For the first time, this year I was placed in wave B for the Peachtree Road Race, based on my 23:52 finish in the Atlanta Hawks Fast Break 5K back in April 2016. I had also run a 50:20 10K in April 2017 that would have qualified me for wave B by 1 second, although that was after the registration deadline. But I was hardly in wave B condition for today's Peachtree Road Race. We spent the last week in California, enjoying cool breezes along the ocean, eating far too much good food, and seeing old friends and close relatives. I did run twice while we were in California, 5 miles along the beach in Los Angeles on June 25, and another 5 miles around the Stanford campus on June 30, and we did a few hikes while we were in Big Sur, so we were physically active during our travels. Then I came down with a cold during our last few days in California. We returned to Atlanta on Monday morning (July 3) on the red-eye flight, so that we could get to the expo to pick up our race bibs on Monday afternoon, but that left me with a bad case of intercontinental jet lag, assuming that really exists. We went to bed on Monday night at 9 pm, hoping to get a good night of sleep before a 4 am race day wakeup, but I awoke at 1 am and couldn't get back to sleep.
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| In addition to my own lack of preparedness, the race was run under code RED conditions, due to heat, hills, and humidity. |
On the morning of race day, I even considered not running the race, due to my cold. But with this being "The Peachtree Road Race", the event around which the Atlanta running year revolves, it seemed unthinkable to miss the race. Before leaving home, I fortified myself with enough cold medicine to disqualify the entire Olympic team in a drug test. I also carried a 16 oz bottle of ice-cold Nuun, to ensure that I could stay hydrated throughout the race. Although carrying a hand-held would probably slow me down, I wanted to ensure that I didn't get dehydrated during the race, especially battling a cold.
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| Emory chemistry colleague Simon Blakey saw us as we were walking to the start. He finished in 44 minutes, just outside of the top 1000 finishers! |
It was amazing how much more of the start I could see from the vantage point in wave B, vs. my starting position in previous years in wave C. The organizers had placed a large video screen in the middle of our corral from which I watched the finish of the women's wheelchair race, and the start of the elite women's 10K. The race officially began at 7:30 am with the elite runners, with wave A participants hot on their heels. After the military race began at 7:33 am, it was already time for wave B. I started in the middle of the corral - I probably should have started near the back due to my poor conditioning - but with the start at 7:35 am, I was able to get off to the desired pace. My plan was to run fairly easily for the first three miles, no faster than 8 min / mile pace, and hopefully save some energy to run strongly up Cardiac Hill. I covered both miles 1 and 2 at an 8:20 pace, a little slow for wave B but that was about right for me for today. Shortly after the mile 2 marker, a woman passed me moving fairly quickly, wearing a wave C bib. Considering that I had a 5 minute head start, she was probably running at a 6 minute / mile pace.
I skipped the mile 1 water station but walked through all subsequent water stations, supplementing the Nuun I was sipping during the race. The mile 3 marker appeared after we had begun to climb Cardiac Hill, 8:50 for mile 3, although my Garmin was registering miles about one minute before I actually reached the marker. As I approached the timing mat for the 5K split, I deliberately took another walk break, to gather my strength for a strong push up the rest of Cardiac Hill, crossing the 5K mark at 26:57. But as I tried to push myself up the hill, I realized that wasn't going to happen today. I was carrying the residue of the giant ice cream "banquet" cone in Los Angeles, and the complementary breakfast donuts at Big Sur, along with too many delicious macadamia nut cookies at the symposium at Stanford. I barely noticed when I crested the first hill at the Shepherd Center, wiping sweat from my eyes, as the road briefly leveled out leading up to the mile 4 marker, 10:19 for mile 4, 35:49 elapsed. At this point I was taking 30 second walk breaks every few minutes, and was grateful for the well-stocked water tables, taking a couple of sips and then pouring the rest on the back of my neck, to stay cool. I was running low on Nuun by this stage, and was glad that I had not elected to rely solely on the water stations. Mile 5 was even slower, 10:57 and 46:46 elapsed on the Garmin, but actually around 48 minutes had elapsed when I passed the marker.
At that point I realized that I still might be able to finish in less than 1 hour, but had to run the last 1.22 miles faster than a 10 minute / mile pace. Normally that isn't a problem in a 10K race, but I wasn't sure if I had it in me today. But fortunately I had taken it easily enough to this stage, so I found a little reserve of energy. I began to speed up after passing the high point of the race at 12th Street, and turned the corner onto 10th Street at 54 minutes on my watch. This is about 1 km to the finish, which I can normally easily cover in 6 minutes or less. I was able to find a higher gear in the final stage of the race. A few speedsters (probably from waves D or E) passed me in the last half-mile, but I also passed several people that were struggling at the end. My heart rate monitor had not sounded at all until the last half-mile, which left me wondering if I could have worked harder today, but then I passed a runner who was getting assistance from a medic on the side of the road (fortunately he was sitting up and was conscious as I passed) and was thankful that I wasn't a victim of heat stroke. As I crossed the finish line, I saw 59:30 on my watch (59:23 official time), gave a small fist pump of celebration, and staggered into Piedmont Park. I had run mile 6 in 9:42 and the last 0.36 miles (as recorded) at an 8:28 pace. It took me awhile to recover from the heat, but a couple of bottles of cold water and standing in the shade at the Atlanta Track Club post-race party helped.
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| Bonnie found great amusement in snapping this candid photo (above) as we were returning from the race on MARTA. As did our friend Deb, who took another photo (below): |
I had bib #5156, but finished in 9515th place. If I were to submit today's time as a Peachtree qualifier, that would have put me in wave F. I decided to spin today's disappointing performance as a personal record of sorts, my slowest 10K to date. I had too many factors working against me today, a couple of which were under my control. So I have resolved to work on getting my weight back down and my conditioning back up - once I have fully recovered from this cold.
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