April 18, 2015: The ATC Singleton 10K, a. k. a. the Beet Juice Experiment

Goal C: To test a run-walk strategy for improving overall time
Goal B: To run the 10K with a negative split
Goal A: To improve on my personal record of 53:54

Today's race was a new one for me, a double loop of a 5K course in Norcross, on the northeast side of metro Atlanta.  I signed up for this race last year but then I broke my collarbone a week before, and was in no mood or condition to run on that day.  As this was a free race for Atlanta Track Club members, and I didn't urgently need to improve my qualifying time for a subsequent race, I decided that this would be a good race for some experiments. 

I was intrigued by a recent post from The Running Cat, on the benefits of beets and beet juice on running.  I've never liked the taste of beets, in fact beets are one of the few foods that I generally avoid eating.  But when I read about the beneficial effects of beet juice on vasodilation and VO2max, decreasing the amount of oxygen required to maintain a standard level of exercise, I decided that I should drink some beet juice before my next race.  In chemical terms, beets are a source of nitrate, which upon ingestion is biochemically reduced to nitric oxide, NO.  NO was Science magazine's Molecule of the Year in 1992, and the scientists who established the importance of NO in cardiovascular health were recognized by the 1998 Nobel Prize in Medicine.  On the morning of race day, I drank the beet juice at 6 am, with the expectation that its effects would peak around 8 am, when I would begin the second loop. 

A sip of beet juice: oh my, that's vile!  This had better work!!

The other experiment was to rigorously incorporate walk breaks from the beginning of the race, beginning at the first 0.5 mile signal.  I would run fairly quickly at the beginning, but by taking a walk break after the first half-mile, and thereafter throughout the race, my heart rate could drop and then with some recovery I could quickly return to a good speed.  Jeff Galloway's run-walk philosophy worked well for me in the longer half-marathon race in March, so I thought it was worth trying in a shorter race. 

Bonnie took a shot at her first 10K this morning.

With my 2014 Peachtree-in-training coach
Curt Walker

It's been a rainy week in Atlanta, and it was drizzling when we were driving to the race.  Fortunately the drizzle stopped about an hour before the start, even though the roads were still wet during the race.  I began in the middle of wave B, starting exactly two minutes after the lead wave.  That proved to be the right pace for me, especially with the walk breaks.  I got off to a quick start, running the first half mile in about 4 minutes.  With the first half-mile alert, I forced myself to pull to the right side and take a short walk break, as other runners passed, but when I started running again, I felt invigorated and quickly caught up with the people who had passed me a moment earlier.  I wasn't completely rigorous about taking walk breaks every 0.5 mile, sometimes deferring for a minute until I reached an uphill section or spotted a water station, but that seemed sensible.  I did feel that I was probably running too quickly, and covered the first three miles in 8:11, 8:26, and 8:40, crossing the 5K mark at the end of the first loop at a bit past 26 minutes on the clock, 26:13 chip time.  I suspected that I couldn't run the second 5K quite as quickly, so I probably wouldn't achieve the negative split goal, but at least I now knew the race route. 

The elevation map.  The low points correspond to the turnaround points on the westward spurs. 

I managed to space the walk breaks fairly evenly.  Spoiler alert: you can see that I had a fast finish!

The route was gently hilly, but the spurs off of North Peachtree Street went downhill toward a gully, then back uphill to return to North Peachtree Street.  Fortunately I've run so many races with hills and so it was just more of the same challenge today.  I covered mile 4 in 8:59, but with 36 minutes showing on the clock, that meant that I had covered the four miles in 34 minutes, faster than my usual 4-mile time.  I reached the mile 5 marker in 9:10, a bit slower than I would have preferred, but the clock was showing 45:30 when I passed, and my tracker indicated my actual time was 43:27, which was precisely my Livvy's Love 8K time in January.  

After passing the mile 5 sign, and taking a relatively long walk break going uphill, I resolved to press a bit harder for the rest of the race.  But I didn't really manage to speed up until I passed the mile 6 marker, completing mile 6 in only 9:02, even with skipping a walk break at mile 5.5.  There were quite a few spectators as we reached the mile 6 marker, as we approached the park.  The first left turn was a welcome downhill and I picked up some speed, then made a second left turn to head for the finish.  There were two runners a few steps in front of me that I had been closing in on for the last few minutes, a woman on the left and a man on the right.  I started to catch up as we all furiously pressed forward with every last bit of energy.  The spectators seemed to enjoy our show and I heard someone cheer me by name (Curt Walker perhaps?)  As we reached the finish line, I managed to cross one step ahead of the man, but didn't quite catch the woman, and I missed seeing the race clock as I crossed.  

My timer was showing 54:02 as soon as I could check it, so I immediately knew that I was very close to my PR of 53:54.  I always start my timer a few seconds before I cross the starting line, and it takes a few seconds after finishing to stop the timer.  Thankfully the Atlanta Track Club posted results within a few hours, before I had completed this race report, and I'm thrilled to report that I shaved a few seconds to set a new PR of 53:50.  

Goal C: To test a run-walk strategy for improving overall time: Definitely successful! 

Goal B: To run the 10K with a negative split: not quite, but overall I didn't slow down too badly. 

Goal A: To improve on my personal record of 53:54: Achieved, at 53:50! 

Was it the beet juice?  Or the run-walk strategy?  By changing multiple variables, I didn't properly apply a scientific approach, but in any case the experiment was successful!  Now I just have to learn to endure the taste of beet juice! 

I also wore my runningnerds race team (rrt) shirt, following the encouragement posted on the team's Facebook page earlier this month.  The runningnerds make a point of greeting and cheering each other whenever we spot another race team member, which is a nice touch.  They definitely pumped me up a few times during the race, and hopefully I managed to reciprocate the good cheer.