Goal C: To run 5K in the sun without suffering heat stroke;
Goal B: To run 5K in the sun in less than 30 minutes;
Goal A: To win the Big Peach Running Company gift card for the fastest outdoor 5K time.
I'm a member of the Blomeyer Fitness Center at Emory. I do my weight training there, and in the winter months would do a little elliptical cross-training when the weather was too bad to run outside, but on many occasions I simply use the locker room to clean up after an early morning in-town run, so that I'm presentable enough for work.
The Blomeyer Center periodically has member challenges, which I've never managed to join until now. To qualify for the 5K, a member had to run at least 25 miles between June 1 - 19. I was working on a half-marathon training program at the time and had no trouble getting enough miles within the first two weeks. With the heat and some heaviness in the legs, I decided to call a halt to the half-marathon training, at least for now. I'm sure that I've gained some benefit that will be evident when the weather cools down in the fall, but perhaps the biggest problem was the mental fatigue setting in with running. When I began to fixate on the arithmetic of running hundreds of extra hours just to save five or six minutes in my next half-marathon, that was a good sign that I needed a break. So I'm back to running three or four times a week, and have resolved that I won't do a long run, nothing longer than 6 miles or so, until after the Peachtree Road Race on July 4.
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| The competition desk at the Blomeyer Center |
17 members have qualified for the Blomeyer challenge. Competitors can run on the treadmill, on the indoor track, or outside on a 5K route that the Blomeyer staff has mapped, but we must run our 5K on Monday or Tuesday, June 22 or 23. I have never enjoyed running on the treadmill, and don't have confidence to run at higher speed without holding on to the hand holds, so that isn't an option for me. The 1/16 mile indoor track could be an option, and occasionally I warm up for weightlifting by running indoors for a mile or so, but I'm incredibly bored after a few laps and have never done more than 16 laps. So I decided to do the outdoor run, even with the heat of summer. I figured it would be a good test, especially to have some confidence if the weather is warm on the morning of July 4. An early morning run could have been a possibility, but frankly the road traffic is probably worse at 7 am than at 7 pm, and the humidity would be higher in the morning, so I decided that it should be an evening run.
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| The competition! |
Around 7:15 pm, I set out to jog the route, just to get a feel for the hills, and also to get familiar with the route. I set my Garmin to kilometer mode so that I would get an alert with each kilometer and especially the exact point finishing the fifth kilometer. The route would not be marked, so I had to memorize the map in the Blomeyer office. It wasn't too difficult, but I wasn't familiar at all with the middle part of the route. But it proved to be an excellent route. We would not have to cross any busy intersections, and there were sidewalks on the busier roads. The middle section had no sidewalks, but the residential neighborhood had so little auto traffic that I could safely run in the street, and the asphalt was actually a nice break from running on the sidewalk. But it was really hot, 93 deg F when I set out. And on the return trip, I was running straight into the western sun in two sections, sweat pouring into my eyes, hardly able to see out of my right eye for the last half mile. At the end of the prescribed route, my Garmin was reading only 4.90 kilometers, so I ran the last 100 meters uphill on Clifton Road. Even though I wasn't running for time, I managed the route in just over 31 minutes.
After returning to the air conditioned gym, cooling down with some wet towels in the cool air, eating a banana, hydrating a bit, and changing into a fresh shirt, I was ready to run the route for time. My legs were still warmed up even with the 30 minute break and feeling good. For the timed run, I carried a wet handtowel, so that hopefully I wouldn't struggle with sweat in the eyes on the timed run.
It was nearly 8:15 pm before I got started on the timed run, and the air was definitely cooler, with the sun lower in the sky. I was amazed to check later that the temperature was still 88 deg F when I started at the corner of Clifton Road and Houston Mill Road, but it felt so much better just being 5 degrees cooler. The first block was uphill on Houston Mill Road, but then I picked up some speed on Gatewood Road, between the Emory parking garage and the Harwood apartments. Going downhill and then making a right turn to head back to Clifton Road, I had sped up to a 5:03 minute / kilometer pace. But after making the turn onto Haygood Road, my pace was 5:10, even though I was running downhill at first, but my pace kept slowing down, finishing the first kilometer in 5:13. I ran past Druid Hills High School, turned onto North Decatur Road for a 100 feet or so, then left on Winchester Way into a quiet residential area, heading downhill at first. But any resolution to keep to a 5:15 or 5:20 minute / kilometer pace was not to be, with the second kilometer finished in 5:51.
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| The race route, with markers in kilometers |
But I was enjoying the run. Shortly before turning onto Edinburgh Terrace, I had to remove my sunglasses. On Edinburgh Terrace, I was delighted to be running westward with the sun low enough to be shaded by the trees. A few couples were walking in the neighborhood, a couple of other people walking dogs, and then I remembered that I was running for time as I finished the third kilometer at 5:54. Looping back onto Westminster Way, before long I was approaching North Decatur Road. In the first run, I was facing directly into the sun on North Decatur Road, but this time the run was pleasant. I had to weave around a cluster of garbage cans on the sidewalk in front of one home, but otherwise the run was going smoothly. Turning back onto Haygood Road, I finished the fourth kilometer in 5:55. At least those last three kilometers were consistent. Consistently slow! But with the lower temperature, and the wet handtowel to wipe my face, I was staying cool and comfortable. Definitely I will carry a small towel in future races this summer.
I tried to pick up the pace going downhill. In the Winship Cancer Institute 5K last fall, there had been a speed sign registering the runners' speeds at 7 mph, but the sign wasn't there today. I wasn't able to put on much of a burst of speed heading downhill, although at least I was running fairly easily. As I approached Clifton Road, the road went back uphill, and for the first time my heart rate monitor chirped that I was at or above 175 bpm. But at 4.7 km, only 300 meters to go! Turning onto Clifton Road, I had to dodge around another runner waiting for the traffic light, whereas I didn't need to cross the intersection. The path ahead was downhill at first and I tried to pick up some speed, thinking about that Big Peach gift card. Approaching the corner with Gatewood Road, which should have been the finish, the Garmin was reading only 4.90 km, but at least it wasn't a surprise. So I decided to take a right onto Gatewood to run the last 100 meters, which was fairly level. Glancing at the watch at 4.96 km, I sped up a bit more and before I knew it, the 5 kilometer alert had sounded, but - 6:01 for that last kilometer. I stopped the watch as quickly as I could, 5.01 km at 28:57, and adding up the individual kilometers, had covered 5.00 km in 28:54, which was the time that I submitted to Blomeyer staff.
Although the heat definitely slowed me down, I had expected that I would probably miss the presence of other runners. In a race, there's always someone ahead of me that I'm trying to catch up to, pulling me along. And then I'm always aware of someone behind me, figuratively pushing me forward. I'm sure that my focus would have been better, although on the other hand, I might have been exhausted before reaching the finish, so it's hard to project what time I could have run this evening. Anyway I was satisfied with the outcome, and waiting to hear what the winning times will be after the competition ends tomorrow evening.
1 comment:
I love your C goal. It's a legitimate goal around here these days! Nice work. Summer running is tough and the heat really does get trapped around the Emory area with all the car commuting.
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