Eight years ago this weekend, I ran my first race. I was nervous, didn't quite know what to expect in a 5K race. But less than 30 minutes later, I had crossed my first finish line - and was ready for more!
The hardest work for Chicago Marathon training is done, having run 22 miles on a local track last Saturday, to prepare body and mind for an extremely flat course. In the midst of a two-week taper, I'm focusing on "freshening", keeping the legs in shape but not working anything to exhaustion, and trying to relax mentally so that I'm ready for the challenge of 26.2 miles. This morning's 5K race was simply to support the Winship Cancer Institute at Emory University, as the second portion of today's six easy miles.
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| Not much social distancing, so I kept a little distance until the race officially began |
After making a 2-3/4 mile loop of campus, running the sidewalks alongside most of today's race route, I walked to the starting area at Asbury Circle in the center of the Emory campus. Knowing that a breakthrough COVID infection would totally derail all of my marathon preparations, I kept my distance from the other clusters of people happily chatting, standing to the side as we all waited to begin. At 8:40 am, the starting pistol sounded, and the crowd began moving forward. I moved into the corral, surrounded by the huge crowd of other runners. I had a little anxiety, even thought about holding my breath, and was relieved that the group in front of me began jogging even before crossing the starting mat in front of the Emory Clock Tower.
My only goal for today, other than not injuring myself, was to practice the first 3 miles of next Sunday's marathon, specifically: patience in the starting miles letting other people were running past me, one final test of the 2:00 run / 0:30 walk strategy, and getting accustomed to manually clicking my lap counter at every mile sign, as the site of the Chicago Marathon is famous for terrible GPS reception due to the tall buildings downtown. The first few minutes were uphill toward the Goizueta Business School, then a left turn, moving over to the right side of the walk just in time for the first walk break. Right onto Clifton Road, then another right onto North Decatur, heading downhill toward the Emory Village traffic circle. Fortunately the cluster of people around me thinned out quickly, so whenever the watch sounded a walk alert, I could comfortably slow down without getting in the way of anyone behind me.
Running easily on Oxford Road, then turning into campus on the familiar road that I take every day, we began gaining elevation. A utility cart pulled out in front of me, spewing nasty exhaust. I thought those carts were electric vehicles? I picked up the pace to stay in front of the cart's exhaust pipe, which meant that I was racing the cart up the hill. I began to pass people, which had not been my intention. After a moment the cart stopped, I guess to turn into the parking garage, and I went back to my own pace. I passed the first water station, and then the mile 1 mark at 11:29 elapsed. Now onto fraternity / sorority row, continuing to head uphill. Typically there are students cheering us in this block, but it was quiet in that location today. I thought back to the 2017 race, when I had charged up this hill - twice - on my way to a sub-25 minute finish and a 3rd-place age group award. This year the route was a single loop, to keep the participants distanced throughout the run. I was quite happy that we only tackled this hill once today.
I crossed Clifton Road around 17:30 into the race, which marked the midway point. A moment after crossing Clifton, I heard the sound of an emergency vehicle moving south on Clifton. I took a look behind me, and saw that an ambulance was turning onto our road! We had only one lane reserved for runners, so the ambulance could pass in the left lane. But I noticed that the runners in front of me were moving from the road onto the sidewalk, and I joined them until the ambulance had passed. The only time I remembered seeing that was in a 1-mile race a few years ago, when a runner had suffered a heart attack at the finish line. This was 20 minutes into the race, so I wondered if one of the speedsters up ahead had overdone things.
And to my surprise, my heart rate alert sounded at that moment! I had set the alert to sound at >160 beats per minute, so I immediately slowed to a walk. I saw 180-something bpm on the watch! This wasn't supposed to happen at an easy pace, and certainly not in mile 2. Sometimes the sensor sounds when my skin is cold and dry, or if the watch is loose, but today the band was tight, and at 70 deg F and my skin was warm and sweaty. I kept walking for a moment to the second water station, where I accepted a towel and a bottle of water, then resumed running.
Turning right onto North Decatur Road, the heart rate alert sounded again, as I passed the mile 2 marker at 11:56, 23:25 elapsed. Two years ago, I must have been approaching the 3 mile sign at that point. Putting that out of mind, I used my mantra "Patience" and thought about the flatness of the course to be run in Chicago next Sunday. This was the highest elevation point of the race route, and my heart rate quickly dropped as the route went gently downhill. One more walk break as we made a right turn onto Clifton Road, at 27 minutes, then back to easy running. 2.4 miles elapsed today: four years ago, I had cleared the finish line and was catching my breath. Oh well, remember "Patience" and "Chicago".
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| I'm glad that the ambulance didn't have to come for me. In the moment I was wondering what was going on with my heart rate, but I guess it was the hill climbing that did it. |
In this section, a young boy would sprint past us, getting a lot of cheers and encouragement, then would slow to a walk, and I caught up to him and passed him. Then he sprinted ahead. As we were running down a service road behind the Law School and the Emory Clinic, I passed the boy again. I tried to encourage him, "You have a young heart - go go go!" but after that, I don't recall seeing him again. We turned onto a small road behind the Emory Clinic parking deck, down and up, then turned left to run between the two buildings of the Winship Cancer Institute.
Crossing Clifton Road again, then into the bus turning circle in front of the historic Emory Hospital building. At 34:30 elapsed, time for one last walk break. I passed the mile 3 marker, 11:27, clicked the lap counter on my watch, and began running again. We turned left on a walkway between a couple of the dormitories. I had resolved days before the race that I was going to just maintain an easy pace through the finish line. But in the heat of the moment, I must have dropped my "Patience" mantra at the 3-mile sign, and gave in to the irresistible urge to pick up my pace, and pass a few people in the last stretch. Another utility cart pulled out to my right, so I decided to try to race the cart again. The cart picked up more speed than I could manage, but I made it over the finish line at 35:49 on my watch.
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| Chemistry majors run! I'm wearing the race shirt from 2014. |
I saw only a few people that I know in today's race: Kalpana Patel, who works at Emory and also runs with Tucker Running Club, and a couple of students from spring 2020 CHEM 203Z, Carolyn Ma and Douglas Kavaguti!
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| Solemnly remembering some important people that I've lost to cancer. |
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If you want to follow my run in real time during the Chicago Marathon, the app is now available for tracking runners. My bib # is 31681, starting in wave 2, corral J, probably between 8:15 - 8:20 am (central time), Sunday October 10.
Goals for Chicago:
Gold: run a negative split race, no time goal required
Silver: sub-4:45 (personal best is 4:24:07 in March 2020, second best is 4:45:22 in February 2021)
Bronze: finish without injury
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