Running for the second half of my life: September 2015

September 26, 2015: Beat the Badge 5K

Goal B: to run steady paces in the first two miles, then speed up in the third mile

Goal A: to break a long-standing goal of 25 minutes for the 5K distance

Quite a few races were held in metro Atlanta this weekend. I was originally planning to run a free Atlanta Track Club cross-country race in Cartersville, but then several members of the Tucker Running Club registered to do a local race, the Beat the Badge 5K in the Tucker-Northlake area, so earlier in the week I decided to register for the local race. It began raining late this week and the drizzle has only periodically stopped since Thursday afternoon. I realized that I would much rather run a local race in the rain than drive back from Cartersville by myself (one hour plus) after getting soaked, so I felt good about my last-minute change of plan.

The race didn't begin until 9 am and so we were able to sleep in a bit later and didn't leave the house until shortly after 8 am. When we were in line to pick up our race bibs, I saw a sign honoring the memory of DeKalb County policeman Kevin Toatley, who was tragically killed just last weekend in a collision with another car driving in the wrong direction. I was glad to see a direct connection to where the funds raised in the race would be going for this year, although it was a shame that this needless accident happened.

with Kathie Walker, Malisa Anderson-Strait, Eric Strait, Bonnie Youn, yours truly, and Curt Walker.
A second or two before the photo was snapped, I realized that we were standing in front of a local
9-11 memorial, and the smile faded from my face in that moment.

Six of us arrived with Tucker Running Club shirts and posted for a pre-race photo while we were still relatively dry, having endured only light drizzle to that point. After warming up a bit on my own by jogging while most of the other runners did calisthenic exercises to warm up, it was time to line up for the race. There wasn't a timing strip at the start so I missed out on the advantages of starting closer to the line, but I didn't want to move in front of a group of SWAT officers before we began. At 9:00 am sharp, an airhorn sounded and the mass of runners started without delay. It was a bit crowded in the beginning and I ended up running through/past the SWAT group in the first block, but that helped me set a sustainable pace from the beginning. I was aiming for about 8:15 minute / mile for the first two miles, and then was hoping that I could speed up to finish very strongly. The first few blocks were slightly uphill, but then we turned onto Lavista Road and the road was relatively flat as it stretched ahead of us.

The drizzle really didn't bother me, as the first mile passed quickly, in 8:03. That was a tiny bit faster than planned, but I felt strong and so decided to try to maintain that pace.

A few residents living along Lavista Road were in their front yards to watch us, and I tried to give them a smile and a wave as I passed them. Curt Walker, who has 16 years on me as well as a pace at least 1 minute / mile faster than me, was up ahead but was still in sight. In fact the lead runners didn't pass me on the return leg until shortly before the turnaround point came into view, so perhaps there were only 2 - 3 minutes ahead of me, which I felt good about. I had passed quite a few people on Northlake Parkway and a few more on Lavista Road, but now was running at the same pace as most of the people around me.

As we neared the turnaround point, I stretched out my right hand to Curt Walker, but we weren't close enough to slap hands. I saw a table with water and stacks of paper cups which could have been the water stop at the beginning of the return leg, but no one was manning this station. Fortunately the weather was cool and damp and so I had no need for water at this point. Now that we had turned around, we were running to the west on Lavista Road. This reminded me of the early Sunday morning runs with Tucker Running Club, where this stretch is the last mile, and I tried to keep up my speed with that thought in mind. Malisa Anderson-Strait and her husband Eric Strait were running together, and I managed to exchange a hand slap with Malisa as we passed. That spurred me forward a bit, and while I was slightly slower completing the second mile (8:13), it seemed like I sped up as I was approaching the 2-mile marker.

Unfortunately, I was beginning to tire. I had heard footsteps behind me for awhile, and finally he passed me. He looked strong, and most importantly, looked younger than me, so that was OK. Despite wearing a cap, rain mixed with sweat was pouring into my eyes. I found myself running with my eyes closed on a few occasions, then realized what a bad idea that was if I were to encounter a pot hole and so I tried to force them open again. Then my heart rate monitor started beeping indicating that my pulse was over 170 bp. To heck with it, I was going to keep pushing for that last mile. Bonnie and I passed although she didn't move close enough to the middle of the road for us to hand slap, so I settled for giving her a wave and a thumbs-up.

From that point, the rest of the race was a blur. I hardly remember making the turn onto Northlake Parkway, but I recall that the closest runner was only about 50 feet in front of me. I didn't think that I could catch him, but I would be happy if he didn't open any ground on me, and if no one else passed me in the final stage. I tried to gauge how close the person behind me was based on the course monitors' encouraging words as we passed, I decided less than 5 seconds, so that forced me to go a little faster despite the pain of exertion. As we turned into the parking lot to LA Fitness and the police station, I could hardly focus my vision as I just tried to keep running in the middle of the lane, but a cluster of people holding signs and calling out the names of their friends had me running even faster. I didn't want to get passed by any of those people. With the last turn, the race ended in a downhill finish. I was disappointed - but not surprised - to see 25 minutes on the clock as I approached, but I don't think that I could have run faster. As I entered the finish chute, the race director congratulated me by number, "great job 184!"

(Sept 30 update: Official time, 25:30)

The volunteers handed each runner a card to fill out with our name, number, and time of finish. I could hardly write my name due to racing heartbeat, and then the card got wet so that the ink didn't adhere to the paper, but I think that I got enough info on the card, plus volunteers manning the finish line would be able to confirm at least the order of finish.

(Sept 30 update: 2nd in age group, 19th out of 244 finishers!)

Eric, the runner with a beard, is trying to chase down a policeman
while avoiding getting run down himself by a baby stroller.

Malisa Anderson-Strait wins the award for the most fun leggings!

I was able to take photos of some of the other Tucker Running Club members. Shortly after I finished, Eric Strait came running, right behind a policeman that he was trying to catch. Within a minute, Eric's wife Malisa Anderson-Strait appeared, running strongly in her fun-looking leggings. Bonnie caught up to and passed a couple of runners in the final yards, finishing strongly as well.

Bonnie makes her move with 20 meters to go, and...

... a little girl and her father are left to wonder,
just how did that woman in the yellow shirt pass them so quickly?!

Goal B: to run steady paces in the first two miles, then speed up in the third mile; not quite achieved, but not too bad. I ran mile splits of 8:03, 8:13, and 8:16, followed by the final 0.13 miles in 1:01 corresponding to a 7:48 pace. I sped up a bit at the very end, but not for most of mile 3. Nonetheless I was pleased that my mile splits were pretty close together, so I didn't slow down too badly.

Goal A: to break a long-standing goal of 25 minutes for a 5K distance; not achieved. I've come to realize that I can drink beet juice and eat ginseng root all I want, but if I'm really going to speed up, perhaps I should try ... exercise? Bonnie and I recently won, in a silent auction fundraiser, a "gait analysis" and running clinic with an Emory physical therapist. Remembering how much my running improved 2+ years ago with the Good Form Running course at Big Peach Running Company, I'm hoping to pick up a few tips on form or technique that may help me speed up with the same considerable effort that I'm currently making. I do feel like I am not gliding as efficiently as the other runners that are passing me, so that might be a relatively easy way to improve.

September 7, 2015: The Big Peach Sizzler 10K, aka the Ginseng root experiment

Goal C: to experiment with ginseng root as a performance-enhancing substance

Goal B: to beat my 2014 time of 56:25 (race recap)

Goal A: to set a new PR (53:50, Singleton 10K, April 2015)

A few weeks ago, my parents-in-law returned from Korea with the gift of a fresh ginseng root, instructing me to take it before my next race. Ginseng has a long history in herbal medicine to treat a variety of maladies, and has been used as a natural performance-enhancing substance. Some of the compounds in ginseng also provide cardiovascular protection by nitric oxide releasing action - and NO is also generated upon ingesting beet juice which has vasodilating activity. Active components include a family of saponins (steroidal glycosides) known as ginsenosides. However, the major bioactive component, apparently not present in the ginseng plant itself, is ginsenoside K, produced by digestion of some of the glucose substituents attached to the steroid core.

Ginseng root contains a variety of ginsenoside natural products, consisting of a steroidal core (in blue) and several glucose substituents (in red and black). Upon digestion, all but one of the glucose substituents is released, leaving only the glucose labeled red. This compound, ginsenoside K, is responsible for most of the beneficial biological properties of ginseng. See:

(1) Biochemical Pharmacology, vol. 58, pp. 1685 - 1693 (1999), by Attele, Wu, and Yuan

(2) Cell Research, vol. 24, pp. 770 - 773 (2014), by Yan, Fan, Wei, Wang, Liu, Wei, Zhang, Zhao, Yue, and Zhou

The Big Peach Sizzler is one of the larger metro-Atlanta races run on Labor Day. The organizers advertise the course as relatively flat and "super-fast". Unfortunately I struggled with this race last year, due to temperatures that rose with the early morning sun raining heat rays on my back. Somewhere in the sixth mile, my heart rate spiked and I started feeling badly. Heat stroke was averted by slowing to a walk for a few minutes and pouring water over my head, and I finished, but with my second-slowest 10K time. Disappointed in my performance last year, I was determined to run this course again, and to run better. I've learned how to pace myself in the past year. And this year, I'm fortified by ginseng root! I chowed down the root the evening before the race, on a relatively empty stomach, washing it down with ginseng tea for good measure. The saponins gave the raw root a rather bitter taste but I managed to eat the entire thing, although I think that I would have enjoyed it better in a soup.

At the start

On the big day, the weather was mild, around 70 deg F, but without hardly a cloud in the sky. I decided to carry a water bottle on my belt, even though hardly anyone else was doing so. After warming up for a few minutes and watching the start of the wheelchair race, I found a position in the middle of the pack and waited for our start. The race began promptly at 7:30 am, and a giant scrum walked to the start line and then began jogging at the starting mat. It took me a while to get up to speed due to heavy traffic, but I still managed to finish mile 1 in 8:36. Aiming for a pace of 8:30 minute / miles, miles 2 and 3 went by quickly, in 8:22 and 8:38 respectively. I was taking very short walk breaks every 5 - 6 minutes, mostly coinciding with uphill sections or water stations, although I could hardly stand to watch a dozen or more people stream past me as I walked. I generally kept the walking segments to only 15 seconds or so, just long enough to stretch my arms above my head and scroll through the Garmin readout to check on my pulse rate.

Tucker Running Club represented by the Ashby family (left); with Judy Tennell and Bonnie (right)

Upon seeing the 3 mile marker before 26 minutes had elapsed, I estimated that I was on a PR pace. But I slowed down a bit in miles 4 and 5, finishing those in 8:55 and 8:59. This was where the race became difficult last year, but this time around I felt better prepared. My attitude was positive, "I know exactly what to do to get through this section". Early in the fifth mile I took a longer walk break, about 30 - 40 seconds, squirting some water on the back of my neck and on top of my head, as well as drinking a couple of sips. This part of the race didn't seem as difficult this year, and the weather was a little milder, but this time around I was cooling down before I had heated up. To this point, everyone around me seemed to be running well, and I didn't see anyone on the side of the road struggling with injury or heat stroke, which had been the case last year. For most of the race I was keeping up with two women wearing "Super TY" logos on their back, one of the cystic fibrosis teams involved in fundraising. They looked pretty strong and I was happy to use them as pacers, even occasionally moving in front of them, but then they would pass me when I took walk breaks.

The race route, labeled with mile markers

After the mile 5 marker, I tried to speed up a bit. I had finished 5 miles in less than 44 minutes, so I already knew that I would smash last year's time, but wasn't sure if I could set a new 10K PR, as I would have to run at an 8:00 minute / mile pace for the rest of the race. And the first part of the sixth mile was a gentle rise over the GA-400 overpass, near Lenox Mall. At some point in this section, my heart rate monitor began to beep, indicating that my pulse rate was over 170 bpm. But I wasn't feeling badly and so I decided that I could keep pushing, it would be less than a mile. It seemed to take a long time as the road continued slightly uphill, around the towers of Buckhead, but finally I reached the big intersection with Piedmont Road where we turned right toward the finish. My time to this stage was just under 51 minutes. I had been looking forward to this turn for awhile, because shortly after clearing the intersection, the road turned gently downhill. I had enough energy left over to speed up, taking advantage of the gravity assist and pumping my arms hard, passing several others in this section. I even momentarily passed the "Super TY" pair. I kept looking for the mile 6 marker but did not see it, but got the signal that I had completed mile 6 in 8:34 (52:04 elapsed).

At this point I was pretty sure that I couldn't set a PR, estimating that I needed to have finished 6 miles in about 51 minutes. But I knew that I had run a good race to this stage. As I made another right turn onto the Buckhead loop, the "Super TY" pair passed me, running strongly. I wasn't too surprised, they looked like they were good runners, and I wasn't quite able to keep up with them at the end, but I don't think that anyone else passed me in this section. There were quite a few spectators cheering us on "Not much further!" as we raced one short block, and then another right turn to the finish. I was very very pleased to see 54 minutes on the clock. There was a fairly big gap between me and the closest runner, a man wearing yellow, and I pressed to close the gap as best as I could as I raced through the finish line, at 54:43 clock time, and 54:19 chip time.

In addition to running a full two minutes faster than my 2014 time, I also recovered quickly. I snatched an ice cold towel from a young volunteer as I slowed down, and this time I needed only one of the cold towels. After getting a small cup of Nuun, I recovered quickly, so much better than last year when I was burning up with heat. I recognized Daniel Yee, aka Kurokitty, "The Running Cat" and was able to chat with him for a few minutes, then was joined by Simon Blakey, a chemistry colleague who set a new 10K PR this morning, smashing his old time by 2-1/2 minutes!

With Anna Calcaterra and Daniel Yee (left); with Simon Blakey (right)

Although I didn't set a PR this morning, I was really pleased to finish strongly, especially in 70 degree temperature. As the weather cools this fall, I hope to see some improvements in my times in comparison with the 2014 races, as I repeat the Winship Cancer Institute 5K later this month, the Atlanta 10-miler in late October, and the Galloway 13.1 in mid-December. I've run seven 10K races this year, all under 55 minutes and in a fairly tight cluster of times ranging from 53:50 - 54:43.

Goal C: to experiment with ginseng root as a performance-enhancing substance; I didn't take beet juice this time so that I could run a "clean" experiment. I did feel strong within a few minutes of eating the ginseng root, so I wonder if I should eat it immediately before running a race in the future, instead of the night before.

Running for the second half of my life