April 30, 2016: Beat the Street for Little Feet 5K

One of my colleagues recommended a 5K fundraiser for his son's preschool, the Oakhurst Cooperative Preschool in Decatur.  It turns out that I had heard about this race from The Running Cat blog, where Kurokitty described his race experience in 2014.  What I didn't know until today is that Pete the Cat is a beloved character in a set of children's books and artwork produced by a local artist and two local authors.  I guess that not knowing about this is another downside of not having children.  

Bonnie and I before the race

Oakhurst is a neighborhood on the west side of Decatur, bordering the Kirkwood neighborhood of east Atlanta, both just south of the MARTA Blue Line, the east-west line connecting downtown Atlanta and downtown Decatur.  I've discovered the joys of the Oakhurst and Kirkwood neighborhoods on several Thursday evening group runs out of the Big Peach Running Company, a little gem of a running store just a block from Decatur Square.  Like many other areas of metro Atlanta, the neighborhood is hilly, but conquering hills is what makes us strong! 

Race route, with kilometer markers.  Bonnie calls the little semi-loop on the right "the hernia".
Adams Street, running north-south on the east side of the race route, is two blocks of uphill joy.

The race began on Mead Road in front of Oakhurst Elementary School.  There wasn't a timing strip at the start, so I lined up just a few rows behind the fast group, hoping that I wouldn't get run down by anyone behind me.  The starter actually had a real starter's pistol, and with a shot we were off!  In the first block, I felt that I was pressing a bit at an 8 min/mile pace, even though I had warmed up fairly well, but then settled into a comfort zone.  At the Oakhurst Village crossing, we made a left, and then onto Oakview Road, where we passed a group training for the Peachtree Road Race going in the opposite direction.  I finished the first kilometer in 4:42, which was right on plan.  But with a right turn onto Adams Street, I found myself looking up a steep hill.  That was a struggle but I managed to get up the two-block hill at a 10 min / mile pace, turning left onto the appropriately named Hill Street.  This was still uphill but more gently, and then leveled out as I approached the 1 mile mark.  I checked my watch as I passed the sign, at 8:03, so I was doing OK, although not on personal record pace. 

The Adams Street hill was shortly before the 1 mile mark.
 I didn't appreciate that the first 0.6 mile was a subtle downhill, actually 56 feet downhill! 

See how much my pace dropped going up the hills.
But at least I had one burst of speed in a downhill section
shortly before the 2-mile marker. 

Closing the loop on the "hernia", we now ran through the Oakhurst Village intersection, returning onto Oakview Road, which was a nice boulevard through a residential neighborhood. heading into Kirkwood, in the city of Atlanta.  A couple of children wearing Pete the Cat shirts were cheering us on from their front yard.  I finished the second kilometer in 5:15 (34 feet net uphill) and had sped up a bit for the third kilometer in 4:55 (32 feet downhill).  I passed the 2-mile marker a few seconds faster than 16 minutes.  Here we turned northward onto Sisson Avenue, which was a subtle uphill grade.  I knew the challenge of Sisson Avenue from the Thursday evening group runs, and realized at that moment that I was tailing off the end of the lead pack, with no one particularly close behind me.  I began having thoughts of being the old animal that would be picked off by the tiger stalking the herd, and while that might sound very negative to the reader, that gave me the motivation to keep pressing, finishing the fourth kilometer in 5:22 (net 31 feet uphill).  Finally we made the turn onto College Avenue, which would take us to the finish line.  I took a quick glance to the right as I turned, confirming that there was still a substantial gap between me and the next runner.  For the first time I needed sunglasses as we ran eastward, and as I put them on I told myself, maybe the glasses will make me look faster!  Unfortunately there was more uphill on the overpass at East Lake Drive, just past the East Lake MARTA station, but I was keeping up with the closest runner in front of me.  I thought of the cheetah that I had seen putting on a speed demonstration at the Australia Zoo some 15 years ago.  Channeling my inner cheetah, I forced myself to speed up just a bit, as the finish sign came into view, just under 24 minutes past.  I felt that it would take me more than a minute to reach the finish line, as we could see it from a few blocks away.  Then, I heard the footsteps of someone sprinting up behind me - and he raced past me and the next runner in front of the spectators at Revolution Doughnuts.  Maybe he was the cheetah and I was a mere housecat.  But he was the only one to pass me coming into the finish, at 25:23.  

I checked my watch before stopping it to make sure that it was a legitimate 5K, and seeing 5.00 km at 25:26, was satisfied with the outcome.  

After I finished, I enjoyed walking back down the course a few blocks to cheer on the other runners.
These children must have decided to run the last part of the race,
giving Dad an empty stroller for the uphill push to the end.
My only complaint about this race: see the automobile in the runner's lane?!
I noticed at about 40 minutes in, the Atlanta police at the west end of the route
on College Avenue must have begun letting traffic through.  The slower runners
had to deal with automobiles passing them on the roadway.  What's worse,
the runners were on the right side of the road (should have been our reserved lane)
so they couldn't see the cars coming up behind them. 

My race was a bit slower than I was hoping for, but it was probably a hillier course than the last 5K run three weeks ago, and the weather was 20 degrees warmer.  I may not be setting any more PRs in the next six months, but am hopeful that running in warmer weather will pay dividends when the weather cools again in October and November.  

Bonnie had a strong finish, passing four other runners in the last few hundred yards!

A sign outside of a restaurant in Kirkwood on College Avenue

Smokey cat, now 17 years old.  She had an apparent stroke a
couple of years ago, and was partially paralyzed and even blind for several days.
Remarkably, she began to regain her mobility and sight within a week,
and has made a strong recovery.  She's not quite back to where she was
before the stroke, but well enough to enjoy her life as our pampered kitty.