November 26, 2015: The Bay Area Turkey Run 10K

Goal C: To better last year's time of 55:59.9

Goal B: To celebrate Thanksgiving holiday with family

Goal A: To celebrate my mother's birthday

In the United States, the fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving Day.  We usually get together with my mother and other family members, not only because of the holiday but also because Thanksgiving always falls near her birthday.  This year Thanksgiving actually falls on Mom's birthday, and we're celebrating a round-numbered year as well.  She is a role model for me in so many ways, including taking good care of her health, although she probably has a bit of luck with genes as well.  I've inherited her genes for hair color and I think that I look a lot like my maternal grandfather - other than the male pattern baldness that I inherited from my own father - and hopefully I've inherited her healthy genes as well! 

My aunt prepared a delicious applesauce cake for her sister's birthday!  

In this time when the plight of refugees is in the news, I think of my Mom's family at the end of World War II.  My grandparents were born in the first decade of the twentieth century in the Austrian Empire.  After World War I, their region became part of the new country of Yugoslavia.  As ethnic Austrians, they were in the minority, but became Yugoslav citizens, and my grandfather even served in the Yugoslav army during peacetime in the mid-1920's.  That may have saved them when civil war came to Yugoslavia in the early 1940's, sparked by the anarchy of the German-Italian invasion and occupation.  In approximately 1943, a group of Partisan soldiers demanded entry into their home in Sarajevo, but the group's commander ordered the soldiers to leave after he realized that my grandfather had served in the Yugoslav army.  However, my grandparents felt that the next group might not spare them, so they decided to leave to join relatives in Austria, only to be picked up by the German army and sent to a labor camp, as they weren't officially Austrian citizens.   

Family photo from ca. 1948, from left-to-right:
My mother, Cecilie Kefer; my grandfather, Rudolf Kefer;
my grandmother, Elizabeth Zamola Kefer; and my aunt, Mira Kefer.
They sat for this photo to send to great-uncle Ed Zamola,
when they wrote asking him to sponsor them for immigration
to the United States. 

They were fortunate to survive the war, but found themselves among millions of other displaced persons when the war in Europe ended in May 1945.  My mother was only 9 years old.  Although the Yalta agreement required displaced persons to return to their countries of origin, some of the first groups of non-Slavic people to return to Yugoslavia were murdered shortly after crossing the border, so my mother's family desperately needed to stay out of Yugoslavia, even though they were living in Austria as undocumented aliens.  They were spared when Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of the U.S. president, gave a speech at the new United Nations in 1945, insisting that the victorious Allies must not demand the return of displaced persons if their lives might be in danger.  My grandparents, my mother, and her older sister lived discreetly in Linz, Austria while they tried to find a country that might accept them.  It turns out that my grandmother's older brother, great-uncle Ed Zamola, had come to the United States in the early 1900's, under dubious circumstances, possibly without visa.  At some point Uncle Ed was offered a path to citizenship, and by the late 1940's, he was eligible to sponsor his younger sister and her family for immigration to the United States.  They arrived in Port Arthur, Texas in summer 1950, when my mother was 14 years old.  My mother along with her sister and parents proudly became United States citizens after the 5-year waiting period, and built new lives in the country that welcomed them. 

Family photo, ca. 1970:
in front center, my mother, Cecilie Kefer McDonald;
on the left, my brother, Will McDonald;
on the right, my father, Frank McDonald Sr.;
and I'm in the back center.

My mother and brother came out early this morning to watch Bonnie and I run the Bay Area Turkey Run, Bonnie running the 5K and me taking on the 10K.  My goal was to run faster than last year's time, which was 55:59.9 on a flat course.  However, it was relatively warm and quite humid this morning.  Even though I grew up accustomed to constant heat and humidity near the Gulf of Mexico coast, I had quickly lost my tolerance after moving away, so I wasn't sure how well I might run today.  

Bonnie, me and Mom shortly before the race

It took me awhile to work out some stiffness in my legs but fortunately we arrived early enough for me to warm up thoroughly in the parking lot.  After jogging for 15 - 20 minutes, my legs felt good and I was ready to run.  The children's 1K race started around 7:30 am, and after they were done, the 5K and 10K runners began together, around 7:45 am.  I started a bit too quickly in the first mile (8:02) and slowed down a bit in the subsequent miles (8:22, 8:45, 9:00, 9:17, 9:01), but was able to speed up in the final stretch, and ran my third-best 10K time at 53:59, only 9 seconds slower than my PR.  

Goal C: To better last year's time of 55:59.9; Achieved 2 minutes faster!

Goal B: To celebrate Thanksgiving holiday with family; Achieved, with a dozen family members around the dinner table!

Top: sister-in-law Sara Werland McDonald, cousin Rudy Noble, Rudy's father-in-law John Combi,
Christine Combi Noble, Rudy and Christine's son Patrick Noble, cousin Paul Noble,
and uncle Don Noble.  Bottom: uncle Don Noble, aunt Mira Kefer Noble, mom Cecilie Kefer McDonald,
me, Bonnie Youn, brother Will McDonald, and sister-in-law Sara Werland McDonald.

 

Goal A: To celebrate my mother's birthday; Achieved! My aunt prepared a delicious applesauce cake for her sister's birthday cake.  

Happy Birthday to you, Mom, as you prepare to blow out the candles! 

November 21, 2015: The Hill Country Trail Race, a k a the Serenbe Mud Run (15 K)

Goal C: To enjoy a nice run in the forest on a pleasant fall day

Goal B: To pace myself better in a challenging trail race

Goal A: To finish 9.33 miles in less than 1:50

I first learned about the Hill Country Trail Race a bit more than a year ago, but was training for my first half-marathon at the time and decided not to risk my training with an unknown type of race.  However this year I registered a few months in advance and was looking forward to a nice run in the forest, in the "New Urban" community of Serenbe.  I had visited the Inn and Farmhouse at Serenbe on a few occasions for farm-to-table dinners, but had never seen the growing community just a mile or so off of the main road.  

The fall foliage has been particularly nice in Georgia this year.  A couple of weeks ago, I joined a couple members of the Emory chemistry faculty on a 12-mile hike through the forest to the top of Brasstown Bald, the tallest hill in Georgia, and enjoyed the trek through the fallen leaves.  A few days ago I looked up a bit of the chemistry behind the changes in leaf color with the season, and learned from a news article in Nature that green leaves contain both chlorophyll and carotenoids, and when the chlorophyll is not replenished with waning sunlight as autumn progresses, the yellow - orange carotenoids are no longer masked and show up as the dominant color in many leaves.  But the striking red leaves on some trees are colored by another compound that is generated only in autumn, known as anthocyanin.  Anthocyanins are also produced in the tissues of many flowers, and appear as different colors depending on the pH of the tissue, with red arising at acidic pH. 

Chemical structures of some representative compounds responsible for leaf colors

It took only about an hour to drive from my home to Serenbe, without any traffic early on Saturday morning.  I had not run at all since Monday, due to a combination of a busy schedule at work and heavy thunderstorms causing the cancellation of the usual Tucker Running Club group run on Wednesday evening.  However the weather has been beautiful for the past few days and I assumed that the ground would have mostly dried out by now. The temperature at the start was around 50 deg F with some warmth from the sun. 

Shortly before the 15K start.  I wore orange for a reason!  Read on...

The race began on the main street of the Serenbe community.  The 5K runners departed first, getting about a 10-minute head start, and then the hard core 15K runners lined up.  With a few casual announcements about a "mountain" shortly before the 3-mile mark and some mud along the route "but you're trail runners", the airhorn sounded and we started.  The first mile was on asphalt and I easily ran a 9-minute mile without exerting myself.  Then we turned onto the first trail and immediately had to navigate through some muddy rutted trails!  We had not gone more than a few hundred feet before a runner in front of me tripped over a tree root, hidden by a layer of leaves!  Fortunately he wasn't hurt and was making a joke about scoring a "9" for his flip - and then it was my turn right before the 2-mile mark.  I decided not to fight to stay on my feet and rolled into a soft bed of leaves, quickly getting back up and running again hardly losing a beat!  Fortunately I wasn't injured, but it took a full mile of running before the big toe that I had stubbed on a tree root stopped throbbing.  

The race route.  The mile markers measured on my Garmin are not accurate,
probably due to elevation changes and switchbacks. The mile markers do
provide general information where I was at the beginning, middle, and end of the race.
The Garmin recorded a distance of 8.87 miles, whereas a 15K route is 9.33 miles.

We crossed a wooden bridge over a creek, and saw some of the faster runners returning in our direction.  Then our path took a left turn, and there it was, the "mountain"!  Conserving energy, everyone slowed to a walk as we marched up a rather steep slope.  Climbing about 100 feet, each runner began to speed up to a jog as s/he crested the top, only to slow down to safely navigate a trail downhill that was just as steep as the one that we had just climbed!  That was definitely a slow mile, yet I passed the 3-mile marker before 30 minutes had passed on my Garmin.  Upon making a turn at the 4-mile marker, an older man in front of me fell, but quickly got back to his feet.  We chatted for a moment as we jogged together.  He was trying his first trail race and was just hoping to finish.  I tried to console him by telling him that I had also fallen earlier in the race. 

We then re-entered the community, with the race organizer encouraging us to enjoy a run about the lake, taking a gravel trail past the back yards of several lakeside houses.  After returning to the dirt trail through the forest, we climbed a hill to reach the 5-mile marker.  During some of the walk breaks, I pulled out my cellphone and took a few photos.  Other runners streamed past, but my attitude was that I wasn't going to win anything, and part of enjoying my run through the forest was to take a few photos to share on this blog.  From time to time I heard what sounded like gunshots.  As I think that November may be hunting season, that was the primary reason for wearing orange this morning!  Then I thought, morbidly, of the cannon shots in "The Hunger Games" announcing when a contestant had died.  And some of "The Hunger Games" movies were filmed in north Georgia....

Some time after the 5-mile marker, we briefly ran on a road.  It was really nice to run on asphalt, even though it was only about 100 yards.  We reached the first water stop, where virtually everyone stopped or slowed for a half-cup of water.  At the last minute I had decided to carry my own water bottle, out of an abundance of caution, although most of the other runners relied completely on the water stop.  Then we plunged into the forest again, leaping across some crossings of little creeks, struggling to avoid soaking our feet.  In a flat section of the route, passing by a structure that looked like a giant treehouse, a runner about 100 feet ahead of me went down.  A few of the other runners helped her to her feet, but she stood still for a long moment, hands on knees, apparently catching her breath.  I was concerned that she might have been injured, but shortly before I caught up to her, she began running again.  

Before long we had passed the 6-mile mark (59 minutes elapsed) and reached a road.  It was evident that a right turn would have taken us to the finish - which apparently was the 5K route - but we took a left turn.  The road went up a relatively gentle hill, so I took another photo of a horse surrounded by a flock of ducks.  

I can hardly see the ducks and horse in this photo, but they are at the horizon, looking uphill. 

A race volunteer directed us into the forest, saying "just a loop and then run back to the finish".  I thought that the loop wouldn't be that long, but in fact it was a full two miles.  My legs were starting to ache from the changes in elevation, and I was thinking of how well this would strengthen me for an upcoming 10K in a flat community on Thanksgiving.  In the meantime, my legs were feeling a bit rubbery, but I just kept moving forward as best as I could.  After the 7-mile marker, we passed a waterfall that was a featured attraction of the race route.  I stopped to take a photo, and had just safely returned my phone to a pocket when I fell again, this time sprawling forward on my stomach into the mud.  Fortunately I wasn't injured but now my right hand and wrist were quite muddy, with mud even caked into the wristband of my Fitbit.  The sudden stop also caused my left gluteus to ache with a slight muscle cramp and that really slowed me down, as several other runners passed me in this section. 

There is a waterfall in the background of the photo.  This might have turned out better if I had stopped moving before I snapped the photo. 

It took a long time to reach the 8-mile marker, and now my elapsed time was substantially beyond 80 minutes, but I hadn't expected to run a 10 minute / mile pace in this race.  We were scrambling up and down trails of red Georgia mud, leaping over the occasional little creek.  In the last one, I didn't get enough speed before jumping and nearly slid backward into the creek, but grabbed a little tree with my left hand and pulled myself forward.  Finally, we reached the volunteer at the road once again, and he cheered us on with promises that the finish line wouldn't be too far.  I estimated that it was about a mile to the finish, and tried to speed up.  It took awhile for my legs to respond, but gradually I did find the higher gear.  I had managed to conserve some energy on the slower miles on the trail, and now that we were on asphalt, I was running fairly well.  Going up a gentle hill, I managed the occasional pass.  Spotting the photographer ahead, I sped up a bit more as I passed a couple.  Then there was the 9-mile sign!  Only 3 minutes to go (or less), as I glanced at my watch to see 1:35 elapsed.  I continued running strongly, passing some of the people that had earlier passed me in the last two miles on the trail.  Then as we approached the first buildings of the community, the road turned gently downhill and I went into high gear.  It seemed that no one around me was able to speed up, whereas I kept passing other runners even as the finish line came into view.  I saw 1:38 on the clock, and nearly caught up to another finisher who managed to cross just a split second ahead of me. I was tired but didn't feel badly.  I stepped into the clearing to get some sport drink, then went back to the finish area to watch a few of the others cross the line while I also tried to stretch a bit.

Conclusion: I'm not much of a trail runner.  I'm so much more comfortable running on asphalt.  It's not only the difficulty of the climbs and descents that concern me, but I really don't like falling in a race, and am grateful that I had soft landings in both instances.  Nonetheless, I suppose I will continue to occasionally run a trail race once or twice a year, as I like being in the forest, but it's unlikely to become my major running activity.  In any case, I wasn't disappointed at all in my result: today I ran a substantially faster overall pace than in my first trail race in August. 

Goal C: To enjoy a nice run in the forest on a pleasant fall day; Achieved! 

Goal B: To pace myself better in a challenging trail race; Achieved (probably)!

Goal A: To finish 9.33 miles in less than 1:50; Achieved with a chip time of 1:38:34!!

http://hillcountrytrailrace.com

November 7, 2015: The Uptown Rhodes Race 5K

2013 time: 27:46
2014 time: 25:06
2015 time: ?

I recently read a scientific article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on the biochemical basis of the "runner's high", published by a group of researchers in Germany.  The runner's high has been described as a "sudden pleasant feeling of euphoria, anxiolysis, sedation, and analgesia."  A few decades ago, scientists discovered that physical exercise stimulated the pituitary gland to produce peptide molecules named "endorphins", with beta-endorphin the best studied of these peptides.  Beta-endorphin apparently triggers opioid receptors, dulling the sensation of pain.  For years, beta-endorphin was thought to be the causative agent for the "runner's high".  The problem with this idea is that the structure of beta-endorphin is much too large to cross the blood-brain barrier (31 amino acids, molecular weight over 3000 g/mol).  The blood-brain barrier allows small molecules (glucose, ethanol, caffeine, nicotine) to enter the brain, but protects the brain against virtually all substances with molecular weight greater than 500 g/mol.  

This is the free content of the article: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2015, vol. 112, no. 42, pp. 13105-13108

The 2015 PNAS article studied the behavior and biochemistry of mice that exercised on a running wheel, covering an average of 6.5 ± 0.7 km in a five-hour period, analogous to the time required by the average human runner to complete a 42 km marathon.  A relatively small and fatty molecule named anandamide was also produced in the laboratory mice upon strenuous exercise.  Anandamide was recently discovered as a trigger for cannabinoid receptors in the central nervous system, and has low molecular weight (347 g/mol) consistent with its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier.  The researchers reported that anxiety reduction, sedation, and analgesia were observed in these mice, and also showed that the diminuation of anxiety and pain sensation was directly related to activation of cannabinoid receptors.  (The researchers did not account for the causative agent for sedation, and were unable to test for euphoria, as "euphoria is a highly subjective feeling that may be difficult to model in mice.")

Chemical structure of anandamide.  The next time that you hear someone talk about feeling the endorphins, please do correct him/her, because he/she is actually high on anandamide. 

When my running mania began in fall of 2013, the Uptown Rhodes Race was my second 5K.  By the time that I ran this race again in 2014 - on a slightly different route - I had run several 10K races and the Atlanta 10-miler, and was registered for my first half-marathon in less than a month.  The experience and training definitely showed in a substantial improvement in my time.  Since that time, I've plateaued in my speed, while working more on distance and pacing.  

I didn't sign up for the race ahead of time, as I wasn't previously 100% committed to running this one.  As the day for the race approached, the weather forecast was quite ominous for today, with an 80% chance of rain forecast as recently as yesterday morning.  In fact I was awakened by an explosive bolt of lightning near the house around 6 am!  But when I checked the weather forecast for the next few hours, it was apparent that there would be a window of rain-free weather for a couple of hours coinciding with the 9 am start.  I quickly ate breakfast, dressed in running gear, hopped into the car, and arrived at Rhodes Hall in midtown Atlanta shortly after 8 am, where the organizers were happy to accept my $30 payment in exchange for a race number.  I warmed up by jogging about 2-1/2 miles of the route beforehand at a relaxed 10 minute / mile pace, and was glad to have a reminder of several of the hilly sections immediately before running the race. 

Runners gathering for the start near Rhodes Hall, registered with the Georgia Trust for historic preservation.
A modern office building is in the background. 

As this race didn't use timing chips, we all would get the same start time, so I took a spot about 15 feet behind the starting line.  Shortly before 9 am, the organizer raised his hand, a police cruiser blocking Peachtree Street sounded its siren, and we started running!  My goal was to start out a little slower than last year on the downhill section, to save energy for the second and third miles that would be mostly uphill.  I did manage the discipline to run slower than an 8 minute / mile pace in the beginning, but then picked up some speed in a rather steep downhill section near the end of the first mile.  The road felt a little slick with wet leaves on the street, but everyone kept their footing.  I finished the first mile in 7:43 (net 110 feet downhill).  

Lots of wet leaves on the streets, but I didn't see anyone fall. 

As we passed the Ansley Golf Clubhouse, the road turned uphill, but I managed to keep up a decent pace.  I did a good job focusing on technique, pushing off my toes with each step, keeping the turnover of my legs light and fast, and using my arms to propel my body up the hill.  This was the best part of the race in terms of the view, looking out over the golf course and enjoying the autumn hues of the trees, which helped to take my mind off of the fact that most of this mile was uphill (net 40 feet, finished mile 2 in 8:29).  

Views of the Ansley Golf Course from the race route

Just past the 2-mile marker, there was a water stop at the beginning of a rather steep uphill section, so I slowed to a walk to accept a cup of water, and after about 30 seconds resumed chugging uphill.  This section of the race is the toughest part every year, but before I knew it, we were making the last turn onto Peachtree Center for the last half-mile to the finish line.  

Top: elevation profile recorded by Garmin Forerunner 15
Bottom: actual elevation profile

I knew that I needed to run fast if I had any chance of breaking last year's mark of 25:06. Fortunately I had enough energy remaining to speed up a bit.  Thankfully the road was fairly level in this area (actually my Garmin registered it as gently downhill).  The police were having trouble keeping the street completely free of moving vehicles and the runners had to weave a bit on one side or the other of the cones to avoid the occasional resident that was trying to get out of the neighborhood.  As the road curved to the left past a traffic circle, I could see the clock at the finish line, showing 24:20, but my initial joy at seeing that I would beat 25 minutes was quickly tempered by the realization that I would have to work hard for it!  The finish was gently uphill and the seconds were ticking by much too quickly, but I entered the chute and crossed the finish line at 24:57, exchanging a congratulatory handslap with a volunteer at the end of the line, thrilled to finish in less than 25 minutes!  The only disappointment was that the race was a bit short in distance (just as it was last year), registering only 3.06 mi on my Garmin.  Nonetheless I was very pleased with my run, especially as the temperature was relatively warm and humid (66 deg F, 88% humidity), and I was happy that I made the last decision to run the race, even though it wasn't a certified 5K distance.  The final 1.06 miles were covered in 8:57, 53 feet net uphill. 

After catching my breath and rehydrating with a bottle of water, I jogged back along the race course to take a few photos of the route.  Altogether with the warm-up and cool-down, I got in about 8 miles this morning, including 3 miles of "speed work" in the middle of the run!

2013 time: 27:46
2014 time: 25:06
2015 time: 24:57  Progress!!

Courtesy of Georgia Historic Trust, probably near the middle of the race