Although I've lived in suburban Tucker for 8 years and have run with the Tucker Running Club for at least 3 years, I've never run the Tucker Road Race. This is held in May in conjunction with Tucker Day, celebrating the people and identity of our small town. (I actually don't live in the city of Tucker but have a Tucker mailing address, for whatever that's worth.) I was amazed to learn when I picked up the bib and shirt that the race is in its 61st edition, meaning that it's been run since the 1950's, possibly making it the oldest running race in metro Atlanta. Anyway it will be interesting to learn more about the history of this race, if any readers wish to share that information in the comments.
Physical therapy continues to go well, however I've discovered that I can't just do a few stretches and go off on a run without suffering. So to prepare for the race, in addition to doing the full range of physical therapy exercises before going to bed last night, I also woke early enough to repeat them this morning before leaving the house. That worked well: when I arrived at Tucker High School around 7:30 am, an hour before the race, I jogged a bit in the parking lot. Everything felt good, as if there had never been an injury!
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| Tucker Running Club en masse! We had three age group winners from this group! (Spoiler alert: not me!) |
After the traditional Tucker Running Club photo, I was approached by one of the organizers, looking for an adult to pace the 1-mile fun run, that was to begin at 8 am. I felt like I could hardly decline on account of concern about an injury, but did emphasize that I might not be able to keep up with the fastest children. The organizer wasn't worried about that, was simply relieved to have me agreeing to it! So at 8 am, a group of children stepped up to the starting line, and with the announcer counting down, took off, following a police motorcycle to guide the route! Five children were ahead of me, so it wasn't exactly like I was the pacer in a professional race. I took a quick look at my watch after a moment and we were running a 7:45 min / mile pace. But the children began to slow down before we had left the parking lot, and by the time we were in the neighborhood, I was running with two children, a boy about 30 feet in front while I ran alongside a girl, just encouraging both children as best I could. Eventually they both slowed to walking and I nearly caught up to the boy in front, but when he saw me coming, he took off at a quick dash, then would walk again, then dash ahead of me. Finally I think I convinced him that I wasn't racing him, just pacing and encouraging, but I had to get ahead of him and then turn around and say "You're in the lead! You're doing great!" and he resumed running. The turnaround point was clearly marked and a police car was blocking the end of the street, so I dashed ahead to the pylon and then encouraged each child as they approached the pylon and made the turn, "You're halfway done! Now head back to the school!" I waited at the pylon until it appeared that the last child had passed. It turns out that the last two children were brothers with their father accompanying them. So I walked-ran with them the rest of the way back. At the top of the hill, I told the next-to-last boy to start looking for the finish line and then try to sprint to the finish, and he did, followed by the last child with his father. I peeled off before reaching the finish line, applauding the childrens' efforts.
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| The Tucker High School band formed an "honor guard" as we began. See the tall man in the yellow shirt? He won the race. What was I thinking starting this close to him? |
Then it was nearly time for the 5K to begin. By the way, my legs still felt fine, so I hadn't lost anything in the unexpected warmup with the children. Following a group round of dynamic stretches, a couple dozen members of the Tucker High School band lined up on other side of the start, first with drums, and then with the other instruments joining in. I warned the runners around me to watch out for the trombones, as we were on the edge of the group - I didn't want to bend a student's slide if s/he was playing a low note as we started! The announcer counted down from 10, and then we crossed the line (no chip timing). I kept up with a large group through the parking lot, not trying to be competitive, just running with the group, onto Chamblee-Tucker Road. When I checked my watch, about 1/2 mile in, I was surprised to see 7:35 min / mile pace. I dialed back my effort a bit, and a stream of other runners began to pass me. Around 8/10 of a mile into the race, we turned into the residential neighborhood on Smithsonia Drive.
I rarely drive through this area unless forced to do so by road construction. I've generally avoided running in here, because of the hills! We headed downhill as the first mile alert sounded at 7:50, surprise! and without much pain in the quadriceps, YAY!!. I resolved to stay under an 8 min / mile pace. But then we headed uphill and that resolution was soundly crushed. I did run all the way up the hill, and didn't fall behind the group of people in front of me. Did I say that I wasn't going to be competitive?! HAH, I just passed the guy that was walking. But after climbing uphill, I was relieved to see a water station at the end of the street, where it turns left to become Goodfellows Road. I pulled over to the far right, adding at least 50 feet to my route! But I was grateful to slake my thirst, as the morning was warm. Getting back to some speed, the short run on Goodfellows Road and the right turn onto Spring Glen were fairly level. Then we turned onto Old Norcross Road. I drive on Old Norcross Road almost every day, but never ever run on it because it's narrow and there are absolutely no sidewalks. (I hope that City of Tucker can do something about that!) I also knew that we were running gently uphill, because I have coasted in my hybrid vehicle on 100% electric going in the other direction. I once recorded 80 mpg for the short trip home from Kroger (intersection of Lawrenceville Highway and Lavista Road), proud to do my part to save the planet!
I almost forgot, I'm writing about a race. Several other runners passed me on Old Norcross Road. Yes, it was uphill. My watch showed a 9 min / mile pace, so I sped up as much as I could, reaching the 2 mile alert at 16:43 elapsed, knocking down my time for mile 2 below 9 min / mile, 8:53 according to the almighty Garmin. This revealed some of the lost conditioning from the 5-week running hiatus after the marathon. Or maybe it was the 10 extra pounds that I was hauling uphilll. Note to self: time for Weight Watchers again. We turned onto Pine Lake Road, a short-cut regularly recommended by Google Maps. But instead of my usual drive toward Lavista Road, we headed to the right and downhill onto Park Drive. Now I was limping just a bit, but tried to relax and let gravity carry me along without straining my quadriceps. I was now officially tired, and was very happy to see another water station as I headed downhill. It was on the left side of the road, which seemed like the wrong side. Were those slower runners coming the other way? No, turns out that they were just walking in the neighborhood, and we weren't on any of the earlier streets.
Passing Cofer Lake - or is it a large pond? Now uphill, uphill, uphill. The race director had mentioned only one big hill on Smithsonia. I guess his memory was fuzzy from climbing that first hill, but I (and everyone else I spoke with afterwards) remembered several big hills in today's race. There was now a big gap ahead of me, and I didn't hear any footsteps close behind me. Uphill, uphill, uphill, toward a police car partially blocking the runners' lane. I nearly ran straight past the police car, just happened to take a look down the street to the left, and saw other runners far away in the distance. I asked the policewoman as I pointed "Left?" That caught her attention "Oh - yes!" Wow, I very nearly missed the turn and ran straight to Chamblee-Tucker Road. That could have added a quarter-mile if I had run straight.
Now I was on Ball Park Road, passing the marker where the 1-mile fun run had turned around. 1/2-mile to go. I didn't remember walking uphill on the way back with the children, but it was definitely uphil on this trip. Up Hill. And to think that I was encouraging those children to run faster on that same street 45 minutes earlier. I guess I deserved to suffer on that hill. I needed 9:30 for mile 3. Yet just 18 minutes earlier, I was considering the possibility of a 25 minute 5K. Oh well, looking on the bright side, my current problem was from diminished conditioning, and not the more serious problem of severe discomfort in the legs. Ball Park Road made a right turn, still going UPHILL! As I turned left and UPHILL into the parking lot, I stole a quick look back across my left shoulder to see if anyone was close behind me. Was that someone 100 feet back? I didn't look carefully enough, but thinking of Mary Keitany passed in the last 0.2 mile of the London Marathon last month, I tried to speed up a little bit. Yes, I know, I'm only half as fast as Mary Keitany when she is having a rough day. I had challenged those poor kids to sprint to the finish from that point, so I was obligated to push myself, to be genuine. This was the only stage of the race where I felt something more than minimal discomfort in the quadriceps, but the Garmin data confirms that I did speed up a little bit in the last 100 feet or so. I passed a volunteer who called out my race number, "92!" and then the race announcer called my name "Frank McDonald!" and I gave small thumbs-up with both hands, seeing a few dozen of the faster runners watching the finish. As I crossed the finish line, I accepted a bottle of water from a small boy, and promptly dropped it onto the pavement. LOL, I didn't stop the watch until I had recovered the water bottle, but my time was 28:36.
Although that was a slow run for me based on the past couple of years, today's run was similar to my first 5K time (28:22 official). Back then, in 2013, I was about the same weight as now, but uninjured. So as long as I can heal completely this summer, I should be able to regain conditioning. Although I wished that I had run the first mile more slowly, say 9 minute mile, and then had been more consistent for the rest of the race, I was pleased that I didn't have to take a long walk break due to discomfort. I'm certain that this morning's physical therapy exercises helped to prepare me for a relatively pain-free run. I must adjust my pre-run routine to allow for plenty of warmup time until my injury is completely healed. Or maybe this will just be the new normal as I continue running beyond age 55.
