After I had a good run in the Hotlanta Half, I decided to register for the next runningnerds / RunSocial race, the Monday Nighter at the Garage. This race started and finished near a new brewery and pub in the historic West End neighborhood, just southwest of downtown Atlanta. This is the newest event in the Run Social series, but the first one that I've been able to do this year. And while the race route was not posted until the day before the race, I was hopeful that most of the race route would cover the Westside Beltline. I've run on this part of the Beltline only once before, in a 5K race back in 2014. Back then, only about one mile of that section was paved, and we actually began that race on grass. But in the past year, substantial extensions of the Beltline have been completed. The Westside Beltline is now 3 miles long, and connects with other walking/running paths in the West End.
5K and 10K routes were offered. I figured that I wouldn't get to see much of the Westside Beltline if I registered for the 5K, so without much more thought, I registered for the 10K race. Then I realized that an early evening race in mid-June might have challenging conditions, with the only possible respite from heat being an evening thunderstorm. Oh well, I regularly run evening workouts at 10K distances, so I resolved to just take it easy and enjoy seeing the Beltline, without trying to race.
The weekend before this race, I also decided on my training plan for the New York Marathon in November (20 weeks from now!). I've hired Coach Carl Leivers to arrange a training plan. Several friends have had good experiences with Carl, and I've worked with him on a limited basis in the past year joining the Tuesday evening track workouts on the Emory track during the academic year. As I'm still recovering from serious muscle strains suffered earlier this year, Carl already knows my situation and concerns. I really want to have a great experience in the New York Marathon, so this is the time to invest in individualized training. At the start of this race, I had not yet received the workout plan, but figured that a conservative start with a gradual progression in speed with each mile was a reasonable plan. (When I received the workout schedule a few days later, that is exactly what was prescribed in one of the first workouts.)
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| The Dinosaur is the Monday Night Garage mascot! The children ran an entertaining 50 meter dash before the rest of us ran. |
On the morning of race day, I dissolved a tablet of Nuun into a bottle of water, and put the Nuun bottle along with a bottle of pure drinking water in the freezer in the break room near my lab. When I left Emory shortly after 5 pm, both bottles were nearly completely frozen, with just a little liquid evident. I hoped that the ice would partially melt by the time that the race was scheduled to begin, at 6:45 pm. Upon arriving at the Monday Night Garage, between chatting with friends running and volunteering at the race, I worked through a pre-run routine to activate my leg muscles, and even did a little foam rolling on my calves in the parking lot (in the shade between my car and the next). Otherwise I didn't do much of a warm-up, as I wasn't planning to "race." After watching the children's 50 meter dash, the rest of us moved out of the Monday Night Garage parking lot, gathering behind the starting line at the southern end of Joseph Lowery Boulevard. I deliberately held back, even stopping by my car on the way to the start, to take a few sips of cold water,. The bottle of iced Nuun was in my water belt. More people were in front of me than behind me, which ensured that I could manage a conservative start. I was pleasantly surprised by the large number of runners, especially on a weekday evening. When I saw the results after the race, over 700 people completed the 5K and 10K races.
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| Foam rolling in the parking lot, before the race! |
The temperature was 90 degrees at the start. It was extremely humid, having rained earlier in the afternoon. I set my watch to alert me every minute, with the idea that later in the race, I might need the alerts to remind me to surge a bit to maintain the progression in speed. I crossed the starting mat, jogging at an easy pace through the neighborhood streets. The road was only a two-lane street, but probably twice as wide as the Beltline, so it was a good way to spread out the runners over the first mile. I checked my watch after making a left turn onto Oglethorpe Avenue, and was running a few seconds slower than 10 minute/mile pace. Hmm, the intention had been an 11 minute first mile. I tried to relax and slow down, but my comfortable pace had me passing a few people. After a few blocks, we took another left turn onto Lawton Street. Then we moved onto a fairly narrow access way to turn onto the Beltline. My watch alerted the end of the first mile: 9:57. Oops!
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| Panorama of the runners just a few minutes before the race began |
Nonetheless I continued running at an easy pace, not pressing at all. Then there was some commotion about 50 feet ahead of me. The lead runner in the 5K was crossing the mass of runners on his return to the finish line! That was an awkward moment. It probably would have been best if we had all been directed to keep to the left, but the natural tendency is to keep to the right of a path, at least in right-side driving countries. We were running more-or-less six across on the 14-foot-wide walkway, so the organizers would have needed to cone a protected lane for the return, and that would have crowded the outward-bound runners. Anyway, hopefully that can be addressed next year.
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| I wasn't racing, so I enjoyed taking a few photos during the race. This is in the first 1/2 mile through the West End neighborhood streets. |
As we continued running, volunteers called out "Keep to the right," as the second and then more runners approached on their return leg. It was good to see Atlanta Track Club Executive Director Rich Kenah running the race. He was sixth in the 5K and was speeding along, seemingly effortlessly as he passed me. Even though it's been nearly two decades since he represented the USA in the 800 meter race at the Sydney Summer Olympics, he doesn't seem to have lost much speed at the age of 47.
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| I believe this is the tunnel under Ralph David Abernathy Blvd. |
It was good to see fellow Tucker Running Club member Becky Caldwell at the first water station, around 1.5 miles in. Even though I had a water belt, I took water at each station, to ensure that I didn't get dehydrated in the hot weather. And remember, I wasn't racing: this was a progression run workout. The crowd thinned out after the 5K runners turned around, about 1.6 miles into the race. I was now watching my time fairly carefully, and while I wasn't taking walk breaks, I pulled out my phone on a few occasions to take photos along the Beltline. I finished mile 2 in 9:41, a 16 second increase.
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| One of the goals of the Atlanta Beltline project is to rejoin neighborhoods that were separated when the Interstate Highway System was constructed in the mid-20th century. Interstate 20 is ahead of us. |
My plan was to work down to no faster than a 9 minute mile for mile 5, and then see if I could run sub-9 into the finish. I was enjoying the run, but was occasionally passing other runners, even as I momentarily slowed on a few occasions to snap photos. We crossed under Interstate 20, then an overpass at Martin Luther King Drive. As the second water station came into view, my watch alerted the end of mile 3, in 9:23. I slowed to accept a cup of water. The Nuun in my water bottle was not only completely melted, it was no longer cool. To my surprise, we crossed the race route, making a left turn to make a clockwise loop in a park. Coming back, I passed a runner with a bib who was running in the opposite direction. It didn't matter, she would cover the same distance as me, and it seemed that it would have been better if we had all run counterclockwise. On the return trip through the water station, I took another cup of water. I checked my watch at one of the 1-minute alerts, about 3.6 miles in, and realized that I was slowing down, at a 10 min / mile pace. I tried to speed up, aiming to continue the progression in speed. The soleus muscle on the left leg (the injured leg) was developing some soreness, despite my relatively easy pace.
And then, the wheels on this bus came off, all at once.
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| Top: pace vs. heart rate over time. Bottom: pace vs. heart rate over distance. The vertical black line marks the sudden transition from a nice run into the ordeal. The heart rate monitor from the wristband is not completely accurate (see what happened around mile 3), but it's much more comfortable than wearing a chest strap. |
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I checked my pulse, and saw 180 beats per minute, which was much too high! I slowed down and walked for a full minute. That helped a little. I finished mile 4 in 10:11. I was feeling overheated. Why has my Nuun grown so warm, when it was mostly frozen just an hour ago? What a struggle. With my watch signaling 1 minute alerts, I ran slowly for one minute, then walked for a minute. I ran for another minute, looking at the watch for the last 20 seconds waiting for the beeps "allowing" me to walk for a minute. Then I walked for a second minute. Run one more minute, walk a minute. I wasn't taking any photos. People were passing me, many of whom I had brazenly passed 10 - 20 minutes earlier.
I had not realized that we had run downhill for much of the first three miles, until struggling uphill on the return leg. I had to focus to avoid stumbling around too badly. Once, I sensed someone coming behind me, and deliberately moved to the far left to make sure that she could get between me and another runner as she passed, without blocking her path. Finally, my watch signaled mile 5 in 12:34. I tottered through the water station, accepting a cup of water from a man on the right, then another cup of water from Becky standing on the left. I said, "What on earth possessed me to run a 10K in 90 degree temperatures?!" That got a laugh from water station volunteers. Becky replied "You're not the only one!"
After walk/jogging for a few more minutes, I realized why the ice in my Nuun bottle had melted so quickly:
This is the phenomenon underlying the application of salt to icy roads in winter, turning slick ice into a slushy mess, which at least is easier and safer to drive through. The salt disrupts the packing pattern of the water molecules in the solid state. Think of Nuun tablets as a high-quality, edible form of road salt!
I didn't feel any better as we turned off of the Betlline onto Matthews Street, the same diagonal left turn that I saw the lead runner in the 5K cross much earlier in the evening. I lurched through the street as if I had been drinking for hours at the pub, then tried to straighten up. We made a right turn onto Lawton Street for a couple of blocks. There must have been a little shade in this section, as I regained some sense and sensibility. Jogging down a switchback, I saw a guy about 100 yards behind and above me heading into the switchback, holding his arms up for a camera. Somehow he had enough energy to clown around. OK, my only remaining goal was to run well enough so that that dude didn't not pass me. We were back on a long straight spur of the Beltline. In the distance, I saw the MARTA rail line soaring over Lee Street. Not much further now, as I knew the brewery and therefore the finish line were between me and the MARTA tracks. At the 6 mile marker, my watch alert revealed 11:52 for mile 6.
I resolved, no more walk breaks. Now I heard the DJ encouraging us, but he and the finish line were still quite some distance away. The sun was blasting heat from behind, the sidewalk was hot, the last of my Nuun was hot. The sweat running into my eyes obstructed the sharpness of my vision, but I saw the DJ, and the clock on the left side of the finish line. I took a quick glance behind me, no one was close. 1:05:59, now 1:06:00 showing. Run, run, RUN! And I crossed the finish line, quickly shook hands with the DJ, stopped the watch, and lurched off in search for water. Official time: 1:05:20. I managed a 10:58 pace for the last fraction of a mile. But I wasn't racing. So much for the progression run or the sub-9 minute/mile pace finish.
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| Photograph of the Beltline just beyond the finish line, with the MARTA track between downtown Atlanta and the airport in the distance |
It would have been better to circle back on the other side of the finish line to take the photo above, but my legs only had enough steps remaining to carry me to the volunteer handing out bottles of water. It felt so good to pour a little water on the back of my neck. I drank down the rest of the bottle within a couple of minutes, and stood in the shade for a long time, regaining my equilibrium. Other runners (mostly 5K finishers, I think) were happily walking around, enjoying the party in the beer garden. After a few minutes, I did some leg swings, followed by backwards running in a shaded area parallel to the parking lot. This is a post-run drill recommended by Coach Carl, and it really does work, stretching out and lengthening the leg muscles that have shortened during the run. I went to the car, laid out a protective warming sheet from a half marathon run years ago to protect the seat of the car, and changed into dry clothes. That really helped, removing the heaviness of my sweaty clothes, even dry underwear, socks, and an old but dry pair of running shoes. The water bottle in the car no longer contained any ice, but was still relatively cool.
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| Race shirt, front (top) and back (below) |
Slightly refreshed, I went back to the brewery, thinking that I might get a non-alcoholic beer if they had one. A real beer would have knocked me out. The race bib came with two free beer coupons, but the lines were so long that I decided to pass altogether on beer. There was a cooler of water near the bar - no wait for water!! I chatted with a few friends from Tucker Running Club, then decided to call Bonnie, and drove a few miles to join her for a post-race crab-cake burger at a restaurant near her workplace in West Midtown.
In the end, I ran nearly four good miles. Perhaps I should have run the 5K race. From the results, only a couple of men in my age group ran the 5K, and I would have easily earned second place even with the heat. But then I wouldn't have run the new part of the Westside Beltline. This is really a nice place to run in a part of town that I rarely visit, and I look forward to coming back - but when it's not as warm!!
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