The Atlanta Track Club has created the Publix Summer Series for three consecutive weekends of "a touchless race experience". One of the conditions of the race series is that we must sign up for the same starting time slot (3 minutes apart from 6:30 - 10:30 am). With two of the locations some distance from metro Atlanta, I decided to take the 7:33 am slot, hoping to find the right balance between avoiding summer heat and commuting a long distance before sunrise. Last week, I received my race bib in the mail, along with a face mask and a small bottle of hand sanitizer! Very useful, especially since finding hand sanitizer is even rarer than seeing toilet paper in the stores!!
Today's 1-mile race opened the Series, with a dash around the Georgia International Convention Center (GICC) near Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport. It's been awhile since I've run a 1-miler, but I've recorded a couple of sub-7 minute finishes on the hilly Morningside Mile course in 2016 (6:52) and 2017 (6:59). For strategy preparation, I watched a YouTube video at Rachael's Runners. Coach Rachael suggested three options. I think my previous one-mile races have followed her third strategy, the "HAM" strategy which is "Start 100% and Hang On!" For today, I decided to try her first strategy, breaking the race into four 400-meter laps.
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| I didn't think that I would have a good experience today with the "HAM" strategy. |
The conventional wisdom for a 1-mile race is to start warming up at least 45 minutes ahead of time. But with COVID-19 in the air, the Atlanta Track Club asked us to arrive no more than 30 minutes before our start time. I decided to jog an easy mile around my neighborhood at around 5:45 am, then changed into a fresh shirt, went to the bathroom at home, and drove 35 minutes to the GICC. At the check-in desk, a volunteer took my temperature, and cleared me for the race. That gave me about 20 minutes to warm-up. I was delighted to discover that I would know someone in my heat: Sam Benedict, a 73-year-young track club regular, who runs close to my pace - and has on occasion outrun me. We began to warm up together in the parking lot, but we separated partially due to each of us following the >6 foot distancing rule. I also saw Bob Wells (same age group), who asked me what I was planning to run. I replied "I'm trying for sub-7, but not sure if I can hit it." Bob shared with me that he had run a 7:19, so he encouraged me to aim to beat that time.
I wore my mask while warming up, but toward the end of the mile, I tried a stride, which was hard to execute with the mask. Heading away from the other runners in the parking lot, I removed the mask, ran a second stride, reaching a top speed of 11.8 mph. That was a nice warm-up!
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| Runners for the 7:30 am start are lining up behind me. Sam Benedict is standing about 30 feet just behind my left ear! |
I approached the starting area just as the 7:30 am runners were about to begin. After they had started, the 7:33 am group was allowed to walk up near the starting line. Enrique Tomas of the Atlanta Track Club staff was manning the airhorn. As we awaited instructions, several of us expressed our appreciation to be running a race. I added, "I wonder if this is an experiment for a physically-distanced Peachtree Road Race in November?" Enrique replied, "We've done the math on that one."
As I removed my mask and tucked it into my waistband, I began thinking: if 5 people start every 3 minutes, that's 100 runners per hour. For the 45,000 people that have registered for this year's Peachtree Road Race, that will take 450 hours, divided by 24 is ...... nearly 19 days, I think. But Peachtree Road is six lanes wide, so perhaps we can start as many as 50 people in each wave standing six feet apart, then it requires only 45 hours. Give the people in the last wave 3 hours to finish, that closes down Peachtree Road for two full days ...... oh, I think I missed the instructions that Enrique had given us on the various turns on the course. Oops. And at 7:33:00, the airhorn sounded.
One man "took off like a jackrabbit on a hot date" (stealing a phrase from Ray Hudson, my favorite soccer commentator). He learned later that he would finish in 5:40. I quickly lost sight of him. But I was in second place. Jennifer Akor, a regular volunteer at track club races, cheered me on as I ran by. A volunteer directed me to turn left, following the cones. I stole a quick look at my watch, my pace was 6:30! I didn't know if I could maintain that, but I felt pretty good at that point.
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| Rachael's recommended strategy is to just focus on establishing the right pace in the first 400 meters. |
As we ran with the Convention Center on our left, I realized that this was not going to be a flat course. I began breathing heavily as I ran fast up a gentle but continuous uphill section. Rich Kenah, the Executive Director of the track club, was cheering as I passed him. I tried not to breathe on him as I ran past, just focusing on my technique, keeping my cadence high, but feeling like I was unavoidably slowing ... slowing. How close were the other runners behind me? I didn't dare look behind me, for fear that would slow me down. I couldn't hear anyone else, but my breathing was so loud, I didn't even hear the jets landing at the airport nearby. Near the end of the straightaway, I saw a woman standing in the middle of the lane. Which way to get around her and maintain six-feet distance? 3:00 into the race: Oh! she is telling me to stay to the left of the cones as I turn right. I made a sharper turn than I would have if I had paid attention to the instructions before the race ....
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| In the second 400 meters, don't think about anything other than technique. |
Bob Wells was standing at the U-turn, cheering me on, telling me about a downhill section ahead (thank goodness!!) and that this race was supposed to hurt. Yep, I was feeling it, but from a quick glance at my watch, it looked like I was on a 6:45 pace. What was more surprising was that my heart rate was only registering about 130 beats per minute. Maybe my monitor wasn't properly working this morning. But I just tried to hold on, knowing that I was more than half a mile into the race. About 4:30 into the race, I realized that I was indeed running downhill, and I picked up the pace a bit. One problem with the course is that I didn't know exactly how far I had run at any point, but around 5:30, a right turn was coming up, which I assumed was the 3/4 mark.
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| In the third lap, just hold on. Prepare for the "mental suck". |
Shortly after the right turn, there was a quick left turn, which I did hear Enrique say was about 200 meters from the finish line. Another glance at my watch: 6:00 flat. I felt like my heart rate was deep into the red zone, yet my watch recorded only 145 bpm. I kicked into higher gear - and yes, it was there today!! All of those strides that I've run paid off today. Running as hard as I could to the corner of the parking lot, then one more right turn, and just 100 meters to the finish line. The clock showed 7:40 and a few seconds, whereas my watch indicated that I was on a 6:53 pace. I remembered that Bob Wells had finished in 7:19 as I watched the seconds tick up on the clock :14, :15, :16, and kicked hard to cross the finish line as I saw 7:40:17 on the clock.
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| "Leave everything on the track." |
I stopped my watch, which showed 6:53 and 1.00 mile. But the finish line clock suggested a 7:17 finish. So either my watch wasn't working, or the clocks at the start and finish weren't exactly synchronized. I was pretty certain that I had run a sub-7 minute mile. Although I didn't see my official result until I was home, I was thrilled to see that my official time was 6:54! Second-fastest 1-miler ever for me. And I'm not certain that the Morningside Mile was a legitimate 1.00 mile distance.
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| Pace is the solid blue, elevation is the green line. I'm really pleased with how I ran this race, as I think my effort was pretty consistent from start to finish. I slowed a little going uphill, sped up a little going downhill, and had just enough energy to finish strongly! |
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| This is really surprising. I must have had the perfect warmup, as my heart rate never reached the red zone before the end of the mile. |
Sam Benedict was next across the line, his official time was 7:29. I hope that I can still run a 7:29 mile 16 years from now. Sam told me that he kept up with me for much of the race. It took me a couple of minutes to cool down so that I could put on my mask again, to run a few easy minutes in the parking lot before returning to the car to rest and stretch a little before driving off.
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| Feeling OK after the 1-mile race, wearing the shirt from last year's "The Race" half-marathon. |
When I had awakened this morning, I learned that the great Civil Rights Hero and Georgia Congressman John Lewis had died last night. Late last year, he was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Several years ago, I saw him speak on behalf of immigrants who shortly afterwards received some legal protections under the executive order for "Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)". In his speech, Representative Lewis spoke about getting into "good trouble". He engaged in a lifetime of non-violent protest, even though he received violent treatment by segregationists in the 1960's. He was on my mind this morning, and I looked for the "Hero" mural as I drove through downtown Atlanta on the I-75/I-85 connector on my way to the race. Before going home, I made a stop in downtown Atlanta to photograph the mural at the corner of Auburn Avenue and Jesse Hill Drive.
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| Local television news crews were at the mural when I visited around 8:30 am this morning. |
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| I've run past the mural on several occasions, but had never before stopped to read the quotation from John Lewis's speech at the "March on Washington" in 1963, when he was just 23 years old. That famous day was a couple of weeks before my first birthday. |
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