Tucker Road Race 5K 2018: 28:36
Tucker Road Race 5K 2019: 25:43, 3rd place male 50 - 59 age group
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| January 31, 2020: Last day for early registration (above) April 8, 2020: Announcement of virtual race (below) |
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| April 30, 2020: Announcing the opening of the virtual race window |
For my virtual race route, I decided to run the same route that I had taken on the previous week in the R.A.T. Race 5K, but in the opposite direction. I should say that I planned the direction of last week's race route, so that I would run up the hill on Smithsonia Drive in the same direction of the race route. I decided not to tackle the actual route, as there was too much distance without sidewalks on Old Norcross Road.
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| One of these days, I should come out here with a sponge and a bucket of soapy water. Perhaps after I clean off the pollen and bird poop off of the mailbox in front of my house.... |
On race day morning, I awoke early, had a light breakfast, and warmed up with an easy 2-mile run to my starting position on Lake Ivanhoe Drive. Conditions were perfect, about 45 degrees F but sunny. Unfortunately, my attitude about running this race was negative. Perhaps it was the mental exhaustion of having spent much of the past week grading on-line final exams, or a general malaise arising from bad news on several fronts, but my mind was not in the right place for a good performance this morning.
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| Lake Ivanhoe Drive is the right fork at this intersection. |
Nevertheless, the 8 o'clock hour was approaching. I had set up the race app on itsyourrace.com and set my watch to synchronize, and started out without fanfare. How I missed hearing the band play at the start of this race!
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| A symbolic place to begin my race? |
I started off pretty quickly, easily setting a 5 min / km pace heading downhill toward Lake Ivanhoe. Turning right onto Templar Knight, I blasted through the first kilometer in 4:54. But that was not a pace that I could maintain. Turning on Rothenwood Drive, then heading north meant that I was climbing a hill steeper than the one that I had just run down. Fortunately the hill was not too long, and I was able to get back to a decent pace. Turning left on to Webb Road was another steep uphill, but I managed to power my way through that challenge.
Onto Chamblee Tucker Road, fortunately with sidewalks. Second kilometer finished in 5:27, 10:21 elapsed. I remembered tripping and falling several years ago on a sidewalk crack, so I kept a close eye on the path ahead, avoiding catastrophe. A few minutes later, it was time to turn right onto Smithsonia Drive, now following the exact route of the Tucker Road Race. Running downhill to Lucky Shoals creeklet, I tried to pick up a little speed, knowing that the big hill was coming up ahead. Third kilometer finished in 5:19, 15:40. Time to pick up the pace if I was going to finish in less than 26 minutes!
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| I was not ready to climb Smithsonia Mountain in this direction. |
Grinding up the big hill, I slowed dramatically. I tried to push myself for another moment, but before I had reached the top, I mentally shattered on the hill.
%*$@#*%$!!!! I said out loud, as I slowed to .... a walk.
My race was over. My engine was blown. Failure.
Nothing to do but walk to the top of that big hill, and then start running again, more slowly than before. Turning onto Goodfellows Road, I regained a little of my former pace, finishing the terrible fourth kilometer in 6:02, 21:42 elapsed. Turning left onto Locksley Road, then right on Templar Knight to retrace my steps to finish near where I began, I picked up the pace just a bit in the final minute on Lake Ivanhoe Drive, with a respectable 5:17 for the last kilometer, stopping my watch at 27:03.
Then I checked my phone and the itsyourrace.com app. The app had recorded only a little more than a mile of my run. Perhaps when my phone went to "sleep", the location stopped recording. Well, I'm not running that race again. In fact I plan to avoid any more virtual racing for the next few weeks, to give my legs a rest.
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| After the race |
In the 2-mile cooldown run home, I thought about what had gone wrong. I had planned a route, but I totally failed to plan a race strategy. The Smithsonia Hill was at the beginning of mile 1 in the official race route in 2018 and 2019, but in my own creation of a race route, the massive hill did not come until the very end of mile 1. I should have prepared myself for that, perhaps with an easy practice run earlier in the week, so I would have gotten over the mental challenge in a no-stakes run.
"Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!"
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| Someone cleaned the road sign! (and the mailbox) |
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