January 19, 2019: The Southside Dream 5K

We went to Tallahassee this weekend for a family wedding.  Coach Carl had me down for 8 - 10 miles on Saturday morning and 4 miles on Sunday, but noted "Get in what you can in FL".  It was a nice morning, around 60 deg F.  I had scouted out a rails-to-trails project about a mile south of our hotel, the Capital Cascades Trail beginning in Cascades Park, and was not disappointed!  In fact Cascades Park is probably a giant flood control feature, which I hope served Tallahassee well during a major hurricane last summer.  As I set out on the trail, near the campus of Florida A&M University, I saw a crowd gathering at an underpass and then spotted a sports timer!  I asked someone standing near the clock if there was a race today, and when it was beginning. For the Martin Luther King weekend, the Rotary Club of Tallahassee Southside organized the inaugural Southside Dream 5K, due to begin at 8:15 am, about 45 minutes from then.  The organizer assured me that I wouldn't be in the way as I continued my run, but after heading out another mile or so, the trail narrowed to a sidewalk.  I decided to return to the starting area.  I figured, if they accept last-minute registration and if it's not more expensive than the $30 in emergency cash on hand, I could certainly run a 5K as part of my 8 - 10 miles. 

Sure enough, registration was simply and inexpensively managed, only $22 to register for the race without buying a race shirt.  I proudly pinned a bib to my Atlanta Track Club shirt, then headed out for another mile or so to stay warmed up.  By the time the race was to begin, I had finished 4.6 miles, and felt good and strong.  There were water fountains along the trail and in the park, but I hadn't eaten anything other than a few pieces of fruit at the hotel over an hour ago.  

It appeared that there were only about 50 people running the race.  I wasn't sure where to line up but found a spot about 20 people back.  We began the race with little fanfare, simply a man saying "Get set ... Go!"  I carefully started at an easy pace.  One man took off at high speed, and about 10 more runners started faster than me.  I settled into what I felt was an easy pace, around 7:45 min / mile.  The trail was straight at this point so I could see everyone in front of me.  About 1/4 mile in, I passed a group of three: a man taking photos of two women as they ran together.  Then I realized that I was in "gulp" fifth place!  Surely that wouldn't last ... but before long I zipped past another runner to move into fourth.  I gradually caught up to a man who seemed to be running at my pace, and decided that perhaps we could run together.  I started up a conversation, "This is a really nice trail ... I'm visiting from out of town and came across this race!"  Unfortunately he was already breathing pretty heavily and wasn't able to say much in response.  I decided to move in front, into third place.  I just hoped that I wouldn't regret this later on!

About 50 feet in front of me was a woman wearing a purple shirt, and far ahead of her was the speedster in a white shirt.  I wondered if I could catch up to the woman, but felt that might be difficult if not impossible, and I wasn't trying to prove anything today.  I reached the water station before the 1-mile mark to a fairly large cheer group.  I took a cup of water and continued running without a break.  Shortly past the water station, we reached a roundabout after which I remembered that the trai narrowed to a sidewalk.  To my surprise, the woman in front of me made a left turn traversing the roundabout, and then I realized that the policeman was subtly waving me in that direction as well.  Good thing I was paying attention!  I might have missed the turn if I hadn't seen the woman in front of me.  Happily, the 12' wide path continued beyond the roundabout!  

Around about 1-1/2 miles in, I could see up ahead where two boys were standing with purple shirt.  The lead runner turned around and raced back toward the start.  He was really young!  I said "Great job" as he sped past.  Then the woman in the purple shirt made the turn, I congratulated her, and then I made the turn, giving the boys "high fives".  Indeed I really was in third place, and the fourth place runner was possibly a full minute behind me! 

Unfortunately I began to feel tired at this point.  The awareness that I had run 6 miles without fuel began to sink in.  It probably would have been fine if I had continued the medium-long run at a 10 min / mile pace, but running faster had taken more out of me.  I began to slow down, struggling to maintain an 8 min / mile pace.  After the race was over, I saw that the route had been gradually downhill on the way out, with about a 30 foot elevation increase on the way back, but I couldn't really see it while I was running. 

As we made a turn at the roundabout just past the 2-mile mark, I dared to look behind me: I could see the fourth place runner in the white shirt but pretty far behind me.  Nonetheless I felt that he could catch me if I bonked.  The woman in front had opened a pretty big lead so there was no longer any thought of trying to catch her, I just wanted to avoid the embarrassment of being passed after having built a strong lead.  About 20 minutes in, I noticed at a roundabout, I lost sight of the woman in front of me for a moment - so when I got there, I thought about taking a short walk break while I could "hide" from the runners behind me - but decided that would be embarrassing if anyone did see me, so just kept on running! 

At 22 minutes, I saw 2.75 miles on my watch, and determined that I can do anything for just three more minutes.  I managed to speed up a little, as the overpass where we had begun the race came into view.  It still seemed far away.  I took another quick look over my shoulder but didn't see anyone behind me.  I wanted to finish strongly, but my legs wouldn't go faster than an 8 min / mile, but it wasn't going to matter.  As the clock came into view, I saw that I would finish around 25:50 as I entered the short finishing chute, smiling for the finish line photo.  There wasn't a timing mat but two women sitting at a desk must have recorded my bib number and finish time. 

First, second, and third place finishers

I tried not to let my disappointment show at finishing slower than 25 minutes - after all, I had finished third!  I congratulated the second place finisher, Ivory, who told me that she was surprised to see me so closely behind her at the turnaround.  I admitted that she opened up a pretty big lead on the way back.  The fourth place runner came in, then more runners trickled in over the next 30 minutes or so.  I gratefully accepted a banana for calorie replacement, followed by some grapes and a couple of large cups of water.  There were plenty of shirts available so I paid the extra $5 as a souvenir of the race.  

No one had recorded my age so there weren't age group awards, but the first place male and female runners received awards, with the promise of trophies to come!  The overall finisher, a high school senior named Malachi, finished in just over 20 minutes.  I congratulated him before the awards ceremony, and learned that his personal best was under 18 minutes, amazing!  He probably would have broken 20 minutes if he had had any competition running at his pace.  

The awards ceremony

With a 1.3 mile return to the hotel, I ran 9 miles for the morning, so mission accomplished for today's workout, even if I ran 3.1 miles of it faster than intended.  I'm glad that I ran a 5K on the spur-of-the-moment.  My only regret is that I hadn't brought some ShotBlocks on the trip, or found some other way to get some quick calories right before the race, otherwise I might have felt stronger in the last mile. 

January 12, 2019: Southside 12K

In February 2018, the Atlanta Track Club offered the Southside 12K race as a new course as part of the Grand Prix series, free for members.  At the time I was training for my fourth marathon, with the Atlanta Track Club training group.  Our coach had instructed us to run the race at "half-marathon pace".  But I wanted to challenge myself at a new distance, and see if I could run the 12K course at my personal best pace for a 10K.  

I succeeded with my ambitious time goal, finishing in less than 60 minutes, but also pulled a hamstring muscle in my left leg.  I tried to insist that it wasn't anything major, and tried to carefully manage it through the last month of training.  But on marathon day one month later, it really flared up after 12 miles.  

I had a miserable experience limping through the rest of the route in order to avoid a DNF.  And that resulted in a CNR (could not run) for the next five weeks.  I needed seven months of physical therapy to recover, just in time to run the New York City Marathon in November.  

With the new year, my legs are healthy again.  I struggled through a 5K on New Year's Day, in part because I was at least 10 pounds over my goal weight, but that got me back into tracking what I'm eating.  I haven't lost much weight yet but I know that the best way is to do so gradually, and at least I'm eating much more healthily, and notice the difference in how I feel.  I've also cut way back on caffeine - just one cup in the morning at home and none at all during the day at work.  As a result I'm sleeping much better and don't feel tired during the day, which was what was sending me to the coffee machine in the front office.  

I was a bit nervous about today's race.  For one thing, I set a personal best in the 12K distance that I may never beat!  And with an extremely hilly course, I knew that I could injure myself again if I ran with poor form.  However, I'm training again with Coach Carl Leivers, hoping to improve on my half marathon performance in the Publix Atlanta half in mid-March, and aiming for a 1:55 finish, which translates to about an 8:45 min / mile average pace.  He advised me to run the race at goal half-marathon pace, which would get me to the finish line around 65 minutes.  Carl knows that I'm working on improving my pace discipline.  To quote: "The one thing that I would caution is let's try to have you hit that pace without any crazy sprinting / pushing the last mile.  Aside from the injury last year (and sprinting downhill is certainly a major issue for hamstrings!), it also doesn't really fall in line with a true measure of goal pace."  With that advice in mind, I was determined to follow his instructions perfectly.  

I arrived for the race about 1 hour early, wearing a cap and two layers, showing off the New York City Marathon shirt for my top layer.  It was windy and moderately cold, 43 deg F at the start, but at least it wasn't raining.  I decided to start near the front of wave C, for runners at a pace between 8:30 and 9:30 min / mile.  As we started, that was a very good decision.  I didn't try to keep up with the half-dozen who sprinted ahead.  We were running downhill at the beginning but I tried to rein myself in.  I checked my watch after about a quarter-mile, and was running about an 8:15 min / mile pace, so I relaxed my pace a bit more.  

I won't go through the mile-by-mile summary this time, but after the 1.2 miles, we ran a two-loop route with each loop approximately 5K.  I managed to run every mile between 8:24 and 9:04, and with fairly good correlation with net elevation gain or loss for each mile.  I decided to run straight through instead of run-walk, other than walking through the water stations on each loop.  This was the first time in months that I had run more than 5 miles or so without using intervals, but at the average 8:45 min / mile pace, my pulse rate and breathing was under control.  It wasn't an easy jog, I was definitely working, and I could feel the lactate burn in my legs as we climbed hill after hill, but the route always crested before I felt that I had to substantially slow down or take a walk break.  

Near the end of the first loop, I began hearing sirens and police horns in the background, then rapidly growing nearer.  Was that the winner coming into the finish?  Shortly before reaching the timing mat, I could see the police car lights about 100 yards back.  Atlanta Track Club personnel were eagerly looking for the winner.  As I passed the timing mat, they began unrolling the finish line ribbon.  Then I heard the announcement of the first finisher, in an amazing time of 42:15!  With a four-minute delay for wave C, I barely avoided being lapped!  When I checked the official result after the race, I finished the first loop in 37:49, at an average pace of 8:42 min / mile (about 4.3 miles elapsed).  

The second loop went smoothly as well.  I wondered if I was slowing just a little, but resolved to maintain a consistent effort and not worry about "making up the time" by pushing harder.  As the mile 5 and 6 markers ticked by, I put the mindset as if I had 13.1 miles to run today, and that helped me settle down with the pace.  Coming into the finish, I was aware that I was very close to the goal pace!  The clock read 69 minutes as I approached, my watch ticked past 65 minutes, but I felt that I had just executed the workout perfectly!  I continued running for another half-mile or so, to gradually cool down and finish 9 miles for the day.  

When I checked my official chip time, I was delighted to see 1:05:05, 8:44 min / mile overall pace!  And I did it without making any "adjustments" to my pace in the last mile! 

When I returned home, I wrote Coach Carl.  He responded quickly, and was also really pleased with the result.  Of course we were both very happy that I finished unscathed.  Carl asked how the hills compared with what I would face at the Publix half.  My feeling was that the organizers had squeezed all of the hills of the Publix half marathon into 7.45 miles, but the scientist in me demanded that I check the data.  It turns out, today's race had an even tougher elevation profile!  

Southside 12K: 827 ft net gain, 828 ft net loss

Publix GA 13.1 miles: 599 ft net gain, 608 ft net loss

To compare with the marathons that I've run outside of Atlanta:

Chickamauga 26.2 miles: 641 ft net gain, 635 net loss

New York City 26.2 miles: 821 ft net gain, 841 net loss

January 1, 2019: Resolution Run, 1 mile and 5K races

For 2019, my running goals are to improve at all of the distances shorter than the marathon, and then return to the marathon in spring 2020 in better shape and hopefully mentally stronger.  I'm training with Coach Carl for the Publix Atlanta Half-Marathon in mid-March, aiming to set a new personal best.  This morning's Resolution Run would be the first checkpoint run, to see what I'm capable of running.  Last year I set my 5K personal best at 23:30, in 20 degree temperatures.  Today it was 40 degrees warmer! 

I wasn't expecting to break this record today for a couple of reasons, including: 

• I've gained 5 pounds since the marathon; and
• Bonnie and I just returned from a wonderfully relaxing 5-day cruise, where I acquired an additional pound-per-day, thanks to:
• too many delicious chocolate croissants at breakfasts
• a few loaves of delicious bread with lunches and dinners
• several afternoon ice creams
• free vanilla ice cream on deck 11
• Ben & Jerry's Cherry Garcia in a waffle cone on deck 5
• it would have been worse if I hadn't run three times on the cruise:
• 5 miles speedwork on day 2 on deck 12
• 4 miles on the treadmill on day 3 in the fitness center on deck 11, as it was far too windy to run safely on the top deck 12
• 3 miles on day 5 on deck 12
• totaling 12 miles running
• and at least as many miles walking and taking the stairs whenever possible. 

Independence of the Seas, docked in Cozumel.
Notice the Atlanta Track Club caps,
and I'm wearing the Peachtree Road Race shirt from 2015.

My first New Year's resolution is to strictly track everything that I eat, so that I can shed the excess weight.  As I recently ran a low 25-minute 5K in early December, taking it relatively easy given that I was running a half-marathon that I really cared about the next day, I felt that I could break 25 minutes.  

Tucker Running Club at 9:30 am

But before the 5K at 10:30 am, there was the 1-mile race at 10:00 am.  In past years, I haven't run the 1-mile race, but at the Atlanta Track Club end-of-year breakfast, I heard that we could double up for the same registration fee.  After jogging the 1-mile course to get a sense of where the quarter-mile, half-mile, and three-quarter mile marks would be, I warmed up with a second mile of strides, meaning that I would alternate 60 - 90 second jogs with 30 second "strides" accelerating to faster than my 1-mile pace.  I made it to the starting area, making sure that I was in front of the children and not directly behind the man with the stroller. 

The 1-Mile race route

The race began at 10:00 sharp.  In contrast with other 1-mile races that I've run, I started fairly cautiously, gradually accelerating to what I felt was about a 7 min / mile pace.  For the most part, the first half-mile was a gentle but steady uphill along the eastern side of the Active Oval, which afterwards I saw was a net 50 foot gain.  At the north end of the Active Oval, the road leveled about: this was about 3 minutes in.  I began to speed up as we ran downhill, moving ahead of several other runners.  I checked my watch and saw that my pace was around 7:04, and decided to try to stick with that pace.  For the last third of the race, the route was relatively level, along the north side of Lake Clara Meer.  But with about 0.2 mile to go, I suddenly felt very tired.  I coasted for about 100 meters, then pushed again as the mile 3 sign came into view.  Only 0.11 mile to go!  Nonetheless I couldn't find a higher gear.  I heard my watch signal 1 mile completed about 15 seconds before I reached the finish line, seeing 7:25 on the clock, and according to my watch, finished in 7:21.  

Pace vs. elevation for the 1-mile race

I was a little disappointed with my time.  But overall, I was happy with my pace discipline.  Only after the race did I realize that some of the runners wore two bibs: one for the 1 mile race just completed, and a second bib for the 5K to come.  Ooof, I should have realized that I would need a second bib!  Nonetheless, since I didn't set any kind of record, I didn't really care about that.  But I discovered when the results were posted, I would have likely finished second in my age group if I had worn the 1-mile bib.  Something to remember for the next time! 

Bonnie captured my finish in the 1-mile race

Actually my bigger mistake on the day was ... running the 1 mile race before running the 5K.  I was so tired when I finished, yet I needed to recover for the 5K, to start within 25 minutes!  After eating half a banana and drinking most of a bottle of water while I walked to the starting area for the 5K, I still didn't feel 100% ready.  A few rounds of leg swings helped with leg soreness, but my heart rate was still above 100 beats per minute.  As I waited for wave B to begin, I thought through my plan: run the first mile at 8:00 flat, then try to maintain that pace for the second mile (two big hills), and see what I could do with the third mile (net downhill) and the finish.  

The bullhorn sounded, and wave B took off!  I crossed the starting mat 8 seconds after the official wave start.  I thought that I started conservatively (although the Garmin pace chart shows otherwise) but seemed to settle into an 8 min / mile pace.  The first third of mile 1 followed exactly the same course as the 1-mile race, then we headed uphill to the Botanical Gardens.  This is normally a good hill training venue, gaining about 30 feet of elevation.  I shortened my stride and increased my turnover, and felt pretty good as I crested the top of that hill.  Out of the Botanical Gardens and onto Piedmont Road, we now enjoyed a long downhill.  Several people passed me in this section, but I was committed to coast at an 8 min / mile pace, letting my pulse rate drop a few points.  As we turned onto Winchester Drive, I saw the 1 mile sign and my watch signaled 7:57 elapsed, mission accomplished for mile 1.  

The 5K race route

Mile 2 continued downhill on Winchester and into the north end of Piedmont Park.  Then we hit the sharp uphill section past the Orpheus Brewery.  Having run the same route last year, this hill was not a surprise, but all of a sudden, I ran out of steam.  Carrying those chocolate croissants uphill required a walk break.  30 seconds later, I resumed running, but couldn't get back up to speed even though the parking lot was level.  The loaves of bread threatened to trip me up.  Both Ben & Jerry were dragging me down.  I took another walk break through the water station, then resumed running with the turn onto Monroe Drive.  Heading through the gate back into the Park, I began to chip away at my pace for mile 2, which was above 9 min / mile, then dropped to the high 8 min / mile range.  The next hill, running past the Sage Parking Deck, was much tougher than I remembered.  At that stage, I was surprised to hear Curt Walker's voice.  He must have started behind me.  He tried to introduce me to "Kevin" but I was so out of breath I couldn't spare the courtesy of a hello, didn't even have the energy to turn my head.  Curt and Kevin passed me and then I slowed down to a walk, again.  Shortly after the path leveled out, the mile 2 sign came into view and my watch signalled 8:56.  Sigh, last year I managed 8:00 flat in this tough mile.  

To have any chance at a 25 minute finish, I needed to really speed up in mile 3.  Unfortunately I could hardly manage to stay faster than a 10 min / mile pace, carrying Cherry Garcia around.  A light drizzle had begun, although it wasn't really too bad at first.  We turned onto the sandy lower level of the Active Oval, which had several large mud puddles covering the route.  I thought I saw Bonnie on the outbound leg above (she began with wave F) and then to my surprise heard Brian Minor call out "Frank! Better run faster, I'm gonna catch you!"  Of course he was more than a mile behind me, as he was walking the route with his wife Beverly, who was recovering from some soreness from a recent traffic accident.  The drizzle increased to a regular rain.  At that moment I regretted not wearing a cap, and removed my sunglasses, holding them in my hand.  We came off of the Active Oval and back onto the path north of Lake Clara Meer.  I wanted to speed up a little, but Ben & Jerry in conspiracy with the croissants and loaves of bread just wouldn't get go of me.  At that point, I let go of the race, conceding that today wasn't my day.  I needed 9:09 for mile 3.  

Everything fell apart after about 10 minutes.  I was no match for the hills today.

Enough of this, I wanted to get to the finish line as fast as possible.  Ben & Jerry may have slipped off of my back.  Whatever the reason, I found a little more speed.  I passed a few people in the last 0.11 mile, although two kids passed me shortly before I crossed the finish line mat.  29 minutes on the clock, 26:51 official time.  

Well, well, well.  This checkpoint run showed me that I'm not in decent shape at this moment.  Although I ran during the cruise, it was all on flat surface without any hill work at all, and it wasn't enough to counteract the marathon of eating everything on the ship.  I'm confident that I can get back into shape, but it will be much easier if I can lose ten pounds over the next couple of months.