Running for the second half of my life: May 14, 2022: Kirkwood Spring Fling 5K

Over the last two weeks, with evening temperatures above 80 degrees F, I've failed to complete my speed workouts on the track. Don't push me cause I'm close to the edge. I'm trying not to lose my head. It's like a jungle sometimes it makes it wonder how I keep from going under.

Do I need to put quotes around the last three sentences if I'm writing as my alter ego

Grandmaster Flash? Can this count as "sampling"?!

Today was the third event in the "Mano-a-mano 5K race series" with Brian Minor, a k a "Happy Feet". I had run this race three years ago, scoring a 2nd place age group award with a 25:09 finish, however I knew this year that I wasn't the same runner. After an easy course run on Thursday evening, I decided that 27 minutes was possible, but only if I ran fairly conservatively.

I was lucky to run into Brian early in my warmup on Oakview Road, and we had a nice chance to catch up on life while I also took a few photos for the blog. The morning temperature was 63 degrees, which was about 20 degrees cooler than my recent evening runs. However 94% morning humidity had the potential of canceling any benefit from the lower temperature. Indeed after completing the easy warmup, I couldn't stop sweating!

Your contestants somewhere on Oakview Road during their warmup

At 8:15 am, Brian went to find his family, while I stood on the sidewalk doing a few post-warm-up stretches. Nearly 600 other runners began to close in for the start of the race. Around 8:25, I realized that Brian and I hadn't made a plan to find each other for the starting line. I had taken a position about 50 - 100 feet from the starting line, but couldn't find Brian anyway. At 8:29, it was clear that the race was about to begin, and at 8:30 sharp, a siren announced the start of our race. Oh well, chip timing would determine our head-to-head outcome, even though it would have been nice to start together.

I was determined to start out slowly for the first mile. I knew that the first half-mile was downhill, and managed to keep my starting pace slower than 9 min / mile, although the mass of other runners helped me avoid going too quickly. A dog and person passed me in the initial blocks: I was amazed that the dog seemed to be simply walking, due to the benefits of a rapid cadence and short strides! I wondered if Brian would come up from behind to join me, but I never saw him.

I love the quirky character of Kirkwood.
This is in the median strip of Oakview Road, about 1/2 mile into the race route.
In case you're wondering, I took these photos before the race.

Near the bottom of a hill, I began to speed up a bit, saw my pace dip below 9 min / mile, and deliberately slowed down, knowing that I needed to save my energy for the last half-mile of the race. A volunteer was announcing that we would make a left turn "about a quarter-mile ahead". That came up quickly, and before I knew it, I was approaching the one-mile mark, 8:39 elapsed. Tim the photographer from True Speed Photo was taking photos. A couple just in front of me, wearing the red race shirts, leapt and bumped hips just as their photo was taken! I hope that I was smiling naturally when my photo was taken. (By the way, I'll add the free photos from True Speed when they are available.)

Now we were in the heart of the race. I had never stopped sweating since the warmup, and while the coolness of the wet singlet was helpful, my pulse rate was already about 160 bpm on just the second uphill section. I had the irresistable urge to take a walk break about 10 minutes in. Counting to 30 seconds, also counting about 20 people that passed me during the walk break, I thought to myself, "that's what you get for doing run-walk on your easy days." But when I resumed running, I felt a little better, and immediately passed a few of the people that had just passed me. 13 minutes in, I saw a small group to the right handing out cups of water, and decided to take one. Gulping down a couple of sips, I spontaneously poured the rest on my head, but it was a cold shock, only on the right side of my head. So I was cooling only the right brain, the half-brain responsible for emotion, but the left logical brain was still overheated.

I'm curious to check out the Hawk Hollow on another visit, hopefully soon!

I heard someone in the crowd say "Halfway done" and felt good that I was at least on pace to finish in less than 30 minutes. People in the neighborhood were cheering us from their front porches, which I really enjoyed and appreciated. Around 16 minutes in, midway up yet another hill, I decided to take another walk break. In the moment, I felt bad about myself for walking, but I was able to get back up to a decent speed after about 30 seconds of walking, and it was clear that was my only chance to get through this race. A few other people that looked like decent runners were also taking short walk breaks.

Turning left onto College Street, I looked behind me to see if I could spot Brian, but didn't recognize anyone. I resumed running, and soon passed the 2 mile marker at 17:30 elapsed, 8:51 for mile 2. That wasn't too bad for two 30-second walk breaks plus a shorter water break. I was now confident that I had a little bit of energy left in reserve, and picked up the pace a bit. Crossing the intersection at Rocky Ford Road, I remembered from Thursday's course run that I had three blocks to go on College Street before the next turn. Going uphill once more, I had to take another walk break around 19:30 elapsed, but returned to a good pace. I had been staying to the right side of the road due to the walk breaks, but making the left turn onto Howard Street, ran the tangent down the middle of the road. I noticed that I was moving at around the same speed as a 12 year old boy. He was also taking periodic walk breaks, so we were leapfrogging each other. Although the road seemed level, I had to take one more walk break around 23 minutes in, then picked up the pace as the elevation began to gently drop.

Crossing the intersection at Delano Street, I knew from the course run that I was about 2.7 miles in. Surely I could make it the rest of the way without taking another walk break! I passed the young boy, approached some businesses so I knew that I was getting close to the turn onto Hosea Williams Drive. I felt that I was flagging a bit, a couple of runners passed me, and that spurred me to pick up the pace again. Passing the mile 3 marker at 26:07 elapsed, 8:37 for mile 3, I was relieved that I had run each mile fairly consistently. Now to the finish! I still had not seen Brian, but I was determined that he wasn't going to kick past me to the finish without having to work for it!

Both feet off the ground - and I'm smiling!

The road gently curved to the left; momentarily I thought that this was the turn onto Kirkwood Road to the finish line, but no, I had to run a little further before finally, making the final left turn. I remembered that kids had chalked encouragement on the street from my warmup, but I kept my head up, to maximize oxygen intake. And on the right side of the road, I saw Brian, "Happy Feet", loudly cheering me on to the finish line. While the thought quickly flashed through my brain that "Brian won" his encouragement spurred to speed up to my maximum effort for the final block through the finish line. 27:08 on my watch, 7:28 min / mile pace for the final 0.13 mile. Official finish time 27:01.6.

Small victories: I outran the 12-year-old boy!

The first 14 finishers in the male 50 - 59 age group:
a fast bunch of geezers showed up and ran well today!

I needed a couple of minutes to regain my breath after the race. As soon as I checked my phone, I saw my official result. Not gonna win an age-group award today! Turns out, Brian had started near the front of the pack, and was looking for me to join him. He finished in 24:15, which was his best 5K time in awhile, although he told me that his coach was encouraging him to try for 22 minutes. Even with the fast finish, Brian was 7th in our age group. As I regained my composure, any disappointment at the loss (was always going to be minor) and the slower time from three years ago (bothered me a little more) was tempered by acceptance that I was making gradual progress as I re-trained. The best part, thanks to semi-strategic walk breaks, was that I ran each mile fairly consistently. The second mile, which was net uphill, was a little slower, and I had a reasonably fast finish, which was simultaneously exhilarating and exhausting. Four weeks to go until the grand finale at the Hotlanta 5K race!