Several months ago, I realized that my 60th birthday would fall on a Saturday. Since then I've watched the Run Georgia calendar for races this weekend, and about a month ago decided to run the Care for Cops 5K in Suwanee. Care for Cops provides support to families of police that have died on duty. Just a couple of days ago, two Cobb County deputies were murdered while serving an arrest warrant, tragically adding two more families to the group supported by Care for Cops.
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| Frank has really turned 60 years old! |
When I awoke this morning around 5 am, walking downstairs to feed the cats, the stiffness in my legs acutely reminded me of this milestone birthday. But admittedly that's nothing unique for today. After moving around the house to make breakfast and get ready, I felt more comfortable. I had hoped that the rain that was forecast for today would stay away for a little longer, but it was raining lightly at our home when I had awakened, and we drove through a light mist / drizzle to Suwanee. Earlier this week, I had purchased new shoes as a birthday gift to myself, but decided that I would wear the 10-month-old pair of shoes that had carried me in the Labor Day 10K race. The best thing about this morning's weather is that it was cool, 66 deg F at the start! I haven't run in temperature below 70 degrees in months. Probably my last cool weather run was in May at sunrise in San José, California.
Brian Minor joined me in our race this morning. With my new decade beginning today, we weren't competing in the same age group. I specifically took off the table the idea of us racing with each other today. While I told Brian this morning to "run your own race", I did admit that I might try to use him as my pacer. We both arrived in Suwanee around 7 am, and picked up our bibs. I decided to warm up with a few short segments, each progressively a little faster, adding up to about a mile. However Brian had not run this week since Monday's 5K race, and he wanted to save most of his steps for the race.
I was aware that I would have an advantage in the race by moving up to a new age group, but as race day approached, I recognized that what was most important was to celebrate my health and fitness. I was going to write that today was a "celebration of life", but that's become a euphemism for "funeral". I'm hoping to run through a few more decades before my grand finale!
Shortly before 8 am, we gathered at the start, about one hundred people in total. I pointed out to Brian that there was no timing mat at the start. The race was probably gun time only, and therefore we should start close to the front. It was clear that we were going to begin precisely at 8:00 am, and with the sound of the airhorn, we were off and running!
I was surprised by how quickly the front of the pack took off. Quite a few people who started behind me ran past in the first minute. I stole a glance at my watch, set to kilometers once again, and saw that I was running just under 5 min / km pace, even though I thought that I was running cautiously. Amongst the 30 - 40 runners in front of us, there were quite a few older men that were moving quickly, either in Brian's age group (50 - 59) or mine (60 - 69). I decided that Bonnie's confident prediction of an age group win or place was unlikely. However I felt good, and just hoped that I wasn't moving too quickly. It was very apparent that as we moved through the streets of the Suwanee town center, we were also running downhill, and I pointed that out to Brian, who was running just in front of me. He was setting a relatively fast pace - but I was comfortable enough and I hoped that the pace would be sustainable for me!
Around 3 minutes elapsed, we began running on a boardwalk paralleling Lawrenceville - Suwanee Road, which gradually sloped downhill toward Suwanee Creek and the Greenway that passes through the local wetland. The surface was wet, so I was mindful of my footing. However I never slipped and didn't see anyone else having trouble with the wet surface. I had studied the elevation profile for the race route ahead of time, so I wasn't surprised by the downhill section, but really tried to hold myself back a bit, knowing that I would need the energy saved at the beginning to get back uphill from the creekbed at the end of this race.
Shortly after we began running on the Greenway, my watch sounded the 1 km alert: 4:52. I knew that I wasn't ready to run a 25 minute 5K race, but was hoping to finish around 26 minutes if everything went well. It seemed that we were still running slightly downhill, and I said as much to Brian running just ahead of me, but when I checked the Garmin elevation profile this afternoon, it was level at 935 feet elevation for the entire second kilometer. Although we were moving quickly, I enjoyed noticing the natural beauty of the trees along the Greenway. I've only run the Suwanee Greenway once before, back in fall 2018 in one of my final runs to prepare for the New York City Marathon.
We passed the 1 mile sign at 8:20 elapsed. "That was a little fast" I said to Brian, but he didn't slow down, and I managed to keep up with him. About this time we passed the first walker, and then a second. They both looked a little tired and not like they were taking a strategic "Galloway" walk break. The Queen song "Another One Bites The Dust" flashed through my mind as we passed each person. Wisely I kept that unsportsmanlike thought to myself. A policewoman was guarding the race route from traffic as we crossed Martins Farm Road, and we passed a water station manned by a single volunteer. I had been a little concerned about following the race route, but all of the turns were either well-marked with a large arrow sign and/or manned by volunteers guiding us in the correct direction. The 2 km alert sounded: 5:07, 9:59 elapsed. Still on pace to finish in 25 minutes?!
Around this time, the lead runner came back in our direction, a moment later followed by an older man. I said to Brian "One of our age group competitors" and then a moment later "and there's another!" After the fourth 50+ year old man had passed us, I decided to stop commenting. Brian hadn't said anything but I thought that I was beginning to sound annoying - and I needed to save my breath for the run. Up ahead I saw a U-turn sign, and as we drew near, the volunteer warned us "Take it easy, it's slippery!" I slowed down, perhaps even walked a few steps to make the 180 degree turn, and fortunately had no trouble with footing. Getting back up to speed, it didn't take long to hear the 3 km alert: 5:17, 15:16 elapsed. For whatever reason, the race route seemed level so perhaps it was an illusion that I had thought that we were running downhill on the outboard section. We passed a couple more runners early on the return leg, and I was careful not to bump elbows in either direction as runners just a minute or two behind us came in the opposite direction.
At Martins Farm Road, Brian slowed down at the water station. I cautiously passed. It wasn't a foolhardy move to skip the water station: I had drank several sips of water after my warmup and immediately before starting the race, and with the cool temperature I didn't feel thirsty at all. I had seen the water station about 30 seconds before we reached it, so I had enough time to make a reasonable decision. As I passed the mile 2 marker, around 16:20 elapsed, I figured that Brian would soon catch up with me. Indeed I soon heard footsteps close behind me. After a moment, I took a quick glance over my left shoulder. It wasn't Brian (wearing a red singlet), but someone that was wearing blue. A moment later, that person caught up to me. I huffed out "Good job!" and he gave me a thumbs up. He was Asian, and I was trying to evaluate how much younger he was, as he had a full head of dark hair. Then thought that perhaps he was my age, but had avoided my combination of gray hair and male-pattern baldness. Perhaps we might run together, as there wasn't much outbound traffic at this point. But he ended up moving ahead of me, and then ahead of the next runner, soon out of sight and out of mind.
I could see that we were approaching the end of the Greenway section as my watch sounded the 4 km alert, 5:14 and 20:30 elapsed. Wow, I might finish in 25:30 if I could keep up the pace! But as we headed back up the wooden boardwalk from the Suwanee Creek basin, I could feel myself slowing down. Afterwards Brian told me that he wasn't that far behind, he saw me slowing down, and expected that I was about to take a walk break. Indeed that has been my M.O. in recent races. However, I had more confidence today, having run a decent 10K race just five days earlier. I told myself, "Just five more minutes, and then you can take a walk break as soon as you cross the finish line." That helped me avoid giving into the temptation to walk. Brian told me later that he realized at that point that he was probably not going to catch up with me if I didn't walk. Nonetheless I was really slowing down. I looked at my watch: 22 minutes elapsed, but now at a 6 min / kilometer pace. "Four more minutes until your walk break" and that helped me maintain a running motion.
Coming off of the boardwalk, the race route leveled off for a moment as we moved back into town. That was just in time: I was probably beginning to red-line with my heart rate, but wasn't looking at my watch any longer, just running, running, running. We began running a gentle uphill stretch on a residential street, where I remembered how easy it had seemed to run in the other direction in the third minute of the race. "Three minutes until your walk break", now accepting that I wasn't realistically going for a sub-26 minute time, but was still doing well relative to my mid-summer 5K races. At the top of the little hill, a volunteer called out "Two turns to go!" as we made the first of those remaining turns, a left turn onto Suwanee Avenue. That volunteer's encouragement really helped me psychologically: even though I didn't know the layout of the town center, I estimated that I had only about three blocks to go. The street went gently downhill for a moment, then leveled out and I began pumping my arms to try to maintain a fairly quick pace. A block later, I could see across a field, there was the finish line!
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| Just coming into the picture, at 25:45 elapsed |
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| 25:57 elapsed |
As I made the final turn, a right turn toward the finish line, I passed a couple of runners, even though we were running uphill. In the distance, I could see Bonnie just past the finish line with her cellphone camera. The uphill finish was cruel and unusual punishment, but still I persisted. I saw 25:45 on the finish line clock: now my priority was to beat 26 minutes! Despite putting on a burst of speed, the numbers on the race clock were also progressing forward rapidly. A runner in front of me crossed the line at 25:57 - oh, I'm going to miss by just a second - but I made it across the finish line without being passed, and held up both arms in a celebration of life my health and fitness!
Bonnie's video captured me accepting a high-five from an earlier finisher, I think it was the Asian man who had passed me several minutes earlier. I turned around, didn't see Brian, and leaned over a traffic cone to catch my breath. Bonnie was cheering loudly, probably pleasantly surprised that I had outrun Brian today! And now I saw Brian working his way uphill toward the finish line. I had just enough energy to clap as he approached and then crossed the finish line.
After I could breathe again, we very slowly walked back toward the Town Center Park, just one short block away, as I basked in Brian's and Bonnie's congratulations! When I checked the race results, which were posted almost immediately after each person finished, I excitedly showed my phone to Bonnie: 1st place age group! 17th overall! I realized that since the chip time = gun time today, no one finishing later was going to end up ahead of me!
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| First indication of my age group win, posted 8:33 am! And beat 26 minutes by 0.44 seconds!! That's a substantial gap in a 100 meter race, but a step or two in a 5K. |
As we cooled down while eating a banana and rehydrating, we noticed a 50-something man who we recognized as having finished several minutes ahead of us. His name was Norman, the 6th overall finisher, and he shared that he had multiple sclerosis. He was diagnosed 17 years ago, began running 7 years ago, and has kept the progression of the disease in check by a heavy dose of running, completing a race nearly every weekend. Norman's story was very inspiring.
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| Norman (age 54), Brian (age 51), and Frank (age 60) |
I checked Brian's result, and even though he finished less than a minute behind me, I was disappointed to see that he was only 6th in the 50 - 59 age group. Nonetheless he was a great pacer for me for the first two miles, doing the job perfectly! If the race had been held yesterday, on the last day that I was 59 years old, I would have been 6th in age group and Brian would have been 7th. What a difference it makes to move up in age groups!
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| In the full results, I noticed that none of the 16 runners in front of me were younger than me. That's a big win in my opinion! |
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| I was getting cold after the race, so switched to a dry shirt before the awards ceremony. |
After the race, Brian gave me a Big Peach Running Company gift card! What a nice surprise!! I immediately cashed it in at the Suwanee store to stock up on running socks, as I haven't purchased new socks in several months. We had brunch together at Cafe Amico in the Suwanee Town Center. As we parted, Brian told me "You'll have to come back next year, to defend your title!"
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| Thanks to Brian, Beverly and Brenden!! |
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