Running for the second half of my life: 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.