Running for the second half of my life: August 26, 2017: Run the ATL 20K Relay

Earlier this year, several members of the Tucker Running Club ran the Mercedes Marathon Relay in Birmingham, Alabama. They had such a great time, and when the opportunity to run the 20K relay here in Atlanta arose, we agreed that I would join three of the Mercedes veterans this August. Brian Minor and Beverly Ford had run their first relay last year, each taking a 10K leg, and their finish line photo has featured in the promotions for this year's race.

Brian and Beverly's finish in August 2016. "There's no 'I' in TEAM"

The race is organized by Run Social Atlanta director Tes Sobomehin Marshall. Run Social has arisen this year from the earlier runningnerds group. Run the ATL has been one of Tes' signature events, possibly even her first, and 2017 is the sixth year of the race. The route has been in the Castleberry Hill neighborhood, between downtown Atlanta and the Spelman College campus. It has varied slightly from year to year due to road construction downtown, especially with the construction of the new Mercedes-Benz stadium. In fact today's race happens to coincide with the opening event at Mercedes-Benz stadium, a preseason home game for the Atlanta Falcons NFL team, last season's National Football Conference champion. We have tickets for the first Atlanta United game at Mercedes-Benz in a couple of weeks.

A few of us discussed the relay during a group run earlier this year, and agreed to form a four-person team for the 20K relay, each person running a 5K lap. After spending less than two minutes consulting Coach Google about the recommended order of runners in relay races, I set up our team with Myriam Fentanes going first, me second, Beverly third, and Brian running the anchor leg. The order seemed to make sense based on our recent finishing times, especially in the Decatur-DeKalb 4 miler last month.

We arrived in plenty of time to warm up and check out the relay transfer zone. I didn't know exactly what to expect, being the only one in the group who had not run a relay, but the timing chip had a clip which we could pin to our clothes, and hand off to the next person. As we warmed up for the race, I was a little nervous about my performance. I do get anxious about many things, but normally I'm not anxious about my recreation.

There is no "I" in TEAM.

But, there is an "I" in TIME!

And "I" certainly didn't want to let down the TEAM,

with a slower-than-usual TIME!

Fortunately I was feeling good this morning. I arrived hoping to run my leg in less than 25 minutes. In the past few days, the temperatures have dropped just a few degrees, but it was pleasant and partly cloudy as we gathered for the start.

A few seconds before the start...

And they're off!

The race began with the Mercedes-Benz stadium in the background. There were 130 relay teams in this morning's race, as well as quite a few individuals running the entire 20K (four loops) and 10K (two loops, USATF certified). The race began precisely at sunrise, 7:07 am. Teammate Myriam had lined up about 25 feet behind the starting line (chip start), and as she passed me standing on the sidewalk, about 50 feet beyond the starting line, I could see her already working her way past a few other runners. So she was off to a great start!

Myriam is on the far left of the photo, wearing the yellow singlet.

I had planned to move back-and-forth between the southwest and northeast parts of the route, but the first two streets that I tried were closed. I decided just to focus on warming up near the relay transfer zone, as I certainly didn't want to miss my turn! The first relay runner reached the transfer zone about 18 minutes into the race - and with the starting line located about 200 meters before the transfer zone, the first leg measured at about 3.22 miles. I was hoping to see Teammate Myriam between 24 and 25 minutes, and she didn't disappoint, appearing at the top of the hill at 24 minutes elapsed.

This man led the first leg of the relay.

I stepped into the crowded area next to the relay transfer zone. Volunteers were trying to keep spectators and other runners from crowding the transfer zone. I lost sight of Myriam for a few seconds, then peered forward to see her flying down the road toward the transfer zone entrance. I started my watch, knowing that it probably wouldn't record much elapsed time until I began moving. Then I stepped into the zone with perfect timing, if I may say so myself. Teammate Myriam handed me the timing chip as I began running, and I barked out "Great job" as I took off at an adrenaline-fueled pace. Teammates Brian and Beverly were standing at the first street corner cheering me on, as I found a secure place to clip on the timing chip. In the first half-mile, I was running at top speed, passing a few of the 20K runners. I began to realize that was probably a mistake, as most of them were undoubtably pacing themselves to an "easy" 24 minute lap, whereas that would be my "personal record" pace. I took a quick look at my watch and saw that I was running just under a 7 minute / mile pace. I knew that I couldn't sustain that for three miles, and decided that I had better dial my speed back a bit.

Hmm, it looks like my body had dialed back my speed well before
1/2 mile into the race, when my brain kicked in.
Water station at 2.2 miles allowed a short but badly needed walk break.

As I made the turn toward the Spelman College campus, I heard the familiar voice of #1 cheerleader Cristal Stoutzenberger, who was serving as a bike marshall on an ElliptiGo bike. I gave her a thumbs-up but kept running vigorously. As I heard the 1-mile alert (7:13 elapsed) I also heard encouragement from Jennifer Butz, which whom I have occasionally run on Thursday evenings at Big Peach Decatur. Closing the loop, we ran for about a quarter-mile in the opposite direction, facing quite a few runners on their second lap - and behind me! After the split, my mouth began to feel a little parched. I had begun the race well-hydrated, but heavy breathing for the past 10 minutes was taking its toll. I was just hoping that there would be a water station somewhere ahead, as had been advertised. Then I saw Teammates Brian and Beverly; they had found the route across to the other side of the race route. I tried to speed up just a bit - I didn't want to let down the TEAM as I passed them - and Brian yelled "Go Frank! THERE'S NO ONE BEHIND YOU!" I'm sure that Brian meant to be 110% encouraging, but what I understood was "EVERYONE IS AHEAD OF YOU! DON'T LET DOWN THE TEAM!" With that, I began focusing on the runner ahead of me, a woman with a knotted ponytail. I visualized an image shared by Olympian Jeff Galloway (not my idea!): I threw a giant rubber band ahead of me, pulling myself closer to the nearest runner in front of me. Unfortunately, my imaginary rubber band had too much slack to pull me any closer. I badly wanted to glance behind me to see if I could spot anyone at all, but I knew that would unnecessarily slow me down, so I just kept facing ahead, thinking "Don't let down the TEAM, don't let down the TEAM!"

I reached the 2-mile mark shortly before reaching the Russell Federal Building (7:52, 15:05 elapsed). Wow, the only other time that I had run two miles that quickly, I had set my 5K personal record (April 2016), in a race run largely in the same part of town. Finally there was the water stop, just past Martin Luther King Drive. I took a cup of water and a short walk break, perhaps 15 seconds. It was a welcome break for my heart - and I knew that the last mile would be slightly uphill, as we crossed a couple of overpasses. At the water stop, another runner caught up to me, and I resumed running, just a few feet behind him. The intersections were well protected by Atlanta police, but a driver turned in front of us into a parking lot, making both of us slow down slightly. I shouted "Hey!" but with no extra breath available, I got back up to speed, my newest competitor running a little faster than me for the next few blocks.

Up ahead I could see Marietta Street, where we would make a left turn. I stayed to the right of the lane, so that I could make the turn without slowing down, and in fact managed to close a little distance on the man in front of me. One short block later, another identical left turn maneuver onto Centennial Olympic Park Drive put me not only closer to the man but also not far behind the woman with the knotted pony tail. But now we were heading to an overpass crossing the MARTA tracks, as we passed the CNN Center and Philips Arena. At this point, my pace had slowed to about 8:15 min / mile since the 2-mile alert, and I was losing some ground on the other two runners. But as I reached the top of the overpass, the Mercedes-Benz stadium ahead of me, I knew that I didn't have much further to go, and was determined to finish strongly, hoping to record another sub-8 minute mile, for the TEAM! I could see the man ahead passing the woman with the knotted ponytail. Although I didn't regain the ground that I had lost a moment earlier, I didn't fall any further behind the woman.

Passing the Mercedes-Benz stadium, I saw lots of color in front of me, with hundreds of runners wearing brightly colored team uniforms, and could hear lots of cheering. That inspired me to push a little harder. The relay transfer zone was coming up soon, so I unclipped the timing chip and held it in my left hand, as I ran as fast as I could manage. A volunteer reminded us that the transfer zone was on the left side of the lane. The woman with the knotted ponytail was ahead and on the right side of the lane - so she was running the 20K individual race. Anyway, the cheering was deafening as I neared the transfer point, and then there was Teammate Beverly ready to go! I firmly pushed the timing chip into her hand as she took off. Finally, I could slow down, only to realize that I was in the way of a runner just behind me who was also accelerating to begin his third leg! Thankfully he managed to avoid crashing into me, as I staggered into the crowd and turned off my watch. 3.06 miles in 23:36! And probably I was a few seconds faster than that, with the early watch start and then not stopping the watch until several seconds after the handoff! With an average pace of 7:43 min / mile, having run the third mile in 7:58, I didn't let down the TEAM!

Fortunately it didn't take too long to regain my breath. By the time I joined Bonnie and Myriam on the other side of the road, where Bonnie was photographing the relay transfers, I was recovering fairly well. Teammate Myriam and I compared paces: she had run her leg at a 7:40 min / mile pace, so I was very happy that I had almost kept up with the fast pace that she had established. Once my heart rate had slowed down, I could say, "Wow, that was fun!" After downing a couple of bottles of water and a banana, I headed back toward the Mercedes-Benz stadium to wait for Beverly to finish. But first, the woman with the knotted ponytail passed, finishing 15K in about 72 minutes. Then Teammate Beverly approached, running well in the final mile into the relay transfer zone, handing the timing chip to her fiancé Teammate Brian, for the anchor leg.

Beverly near the end of her loop. As she passed, I cheered "Go Beverly!"
The man in red shouted "What about me?" I replied "She's on my TEAM!!"

While waiting for Teammate Brian to finish, I was able to cheer on Tucker Running Club member (and recent Boston Marathon finisher) Liz Mann past the 15K mark, as she headed into her final loop of the 20K individual race.

Here's Liz completing the third of four loops

The woman with the knotted ponytail then passed, and reached the finish line at about 97 minutes overall. Impressive, she ran a sub 8 minute / mile pace for that long.

Around 100 minutes into the race, I spotted Teammate Brian coming over the top of the overpass. I tried to take a couple of photos, then decided that I would rather try to run in with him to the finish, and put my phone away. Brian saw me, saw the finish line, and he rapidly accelerated. Mind you, he had just run 3 miles, whereas I had at least 50 minutes to recover. I found high gear, but still couldn't quite keep up with him. But all four of us on the TEAM crossed the finish line in quick succession behind Brian.

Team Tucker Running Club finish! Frank, Brian, Beverly, Myriam,
and a volunteer's left hand directing us to the table to pick up our medals!

Teammate Brian had pushed himself so hard that it took him a few minutes to cool down, in fact I was a little worried for a moment, until his breathing began to get back to normal. A few minutes later, Liz crossed the finish line!

Liz doesn't look tired even though she just finished
20 kilometers, crossing the finish line about one minute ago!

This is a race that I will definitely run again, although probably only as part of a relay team. I think that I could get bored running four laps of the same route if I tried the 20K individual race. And it will probably be difficult for me to force myself to go much slower in the first lap of a 20K, if I dwell on how much faster I had run the same street in a 5K race.