About a month ago, Coach Carl recommended that it would be good to get another 5K practice race in the schedule. When I found the Memorial Day run midway between my last 5K on May 14 and the upcoming June 12 finale race, Carl was very happy with the timing between the two races, "to get used to the intensity of the 5K distance."
In the meantime, we've had a lot of chaos: my father-in-law had cardiac bypass surgery on May 16. The surgery seemed to go well, then some complications set in, and that has slowed his recovery, so that he is still in the cardiovascular ICU 2 full weeks after surgery. On top of that, my mother-in-law recently caught COVID. She is fully vaccinated and doubly boosted, and while she is definitely sick, it doesn't seem to be life-threatening, although with older adults, one always must be cautious. Fortunately everyone else in the family has tested negative, but no one can visit my father-in-law in the hospital for a couple more days. As Bonnie had more interaction with her mother-in-law than I did, we agreed that I would sleep in the guest bedroom for a few days, and wear masks when we're in the same room in the house. Bonnie's sister-in-law is staying with her mother, helping to take care of her right now, while also trying to protect herself from getting sick.
With a five-second countdown, the airhorn sounded promptly at 7:30 am. The entire mass of runners in front of me moved forward in unison. "Take your time" I reminded myself, as we made a clockwise loop through the parking lot for the first quarter-mile. Once we were onto the main route, on East Piedmont Road, I had more room to run, so I accelerated for a moment, then deliberately slowed down a bit to run a sustainable pace. I was running on the left side of the road, but moving around the same speed as the runners around me, so at least I had correctly self-seeded.
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| Hilly course, out and back |
I finished mile 1 in 8:24. 22 foot ascent, 68 foot descent. We had run fairly continuously downhill since leaving the parking lot. No wonder it felt rather easy, with my heart rate in the mid 150 bpm range. And as we progressed through the second mile, now on a gentle but unending uphill section, I could feel myself slowing down. I was looking across the street for the lead runners in the 5K, knowing that once they turned around, I could look for the turnaround point for myself. "I'm glad I'm not running the 10K today" I thought. Around 12 minutes into my race, I saw a pair of runners heading back. I began counting, "1, 2." Then "3, 4; 5, 6". And on and on. A man who had passed me while running with a dog was #40, there were another 10 or so people behind him. Then I reached the sign to turn around, and a woman holding cups of water. I wasn't sure if I was that thirsty, but was pretty sure that I would regret it later if I didn't take water. "Thank you!" as I accepted the cup of water, walked around the hairpin turn, quickly drank two mouthfuls, then returned to running, less than a 20 second walk break. 14:45 elapsed at the turnaround mark, 1.72 miles into the race. Good, more than halfway done. At this rate, I was on track to finish between 26 - 27 minutes.
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| Whew, really dialed up the heart rate going up that hill. And that was only midway through the race. |
The big hill that we had just run up, now it was time to glide down. I regained some speed, even caught up to a woman that had been in front of me. I wasn't interested in passing her, but my momentum carried me forward. Mile 2 finished in 8:46, 17:10 elapsed. 75 foot ascent, 33 foot descent, so it made sense that I slowed down a bit. The route continued gently downhill, I picked up a little more speed. I heard a runner behind me pass quickly to my left: I didn't try to keep up with him, as he disappeared quickly in front of me.
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| Coach Carl warned about the intensity of 5K racing. |
The road flattened for a moment, and I could see that the elevation was about to rise again. There was a man without a shirt and with a big tattoo on his back, who was walking: I passed him, kept running for about 30 seconds to make sure that I gave him some room. Then about 21:50 in, I put up my right arm and took a walk break. 2.57 miles elapsed: my heart rate was red-lining, I wanted to make sure that I finished the race. The man with the tattoo and the woman passed me. I counted to 30 seconds, then began running again, as I crested the top of the little hill. It felt good to run: the short walk break had given me a second wind, and as we went slightly downhill again, within a few seconds, I had passed both people. Then I began to tire again. Another walk break at 24:20, 2.82 miles. I counted to 30 seconds, then kept walking while I tried to find the will to run again. "C'mon Frank, just a couple of minutes to the finish line." And I began running again, refreshed by the short walk break, and once again passed the pair that I had passed me while I was walking.
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| Three walk breaks. That's two fewer than two weeks ago in Kirkwood. |
Now to make the turn into the shopping center. Not much further: downhill into the lot, then a hairpin turn following the sign, where I heard the mile 3 alert: 26:03 elapsed, 8:53 for mile 3, 43 feet ascent, 52 feet descent. Then a left toward the finish line. But. So. Far. Away. And 8 feet uphill for that final little stretch. Sweat was pouring into my eyes, I was gasping for breath. Then I heard someone cheering for a runner behind me, and I put in one final surge to fly over the finish line. I stopped my watch: 27:11. Someone scanned my bib, I guess that is what my chip time was based on, 27:15.03. To my surprise, I placed 2nd in my age group, and 47th overall, so I guess I moved up a couple of spots on the return trip from the turnaround where I was 50th by my count. Turns out that the woman who finished just behind me was the overall female grandmaster. And there were two men in the 55 - 59 age group who were 2nd and 3rd overall male grandmasters, so I was really 4th in my age group. 47th out of 250 finishers, within the top 20%, I'll take it!
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| Age group result |
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| 45th- 49th place finishers |
I had brain fog for a few minutes: even bashed my leg into the front bumper of my car while walking slowly across the parking lot with my eyes half closed. But I slowly recovered, eventually slow ran-walked about 1.7 miles of a cool down jog. David Bloomquist ran the 10K, finishing as the 2nd place grandmaster in that race. He asked me how I did: I answered "I survived." "Well, that's what it's all about," David replied. Although my time was a few seconds slower than my result in the Kirkwood race two weeks ago, I felt better about today's result, because I felt like I had more speed in my legs for short bursts. Unfortunately my endurance to run the entire race at 5K pace wasn't there.
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