I was about 1 minute ahead of schedule when I passed the mile-4 marker (at 34:49 elapsed), I felt that I had executed a good plan to this stage.  I wasn't tired at this point, and felt as strong as I did in the Peachtree City 10K (34:30 at mile-4) and the Cartersville 10K (35:25 at mile-4), which have been my best two 10K races. 

Mile 5 was slightly downhill, so I thought about speeding up a bit, but so did a few of the runners around me, who slowly passed me.  Nonetheless, I felt that I was running at a steady pace (43:34 elapsed, 8:45 for mile 5).  Immediately after passing the mile-5 marker, I could see ahead the beautiful long downhill stretch to the Home Depot.  I lengthened my stride to take advantage of the slope, but then the right knee began to bother me again.  Oh no!  It wasn't as bad as last week, but it was certainly annoying.  To get some relief, I shortened my pace to a rapid turnover, and that seemed to help a bit.  Although I wasn't moving as fast as I wanted, and a few of the other runners passed me heading downhill, at least they weren't streaming by as in last year's race.  Susie Kim passed me early in mile-6, and at that moment I thought that I would aim to keep up with her.  But it didn't take any time for her to open up a lead of 20 feet, then 50 feet, and then she was out of sight as she passed other runners.   It was actually a relief to reach the bottom of the hill at the intersection with North Druid Hills, where we made a right turn and the elevation started to increase albeit modestly.  

The elevation map, showing net 125 feet downhill. 

After turning the corner onto North Druid Hills, I took a walk break for about 15 seconds and swallowed a swig of water, then resumed to a steady jog.  Amazingly the knee wasn't hurting as much now that I was going uphill, although it remained sore for the rest of the race.  As I turned into the neighborhood on Mistletoe Drive, and within a block made another right turn onto Mt. Olive Drive, we came upon one small but noticeable hill that has surprised many first-time runners of this race.  This year I had no real trouble heading up and over the hill, although I wasn't moving as quickly as I would have liked.  As the road curved to the left and began heading upwards again, I saw the mile-6 marker at 52:39.  So the sixth mile, which I had hoped would be my fastest, was in fact my slowest, although 9:05 per mile is still a respectable time for me in any run.  

To beat my 10K PR of 54:22, I would have to cover 0.22 miles in 1 minute, 42 seconds.  That wasn't going to happen.  I could see the finish line in the distance, but it would be a steady uphill run to the finish.  However, I was now pretty sure that I wouldn't have trouble bettering last year's time of 55:30.  There was no one immediately in front of me, although I felt footsteps behind me.  Indeed when a spectator shouts "Kick it, Carol!" immediately after you pass that spectator, you just know that "Carol" must be gaining on you.  Although the knee was still bothering me a bit, I managed to push a little faster, even though I was going uphill.  The policeman guarding the last intersection was cheering us on.  Somehow I managed to reach the finish line without anyone passing me in the last hundred yards.  I heard Susie Kim call out "Go Frank!" as I neared the finish line.  Bonnie was at a conference this morning and so she wasn't available to cheer or to photograph me.  The last time that I saw on the clock was 54:59.  I was delighted to finish in less than 55 minutes on the clock!  My official time of 54:42.84 is my third best 10K time and only 21 seconds slower than my PR from four weeks ago.  Three out of my last five 10K races (since October 2014) have been under 55 minutes, which is a good trend. 

It wasn't until I checked the official results that I saw that one of my running coaches from last spring, Wallace "Chuck" Carr, crossed the finish line literally 1.5 seconds behind me.  The next time I see him, I'll be sure to thank him for giving me the impetus to push harder at the end of today's race!  

As soon as I stopped running, there was no pain in the knee.  What has become apparent is that I'm not a good downhill runner.  I think that it was on a long downhill stretch on Glen Iris in last week's 15K that the knee began to bother me, and looking back at last year's Charles Harris account, the same thing happened in that race.  Fortunately there are probably some exercises that I can find to strengthen the muscles around the knee, and so it's probably more of a conditioning issue rather than an injury, thank goodness.  The other good thing was my cardiovascular stamina was strong throughout the race.  I felt a bit winded immediately after finishing, due to the attempted sprint in the final yards, but I recovered so quickly that I regretted not pushing a bit harder in the final mile! 

The performance shirt from the 2014 Charles Harris Race is one of the
most comfortable running shirts in my collection, and I expect
to wear the 2015 shirt quite a bit this spring and summer.
Smokey also approves! 

Goal C: To improve on my 2014 time of 55:30:  Achieved at 54:43! 

Goal B: Working toward my 'dream' time of 53:59:  Not quite, but I learned a lot from today's race that should help me eventually get there.  

Goal A: To run the second half of the race faster than the first half of the race:  First 5K: 27:11; second 5K: 27:31.  

That is a big improvement over my typical performances.  And while I didn't quite achieve "A goal" of a negative split, now I know that it isn't because I started too quickly, but instead I need to strengthen my knees and legs to better handle downhill stretches without feeling pain. 

When I compared detailed records on the 2014 run with today's run, although I was a full minute behind last year's pace after mile 1, I was only a few seconds behind by the time that I had completed mile 4.  At the end of mile 5, I was approximately 25 seconds ahead of the 2014 pace, and at mile 6, 35 seconds ahead.  So while my finish was not quite as strong as I would have liked, I definitely ran this race from start-to-finish much better than in 2014. 

Charles Harris Run for Leukemia

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