February 10, 2018: Hearts & Soles 5K, followed by a long training run

Week 13 of the marathon training log,
documenting an 18-week program

My running since the New Year has been 100% focused on preparing for the Publix Georgia Marathon on March 18.  I'm training with the Atlanta Track Club marathon program, and also continuing the speed workouts with Coach Carl Leivers at the Emory University track on Tuesday evenings.  I've kept up with the Level 3 long runs, keeping at the front of the pack with the 10 min / mile pace group.  I've maintained a steady schedule of midweek runs, getting off track for only one week in mid-January due to a confluence of work, visitors, and snow.  In short, this cycle of marathon training is going very well.  I'm healthy, strong, and growing in confidence. 

For today, the plan was to join the Atlanta Track Club's annual Hearts & Soles 5K race, followed by a long run to get a total of 20 miles, at least as I understood it.  Coach Amy Begley strongly encouraged us not to run the 5K as a typical race, but to run at about half-marathon pace, which for me is about a 9 min / mile pace.  I needed a few days to give up on any idea of trying to run faster - or even slower, to practice a marathon start at a 10 min / mile pace.  But as we were watching the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympics last night, I said to Bonnie, "Coach Amy is an Olympian, who am I to contradict her recommendation?!" 

I arrived at the race site more than an hour in advance.  It had rained overnight, and the forecast earlier in the week had been for rain for most of today.  But with an hour to go before the race start, the short-range forecast was that rain was unlikely to begin before 1 pm.  And the temperature was around 50 deg F, so I was able to run in a short-sleeved shirt and shorts.  After taking a group photo with the Tucker Running Club, I made my way to the Atlanta Track Club marathon training tent, and did a couple of rounds of dynamic stretches until it was time to walk to the start.  I had resisted the strong temptation to warm up with 2 or 3 easy miles as I would typically do for a 5K race.  I did an easy jog for a couple of hundred years to the car to get a couple of sips of water before the race, to make sure that the running motion was comfortable, and then to the starting area.  Since I was not racing today, I started near the front of wave C, for runners at a 9:30 min / mile pace or faster.  I started to feel some excitement as our wave moved up after wave A began, and had to tamp that down: this is just a training run, I kept telling myself.  

With Tucker Running Club, on a foggy morning.
photo credit: Curt Walker

Ray Ganga, the crew chief of the Atlanta Track Club race volunteers, counted down to the start, and blew the airhorn.  As I started my watch and crossed the timing mat, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision to avoid looking at my watch, except as I passed mile markers.  I tried to gauge my pace by feel and by the majority of the runners around me, aiming to run without significant exertion.  As we reached the mile 1 marker, I checked my watch for the first time: 9:03 - Wow, I couldn't have run that better if I had been staring at my watch the entire time!  I suppressed the urge to speed up, just enjoyed looking around, chatting with people that I knew as I reached them.  As this was an out-and-back course, I could cheer the leaders of the race on their return.  After making the turnaround myself, continuing at the easy pace, I reached the mile 2 marker: 9:02!  I was beginning to sweat a bit, but that was partially due to the humidity and fog from the overnight rain.  I remember checking my heart rate, which was 151 bpm, maybe a little high for an "easy" run, but still a rate that I could maintain for a long time.  I passed quite a few runners as we headed up a hill midway through the third mile, not racing, just maintaining pace, and then here was the mile 3 marker: 8:54!!  It had been a long time since I been so excited to be at the 3 mile marker well after the 25 minute mark, but I was thrilled to have nailed my goal.  In my first 5K in October 2013, I had run as fast as I could for 3.11 miles to finish in 28:45, and now I can run that pace fairly easily.  Smiling as I crossed the finish line at an easy jog, here was my official result:

Mission accomplished! 

I picked up a half banana and a bottle of water, dropped my race bib and picked up my water belt and a cap, and jogged over to the marathon training tent.  The 9 min / mile group was about to leave, and I thought about joining them for a moment.  Last week, one of the runners with the 10 min / mile group suggested that I "should run with the 'nines'".  I knew that would be fine for half-marathon training, but not for 26.2 miles, not yet.  Fortunately it didn't take more than a couple of minutes to gather about 10 runners and a couple of run leaders for the 10 min / mile group to start, so we didn't get stiff.  And off we went, to run another 17 miles for a 20 mile day. 

I had not previously realized that the PATH foundation had recently opened a new trail in the area, but the South River Trail began at the end of the parking lot where we had gathered for the race.  And the section of the trail that we were running was recently named in honor of the former First Lady, Michelle Obama.  One of the nice things about marathon training is discovering new parts of the city, and new places to run.  And in recent years, the Atlanta metro area has continued to develop new pedestrian-friendly paths.  The path began through a swamp, then into a forested area, reaching the South River before crossing under I-285.  After about 3 miles, the trail joined the sidewalk along Clifton Church Road, as we passed the new campus of the Barack H. Obama Elementary Magnet School of Technology, which opened last year.  

One of the other groups in our training group posted this photo on the Facebook page.
I wish I had thought to take a few photos of our group!
photo credit: Victoria Nicole Deycard

At the intersection, our group split up.  I was part of a group of a half-dozen trainees.  Andrew and I had each run three marathons, and the others: Alex, Angela, Colleen, and Ginger, were each training for their first.  I've run with most of them in previous weeks, and we had plenty of time for nice conversation along the way, especially since we didn't have to worry about cars for most of the route.   In Gresham Park, we reached the turnaround point about 4.3 miles in, and began our return.  The path had a few hilly sections, but it was a gentler route in terms of elevation than most of the routes that we have run in previous weeks.  After having run the first part at about a 10:30 min / mile pace, we sped up a little to average about 10:00 min / mile for the return trip.  

Running along the Michelle Obama - South River trail

When we returned to the training tent, just past 8.5 miles, we filled up our water bottles, a few people used the Porta-Potties from the race, and then we took off again.  Coach Amy mentioned that we would go a little further on this leg.  At that moment I realized that this run would be longer than 17 miles total.  And now that I think about it, the people in the Porta-Potties may have missed that little bit of information.  Anyway we started out again, running the same route as before.  I had eight shot block cubes left,  which I had been taking an average of one per mile, so I would need to stretch that our just a little.  When we got to the turnaround point from the first leg, I mentioned to Colleen that we were going to cover more than 17 miles.  It appeared like we were going to run 20 miles in addition to the 5K race that we had completed!  Good thing I didn't run a few warmup miles, otherwise I would have covered 26.2 in total.  I was a little concerned that some of the others in our group were making a jump in mileage from 18 miles last week to 23 miles.  I myself had run 20 miles two weeks ago, so I was less concerned about my own legs.  Five of us continued forward, which proved to be another mile or so.  In this section, we climbed a fairly steep hill!  We reached the trailhead and a water stop, waited for a couple of minutes to see if anyone else was coming to join us, and then headed back. 

My legs were starting to get a little sore, but I was managing well enough.  We were talking about pain in marathon running, and if we could tell the difference between just hurting vs. developing an injury.  In the 2017 Chickamauga marathon, I had been in quite a bit of pain for the final 10K, yet within 10 minutes of finishing, I was fine, just a little tired, and was "kicking myself" afterwards for having such a bad attitude just 45 minutes earlier.  Around this point, we felt the first drops of rain, which turned into a drizzle, and then fairly hard rain for a few minutes.  

In each long runs of this cycle, I've tried to speed up in the final mile.  I was more motivated today to get back as soon as I could, to get out of wet clothes.  I had applied plenty of Body Glide this morning, so I wasn't chafing.  Before my watch had signaled completing the 17th mile, I decided to speed up a bit, and there was no chance of anyone getting lost at this point.  As my speed increased, the mild pain of the long run morphed into a more familiar feeling of exertion.  I was thrilled to cover mile 18 in 8:49!  I thought that I was maintaining the same speed in mile 19, but noticed that I slowed a little near the end of the mile, around 9:10.  I tried to speed up to see if I could drive the pace reading below 9:00 before recording mile 19, but needed 9:07.  I wasn't able to speed up any more, but managed to maintain the 9:07 pace for the last 1/3 mile until I reached the training tent, 19.36 miles in 3:17:19.  It was pretty clear to me that I would not have been able to run at the 9 min / mile pace for much further, but I was able to manage the 2.5 mile "kick."  I felt a little badly for leaving the others behind, but three in our front group arrived within the next minute, and the others shortly afterwards. 

This was a great running day for me, especially in terms of lessons learned: 

1. I can complete a 20-mile run at a 10 min / mile pace without much trouble; 
2. I should not attempt to run the marathon at a 9 min / mile pace (so I won't try to break the 4 hour mark); and
3. Confirmed that I may be able to speed up a little in a couple of final celebratory miles. 

Total mileage recorded for today: 22.48 miles, recorded time 3:45:15.  If I can reach the 22 mile mark within 3:40 on marathon day, I will be thrilled, so a 4:20 marathon finish may be a realistic goal.  I have one more 20+ mile training run scheduled in two weeks, for a final test. 

Coach Amy snapped our training group photo a few minutes before we started the 5K race.