Running for the second half of my life: September 18, 2021: The Refuge Coffee 5K Run

I ran the Refuge Coffee 5K Run back in April 2017, and enjoyed the route, the race, and the overall experience. Somehow I didn't get around to running this race again, although I was thinking about registering for the April 2020 race, and then the country locked down due to COVID-19. Like so many spring 2021 races that were cancelled or postponed to fall 2021, this event was moved to mid-September for this year. With just three weeks to go in marathon training, running a 5K race wasn't part of my plan, but in light of recent events in Afghanistan and the resulting refugee crisis, I couldn't imagine not participating in this race this year.

The fall of Afghanistan in August and the resulting refugee exodus hit home for me. Not that I have any personal connection with Afghanistan, but every refugee crisis reminds me of what my mother and grandparents went through during and immediately after World War II. At the end of the war, they ended up in Linz, Austria. This was in the United States occupation zone, which was fortunate for them, as they quickly moved west at the end of the war to stay out of the Soviet occupation zone. Although they were ethnically Austrian, they weren't Austrian citizens, so they really weren't supposed to be there. They feared for their lives if they tried to return to Yugoslavia, where my mother was born. 75 years ago, Austria was a "shithole country," to put it bluntly. The Nazis had run the place for the previous decade, and if that wasn't terrible enough, by the end of the war, the cities had suffered extensive bomb damage, and the people who had survived were starving. Austria isn't that way today. But it was impossible for my grandparents to foresee that things might improve in Europe, after surviving both of the World Wars. They were fortunate to receive refugee visas to immigrate to the United States as permanent residents in 1950.

In front of a bomb-destroyed block in Linz, Austria, ca. 1945:
from left-to-right, my mother Cecilie Kefer, grandparents Rudolf and Elizabeth Kefer,
a family friend Josefina Schwarzer, and my aunt Mira Kefer.

For too many years, I naively thought that the lines of the poem "The New Colossus" penned by Emma Lazarus and famously inscribed at the Statue of Liberty National Monument carried some legal force:

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand

Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she

With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

__________

For today's race, I parked my car at a mosque on North Indian Creek Drive, one of the designated parking areas, but the furthest from the race start. Not a problem, I was due to run 6 miles today, so the 2-mile warmup was perfect for this "cutdown week" in my marathon training plan. There was a very light drizzle, but perhaps that diminished the negative impact of 72 degree temperature.

I was the only person who parked way out here.
Oh, and showing off my new Tesla Model 3.

Today's language lesson

Good showing today from Clarkston's neighbors in the Tucker Running Club

Mural outside of Balagru Food Mart

Arriving at the Refuge Coffee Company

Ready to begin, lining up behind the Clarkston High School Air Force Junior ROTC runners

Fully warmed up, I took a place to the side and fairly far back in the pack, mostly to maintain some physical distance after removing my mask. The race announcer counted down our start, and sounded the airhorn, at 9:00 am on the dot! I took my time walking to the timing mat, started my watch, and crossed the timing mat. I had set the watch to 2 minutes running, 30 seconds walking, which is the interval plan that I will likely use in the Chicago Marathon. The goal at the start was to begin cautiously, no faster than a 10 minute / mile pace. As I crossed the timing mat, I found myself behind quite a few walkers, so carefully worked my way onto the sidewalk to get around the group, then swung wide on the left turn. We were running downhill so I was careful not to run too fast, but filed away the information that I would run back up this hill in the last 0.2 miles of the race. The first walk break sounded as the route turned right onto Norman Road, so I raised my hand and slowed to a walk. My initial pace was a low 10 minutes / mile, crept toward 10:30 during the walk break, and at 2:30 elapsed went back to running. We were still moving downhill, as I chatted with Emily Grossman, who I didn't really know well although she has been active in Tucker Running Club during the past year. Knowing that I won't have any downhills to speak of at all in Chicago, I just took my time running as easily as possible, not waiting to strain my quadriceps, or anything else. Then I caught up to Judy Tennell, we ran together for a moment, I took a walk break, then caught up to her and moved ahead in the next running interval. Midway through the first mile, the road turned uphill. Again, in Chicago, I won't get any hill work other than possibly an occasional overpass. But on a gentle hill, running uphill is a great way to do a little speed work in disguise, as long as I don't push the pace too hard.

Volunteers were cheering us along the route, including each corner. After a left turn onto Otello Avenue, we kept running gently uphill. With Jolly Elementary School on the left, the mile 1 alert sounded, at 10:36. I'm getting the hang of this conservative start! We turned right onto Echo Woods Drive, a nice little neighborhood loop, then turned right back onto Otello Drive. The road kept going uphill, I kept making easy progress. Approaching the top of a hill, most people ahead of me were walking, and voilà, it was time for my 30 second walk break! Around this time, I caught up with Carolyn Weber. She was also doing run-walk intervals, so we leapfrogged / occasionally ran together for awhile. As we turned left onto Erskine Road, I saw a water stop. I wasn't thirsty, but I remembered getting thirsty late in a summer 5K several years ago, so I accepted a small bottle of water from a volunteer, jogged slowly as I sipped the water. I managed to gulp most of it down, spilling just a bit down the front of my shirt, as I approached the recycling bin. I passed the mile 2 mark at 20:47 elapsed, 10:11 for the second mile, so nice progression, but still running pretty easily.

We turned onto the PATH trail, at the mile 13 marker. I joked with Carolyn "Half-marathon distance to downtown Atlanta!" This section is one of the nicest parts of the PATH, through a little forest, nicely shaded, and in the westerly direction, gently downhill. I took a photo during a walk break, about 25 minutes into the race. Sigh, normally I would be looking for the finish line by now - or on a great day, might even be cooling down just past the finish line. There was only about 1 kilometer to go, with easy running on the PATH trail, scrupulously taking 30-second walk breaks at 27:00 and again at 29:30.

The PATH trail through Clarkston

As we reached the Norman Road intersection at 30 minutes flat, I picked up the speed. It felt great to run faster, especially after 5 miles total of easy warmup this morning! I suddenly passed a bunch of people, even though we were running uphill. Well, perhaps they were running uphill, but I was riding a rocket toward the finish line. Exaggeration? Mile 3 reached at 30:47, 10:00 flat for the third mile. Making the right turn onto Market Street, I was running out of energy, but kept pushing myself knowing that I was almost finished - with the race. Later I saw that my heart rate was 177 bpm near the end. I caught up to a man pushing a baby stroller. As we ran uphill over the railroad track, the man said to his child, "There's the finish line!" I sensed that he was about to accelerate. I wanted to take a walk break so badly, but I wasn't going to be passed by a stroller! While watching carefully to make sure that the police had blocked the normally busy intersection at East Ponce de Leon Avenue, I kept my lead foot on my personal accelerator pedal. The 50-meter dash from Ponce de Leon to the finish line was a gentle downhill. I heard someone yell "Go Frank!" - turns out it was Lisa Calas, who had just set her personal best in the 5K, and was taking photographs of Tucker runners as we approached the finish line.

A couple of steps ahead of the stroller - with two children!

Flashing a smile!

A few steps before the finish line

Crossing the finish line, stopping the watch: 31:59! 7:15 min / mile pace for the final 0.16 miles on my watch. The funny thing about the 31:59 finish time, was that I was due to take another walk break at 32:00. I wasn't listening for an alert at the end, but if I had run a few seconds slower to this point, wouldn't it have been funny if I had slowed to a 30-second walk break with the finish line in sight?

With the walk-run method, I managed a consistent pace from the start to the 30-minute mark.
And really happy with the jump in speed over the last 2-minute run segment, especially with the 20-foot increase in elevation.