April 23, 2022: Northside Beltline 3K

The Atlanta Track Club recently partnered with the Atlanta Beltline to re-launch the popular Beltline series of races, after a hiatus of a couple of years due to the pandemic. The first event of 2022 was today's Northside Beltline 5K / 3K. There were Northside Beltline 5K races in the past, however these were not held as regularly as the Eastside 10K or Southwest 5K races. The Northside section of the Beltline has developed a little more slowly and as far as I know, is still not directly connected to the Eastside or Southwest sections, but during the pandemic, the Northwest Beltline Connector was paved around the Bobby Jones golf course, including a pedestrian bridge over Peachtree Creek and a protected walkway for about one mile, parallel to busy Northside Drive. 

The 5K route was a loop around the Bobby Jones golf course, whereas
the 3K route was mostly out-and-back, parallel to Peachtree Creek for the middle section.

Although I typically register for the longer distances, I decided to try the 3K distance, in line with my current focus on short races. I don't have an official 3K race time on Athlinks, therefore I was guaranteed to run a new personal best today! I also thought it would be a good time trial, given that I ran the first 3K of my most recent 5K fairly quickly, before slowing down in the 4th kilometer and walking at the beginning of the 5th kilometer. 

The 3K race route turned around before the 1-mile marker.
Look at this very gently rolling course - someone at the
Atlanta Track Club forgot to add the hills to our race route! 
(The 5K route had a big hill on Northside Drive, climbing south from Peachtree Creek.)

Runners gathering before the race - what a great sight after 2 years of pandemic! 

Bonnie and I arrived about an hour before the start of the 5K race, which was scheduled for 8:00 am. After saying hello to several friends and picking up my race bib, I went out for an easy warmup on the new section of the Northside Beltline, where Nicholas Varvel joined me. Nicholas is a fellow Emory professor, in the School of Medicine. Nicholas is training for the Chicago Marathon, and is raising funds for Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy (CURE). We ran out-and-back along the first part of the 5K route, where the connection to Northside Drive was partially blocked by a construction zone. An arrow was painted on the street for the 5K route. I mentioned to Nicholas, "Hopefully the runners will be spaced out well enough to get through this narrow spot." As we returned to the start-finish area, I carefully noted where the turnaround mark for the 3K race was clearly marked. Shortly afterwards, a cart with Atlanta Track Club personnel heading out along the course passed us. At the time, I didn't think anything significant about the cart, figured that they were just checking out the route or perhaps dropping off a volunteer as a course monitor for one of the turns. Before we parted, Nicholas asked me what my goal was, and I predicted around 15 minutes, maybe 14-something if I was running well. So that meant that I was aiming an average of just under 5 minutes per kilometer - and I had already set my watch to metric measurements for today. 

I retraced my steps on the race route in the post-race warm-down jog.
These photos were taken about an hour after the 3K race.  
The "ROAD CLOSED" sign was to the left side before the race,
and the trailer wasn't there, so the obstacles weren't this bad during the race. 

There were four waves for the 5K runners, then at the end was a single wave for the 3K group. Tiffany Haney, who occasionally runs with Tucker Running Club and also works at one of the hospitals near the Emory campus, was holding the ribbon separating the 3K wave from 5K wave D. I hadn't seen Tiffany in awhile, and we had a nice chat while we waited to start. Tiffany said "You have 98 friends running with you today!" I turned around, and noticed a relatively small group. Hmm, not only a guaranteed personal best, but a real opportunity for an age group win! Anyway wave A for the 5K runners started promptly at 8:00 am, followed by the remaining waves at ca. 2 minute intervals. The 3K race was scheduled to start at 8:10 am, but the organizers added 90 seconds to allow a larger gap between the 3K speedsters and the walkers in wave D for the 5K, which I greatly appreciated. As we waited to begin, my favorite master of ceremonies Ronnel Blackmon gave us instructions about a sharp right turn that we would make to get onto the Beltline. Hmm, I thought we were going to run a loop through the neighborhood before going onto the Beltline? I then heard one of the organizers standing to the side say that "We had to change the route ... this morning." Wow, that was unexpected! Oh well, I was pretty sure that there would be people in front of me that I could follow, along with course monitors to ensure that we wouldn't miss any turns.

A couple of minutes before the 3K race start. 
Bonnie is standing behind the white pickup truck at the intersection.

This is Bonnie's view of our group 30 seconds before we started, 
with Ronnel getting us fired up to run our personal bests! 

Ronnel counted down, with a second to go I started my watch, and the airhorn blew. I was on the "second" row of runners, however a bunch of children took off and were 50 feet ahead of me within mere seconds. I had seen Bonnie waiting for me up ahead, and managed to flash a smile as I approached and then passed. We did make that sharp turn onto the Beltline: Rich Kenah was warning us to watch the curb, so I took an exaggerated step to ensure that I didn't drag a foot over the curb as I cut the corner very tightly. 

"Hi Bonnie!"

"Watch out for the curb!"

Once we were on the Beltline, I felt that I was running unsustainably quickly. I glanced at my watch, which was reading only 4:55 min / kilometer pace. I certainly felt that I was moving faster than that, and more importantly, that my exertion level was pretty high. I gradually managed to dial back my speed just a bit. Within a few minutes, we reached the end of the wave D walkers. Fortunately they had already moved to the right as the first 3K runners had raced by, so my path was mostly clear. However, a young boy in the 3K race group was running just ahead of me. He was keeping ahead of me, then started to weave around. In the moment, I was thinking "Is this kid trying to block me?" but now I think that he was trying to stay out of my way in case I was trying to pass, and was simply unsure of whether he should move to the center amongst the 5K walkers, or to the left away from everyone. I'm thinking of him equally as a fellow competitor, but I should have remembered that to him, I must look huge, as I'm twice his height and probably more than double his weight. Sorry, I didn't mean to intimidate! I ended up passing him but did so safely. My watch sounded 4:43 for the first kilometer. Wow, that's close to a 14 minute race pace if I can keep up that blistering speed. 

What a beautiful morning for running! After the race,
I returned to take a few photos of some of the sights that
I failed to appreciate while I was running like a bat outta hell. 

I then saw some arrows directing us onto the street. I stepped carefully across the short grassy median and over the curb onto the asphalt street, and resumed a decent pace. I wasn't really thinking about the route, was just going to follow directions. But within a couple of minutes, we were at the construction area. There were no course monitors to be seen! I noticed that some of the fast runners had made a left U-turn, so surely the 3K turnaround mark was there, but I couldn't see it! The only directional indicator was the arrow for the 5K route. My watch showed that I was at 7 minutes elapsed, so it seemed reasonable that this was the halfway point. I didn't realize it, but when I looked at my Garmin pace afterwards, I had nearly stopped at this point. A young man passed me as we made the U-turn together, and he took off ahead of me. 

"Where do we turn around?!" I asked out loud. 
No answer. 
(The truck wasn't there during the race.)

I decided to follow him as he seemed to effortlessly and confidently glide over the landscape. I wasn't 100% certain that I was in the right place, but I knew that I was heading back toward the start-finish area and felt like I had covered about 1.5 kilometers before turning around, although in the midst of running quickly, I wasn't going to fool around with my watch to cycle through to find the distance elapsed. I was tiring a little. Coach Carl had warned me to expect feeling increasing effort as I grew tired, but I wasn't worried about finishing. Kilometer 2 sounded, 9:37 elapsed which meant 4:54 for the second kilometer! 

Mid-race, thanks to Tiffany Haney for this photo! 

Peachtree Creek, which I had barely noticed while running

This was the 3K turnaround, which I had noticed at 7:30 am.
I think that people in the cart must have sprayed over this,
shortly after I had passed this point during the warm-up run. 

Beautiful view to the south, on the new Northwest Beltline Connector

While I was still moving pretty well, I wasn't keeping up the sub-5 min / kilometer pace, in fact my watch was showing 5:15 per kilometer. Carl had advised me to "see what you have left" for the third kilometer. By deliberately focusing on that advice, and paying attention to my form, I managed to maintain a decent speed. The gap had gradually grown between me and the young man ahead of me, although I never lost sight of him while we were on the Beltline. With perhaps less than 500 meters to go, I found a second wind and started to move a little faster. The intersection to turn toward the finish quickly approached, I accelerated through the turn to join up with the 5K finishers, dashing toward the finish line, just around a gentle right curve. I heard a couple of women shouting "Go Frank!" Thanks friends, whoever you are! I wasn't looking around, just focused on keeping my head up and looking straight ahead as I used my arms to propel myself forward, as if I was running a stride. And there was the finish line, across, and done!

This was the route that I actually ran. Almost a full 3K.

I immediately slowed to a walk and stopped my watch. "Arghh!!" The watch distance showed only 2.93 kilometers, although it had taken only 14:18, so I had finished well under my 15-minute goal. I sort of wished that I had checked distance before stopping the watch, but was more relieved to stop running and trying to catch my breath. Bonnie called out, I turned around to greet her, and we walked together to pick up a bottle of water. I chatted with friends for a few minutes, but reminded myself that I really needed to run 3 miles or so as an easy warm-down before heading to the car. 

Bonnie didn't expect to see me so soon, so missed the finish line photo, 
but caught me from the back just as I'm realizing that I only ran 2.93 kilometers.

I was pleasantly surprised to see that I finished in 7th place! 8th place was only 3 seconds behind me, so it's a good thing that I continued to run quickly through the finish line. It turns out that the 5K route was also a little short, based on the results that I saw on Strava. Given that the track club had to make changes in the last hour before the start of the race, and this was probably a new race course, I won't hold a grudge regarding the short distance. The pandemic has taught me never to take for granted the value of friends joining together to run in-person races. The most important thing is that I don't think that anyone was injured. I'm confident that the track club will work out the bugs in time for next year's race. 

I had nearly stopped at the turnaround, unsure of what I should do! 

I'm pleasantly surprised to see myself in 7th place! 
It was a photo-finish with an 8-year old boy.
I didn't think to lean as I sprinted over the finish line,
otherwise I might have placed 6th! 

April 9, 2022: Atlanta Track Club Grand Prix 400 m

About one month ago, the Grand Prix 400 meter track sprint race appeared on the Atlanta Track Club web site. I decided to register, just to get the Grand Prix participation points, and assured Coach Carl that it wasn't a goal race, so didn't want to interfere with the long run scheduled for that day. 

When the heat assignments for the 400 meter race appeared on Friday morning, I was momentarily panicked. "There's no way that I can run a 1:25 400 meter sprint!" 

Then I checked this blog, and found my entry from June 2020, where I had run 1:26 on a straight path, and confirmed on Athlinks:

In the morning, I ran 9 miles on the Roswell Riverwalk. The weekend long runs are to build endurance, so the purpose is not to run fast. The good thing about having a race later in the day was that I took the long run very carefully, with conservative 2:00 run / 0:30 walk intervals. I was really diligent about the post-run stretching and strengthening exercises before heading home. 

Sobering reminders on the Roswell Riverwalk,
from the Equal Justice Initiative 

After a relaxing afternoon at home (even a short nap), we headed to Cheney Field in the Summerhill neighborhood, near the former Olympic Stadium. I was hoping to see 97-year old Betty Lindberg run the 100 meter sprint, or the 1500 meter masters race, but apparently she was a no-show today. A couple of weeks ago, I had heard a really nice interview with Betty on the "Ali on the Run" podcast, celebrating her 5K masters world record. I proudly wore my new "Run Like Betty" shirt for this afternoon, but over a long-sleeve race shirt, due to unseasonably cool temperatures for April in Atlanta. 

Around 5:20 pm, the announcer called for the runners in the first 5 heats to gather on the infield. With me being in heat #10, I figured that was just enough time to run an easy warmup mile, in a couple of loops around the park. That really helped to loosen up any tightness from this morning's 9-miler. But when I returned, the 400 meter heats had not yet started! The meet was still working through some 100 meter sprints. It was amazing to watch a pair of the sprinters breaking 11 seconds. But with my premature warmup, I started to tighten up again, so just kept moving around the park, walking and occasionally jogging. Finally the first heats of the 400 meters began. With large groups up to 16 runners per heat, they were doubling up with two runners in each lane. Remember, the 400 meter race has a staggered start along the first curve, and runners remain in the same lane from start to finish. I was just hoping that I would be paired with someone that was clearly faster - or clearly slower than me, so there wouldn't be any awkward attempts to pass within a narrow lane. 

Lining up with the runners in heat #10, I had the last number, 16, so was headed for lane 8. There were a few no-shows, but runner 15, Emily, was a young woman in training for Grandma's Marathon in Duluth, Minnesota in June. She had submitted a slow time so that she wouldn't feel the pressure of having to run fast - I didn't share that I was suffering from imposter syndrome from having submitted a time that was too fast, but just said "I already decided that if the other person in my lane was younger than me, she would start in front!" As it turns out, there were two no-shows in earlier lanes, so Emily took lane 7 and I took lane 8. I knew that in lane 8, with everyone else behind me, that if anyone moved in front of me early in the race, I would already be losing. Obviously not the best mindset to have for a race, but reminded myself that I was simply running for Grand Prix participation points and that it was a "fun lark." 

I carefully placed my left toe an inch behind the yellow line, the starter announced "Set!" I slightly crouched to spring forward, and a shot rang out starting our race! With five quick steps I was off into the race with the word PUSH! in my mind. 

Then to my left, Emily already passed me while we were still on the curve. And on the first straightaway, where I had intended to PACE, I could see several runners to my left already out in front. Emily was 20 meters in front, however it seemed that I had finally caught up to her pace, as the gap wasn't growing. 

At the 200 meter mark, I remembered the advice to re-invest in the race, in the POWER stage. In that moment, a surge of lactate washed through my legs. The air grew thick around my body, as if I was running into the wind - maybe I was? The thick air wasn't making its way all the way down into my lungs. I desperately tried to increase my speed, but the gears in my legs were slipping, I could not accelerate. 

At the 300 meter mark, beginning the final straightaway, I picked up my head and tried to PRAY my way to the finish. Not working, I continued to slow down. Some of the runners far ahead of me were already finishing. 70+ year old Sam Benedict in lane 1 was pulling ahead. Then I heard Bonnie shout "Frank, bring the pain! Bring the pain!" Oh, it was painful for sure. 

For a second I was wondering if I was about to suffer a cardiac episode. But I kept throwing one leg in front of the other, the finish line was approaching, I saw 1:35 on the clock a couple of steps before crossing the line, and DONE!

Still awaiting an official result, but I'm thinking this was a 1:36 finish.

I was completely out of breath - but I heard Rich Kenah, the Executive Director of the Atlanta Track Club with some words of encouragement, "Nice job, 6-minute mile pace" which I guess was almost true for me. It wasn't a 1:25 performance, but I wasn't the last one to cross the line in my heat. And by that point, I had run over 10 miles for the day, so it was not the best way to prepare for a short sprint race. 

I reached top speed in the first 100 meters, then gradually decelerated. 
But I was pleasantly surprised to see that the decline in my speed
wasn't as steep as it had felt while I was running.

As I took an easy cool-down half-mile after the race, I thought to myself, surely I can run these short distances better if I can train for them. 

April 2, 2022: Atlanta Hawks Fast Break 5K

Today was the first race of what I've jokingly called the "Spring 2022 Mano-a-Mano Grandmaster Race Series." Shortly after the Publix 5K in late February, Brian Minor and I agreed on three 5K races, then subsequently a few weeks later added a 1-mile race to the mix:

    April 2: Atlanta Hawks Fast Break 5K

    May 7: Adidas Running City Mile

    May 14: Kirkwood Spring Fling 5K

and as our Grand Finale,

    June 12: The Hotlanta 5K

To prepare for these races, I completed a form analysis with Coach Carl Leivers at the very end of February, and began a 14-week 5K training program on March 7. From the form analysis, I've been assigned some exercises to strengthen my glutes and improve my balance, and have gained three tips to improve my form:

• Keep my eyes up and look ahead, to help with posture and breathing,
• As my left arm tends to fly out from my body, possibly causing my legs to move slightly out of balance, try to consciously keep the left arm closer, matching what I'm properly doing with the right arm, and
• Maintain a constant cadence whether I'm running easily or quickly. 

I haven't been as diligent with the post-run strengthening and balancing exercises .... 

OK, I'm back. I took a short break from writing this blog post to work those in. It's been easier to work on the three form tips. I'm definitely getting stronger and gradually beginning to run faster, probably not only a result of the form adjustments and the training plan, but also stringing together three straight months of running without pain or injury. Coach Carl previously pointed out that my great season in late 2019 through March 2020 resulted in part from a full year of training without injury or pain interrupting my progress. That memory keeps me motivated to remember the exercises! 

In front of the statue of my contemporary, Dominique Wilkins,
a star player with the Atlanta Hawks from the 1980s and 1990s, and
goodwill ambassador for the greater Atlanta community.

This morning after arriving at State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta, I had picked up my bib number and was walking outside with Bonnie through the pre-race festivities, when I was "interviewed" by our favorite DJ, Ronnel Blackmon. Ronnel noticed that I was wearing what he called a "vintage" shirt from the 2016 race. I told him that at the time, that was my personal best 5K, and I was hoping to have another good run this morning. "Ronnel, your enthusiasm is probably worth at least 15 seconds off of my finishing times!" which got a big laugh. 

I think that Brian had arrived before we did, but it took us awhile to find each other in the crowd. About 20 minutes before the race started, we warmed up together, running from the finish on the last 1/2 mile of the course, and then returning for the 1-mile warmup that Coach Carl had recommended. As we ran by the medical tent, Brian recalled a joke that I had passed on several years ago: "I don't think you've tried unless you've gone to the medical tent." 

Frank and Brian ready to warm up

Although Brian had a wave A bib, he agreed to start with me in wave B. As we lined up, we were standing next to Da'Rel Patterson, one of the founders of The Race, who was running this morning with his son. Wave A took off at 8:00 am sharp, then we stepped forward in wave B for our 8:02 am start. Ronnel led us in a big group cheer, counted down 15 seconds, and at the sound of the air horn, we took off! I started my watch before crossing the starting mat with Brian. Brian immediately got ahead of me, which was fine. My strategy was to keep Brian in front of me as much as possible, hopefully keeping him in sight but with a short gap that I could close at any time of my choosing. I intended to run the first mile in about 8:30, then gradually turn up the intensity in mile 2 and again in mile 3. As we made the first turn onto Marietta Street, Bonnie took Brian's photo, and I heard him shout "I'm beating him!" I passed Bonnie just a few seconds later, put my finger to my lips indicating that I intended to quietly stalk him. 

Brian and I are running past Bonnie in the first block

I had thought that this year's race route was identical to the 2016 route, and had diligently memorized the positions of the four hills from that route. Although today's route it had the same general shape, this year we turned right off of Marietta at least two blocks earlier than in 2016, onto Forsyth Street instead of Pryor Street. As a result, the 2022 route added two more uphill sections in the first two miles. But I didn't realize it during the race. I thought that I had just gotten confused, expecting to run downhill when in fact we were clearly running a gentle incline. However, the additional hill slowed both Brian and me, so while my starting pace had been sub 8-minute mile at the beginning, I settled into a pace that was slightly slower than 8 minutes per mile. Da'Rel and his son passed us midway through the first mile, and I settled in about 4 seconds behind Brian, based on counting the time that it took me to reach a pylon that Brian had previously passed. When we turned onto Trinity Avenue about 7 minutes in, Brian was running to the left side of the road and took the turn a bit wide, whereas I was on the right side and ran the tangent perfectly, briefly pulling even with Brian. I wasn't sure that Brian had noticed me (turns out, he had) and he regained the lead, so I was able to get back into my preferred position. Around this time I had caught up with Da'Rel and his son, even drafted off of Da'Rel's tall physique for a moment. Then he turned up the speed, moving ahead of Brian as well, and we both heard Da'Rel say to his son, "Follow me" as he worked through a small crowd of runners that had probably started in wave A. Brian called out "I'll catch up with you at the finish!" I stayed quiet, and passed the mile 1 marker in 8:31, exactly as planned, then slightly turned up my speed, as we climbed an overpass over railroad tracks onto Peters Street, heading into the Castleberry Hill neighborhood. I had expected this hill as the second hill, yet we were definitely going up our third hill in today's race.

The water stop was early in the second mile. I wasn't sure if I would take water, but I could see Brian positioning himself to the right side of the road. He took a cup, I followed a second behind and took a cup from the next volunteer. I only managed to take a couple of sips, as I didn't really slow down. Brian tossed his cup toward a garbage box, where it bounced off of the rim like an errant basketball shot. In contrast, my cup went straight into the center of the next garbage box. By this time, I knew that Brian had seen me at the water stop, so I called out "Brian! The rules say that you gotta come back and pick up your cup offa the street!" He replied "I'll come back for it later!" and motored away. Obviously I had enough breath to trash talk midway through the race. I checked my watch, and my heart rate was only around 140 beats per minute. Pleasantly surprised that I felt so good after more than a mile, I turned up my speed some more, which coincided with a nice gentle downhill section. What I didn't count on was that Brian slowed down just a bit at the same time, and I flew past him. Uh oh, I didn't want to be in front of Brian at this point. Fortunately I could easily spot his red singlet when I occasionally whipped my head around to the left. 

My memory of the 2016 route was that we made a right down going downhill to Northside Drive. But today, we went uphill before turning right. I decided that I just hadn't remembered the route correctly, and focused on just running the route, whatever it was. On Northside Drive, we headed downhill, I stayed in front of Brian, even caught up with Da'Rel and his son. In fact I was passing quite a few people, and that was really exciting. I spotted the mile 2 marker up ahead, as I heard someone in the crowd behind me ask "How much further?" and then I clearly heard Brian's voice "Just one-point-one miles to go!" Brian caught up to me as we passed the mile 2 marker, 16:25 elapsed, 7:54 for mile 2. Now it was supposed to be hammer time! But I couldn't go any faster as we began to climb a fifth hill - where I thought it should only have been the third hill. Da'Rel Patterson and his son moved ahead of me, then Brian moved in front of me but didn't catch up with the Pattersons. 

2016 race route (left), 2022 rate route (right)

Doubt began to creep into my mind. I tried to summon my inner warrior to chase away Doubt, which had worked in another race in this part of town a few years ago, in which I had run sub-24 minutes. But instead, Doubt's evil cousin Fatigue heavily landed onto my shoulders. We turned off of Northside Drive onto Chapel Street, carrying the weight of Fatigue. I decided to let off of the accelerator for a moment as Fatigue and I continued to climb uphill. But I was really struggling. Brian opened up an ever-larger gap, I didn't see anything or anyone riding on his shoulders. I took a quick look at my watch, saw that my heart rate was a stunning 180 beats per minute, at 21 minutes elapsed. A sense of self-preservation conquered my competitive spirit, as I gave in to a short but necessary walk break. Just 30 seconds, I said to myself, as I counted 1 second for every 2 steps. After 30 seconds, Fatigue tried to talk me into not running, but I insisted on returning to a running motion, as we turned left onto Centennial Olympic Park Drive, at the same corner where Brian and I had turned around on our mile warmup. So just 1/2 mile to go! Elapsed time was about 21:30. I told myself, just four minutes to the finish line, I can do anything for four minutes. But unfortunately I just could not get back up to high speed. After the race, I realized that I probably lost all sense of proper form after the walk break. I imagine that I was scanning the pavement ahead of me for potholes instead of looking up - but in Atlanta, gotta watch for road hazards, and volunteers were occasionally warming us about big cracks or metal plates on the road. Probably I was letting my left arm flail around - was that because I was trying to shake Fatigue off of my arm? When I checked my Garmin stats after the race, my cadence had definitely slowed down around the time that Doubt had joined me a few minutes earlier. Basically I had run an excellent 4-kilometer race today. Too bad I had paid for 5 kilometers. 

I could still see Brian in the distance, then he was gone after making the left turn at Mercedes-Benz Stadium to the finish line. I tried to count the seconds for me to get to the corner but gave up after 20. Finally I made my own turn. I had regained a little speed, probably running a low 8 minute / mile pace, but I had fully expected to run something closer to 7:40 min / mile to finish. I stopped thinking about Brian (who I heard did make a strong kick after the 3-mile marker). Finally I reached the 3-mile marker, turned right to see the finish line up ahead in front of the Georgia World Congress Center. There was a drum corps lined up on both sides of the last 50 meters of the race. I didn't really feel like running fast, my race was lost, but the percussion of the drums must have knocked Fatigue from my shoulders to crash onto the pavement behind me, and I made a decent little sprint over the finish line. 25:46 official time.  

Congratulations to Brian! 

I was absolutely exhausted, accepted a bottle of water from a volunteer (who was Donna Roberts' son, Sean), and stopped to put my hands on my knees. Brian was there, I congratulated him, and commented that I was glad that at least he looked a little tired! After a moment, Rich Kenah was asking runners to clear the post-finish area, and I walked following Brian and Bonnie to enter the stadium to pick up this year's race shirt and cap. I was slowly recovering, and feeling better when we left the stadium a few minutes later to meet up with Beverly and Brenden, Brian's wife and son. Brenden's smile for his "Uncle Frank" definitely cheered me up, and I felt OK within about 10 minutes after finishing the race. Then I realized that I still had some work to do: the training plan had me running an easy cooldown for 2 - 3 miles. While I really didn't want to do the cooldown run, I reminded myself that this was part of the process to get to my best possible outcome for the races to come, and as I began to run slowly, I gradually began to feel better, both physically and mentally. 

In every race, there's a winner (left) and there's second place (right)

Over brunch, Brian reminded me that I had run faster today than our last two 5K races together (Thanksgiving 5K in 2021, 26:19; Publix 5K in 2022, 26:41) and then I realized that it was my first sub-26 minute 5K in nearly two years (Publix Summer Series 5K, August 2020, 25:50). If I had run the second mile a bit more conservatively today, I suspect that I would not have struggled as much in the last kilometer today. So while I didn't win today's race, and didn't even run the best strategy, at least I gained a good sense of my current level of ability, which will help as I continue with training, and in the next races. 

For fun, a few weeks ago I made a faux poster for our upcoming 1-mile duel on May 7: