This morning's race, the Atlanta's Finest 5K, has been run on the same or very similar courses ever since I first took on this race in 2014. Earlier this year, the Publix 5K and the Hotlanta 5K covered similar routes. Although I finished under 27 minutes in both races, I was dissatisfied with my positive split in the Hotlanta race, for which the final mile was identical to today's race route.
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| With Bonnie around 6:15 am, with the National Center for Civil and Human Rights in the foreground, and the tallest building in Atlanta (Bank of America tower) in the background. |
Bonnie and I arrived early, and shortly after 6:30 am, I warmed up on that final stretch of the race route on Luckie Street. Turning around at North Avenue, I paid careful attention to how the route initially slightly dropped in elevation, then a substantial uphill section to the intersection with Ivan Allen Boulevard, followed by the reward of a downhill finish. I could see the Hyatt Place Hotel in the distance, and knew that it was exactly half a mile from North Avenue to passing that hotel, which would be close to the 3-mile marker. My legs, lungs, and spirit all felt good this morning, and while I knew that I wasn't going to run anything close to a personal best today, I felt confident in my ability to execute today's race plan.
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| Spoiler alert: blue is slower than green, with red at my fastest! We started the race at the green marker and finished at the red marker. I guess you can stop reading, now that you know that I ran well today. |
I decided to set my watch to kilometers, thinking that it would be preferable to break the race into five smaller pieces than three mile-long stretches. For the first kilometer, the goal was not to run faster than 5:35 min / km (about 9 min / mile), but then to gradually but cautiously pick up speed with the following kilometers, saving enough energy for the Luckie Street Hill early in the last kilometer, and then enjoy a fast downhill finish.
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| Before the race, with Jocelyn Disher, Lisa Schoolcraft, Bonnie, and Emily Grossman |
I lined up with wave B, more than halfway back from the front of the pack, a couple of rows behind Susie Kim (another spoiler alert: Susie won her age group today!). Ronell Blackmon was today's MC, but the airhorn was sounded by Atlanta's chief of police. I restrained the urge to run past too many others and managed to stay about 15 - 20 feet behind Susie as we worked our way north on Marietta Street. After I few minutes we both caught up to Donna Roberts, and we ran together for a moment. Donna regularly runs with the early morning Tucker Running Club events, but since I'm not training for anything big right now, I've not been motivated to get up at 5:30 am for weekday runs. (Yet one last spoiler alert: Donna won 3rd in her age group!) At 5:38 elapsed, my watch sounded the kilometer 1 alert. I gradually moved ahead of both Donna and Susie: Donna called out "Go for it, Frank!" and I shouted back "Not until the last half-mile!" which I genuinely meant.
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| After the race, with Lisa, Donna and Shawn Roberts. Donna and Shawn both served as volunteers this morning - and I'm particularly thankful to Shawn for giving runners ice-cold water bottles at the finish line! |
A few minutes after crossing the North Avenue overpass, the Georgia Tech campus was visible to our right. As I passed the mile 1 marker, I noticed that my watch read 9:00 flat, which was exactly where I wanted to be at this stage in the race. I was still being cautious about my pace but was no longer running with a mental "brake" on my speed. At 11:12 elapsed, the kilometer 2 alert sounded, 5:34, so I was very gradually increasing my pace. Perfect, I thought, I felt good and was very happy to be executing my plan. We soon made the sharp right turn onto Tech Parkway around 13:30 elapsed, which was close to the halfway point of the race route. I could see Susie about 100 feet behind me after I came out of the hairpin turn.
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| With Joe Dean before the race. Are we twins?? It's always great to see old friends and meet new people at races. Joe and I seem to have similar ability, so I hope to see him at many future races. |
Up ahead I noticed the yellow singlet of a man named Joe, who had introduced himself to us around 6:30 am this morning. He noticed my yellow Atlanta Track Club singlet, although his singlet had no logo. We talked for a few minutes, turns out he was formerly a police officer, and used to run a lot back in the 1980's. As we seemed to be similar ages, and he was also wearing a wave B bib, I was wondering if we had similar ability. He seemed to be running well and so I used him as a pacer for the next couple of minutes. At the water station, about 16 minutes in, Joe slowed down to take a cup of water. I heard a few cheers "Frank! Frank!" and accepted a cup of water from Stephanie Batson - thanks! I remembered in my first Atlanta's Finest race how I had skipped the water station and was extremely thirsty for the remainder of the race, so I've used the water stop ever since.
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| Pretty good elevation vs. pace profile, if I say so myself. The water station walk shows up prominently! |
I only needed about 20 seconds walking to finish my cup of water, then resumed running. The kilometer 3 alert sounded at 16:40 elapsed, 5:28, and a minute later at 17:40 elapsed, passed the mile 2 marker, about an 8:40 min/mile pace. Wow, I was impressed with my pace discipline this morning! Around that time I caught up with Joe, we exchanged a brief greeting, and leapfrogged each other for a minute or two. We came up on a little hill, and at that point Joe ran by a young man who was walking, and with a word of encouragement from Joe, the younger man sprinted ahead of us. With a little climb and a gentle right curve, we were at the intersection with North Avenue.
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| First glimpse of the Hyatt Place Hotel, at North Avenue (top) Getting a little closer at Pine Street (bottom) |
I could see the Hyatt Place Hotel in the distance. "5 minutes" I thought to myself, "I can do anything for 5 minutes!" And shortly afterwards the kilometer 4 alert sounded, 21:59 elapsed, 5:19. To this stage I had been running fairly easily. Now it was time to turn up the intensity, just as the elevation began to rise. I left Joe behind as I proceeded to run strongly up the hill. The young man who had sprinted ahead slowed to a walk and I quickly passed him as well. By the way, at that stage in the Hotlanta 5K in June, I was walking, but not today! While it was tough going, every time I looked up, the Hyatt Place Hotel was closer and closer, and it was easier to read the sign with every passing minute. It was like the hotel drew me like a magnet up to the top of the hill!
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| Just a few blocks from the finish line! |
Finally I had reached Ivan Allen Boulevard! 25:20 elapsed - when I ran this race in 2019, I had already finished by that time, but I put that thought aside and just returned to my positive attitude about perfectly executing today's race plan for the first 4 kilometers. And now that we were running downhill, I was able to pick up the pace. Zipping down the street past the Georgia Aquarium, I passed several other runners - and no one passed me, thank goodness. I wanted to keep it that way, so I kept my mental accelerator at maximum. My heart rate was pretty high at this time, but I also knew that the finish line was very close. Racing past the mile 3 marker around 26:10 (8:20 min / mile pace for mile 3), we had to run straight ahead to the intersection with Baker Street and then make a left turn. Not a problem, I dug as I made the right-angle turn. In front of the aquarium on Baker Street, it's a few feet uphill to the finish line, but Ronell was cheering runners into the finish. I just focused on running straight to the line, passing a young boy on my way to the finish line. I heard the kilometer 5 alert sound simultaneously with seeing 29 minutes on the clock, and then I was across the timing mat, raising both arms in celebration, stopping my watch at 27:17. The first person that I recognized after the finish line was Sam Benedict, who had finished just ahead of me but started in wave A, so he said "I think you beat me on time!"
When I checked my Garmin results, I was delighted to see that I ran the fifth kilometer in 5:10, continuing my steady progression in speed, despite some uphill sections in the last two kilometers. Although my official time, 27:12, was a little slower than I had run earlier this year in the Publix 5K (26:41) and the Hotlanta 5K (26:35), I was much happier with today's performance, because I had perfectly executed my race plan from start-to-finish. After accepting a cold bottle of water from a volunteer, I turned around to see Joe crossing the finish line, followed shortly by Atlanta council member Alex Wan, then Susie Kim and Donna Roberts.
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| Official results link |
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