In the past year, three friends in our circle have been diagnosed with cancer. This comes as a shock to us all: each person is a few years younger than me, has lived a healthy lifestyle, but just got unlucky in the lottery of cells that began multiplying without restraint. One of our friends has pancreatic cancer, the other two diagnosed breast cancer. While we're hopeful that they are all getting the best treatment, it is a sobering reminder of our mortality. For this reason I decided about a week ago to register for this year's Susan B. Komen Race for the Cure.
My mother-in-law Homoon is a breast cancer survivor, diagnosed 12 years ago, several years before I had met Bonnie. It was a major battle but fortunately she has now been in remission for more than 10 years, cancer-free. She is active and thriving today!
At a family dinner for Father's Day last weekend, my father-in-law Hwajin suggested that our family motto should be "Strong Together!" We also all agreed to join the Komen Race together, sharing the 1-mile walk at 7:30 am, and then those who wanted to would join the 5K race ay 8:00 am. I set up the "Strong Together" team and within 24 hours, all six of the Youn clan in Atlanta had registered!
On the day of the race, we awoke to intermittent drizzle and occasional heavier rain. Unfortunately this was the remnants of a tropical storm that had made landfall near my hometown on the Texas / Louisiana border a few days earlier. Nonetheless we all made our way to Lenox Mall where the event was centered. Fortunately the rain began to abate as we gathered about an hour ahead of time. There was a survivor's breakfast ahead of time that Homoon and Hwajin joined. Homoon received many hugs from other survivors, inspired to see a sister who was thriving many years after her own struggle with breast cancer.
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| Team "Strong Together!" Bonnie and me, Ploy and Brutus, Homoon and Hwajin. The pink bib designates "Survivors and Thrivers." The person who took the photo had gone through breast cancer treatment last year, and was inspired to hear that Homoon was 12 years beyond her diagnosis. |
We joined the one-mile walk with several thousand other participants, walking down what is normally one of the busiest streets in Atlanta. During the walk, we talked about Mom's journey through the cancer experience, and then about the walking that they will do during an upcoming journey to Provence that Bonnie and her parents are planning later this year to celebrate a round-numbered birthday (unfortunately I won't be able to take 2 weeks in the middle of the semester). We ended up falling behind most of the others, and cut the walk about 1 block short to head back to Lenox Mall before the 5K race. I jogged the last few blocks to get in a warmup run, to see a much larger group gathered for the start of the race. I managed to get into a reasonable position that I thought would be reasonable for my pace.
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| Our family "Strong Together", early in the 1-mile walk |
After a beautiful rendition of the National Anthem, the MC asked us to call out the name(s) of those close to us that had battled breast cancer. A chorus of names filled the air, quite a sobering moment. One runner in front of me wore a bib memorializing her cousin, who had died from breast cancer in her 20's. Then it was time for the run to begin!
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| Shortly before the start of the 5K race |
This race began a block in front of the start of the Peachtree Road Race, which will be in just 10 days from now. I had resolved to run the first mile at no faster than 8 minutes, and settled into what seemed like a reasonable pace. What I did not realize until after I looked at the Garmin data is that I ran much of the first half-mile at a 7:30 pace, after getting a slow start at the beginning. Seeing how I slowed down as we went uphill, I probably should have taken it even easier in the beginning. One of the local radio stations had a booth at the corner of Peachtree and Piedmont Roads, about 1/2 mile into the race. Shortly before reaching the busy intersection with East Paces Ferry Road, we reached the mile 1 marker, and my watch signaled exactly 8:00 for the first mile. For a moment, I found myself drafting behind a taller runner, but his gait was a bit unpredictable (gangly?) and I didn't get too close. My attention was quickly diverted by the sight of a large truck at the intersection with Pharr Road, trying to make a turn onto Peachtree Road in our direction! I then realized that we did not have the far lane of the northbound direction. Fortunately I was in the far left lane (right lane northbound), trying to run the shortest possible route.
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| The Garmin data is off by one mile, so the number 2 actually marks mile 1, #3 marks mile 2, and #4 marks mile 3. |
The second mile on Pharr Road took us past the Atlanta Fish Market restaurant, one of my favorite restaurants in my early years in metro Atlanta. Pharr Road has some rolling elevation, but net downhill, so I tried to pick up a little speed. At the water station, the volunteers were passing out not only cups of water but full bottles. My mouth had felt dry for the entire race, so I decided to take the full bottle. Shortly after the water stop, we reached the mile 2 marker, 7:54. That was pretty close to what I had hoped to run.
Turning onto Piedmont Road, we were climbing uphill for most of that distance, about 1/2 mile. I was beginning to tire at this point, but then put that thought aside: this isn't difficult, chemotherapy is difficult. I'm grateful that I can run, that I can do this without any real cares or concerns. But I could see the time ticking away on my watch, running just under a 9 min / mile pace. Once I reached the 20 minute mark, I knew that I wasn't going to challenge a PR today, so I decided to take a 30 second walk break shortly before we reached the intersection of Piedmont and Peachtree. That gave my heart rate a chance to drop a bit, as I wanted to have enough energy to finish strongly.
I got back up to reasonable speed before we reached the radio station booth was encouraging us, I knew now that it was just a bit more than 1/2 mile to the finish, and that the route would be slightly downhill the rest of the way. I tried to increase my speed a bit, trying to get my average pace for the third mile closer to 8 minutes. Oh, the vanity of the Garmin watch! I had only managed to get the average pace down to 8:28 when the mile 3 alert sounded, 24:22 elapsed.
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| There were some glitches in the data where we passed tall buildings near the beginning and end. But I was amazed to see just how fast I managed to speed up at the end, after running for 3 miles. |
I did manage to kick into high gear after passing the mile 3 marker, some distance after the alert had sounded. I was determined to make a strong finish, as there was a big cheering squad at the final corner and several dozen spectators encouraging the finishers. I was amazed afterwards to see that much of the final 100 meters was run sub 5 min / mile pace, I didn't know my legs could move that quickly! I crossed the finish line at about 25:30. That was a better time by about 40 seconds over the 2015 race, yet it's my slowest 5K of the season. It's possible that the course was a little long: I didn't feel that I weaved very much along the race route, but my watch measured 3.20 miles.
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| Official time |
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