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| Eddie Lin & Mina Chung |
On the way home from our Valentine's Day date, Bonnie and I learned that her beloved cousin, Dr. Mina Chung, had tragically died in a skiing accident while on vacation in the Italian Alps. Mina was an extraordinary member of the extraordinary family that I've married into. I first met Mina nearly 10 years ago at our wedding. A year later we traveled to Tuscany to attend her wedding to Eddie Lin, which was a multi-day tour of Michelin restaurants and an ever-growing party of their friends and family - without a doubt, the most fun wedding that I've ever attended.
Mina was an eye surgeon and retinal specialist at the University of Rochester Hospital. In the days after her passing, we read dozens of testimonials from her patients and family members of her patients. She saved the vision of so many people, from children born blind to adults suffering from retinal degeneration. In addition to her work as a physician, I fondly remember what a talented pianist she was, treasuring the memory of a duet that she and Eddie performed in honor of her father's 80th birthday.
Mina was also a runner. She ran several marathons, including the New York City Marathon in 2006 and 2011. Her last marathon was the Athens Classic Marathon, on the original route from the town of Marathon to the capital of Greece, which she completed one week after I ran the New York City Marathon in 2018. One of the last times that I saw Mina was at a family gathering in Washington DC in 2015, and we enjoyed together a few miles early one morning on the National Mall.
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| Mina and I, fall 2015. She is wearing a New York City Marathon jersey. |
We made a quick trip to New York for a private family funeral to honor her memory and pay our respects to her surviving parents, younger brother, and her husband. It was cathartic to cry with family, and emotionally healing to hear and share stories of Mina's life and many gifts and accomplishments. We returned to Atlanta last night, just in time for Bonnie to run the Publix Atlanta 5K, and for me to take on my 6th marathon.
My training has gone spectacularly well. Over the past year, the various strains and inflammations in my legs have largely healed. Working with Coach Carl for two consecutive training cycles has resulted in greater physical speed so that my easy pace has dropped from 11 minute miles to ca. 10:15 minute miles. I've also improved my mental discipline, both with maintaining prescribed paces and finding ways to push myself when things get tough. In this training cycle, I've run my two fastest half-marathons. I also came within 30 seconds of setting a new personal best for the 5K distance, except that I wasn't trying to run all that fast, just working on a progression strategy while doing nothing that could re-injure me.
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| At the start |
For race day, I decided to honor Mina by wearing my New York City Marathon jersey from 2018, instead of the Atlanta Track Club or Tucker Running Club gear that I normally wear. I had intended to start with or just behind the 4:30 pace group. The only problem was that the 4:30 pacers were in wave C. I was assigned to wave D, so I was on my own to find my starting pace. Fortunately Coach Carl had prescribed for my last track workout a "practice start", running the first two miles between 10:00 - 10:15 pace. That required a lot of mental energy and clock watching, especially with some of the speedsters in the group zipping past me during their own workouts, but I nailed the exercise on the first attempt.
That really paid off this morning with the start. Although I had plenty of people in front of me by starting near the back of wave D, my watch gave inaccurate readings in the beginning, due to the tall buildings and thousands of other watches overloading the local cell tower service. When my watch signaled mile 1 in 9:30, I suspected that I couldn't trust it, since I wasn't passing anyone, yet I was passed by hundreds of people in the first mile. I didn't see a mile 1 sign, but when mile 2 signaled 10:30 and just over 20 minutes elapsed, and then two minutes later I saw the mile 2 sign, I relaxed knowing that if anything, I had started a little too slowly, but that wasn't really a problem. After all, my goal for the race was to run consistently from start to finish, aiming for a negative split. My goal range of 4:20 to 4:30 simply came from calculating what would happen with average pace of 10:00 - 10:15 minute miles. I crossed the 5K split at 32:55.
We covered plenty of familiar ground in those first miles, north on Piedmont Road, south on Central Park. I had no trouble maintaining an easy pace on the gently rolling hills. I took walk breaks at every water station, spaced out every 1.5 to 2 miles. As I made the turn from Jackson Street onto Auburn Avenue at the Martin Luther King Center, I passed the 5:00 pace group, and chatted for a moment with Rebecca Ludwig from Tucker Running Club, who was running her first marathon. At the mile 5 marker, I took my first gel, shortly before reaching a water stop in Little Five Points. Around the 10K timing mat, I passed Linda Bode Phinney, also with Tucker Running Club. Two years ago when I foolishly ran the Publix Atlanta Marathon with an untreated quadriceps injury, Linda had reported to Bonnie, who was waiting anxiously at the finish line, that I was still upright but mostly only walking when she had passed me around mile 21. Today I crossed the 10K split at 1:04:51, satisfied to have sped up by about 20 seconds per mile over the last 5K.
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| Official course map |
This mile was a little crowded, as both half-marathon and full-marathon runners were squeezed onto a single lane of Freedom Parkway, but we regained more road space before reaching the mile 7 marker on North Avenue. After carefully working our way uphill on North Avenue, we turned onto Highland Avenue heading north, where I began clocking my first sub-10 minute miles, heading mostly downhill. I deployed my first mantra, PATIENCE. I knew that I couldn't run 9:45 miles for the remainder of the race. And the PATIENCE mantra helped me drop back down to a couple of low 10 minute miles through Piedmont Park, then heading uphill on 10th Street and south on Juniper Street. I had taken my second gel at the mile 9 marker near the Park Avenue pedestrian entrance to the park, and washed it down with water before leaving the park at the Charles Allen gate. I began overhearing some complaints about the hills from a few of the runners around me, but I just kept a steady beat. We ran through the Georgia Tech campus for mile 12, then turned onto Marietta Street to return to the start-finish area. I was deliberately holding back, expecting that more half-marathon runners would pick up their pace as their finish line approached, but I think that I passed more people than passed me, even though I ran mile 13 in 10:02 minutes. Shortly before reaching the mile 13 marker, I saw Bonnie, who had completed her 5K race in less than 58 minutes, her best time in a couple of years. She looked good and she seemed very happy to hear me call out that I was "on schedule".
I crossed the half-marathon timing mat at 2:13:36, perfectly within my goal range of 2:11 to 2:15 for the first half of the race. Even though my warmup was over, I held back from speeding up. I took my third gel, then water from a station between the Georgia World Congress Center and Mercedes Benz Stadium. Circling the stadium, I was looking up at the structure and daydreaming about how well I had run the first 14 miles, when...
Atlanta, the Land of a Thousand Potholes.
My left foot landed in the middle of a big round hole in the street. I stumbled out of the runner's lane, barely managing to stay on my feet. My left ankle seemed to pop. I slowed to a walk. The runners around me asked if I was OK. All of this training ruined by a misstep in a pothole? But as quickly as the sharp pain had struck, it began to subside. I tried to run a few steps, that went alright. I ran a little faster, so far so good. I responded to the other runners, "I'm OK but I wonder how this will feel in 10 more miles." But I managed to get back up to speed. Fortunate to have escaped disaster, I kept my eyes closely peeled to the road ahead of me for the rest of the run.
After the mile 15 marker, we turned onto James Brawley Drive, which is now a long pedestrian walkway through Clark Atlanta University. It was a nice section of the race route, but I had mistakenly remembered this section from training runs as being relatively flat. I was wrong. Badly wrong. Apologies to any readers who overhead me claim at the expo that mile 16 was flat. Fortunately there was a water station and lots of enthusiastic volunteers.
Remarkably, my left ankle didn't hurt. I should say, everything was just a little bit sore, but I was also running sub 10 minute miles, from 9:47 - 9:59. I tried to remember one of Coach Carl's "Ten Commandments of Marathon Running," to take it easy in miles 14 - 19. PATIENCE, I repeated to myself. That helped keep me from going any faster. At mile 17, I took a fourth gel, running along the familiar roads of Castleberry Hill from the Run the ATL races. I was passing a fair number of people, even with my relatively conservative pace, but I thought that I could maintain this for another 9 miles. I began to say to another runner, "We're two-thirds done." Then I remembered the classic marathon advice, the 20-mile mark is the halfway point. And I kept my thoughts to myself.
Around this time, a couple of young women running together passed me. They were running pretty easily, maintaining a good conversation. I tried to keep up with them, especially when they seemed to slow down a bit. Then someone would cheer, they would "whoop!" in response, and the "whoop!" seemed to propel them forward. I should try that, I thought. But I didn't have the energy to generate a "whoop!" Eventually they would slow down, I would catch up, then another "whoop!" and they took off again. That must have continued for several miles, as we ran past the old Olympic Stadium, now Georgia State University Stadium, the site of my greatest half-marathon performance. "Whoop!" I thought to myself, and picked up a little speed, although perhaps not as much if I could have verbalized it. I took a fifth gel, but had to wash it down with a couple of swigs of my own bottle of Nuun, as there wasn't a water station nearby.
As we passed the stadium, we approached a big hill on Hank Aaron Drive. I've known about this challenge since the first time I ran the second half of the course back in December. Today I was ready for it. I glided up the hill, passing a bunch of walkers. I remained calm, kept running easily to the top of the hill, until turning onto Atlanta Avenue. With the turn, a level street, the mile 20 sign and a timing mat greeted me. 3:22:38 elapsed, with just 10K to go. "Whoop!" Actually I just said, "10K to go!!" and started thinking about a 60 minute 10K run. I was definitely going to smash my old personal best of 4:48, and was on track to finish in less than 4:30, as long as I kept running. I had not intended to pick up the pace this early. But following the classic marathon advice, I was halfway done. And I was ready to speed up. I covered mile 21 in 9:18. That was probably too fast. And in mile 22, I had to slow back down to 9:46. Still, I was pretty happy with that. Every mile that was a sub 10-minute mile was more progress toward a negative split marathon.
On the Cheney track, Bob Wells was cheering us on. Thanks Bob, that really helped at the same time that I saw the mile 22 marker. I finally spotted the 4:30 pacers on the street, less than 100 yards ahead of me. I had been trying to catch up to them for more than 3-1/2 hours. I also caught up with the two women on the track, and kept up with them until we got back onto Georgia Street. Someone cheered again, they went "Whoop!" and moved in front of me for good. Nonetheless I was still running at a sub-10 minute pace. Just four miles to go!
There was one more hill that I had dreaded from my practice runs, heading up to Founders' Park. But today, it looked like we were running a slightly different route from the map. Although we were going uphill, the elevation was not nearly as severe as it would have been if we had turned one block earlier. Thank you, Atlanta Track Club! I made my way easily up the hill, turned left after passing Founders' Park, and then returned downhill. Mile 23 in 9:56. Just over 5K to go, at 3:51 elapsed.
But now we were heading uphill on Hank Aaron Drive. It was a tough haul. I took my last gel shortly before the water station. I don't recall running under the Olympic Rings, although they must have been near the water station. I guess I was too busy looking down for more potholes. I just kept running once I had cleared the water station, and eventually the road leveled out. We crossed Interstate 20, turned right onto Martin Luther King Drive, heading due east. A lot of people were walking. I kept running, knocking out a 10:02 minute mile 24. My legs were really hurting, but remembered all of the advice that I had read and heard that the last 10K was going to hurt. It was supposed to hurt. And I knew that I would be disappointed with myself after the race if I didn't keep pushing now. 4:02 total elapsed at the mile 24 sign.
I came upon the last water and nutrition station. They were serving raisins. I accepted a big cup of raisins, tried to eat them down as I walked through the stop, then took a cup of water. Raisins, water, raisins, water. I wasn't able to eat all of the raisins before reaching one of the last garbage boxes. And it was time to run again. Less than two miles to go. Less than 20 minutes to glory and a huge PR. At Oakland Cemetery, we took a left turn, then another left followed by a quick right onto Grant Street. As we passed under the MARTA tracks, there was a timing mat, after my watch had sounded for mile 25 in 10:09. Turns out it was the 40K timing mat, 4:10:11 elapsed.
Left turn onto Decatur Street, less than 1-1/2 miles to the finish. HAMMER TIME, I thought. But I could not speed up. The thoughts crept into my mind:
"I'm never running another marathon.
I'm glad that I didn't get into the New York City Marathon."
Nonetheless I began to gain a little satisfaction from passing several people that were walking. Uphill I continued to run. I tried to speed up, just keeping the number on my watch below 10 minute / mile pace. "Never %$#&ing quit" I said to myself. Passed another walker, and then another. No one was passing me.
"Never %$#&ing quit." This time out loud.
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| I'm just coming into the picture. |
That mantra restrained me from taking an extra walk break. I passed the Walgreen's with the old sign marking the Five Points intersection with Peachtree Street, where the street name changed from Decatur to Marietta. And up ahead, the CNN building and the Omni Hotel rose into the air. They were SO FAR AWAY. And then they were A LITTLE CLOSER. Finally the road leveled out, and then a slight downhill. This is where I wanted to speed up, but I couldn't. Not at first. I caught up with another runner, said out loud "Two more blocks." He kept up with me, that was fine, I just needed to keep moving. One more block, as we crossed Centennial Olympic Park Drive. And somehow, I sped up. Then a right turn into the park. People were lining both sides of the walkway. Tes Sobomehin was cheering me into the finish, probably a bunch of other people that I knew that I couldn't see through my blurry vision. I moved ahead of the man that I had encouraged on Marietta Street. I found some speed that I didn't know that I had. Another man in an orange shirt was moving slowly. I couldn't wait to get to the finish line, and passed him as well.
And then I had crossed the finish line! I didn't see the clock, I didn't know my time, but I knew that I had definitely run a huge new personal record! Several big fist pumps as I slowed to a walk. Then I straightened up, and with my arms, spelled out the letters of Mina's name in a silent tribute.
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M I N A
(Too bad my arms weren't more flexible.) |
Official time, 4:24:07, 10:04 min / mile average pace. That was really tough. But I did it, with a 3 minute negative split, and a 24 minute improvement on my previous 4:48 marathon best. It took every bit of training, every minute of mental preparation, and every last scrap of grit to get this result.
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I'm really proud of this race, starting slowly and gradually and continuously picking up speed over 25 miles,
then maintaining through the finish line. |
What's next? For now, no big decisions. But Brian Minor and I have a mano a mano competition planned for the Singleton 4 Miler in April. Stay tuned!
Look for a few more virtual races to come, hopefully every few weeks, assuming that I remain healthy, and that restrictions on outdoor activities don't become stricter. Who knows, I might run a 10K on this route to commemorate Independence Day, if we can't run the Peachtree Road Race on July 4. But six trips up that hill, trying to run fast? I shudder at the thought ...
