Running for the second half of my life: 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:

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:

April 2, 2022: Atlanta Hawks Fast Break 5K

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