The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us all to become more creative. For instance, I'm becoming comfortable with leading Zoom meetings, and improving my chemistry video skills, as we face a fall semester teaching on-line. Runners who previously scoffed at virtual races (and I was one of those people) have now embraced them. And for today's virtual race, I used Charge Running, a mobile fitness app from a company invented just three years ago.
About a month ago, I registered for the Runningnerds Summer Heat virtual Half Marathon. It wasn't too expensive, and I wanted to support runningnerds. The timing was perfect as I didn't have any other races on my schedule. And then a few days later, the Atlanta Track Club announced the Publix Summer Series. Of course, I registered for those races, even though I had just committed myself to a two-race weekend.
In the week leading up to the race, an e-mail from runningnerds shared more information about the Charge Running app, including a code for the virtual race. On Friday morning, I downloaded the app and registered for the 14-day free trial, and did an easily-paced 2-1/2 mile shakeout / mental health run at sunrise in my neighborhood. I liked the vibe of the on-line Coach Casey: it seemed like he was live, but I realized that it could be a really high-tech program. The workout was perfect for what I needed, with a few minutes of easy running with 60- or 90-second intervals of faster running, not quite strides but just fast enough to wake up the body and mind. I don't usually run with music, and didn't really recognize any of the tunes (I haven't kept up with much pop music since around 2000) but it was a nice experience. I'll try it again, and might even commit to a monthly or annual subscription if I like more of the workouts to come.
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| Race route: click on picture to expand |
I decided that yesterday's one-mile race would be my "race", and today's half marathon would be a "training run". I had a great race yesterday, and fortunately wasn't too tired or sore afterwards. I had decided when I had registered that I would run on the Silver Comet trail. Although it's across town for me, it's a great place to do long runs, as the hills are gentle, the asphalt surface is easy on the feet, and it's not too crowded. The grade is gentle because it was once a passenger train line in the mid-20th century. Road crossings are fairly rare, and all with pedestrian crossing signals that activate almost immediately. The only downside is that walkers and runners share the trail with fast-moving bicyclists, but the co-operation between the fitness communities is pretty respectful on the Silver Comet trail (can't say the same about Stone Mountain Park).
I've always started at the Mavell Road trailhead, at the western terminus of the trail, and that was my plan today. I've only run about the first 10 miles of the trail, doing 20 mile long runs in marathon training. In that distance, it's interesting to follow the transition from suburban neighborhoods with the trail passing the back yards of homes, to more rural landscape including an automobile junkyard about 8 - 9 miles heading east.
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| At a memorial bench at the Mavell Road trailhead. I decided to wear the race singlet from the Runningnerds Monday Nighter virtual 10K. |
Although we could run the virtual race at any time through July 26, Charge Running was doing a live race during the 7 am - 11 am window this morning. I wasn't sure what to expect, but a few minutes before 7:00 am, Coach Betsy welcomed us to the race. Even though I was standing by myself, about 0.4 miles east of the trailhead (to make the mileage workout while minimizing the number of road crossings), I really felt like I was part of a real race, even though I only heard the voice of the Coach. At 7:00 am, they even played a recording of "America the Beautiful". Then Tes Sobomehin Marshall came on the air with a few welcoming and encouraging comments. Coach Betsy gave us a 10-second countdown, and I began running.
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| Selfie a few minutes before the start |
The commentary was encouraging, reminding us about the importance of hydration, starting out at an easy pace, and sharing the locations of other participants. I stopped counting after about 15 states, but there were even a few international participants, from Germany, the United Kingdom, and Australia, where the time was 10 pm Sunday evening. And depending on where she was in the country, it might have been a pleasantly cool mid-winter evening. That was NOT the case in metro Atlanta. The temperature at the start was 73 deg F, and it was pretty humid. The trail was a little slick, and then remembered that I had heard a little thunder yesterday evening. While it didn't rain at all at our house, it must have rained in the northwest suburbs.
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| Summer Heat! |
I recognized most of the music played this morning: the songs were all about "heat" and "fire", true to the Summer Heat race theme! The playlist began with a classic from AC/DC, "Highway to Hell", followed by Glenn Frey's "The Heat is On". A little later, Donna Summer came on singing "Hot Stuff", and then I recognized the extended version of "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps. It had been many years since I had heard those oldies from the 70's, bringing back the pop music soundtrack of my teenage years, memories of bell-bottom pants and my big Afro, back when I proudly had a full head of hair. In the background, Coach Betsy was keeping up a steady positive patter, announcing as we finished our first and second miles. She called out some additional runners that were starting as I ran, a nice feature of the 4-hour window, especially for participants in Central, Mountain, or Pacific time zones, where it would have been dark when we started in Atlanta at 7 am EDT.
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| About 0.4 miles in, congratulating myself for planning a downhill start. |
I had decided that I would do this "training run" with run-walk intervals of 4:30 run, 0:30 walk. Aiming for a pace of no faster than 10 minutes per mile, my plan - my hope was to speed up a bit in the last couple of miles on the return trip. I like to think that I'm always in "half-marathon shape". But to be truthful, my longest run since the March 1 marathon has been 11 miles, so today might be a test, especially with the warm weather, and having run a fast mile yesterday morning. I was prepared with two gels and about 30 ounces of water, 10 ounces of Nuun that I had frozen overnight, and a hand-held bottle with 20 ounces of ice and water.
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| Alabama border, 61.5 miles away: The Silver Comet Trail connects with the Chief Ladiga Trail for a continuous 94.5 mile trail to Anniston, AL |
A couple of miles in, I saw Katie Rosenberg and Jodi Scially (from Atlanta Track Club marathon training programs) and a third person (didn't recognize her) walking the other direction. Then four groups of Georgia National Guard soldiers came through marching to the west. I've seen them before on a couple of occasions, so there must be a base nearby. I don't know if they were new recruits or if this was the one-weekend-per-month training, but they seemed pretty relaxed.
About 3-1/2 miles in, at a tunnel, a tree had uprooted and had slid down the slope and was hanging over the roadway, partially blocking the right side. Definitely it had rained here last night. I was wearing a new pair of Brooks Launch 7s, not expecting that I would encounter wet conditions. Oh well.
About 50 minutes elapsed, in the middle of Deep Purple's "Smoke on the Water", I reached in a pocket for my first gel. The phone went silent: Ian Gillan's second verse was rudely interrupted, no more guitar power chords from Ritchie Blackmore. I was carrying a portable battery charger, since I didn't think that my phone battery would last for 2+ hours of continuous broadcasting, but my phone was still at 100% charge. I took a quick check at my 55 minute walk break, couldn't figure out what was wrong with the sound. My mileage was still registering (albeit about 0.05 miles short compared to my Garmin) and the time matched that on my watch, so I decided not to worry about it.
I had to take a couple of extra walk breaks in the sixth mile to work around some mud patches, where the Georgia iron-red clay had washed onto the trail. It wasn't too bad but I definitely didn't want to wipe out on my training run. In another place, some gravel had slid onto the roadway. After six miles elapsed, I began thinking of my turnaround point. I had started about 0.4 miles east of the trailhead, which is where I wanted to finish, so the idea was to run about 6.7 - 6.8 miles and then turn around without crossing Anderson Mill Road. I actually had to stop for a few seconds, as a bicyclist was coming through the intersection in the opposite direction, but didn't really lose any time. 6.65 miles on the watch, so perhaps I would need to run 0.1 or 0.2 miles past the trailhead.
At 1:35 elapsed, I took my second (and last) gel, hoping that would be enough to get me to my finish line, a little more than 4 miles away. I came upon the Georgia National Guard soldiers marching to the west. I didn't count but it didn't seem like there were as many soldiers as I had seen earlier in the morning. They were wearing long sleeves and long pants, and several although not all were carrying backpacks. Those uniforms must have been hot, especially compared to my light singlet and shorts.
About 9.5 miles into my run, a man passed me running really quickly. But I could see the five Olympic rings tattooed on his right shoulder. I don't know who he was, but he seemed to be running at least at a 6 minute / mile pace. Effortlessly. I hope that he makes it on our team for Tokyo 2021, although I don't think that he is one of our male marathon representatives. He didn't show up on my Strava feed as a "fly-by" - and I follow a couple of our local speedsters who ran in the Olympics marathon trials.
Unfortunately I was beginning to tire, despite my cautious initial pace and walk breaks. By mile 11, I had noticed that my heart rate had maxxed out, and took 60 second walk break. After letting my heart rate drop, I started running again, only to see another 170+ bpm reading within a minute. Just a training run, I slowed to a walk for 3 - 4 minutes. Two miles walking would take about 40 minutes, instead of 20 seconds. For the rest of the race, I alternated running about 90 seconds with walking for about 60 seconds.
Shortly before I reached mile 12, a woman wearing a shirt from "The Race" passed me, and then slowed to a walk. When it was time for me to run again, I caught up to her, asked her "Are you running the Summer Heat Half?" She said "Yes" and I thoughtlessly replied "Me too, it's killing me!" Probably not very sporting to say anything negative about my run when I'm passing someone. About a half-mile later, she passed me, and I tried to make up for my faux-pas by saying "Good job, finish strong!" I ended up finishing mile 13 with her in sight the entire way, but didn't try to catch up to her. After the race, I learned that her name was Toni. The app showed that she finished 7th, in 2:04:45 (so she started about 10 minutes after I did).
Around 12.85 miles in (according to my Garmin), I heard a signal from my phone. I knew that the app was still tracking me when I had checked a couple of times. I figured that was the signal that I had completed 13.1 miles by their tracking. Shortly afterwards, I saw Bonnie, photographing me as I approached where I told her that I expected to finish. I looked at my watch, told her "About 0.2 miles to go" and then "It's rough". But for the last section, I ran straight through, not that fast, but kept going until my watch read 13.12 miles (to make sure that Strava picked up my full mileage).
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| Operator error: I accidentally pushed the mute button in the lower right corner, but couldn't figure it out while I was running. Too bad, I expect that I would have enjoyed the commentary and music for the rest of the race. I might have even run a little better if I hadn't been "alone". |
2:18:41 on my watch; the Chargerunning app credited me with a time of 2:16:09. I turned around and walked slowly back to the parking lot and to Bonnie. Sweat was pouring off my body: I estimate that I lost 7 - 8 pounds even though I had carried enough hydration so that I wasn't rationing at the end, although drank a 16-ounce bottle of water while driving home in the car. I told Bonnie that I was in "11-mile shape" but not "13.1 mile shape".
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| I look better in this post-race photo than I felt at the moment. |
It took me more than a few minutes to recover enough to get in the car to drive home, but by the time that I was ready to write this blog (a nap and several hours later), I was glad that I had run today. But .... I'm not registering for any more half marathons until it cools down in the fall.
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| At least I had a good race yesterday! There must be a connection between the 9:57 for mile 10, 184 bpm max heart rate, and the 12:56 for mile 12. |
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| Strava tells the story in a single graph. But at least I sped up for the last 0.12 miles! |
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| Another look at that long walk break in mile 12. And I had been going downhill. |
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| But I was playing it safe, once I realized that my heart rate had maxxed out. |
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| My "official" finish on the Chargerunning app was 15th place, once the race window closed at 11:00 am EDT. The fastest finisher recorded 1:13:41! 2nd place was 1:43:27; only six runners finished under 2 hours. |
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