I've heard of the Vinings Downhill 5K for a few years, but have never run it until now, preferring to run a free Atlanta Track Club race typically held on the same day. However, this year the races were on successive weekend, so a couple of weeks ago I decided to sign up.
The race is sponsored by the Rotary Club of Vinings, which is a small suburban town with the large Cumberland Mall, just across the Chattahoochee River from one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the city of Atlanta. We don't visit Vinings very often, although the town has some nice restaurants. Notably, we bought the cupcakes for our 2010 wedding in a cupcake shop in downtown Vinings. More recently, Bonnie worked for a short time at an office in Vinings, just downhill from the start of today's race, until the firm moved to a renovated space just west of midtown Atlanta.
The Rotary Club of Vinings supports an amazing number of organizations and projects, with the Vinings Downhill 5K as their main annual fund-raising event. While it's nice to support such an organization, I'll be frankly honest that it was the downhill course and the prospect of a gravity-assisted personal record that drew me, and perhaps many of the other participants. In the words of the organizers:
"This fast 5K course begins at the top of Mt. Wilkinson in Vinings, winds around the Cumberland Mall area, and ends at the Lovett School (280-foot net drop). The first mile is downhill, but in the second mile before Cumberland Mall there is an uphill. It is a fast course, but not all downhill."
Duly warned, I paid my registration fee, and carefully studied the race route and elevation map the night before the race, to pick out various points to gauge my time. I found a number of "checkpoints" at turns where I could compare my progress based on a 24 minute projected finishing time. That was an ambitious goal (my 5K PR is 23:52 from April 2016) but I felt that this was the course to try for a new PR.
We arrived around 6:45 am, in plenty of time to park, and just a few minutes before traffic began to build in the area. There were a few members of the Tucker Running Club, as well as Daniel a.k.a. Kurokitty, who writes a fantastic blog "The Running Cat" documenting a daily running streak more than 10 years at this point. I had plenty of time to run through dynamic stretches and a short warm up, probably no more than a mile, but my legs felt good and so I was ready at the start.
As usual for most 5K races, the start was crowded, but fortunately I seemed to have started in the "right" place, based on the speed of the majority of the other runners around me. The first half-mile was a relatively steep downhill, 150 foot drop, although I never felt that it was so steep that I couldn't run well or safely. At one point a runner bumped into me from behind before going around - I wasn't going that slowly myself - but no harm, no foul. Fortunately it was crowded only for the first 1/4 mile or so, then I was running at my own pace.
We had been warned of a steep uphill before the end of the first mile, and while it was a challenge, I was prepared and made my way fairly strongly, taking care to run a rapid cadence with shorter steps, so I passed a fairly large number of people in this zone. I had hoped to make the right turn onto Cumberland Boulevard by 5:45, but it was 6:15 elapsed when I made the turn. Oh well, I was running my best and was hoping that I had not measured carefully enough from the race map that had been posted on mapmyrun.com. 7:43 recorded for mile 1.
Making a left turn onto Akers Mill Road at 9:15 elapsed, I was closer to the projected time of 9:00, and was encouraged to push hard as this road was fairly short. But in one block, at the right turn onto Cobb Parkway at 11:00 elapsed (projection 10:30), and I was pretty sure that my projections were just not going to be that helpful. Fortunately I knew that a long, gentle downhill was coming up ahead, beginning around 1.75 miles. There was a water station at the top of that hill, where I took a short walk break, and then got back up to speed, enjoying the downhill section of the race. My heart rate monitor had sounded a couple of times on uphill sections, but was now blissfully silent, staying just under 170 bpm. I had not checked my time as I passed the mile 2 marker, but when I thought to check a moment later at 16 minutes elapsed, I realized that was doing OK (actually 7:53 for mile 2).
The road began to flatten out as we reached the flat bridge across the Chattahoochee River, crossing from Cobb County into Fulton County and from Vinings to City of Atlanta. My goal was the Chattahoochee River bridge at 20 minutes, and I had made it at 20:02 when I checked! But, was my projection at the start of the bridge, or at the middle? It took nearly a full minute to cross the bridge, so I estimated that I was probably still off the 24 minute pace by about 30 seconds. And the downhill part of the race was now over. I was going to have to gut it out to the finish line.
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| A new contender for worst race photo ever. The expression on my face looks like I must have passed an open sewer, although I don't recall any bad odors approaching the finish line. |
Here I told myself, "I've run two marathons, this is only a 5K! I can dig deep and finish strongly." I pushed myself to the last turn onto Northgate Drive. Checking my watch, seeing 22:20, I had estimated last night that I would be two minutes from the finish line. I kept running as fast as my legs would move, occasionally passing another runner, but mostly keeping up with the others. As we approached the grounds of the Lovett School, I was looking for the mile 3 marker, surely it must be ahead, no? did I miss it? Then a curve in the road led to where I thought that finish line would be, and there was the mile 3 marker! 0.11 miles to go? I had not looked at my watch (7:53 for mile 3, 23:29 elapsed) but knew that there wouldn't be a PR today. Nonetheless I kept running as fast as I could, even over a few little uphills - oh, those were big speed bumps - and finally the finish line came into sight. It seemed a long way away! Then I thought I heard footsteps behind me and to my right, and heard someone cheering for a runner just behind me. I accelerated a bit, and thought I heard a groan from the runner behind me. Ha! Then I started hearing the footsteps again, but determined that I wasn't going to be passed. I found one last burst of speed - and was rewarded with another groan from behind! Don't slow down, I told myself, drive through the finish line with every last bit of energy, the race clock had not yet changed from 24 to 25 minutes - and FINISHED!
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| I've cleared the last hill and have seen the Promised Land, a k a the Finish Line. |
I checked my watch and was pleased to see 24:31 (official time 24:26) and 3.14 miles elapsed, so the course length was accurate, considering that I had done a decent job running the tangents, i.e. covering the shortest possible race route. But, that run was hard. Really hard. I walked for a full block to cool down, then realized that I hadn't actually stopped my watch until over 26 minutes had elapsed. No problem, I would be able to figure out my time from when I slowed down. In fact the race organizers had posted all of the official results by the time that I checked in the evening.
No PR for me today, but when I checked results on Athlinks, it was my 4th fastest 5K time (disregarding a couple of races that were clearly less than 3.11 miles), and possibly my best time in a race run at a temperature above 70 deg F. I'm not sure how much the downhill sections really helped, as I didn't feel that I was able to move my legs any faster, but they probably helped keep my heart rate down for much of the race, so that I had enough energy to push in the last quarter mile.
After a breakfast / early lunch at the Oy! Cafe on Cumberland Parkway, we headed home to clean up and get dressed for the memorial service for Janet Pickney. It was an emotional experience, given the tragic circumstances of her death, but I appreciated that the minister acknowledged the difficulty of mourning such an unexpected tragedy, and provided some practical advice for grieving and supporting each other. I was glad that the church was filled, probably 200 people present, including a good showing from the Tucker Running Club. Hopefully the large number of attendees was of some comfort for her husband and the large number of family members and close friends that were also there. It was wonderful to hear anecdotes of Janet's life from several members of her family and friends, some of whom had known her for 60 years, and I learned many more dimensions of Janet that I had missed by just seeing her on Sunday morning runs. In addition to showing a photo of Janet with her dog at the table where we signed the condolences book, and sharing a couple of photo albums with family and her foster and adoptive children, her husband / family also displayed a pair of her running shoes, along with a 1st place age group medal that she had won a few months ago.
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