Goal C: To finish without injury
Goal B: To better last year's time of 1:31:13
Goal A: To run faster than 1:30:00 (9:00 min / mile pace)
I haven't posted in awhile, in part because my last scheduled race, the Winship Cancer Institute 5K on October 3, was cancelled due to bad weather. There were concerns about a combination of a big storm front colliding with the outer bands of Hurricane Joaquín, and there was significant lightning and some standing water in the streets of the Emory University campus that morning. Fortunately for Georgia, we missed the intense rain and resultant flooding that created a significant disaster in a large part of the neighboring state of South Carolina. In the meantime I've been training fairly diligently, working on improving my half-marathon time when I next run the Galloway 13.1 in mid-December. The Atlanta 10-Miler was to be a good test of my fitness to this point.
I ran a great race in last year's 10-Miler and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and have been looking forward to this highlight of the fall 2015 running season. The race seems to steadily grow in popularity, from 3000 finishers in 2014, up to over 4000 finishers this year, selling out a week in advance. The weather was cloudy and pleasantly cool at the start (63 deg F), but the tops of the buildings at the start/finish area in Atlantic Station were shrouded in fog as sunrise approached. Before heading to our corrals for the start, the participants from the Tucker Running Club gathered for a group photo.
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| Great turnout from the Tucker Running Club! |
For major events, i.e. the races that aren't free, the Atlanta Track Club goes all out, including a professional announcer for the start. This year I was assigned to corral C, for runners with a 9:00 - 10:00 minute / mile pace - the perfect corral for me. It took a little longer than expected for corral A and B runners to clear the starting area, but at 7:35 am sharp, the airhorn sounded to start our group, and the corral C runners were off with great spirit!
My plan was to run the first 8 miles at an average 9-minute / mile pace, hopefully reserving enough energy to turn up the speed a bit in the final two miles, to achieve my "A goal" of finishing in less than 90 minutes. Last year I started in the front row of corral D and covered the first mile in 8 minutes. This year I vowed to have more discipline, sticking closer to a 9-minute mile from the beginning, and managed that for the first three miles, in 8:49, 8:59, and 8:50. Once again there were some great cheering groups along the route, and for each group I managed to move over to the right to exchange hand slaps with the cheerers.
As we turned off of Peachtree Road into the Brookwood neighborhood, we encountered our first serious hills. Taking short (15 second) walk breaks every three minutes or so, I powered through the hills, feeling strong and fast. Unfortunately my heart rate monitor signaled that my heart rate had exceeded 170 beats per minute before we had even finished the fourth mile! I took a short walk break but then seeing that my pace was slower than 9 minutes / mile, I managed to speed up quite a bit as we ran a steep downhill to the 4-mile marker, letting gravity do much of the work. The obsessive-compulsive section of my personality was pleased to finish the fourth mile in 8:53, so the better than 9-minute mile streak was safe for the moment!
Unfortunately the hills were not over, far from it! I had taken a walk break almost immediately after clearing the 4-mile alert, and had to press to get the pace time back down. It didn't help that I elected to take a gel approaching a water station in the middle of the fifth mile, but I wanted to make sure that I stayed strong and consumed some calories before I badly needed them. Despite my best efforts, I couldn't finish the fifth mile "in time", in fact I gave back most of the "excess" that I had earned in the first four miles with a 9:27 fifth mile. But not to worry, I was exactly at 44:59 at the midway point! Now it was time to execute the negative split strategy.
Running due north on Northside Drive, the right lane was under construction - although it might be a new lane. I was still feeling good, but the heart rate alarm sounded every time we went up a hill, even small ones. This was really too early in the race to be running with a high heart rate, and I only managed 9:13 for mile 6. Shortly after turning onto Peachtree Battle Avenue, I saw an ambulance up ahead near an intersection, hoping that I wouldn't need to stop! I jogged past without incident, approaching a table where volunteers were handing out packages of Sports Beans. I don't normally use Sports Beans in running, but had taken a cup of them around mile 8 in the Publix Georgia Half Marathon in March and had no problems in that race. Unfortunately this time I kept chewing and chewing and chewing some more. I washed some of them down with a cup of sports drink, but it felt like I must have run a quarter mile before I managed to get the sports beans properly chewed and swallowed.
Turning from Peachtree Battle onto Peachtree Road, I approached the "Conquer Cardiac Hill" challenge, sponsored by some sadists at Mizuno. I slowed down a bit in the approach to the timing mat, trying to gain a smidgen of reserve, then sped up through the timing mat. Of course it wasn't like I had any chance of making into the top 100 runners up Cardiac Hill to win one of the commemorative mugs, but I was determined to make a strong showing this year. Passing the mile 7 marker in 9:30, I definitely needed to speed up to achieve my A goal for the race. The beginning of the Cardiac Hill challenge was actually flat as we crossed Peachtree Creek. But as the elevation increased, I began to slow. A particularly humbling moment was when my Tucker Running Club friends Curt and Kathie Walker, ages 68 and 66 respectively, passed me going uphill. I don't know how I managed to get ahead of them early on, but that advantage evaporated on Cardiac Hill. With the heart rate alarm beeping urgently, I had to take a short walk break midway up Cardiac Hill, then was able to speed up a bit again. There were several cheering groups along Cardiac Hill, but I was in no mood to exchange hand slaps and just stayed in the middle of the running lane, as we passed Piedmont Hospital and the Chest Pain Center near the top. From time to time people would cheer "Go Tucker Running Club!" I think I managed each time to flash a smile and a wave. Finally I finished the Cardiac Hill challenge, in 9:20 minutes as I discovered afterwards. I immediately took another walk break upon clearing the timing mat, then tried to get back up to speed to keep the Walkers in sight.
I remember last year that I was feeling really good as I passed the mile-8 marker. This year, not so good, as I finished mile 8 in 9:51. I would have to run two 8-minute miles to achieve my dream goal, so I tried to get into a higher gear. Epic fail. I was starting to feel a little sick, perhaps from the sports beans, maybe from the humidity, but fortunately my stomach was empty enough so that I wasn't in danger of causing a messy incident on Peachtree Road. I was so relieved to turn onto Deering Road at the Amtrak station, heading downhill. I wanted to speed up, but my body wouldn't cooperate this time. Quite a few runners passed me from here to the finish, and I lost any view of the Walkers as I slowed down. I finished mile 9 in 9:46, seeing 1:23:20 on my watch.
Now the goal was simply to beat last year's time. Surely I could bang out a final mile in 8 minutes or less. As I write this post a few hours after the race, I realize that my brain must have been short on oxygen by this stage of the race, because that was a completely ridiculous expectation! We finally cleared the last uphill section with about 1/2 mile to go. My watch was at 1:28 as we turned onto 17th Street, overlooking the neighborhood just north of Georgia Tech. Last year I was cheered by the view, this year I just noticed the fog. The volunteers were very encouraging and cheering us on, which helped most of the other runners passing me, but I just couldn't find any more speed. Finally we turned into Atlantic Station at State Street. Last year this was a celebratory dash to the finish, this year I was just determined to finish. I saw Susan from Weight Watchers along the sideline, who had earlier run the 5K, and was cheering me into the finish. I muttered something with the words "feeling terrible" as I passed her. Finally making the last turn toward the finish line, I tried to speed up a little, and crossed the timing mat at a respectable speed. 9:51 for mile 10, 1:33:11 overall.
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| Whew, I finished! |
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| No celebration today. |
At first, I was pretty disappointed with my performance. But as my heart rate began to drop and the haze cleared from my brain, I realized that it wasn't that bad, I just didn't achieve some challenging goals that I had set for myself. Certainly I had run an outstanding race in 2014. I knew going into today's race that it wouldn't be easy to run a better race this year, but I had expected with a year of additional conditioning that I could at least run the same time again.
I believe that my problems began in mile 4, when I pressed too hard much too early in a long race, just to beat a 9-minute per mile pace. That was when goals A and B were lost, although it took me 4 more miles to realize it. So the great thing about today's race is what I learned from the experience. And I did manage to run every single mile faster than 10 minutes.
After the finish, I learned that quite a few runners including some elite athletes finished about two minutes later than their desired time, so I felt a little better about my struggle today. At least I didn't get injured or sick. After easy walking and a little light stretching for a few minutes, I changed into some dry clothes. The morning ended with a celebratory late brunch with Bonnie at Egg Harbor Cafe, which I had run past twice during the race!
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| Double bling! And smiling again. I should never forget that this is a huge accomplishment in light of my poor fitness 3 years ago. |
Goal C: To finish without injury: Achieved, thank goodness!
Goal B: To better last year's time of 1:31:13: nearly two minutes slower
Goal A: To run faster than 1:30:00 (9:00 min / mile pace): Nope.
My results: 1141st out of 4058 finishers, 1265th up Cardiac Hill
790th out of 1812 males, 95th out of 227 in the 50-54 age group
427th out of 1066 male masters, 177th out of 501 male grandmasters.
So, I was in the top half in every category. I'll take that, even if I'm not "Grandmaster Flash."
