January 7, 2018: Extra Yard 5K

The Mercedes-Benz stadium in downtown Atlanta replaces the Georgia Dome, which was destroyed by implosion only 25 years after opening in 1992.  Although I think that it's regrettable that the Georgia Dome has not lasted for a lifetime, the replacement stadium is quite remarkable, from its architectural exterior to fan-friendly sight lines inside the stadium.   

Mercedes-Benz stadium just before sunrise.
For an amusing video of the Georgia Dome implosion, click here.

In addition to serving as the home stadium for the Atlanta Falcons (NFL) and Atlanta United (MLS) teams, Super Bowl LIII will be played at Mercedes-Benz stadium in February 2019.  And tomorrow, the stadium will host the College Football National Championship.  By coincidence, the contestants will be two semi-local teams: the University of Georgia vs. the University of Alabama.  To commemorate the championship game, the Atlanta Track Club has organized a 5K race, starting and finishing near the stadium.  

After Monday's incredibly cold New Year's Resolution Run, I had "resolved" not to subject myself to another frigid race so quickly.  Moreover, I was scheduled for a 16 mile run yesterday in marathon training, and was concerned about running a race within 24 hours of completing a long run.  But after watching Georgia defeat Oklahoma in a thrilling overtime game on New Year's evening, and the possibility of winning a pair of tickets to the game in a lottery, we started talking about what we might have done to stay warmer - and we decided to register for the race. 

Yesterday's 16-mile long run went well, keeping up with the front part of the 10 min / mile pace group.  Despite thoroughly stretching after the run, and periodic therapy at home with the foam roller, my legs were pretty sore when I went to bed last night.  To my surprise, I felt pretty good when I woke this morning.  

Many of the runners today were wearing Georgia Bulldogs gear, with a smaller number wearing Alabama Crimson Tide.  Since I'm neither a Georgia nor an Alabama fan, I decided to proudly represent Emory University football in today's race.  (As I had hoped, this got quite a few laughs throughout the morning.)

As a Georgia resident, if not an alumnus, I will cheer for the
Georgia Bulldogs in tomorrow night's championship game.
A student perspective on "Emory football"
The history of athletics at Emory

After a thorough round of dynamic stretches inside the heated Georgia World Convention Center lobby, I headed outside for a couple of warmup miles, running the first mile and the last kilometer of the race route.   I was amazed that my legs felt really good, I didn't feel like I had run 16 miles yesterday.  Nonetheless I resolved to hold back a little in the first mile of the race, to avoid getting an overuse injury.  I made it back to the starting area as runners were gathering in waves, just in time for the National Anthem.  Once again I started with wave B, but this time took a position a few rows behind the starting mat.  That proved to be a good decision, as I got off to a comfortable pace, not too fast, but not held back by slower runners.  Making a couple of turns around the south side of the station, we started onto Northside Drive, running past the former site of the Georgia Dome.  

The first mile was mostly downhill, so I found myself speeding up a bit, while still running easily and smoothly.  I had originally aimed to cover the first mile around 7:45 min / mile pace and then evaluate whether I could speed up.  But it didn't make sense not to take advantage of the favorable elevation, knowing that we would run uphill on the return to the start - finish area.  I passed the 1-mile marker at 7:21.  As the route wasn't too crowded, I was careful to run the tangents along the gentle curves of Northside Drive, heading to a right turn onto North Avenue.  Passing through an underpass, I was concerned that there might be some ice on the roadway, but I never felt that I was slipping at all and decided that it was probably road salt or sand that I was noticing.  Emerging from the underpass, the campus of Georgia Tech was on the left, the Coca-Cola headquarters on the right.  At the two-mile marker just ahead of the 15 minute point, 7:33 minutes for mile 2.  Wow, I was a few seconds ahead of my personal record-setting pace from Monday!  

Upon making another right turn onto Luckie Street, heading south, I maintained pace for a moment, but as the road started to progress gently but unmistakably uphill, I began to feel the lactate buildup in my legs.  Fortunately I was on familiar ground, as this was mile 13 in the Hotlanta Half Marathon.  I reached the top of the hill at Ivan Allen Boulevard at 19 minutes flat, 2.5 miles elapsed.  Could I cover the last kilometer in 4-1/2 minutes?  I sped up for a moment on a level stretch of roadway, but turning onto Baker Street, I was slowed by another uphill.  And with a left turn onto Marietta Street, I knew from experience in the Georgia Marathon (and half-marathons) that it was another gentle uphill.  I was able to maintain a decent pace, and shortly after turning onto Andrew Young International Boulevard, I passed the mile 3 marker, 22:55 elapsed and 7:57 for mile 3.  I realized that I wouldn't set a new personal record today, but I was on track for another sub-24 minute finish.  That gave me the impetus to tap one last bit of additional speed, crossing the finish line at 23:51 elapsed. 

With the elevations, this seems like a consistent effort from start to finish. 

This was my second best 5K time, just 21 seconds off of my recent personal record!  For starting out with a "conservative" race plan, I did much better than I had expected.  I was a little winded after crossing the finish line but I felt that I was in decent shape, and by the time I had walked 100 yards to accept the race medal and a bottle of water, my heart rate was recovering nicely.  

Although neither Bonnie nor I nor anyone else we knew won the Championship Game ticket lottery, I had enough optimism to listen carefully when the announcer called out names of the male 55 - 59 awardees, hearing "Frank McDonald, third place" and I said to Bonnie and other friends "Wow, I won something!"  People in front of me graciously stepped aside as I headed through the crowd to accept the award: a commemorative miniature green football helmet!

My age group award! 

This is my first ever placement in an Atlanta Track Club race!  I would have been 7th in the male 50 - 54 age group, so I'm definitely enjoying one advantage of getting older! 

Age group result (above)
Overall result, 137th out of over 1500 finishers (below)

P.S.  Last night a friend forwarded a photo, taken by an ESPN film crew, as I passed them shortly after the start.

January 1, 2018: Resolution Run 5K

After my good friend Brian Minor rewarded me with a free breakfast upon setting a personal record in the Atlanta 10-miler in October, we have been looking for an event to compete in a head-to-head, mano-a-mano race, with a friendly wager that the loser buys brunch.  A few weeks ago, we set the Resolution Run 5K as our big race day.  As Brian's speed has improved much more than mine over the past two years, I didn't really expect to win the race unless Brian was having a bad day, but I was hoping that the competition would drive me to a new personal record.  My goal was to break my April 2016 5K PR of 23:52. 

This photo is from October 2017, before the Atlanta 10-miler.
It was so cold this morning that I don't have any photos from the race,
but will add later if the Atlanta Track Club photographer
has managed to capture some good photos. 

With the challenge thrown down, I've taken advantage of the winter break and the beginning of a marathon training cycle to step up my training.  I ran every other day in the week after the Galloway Half Marathon (20 miles total), and last week ran 5 out of 7 days, including a successful speed workout on the track on Wednesday, and a 15 mile long run on Saturday at sub-10 min/mile pace (35 miles total).  On Thursday evening, I ran the route for today's race, to get a sense of the hills on the race route.  There would be three challenges: in mile 1, an uphill section from Piedmont Park into the Atlanta Botanical Gardens, early in mile 2, an uphill section from the north end of Piedmont Park past the Orpheus Brewery, and later in mile 2, a particularly steep if short hill heading up to the Sage Parking Deck, which continued more gently uphill past the tennis courts, with slight downhill for mile 3.  These sections would be mitigated by equal downhill sections, but I found myself intimidated by those hills after the survey run.  

But with attention to my mental preparation in the intervening days, I turned trepidation into a positive mindset brimming with confidence.  Although the weather was predicted to be quite cold, any chance of rain or snow on the preceding day evaporated, so the course would be dry and without icy spots.  I decided to try four layers on top: I ran two warmup miles comfortably enough, and decided to try a third warmup mile without the hoodie, and felt fine especially once my body was literally warmed up by the gentle exertion.  There were a few snow flurries, subliming from minimal humidity in the 19 deg F air.  I aimed to run the race at a 7:30 min / mile pace, which would get me to my "stretch" goal of a 23:20 finish, 30 seconds faster than my personal record.  Brian and I might have reasonably started in the back of wave A, but by starting on the front line of wave B, we would be certain to cross the line together and likely have a clear field ahead of us at the beginning.  

Brian and I walked to the front of wave B, trying to stay in motion due to the cold.  My fingers were freezing despite the gloves and handwarmers, and I could hardly speak due to frozen lips, but blowing on my hands helped to stave off frostbite on both fingers and lips.  I bounced on my toes, doing butt kicks to keep my legs limber, but also burning nervous energy.  Brian was to my left, the MC counted down the seconds to the start.  Pre-race fistbumps, "Mano-a-mano!"  As the airhorn sounded, my brain sent the signal to

RUN!!!!!

And run I did!  Five of us were leading the pack, including Brian and I, except for a little boy that ran past me, bumping his head on my right elbow (sorry!), but that didn't slow him down.  The first minute was a blur as we ran past the south side of Lake Clara Meer and made the sharp turn onto the paved road above the Active Oval.  We were running uphill but I was running fast.  Brian fell behind me but I kept pushing.  That was a surprise, I thought that I would be following Brian, and had hoped to keep him in sight.  I stole a look at my watch and saw 6:40 min / mile pace, which I couldn't maintain much longer.  The little boy was quickly out of sight.  I began to pass slower runners from wave A, as two or three faster runners in wave B passed me.  That spurred me to keep pushing forward.  As we left the Active Oval, Sheelagh O'Malley was cheering us as we started the steady climb to the Botanical Gardens.  I had run that hill several times in marathon training in fall 2016.  It didn't seem to slow me down too much, but by the top of the hill my pace was now in the low 7 min / mile range, closer to the pace in my race plan.  As soon as I crested the hill, I sped up again.  Now I began to pay attention to running the tangents.  There were other runners around but it wasn't too crowded so I could set my sights on the curve ahead and aim straight for it, trying to run the shortest possible route.  I needed every single edge to have a chance to win against Brian, and to set a personal record.  

Atlanta Track Club members photo.
Most of the participants didn't leave the heating lamps for the photo.
I'm near the back, middle left, hands in the air. 

We turned right onto Piedmont Road onto a nice downhill that I had flown down in the Galloway Half Marathon.  I didn't feel like I sped up that much today.  Brian told me after the race that he caught up to me on this downhill section, although he didn't try to pass me.  I passed the mile 1 marker at 7:20 elapsed, a little faster than optimal, but I didn't feel tired.  With the cold temperature, I knew that I had no chance of overheating, so I continued to push myself as hard as I could.  Returning to Piedmont Park for a few seconds (so it felt), we hit the second uphill section, up a steep rise into the Orpheus Brewery parking area.  I made it up the steepest section without slowing down too much, but then the elevation continued uphill through the parking area, and I definitely slowed down.  I wanted to look around to see if Brian was going to pass me, but I remembered an admonition from my mother when I was a little boy: "Don't look back when you run, because it will slow you down!"  Thanks Mom, I didn't look back!  For most of the second and third miles, I was surging back and forth with a runner who was wearing Vibram five-finger footwear, who had also started the race on the front line.  A water station was on the right shortly before we turned onto Monroe Drive.  Hardly anyone slowed down for water, I wasn't thirsty, so I didn't slow down either.  No walk break needed today!  As the road leveled out, I felt strong again, and was able to speed up.  I had slowed to a mid-8 min / mile pace, so I needed to hustle if I was going to set a PR. 

My pace (blue area) vs. elevation (green trace)

It was amazing how fast landmarks passed by when I was running quickly.  It was all a blur, hopefully not because my vision was impaired by any lack of blood to the brain!   Then the last steep hill heading up to the pedestrian entrance to the Sage Parking Deck loomed ahead.  This hill had concerned me the most in my survey run, but as I started uphill, I remembered some advice I had read from Jeff Galloway: take short steps with a rapid cadence heading uphill.  That worked!  At least no one passed me, and I didn't need to walk at all.  Running past the entrance to the parking deck, we turned right heading past the tennis courts, still heading uphill.  I saw the 2-mile marker ahead as the race clock clicked ahead past 17 minutes.  With the 2 minute delay for wave B, I was running behind pace, seeing about 17:20 on the clock, 15:20 elapsed for me.  8:00 min for mile 2.  At least the worst of the hills were now behind me.  We headed down into the bowl of the Active Oval, running the soft surface of the 100-year-old track.  I remembered running many miles on the Active Oval in marathon training speed work in fall 2016, and ran strongly as if I was in the first repetition of a workout.  We ran about halfway around the Active Oval.  Above to my right, I could see participants in the later waves.  I looked for Bonnie, who was wearing a bright yellow hoodie, but didn't see her.  As we stepped off of the Active Oval, I finally stole a glance over my left shoulder, looking for Brian.  I didn't see him!  Was he so far back that I was a minute or more ahead of him, or was he directly behind me?  I didn't dare take another look, just kept running as fast as I could.  Indeed I thought I could occasionally hear him breathing behind me and to my right.  After the race, Brian admitted that when he saw me look over my left shoulder, he moved to my right to stay out of view!  

About half of the Tucker Running Club members running today's races.
It was so cold that we couldn't wait for any late-comers,
many of whom were staying warm in their cars or under heating lamps.
I was down to two layers for this photo,
and decided to put the red Atlanta Track Club shirt  back on for the race. 

Now we were on the north side of Lake Clara Meer.  I was paying attention to the tangents again, with a series of gentle curves in the road.  I heard the MC announcing the fastest finishers.  From the survey run as well as this morning's warmup, I knew that I had about 1/2 mile to the finish, and that it would be fairly level for the rest of the race route.  I sped up hoping to gun into the finish.  Fortunately I didn't look at my watch: when I looked at the Garmin data this afternoon, I was at the 20 minute mark at that stage, and might have panicked thinking that I was on pace for a 24-something minute finish, not 23-something.  Finally I checked my watch as we turned the corner near the Park Avenue bridge: 0.3 miles to go, 21:30 on my watch.  A woman cheered for me by name, but I was running so fast that I didn't recognize her - sorry!  Could I get to the finish line in 2 minutes?  I sped up a little more.  As I approached the mile 3 marker, I could see the finish line banner in the distance.  I was almost blocked out by a couple of slower runners, and stepped into the mulch along the left side of the course for a dozen steps to get past them.   I didn't dare check my watch, I just ran as fast as I could.  And then, a runner in a green jacket passed me on my right.  Oh no, it's Brian!  Speed up, speed up, SPEED UP! but Brian's kick was more than I could match.  Nonetheless I was motivated to finish strongly, as I knew that I was on a personal record pace.  I passed the MC encouraging runners to finish, I didn't spare the energy to reach for a high-five.  Sunny Youn, Bonnie's sister, had run the 1-mile race earlier in the morning, and she was cheering me as I flew past.  No one else passed me, I was following Brian into the finish.  On the race clock, I saw 25 minutes, which meant that I was going to finish in 23 minutes and ... and ... 23:30 !!

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!!!

4 second win for Brian! 

I congratulated Brian, and also thanked him because I set a new personal record today!  My fingers were frozen and hardly functional, with all the blood going to essential organs over the past 23 minutes.  Fortunately they warmed up over the next few hours, so I escaped frostbite for today.  

Reflecting on my progress since my first race in October 2013, I've trimmed more than 5 minutes from my 5K time.  This is a great way to start 2018! 

This may be my first Atlanta Track Club event in which I've finished in the top 10%!

Brian and I had a back-to-back finish, both gun time and chip time. 

P.S. We enjoyed lunch at Einstein's on Juniper - happy to treat, celebrating Brian's win and my new personal record!