Running for the second half of my life: December 19, 2021: Jeff Galloway 13.1

The Galloway Half Marathon has been a memorable race for me, generally as the last race of the calendar year. As a brief summary:

2014: 2:19:36, first half-marathon

2015: 1:59:48, first success with "Breaking Two"

2016: 2:00:56, suffered on the hill in mile 10

2017: 1:56:42, a new personal best, inspired by Billy Mills

2018: 1:58:53, 2nd fastest half, in the rain

2019: 1:55:40, a new 2nd fastest half

2020: 2:04:54, virtual race

I registered for today's race nearly two years ago, taking advantage of an "early bird" registration for 2019 finishers, originally expecting to run in December 2020. With the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Galloway race organization rolled over my registration fee to this year's race.

We happened to park next to Lindy Liu in the Piedmont Park garage!
Lindy ran the half-marathon relay today.

I'm making progress in physical therapy, but I'm not completely recovered from whatever is causing the muscle / nerve pain, and my conditioning is not that good. My longest run since the marathon was about 7-1/2 miles, so I was just hoping that I had enough innate strength and experience to cover 13 miles. I definitely wasn't trying for a goal other than to finish, so I started with the 2:15 pace group, which used intervals of 90 seconds run, 30 seconds walk. The weather was drizzling and a little windy on the way to the start, and the temperature was in the high 40's. It was good to see some familiar faces along the way and in the starting area, but the number of runners was definitely less than in the past, only about 400 finishers today. It's probably not surprising in these times, with the Omicron variant causing another surge of illness. I'm just happy that some organizations are still safely hosting races.

I switched to a long-sleeved shirt due to the wind. Good decision.
Across the street were a trio of Charge Running coaches in cow costumes!

Everybody looks good at the start of a race.

Although I had a "red" bib permitting me to start with the first group, the 2:15 pacers were in the "blue" area, so we began 3 minutes after the clock officially started. It was really nice to stay with the pacers, and it was a pretty social group for the time that I ran with them. Mentally I let them do all of the work setting the pace and signaling run and walk intervals. It's amazing how that makes a big difference vs. trying to find a pace and managing the intervals on my own. I enjoyed re-acquainting myself with the course after two years. The Krispy Kreme landmark on North Avenue at the turn onto Central Park Place burned down earlier this year, but I was pleasantly surprised to see a food truck open for donut business in the parking lot, and the fan with the car stereo playing 80's rock was back this year. I accidentally got out in front of the pace group, I guess I was pumped up by AC/DC, but caught myself and let the pacers reel me back in. Around this time, I began to feel the first muscle pains in my back. That wasn't surprising, but I still had a long distance ahead of me, and was hoping that things would not get worse.

In mile 6 on the Eastside Beltline, pleasure >> pain.

The miles ticked by, as our pace group moved a few seconds faster than the 10:18 min / mile goal pace. On the Eastside Beltline in the middle of mile 6, I saw Bonnie, and moved out in front of the pacers to exchange a hand slap and a smile for her camera. We had unintentionally banked some time on the long gentle downhill stretch on the Beltline in mile 5, and returned it all in mile 7 climbing the hills on St. Charles Avenue on the way up to Highland Avenue. I was beginning to fall behind the pacers just a bit, but caught up at every walk break through the mile 8 marker, occasionally cutting my own walk break short by 5 seconds on either end. I tried to keep my spirits up, noting when we had reached the halfway point, and used my trusty mantra "I love hills!" when needed, even out loud a few times hoping that it might help others. Passing the mile 8 marker, I silently thought to myself, "just 5 miles to the finish line." On Park Drive, I fell 13 seconds behind the pacers; yes, I was counting time to the next landmarks. I made a bold effort to catch up to the pace group at the beginning of a run segment, but my back muscles began to protest quite loudly. I let the pacers slip from my grasp for good, sadly watching the gap grow. That was the most demoralizing moment in today's race.

Sign language

Pain > pleasure

Once I turned onto 10th Avenue, I saw Bonnie ahead. I was disappointed that she had to see me well behind the pacers, probably more than 30 seconds. I gave her a thumb-down signal as I slowed to take a scheduled walk break, but assured her that I would finish. She replied "I love you!" as I continued walking. I tried to start up with the next run interval, but running uphill was too much for me. At that moment I reasoned with myself, 2:15 or 2:30, it doesn't really matter. What matters is getting through the rest of the race without making my back worse. I calculated that I could still finish in less then 3 hours if I just walked the rest of the way. So that's what I did for the entire 10th mile, and more. I began to carefully check behind me to see if the 2:30 pace group was about to overtake me, and wondered if I might run with them. After I had crested the top of the hill on Piedmont Road, I attempted to run again, but the sore muscle in my back wasn't ready to cooperate, so back to walking. After a minute or so, I tried to run again, changing gait more gradually. That seemed to work, heading downhill on Piedmont Road. But before reaching the bottom at the intersection with Monroe Drive, the 2:30 pacers caught up with me. I walked with them for 30 seconds, but when they returned to their 60 second run intervals, I could not keep up. Bye bye.

I was grateful to see the mile 11 marker shortly after entering Piedmont Park. My watch showed 2:05 elapsed. In several past editions of this race, at 2:05 after the start, I was cooling down after celebrating a sub-2 hour finish. Today at 2:05, now 2:06 elapsed, I still had 2.1 miles to go. Just 21 minutes to the finish? I quickly corrected myself, today it might take twice as long. That mental correction was the only thing that happened quickly for me. I just enjoyed walking while listening to the music blasting from the speakers at Orpheus Brewing high above the park path. I occasionally tried to run for a moment, typically after someone passed me, hoping that I could get to the finish line and rest a little sooner, but it was too painful to run for long. On the other hand, walking sort of felt like physical therapy. I also realized that I was not registered for any races or for running commitment at all for the future, and focused on the thought that after I finished this race, I could just focus on rehabilitation and complete healing before returning to any training or racing in 2022.

I see Bonnie, who turned my grimace into a smile!

Those thoughts kept me moving toward the mile 12 marker, where Bonnie was waiting as we had earlier agreed. She was relieved to hear that I wasn't too badly dinged up, and that I was intent on taking care of myself as I slowly worked my way to the finish line. Bonnie called out "I'll see you at the finish!" The route made a hairpin turn as we approached the Lake; across the Meadow, I saw the bobbing sign for the 2:45 pace group. They looked so cheerful from a distance! It had been 7 - 8 minutes since I was at that spot, but I knew that they were moving somewhat faster than I was. I was motivated not to get passed by that group, and kept power walking. A trio of women dressed in cow costumes who coach with Charge Running passed me and checked in on me, thanks Natalie and Betsy! I assured them that it was just my back muscles and that I was basically OK, and they continued on to the finish.

Red is fastest, orange is fast enough, green is slower,
blue is walking, dark blue is walking very slowly

On the path on the south side of the lake, I remembered my difficult finish from 2014. Today was much slower, but I didn't feel as badly. Only 0.4 miles or so to go. I began jogging at an easy pace, and that wasn't too bad. All of that walking during the past hour must have helped. I caught up to another runner that had passed me a moment earlier. My intention was to run with him into the finish. I tried to encourage with a little small talk about whether he had run this race before ("no, first time for this race") and then pointing out the mile 13 sign up ahead. Either he slowed down or I sped up a little when I heard the finish line announcer. Turning the curve outside of the Active Oval, I spotted the race clock, saw 2:44:35, and realized that I might finish before the clock clicked over to 2:45 if I didn't slow down. Brian Minor ran up to the fence to cheer me on, the announcer called out my name, and then I was through the finish line, 2:44:55 clock time, 2:41:54 chip time. Bonnie was on the right photographing my finish, the Charge Running team was cheering to my left. "Quite the rooting section!" said the announcer. Bonnie captured a smile on my face as I slowed to a walk.