October 19, 2022: Grand Prix Cross Country 5K

I guess I haven't been paying enough attention to the Atlanta Track Club website. I was surprised to learn on Monday night that there was a free race scheduled for Wednesday evening! When I discovered that it was in Decatur, just a few miles from the Emory campus, I decided to sign up, despite the early 6 pm start. However, Wednesdays are when we typically hold chemistry faculty and committee meetings. I had a couple of faculty meetings on that particular day, including some speedreading that I needed to complete in advance of the second faculty meeting. After two pre-registration meetings with advisees, I finally had an opportunity for a few scientific thoughts during a weekly afternoon meeting with a subgroup in my research lab. During a short break, I switched into my running gear before going to an open office hour with students in my CHEM 203 course from 4:30 - 5:15 pm. That was a good decision, because with rush hour traffic, I barely made it to the race in time. 

The car race to get to the foot race through rush-hour traffic. 
State Farm "Drive Safe and Save" didn't score me very well.

The official parking lot was full when I arrived around 5:50 pm, but I found a legal spot on a side street, warmed up with a 3/10 mile sprint to get to the tent where the volunteers handed out race bibs by 5:55 pm, and had just enough time to join a few photos with Tucker Running Club participants. It was a cool evening, around 55 deg F, so I wore tights and a red Atlanta Track Club cap, which Bonnie calls my "MAGA" hat, so I don't wear it very often.... 

With several Tucker Runners, including Kalpana Patel, Stephanie Batson, Donna Roberts, 
Rob McGregor, Kimberly Harrell, and Linda Bode Phinney

Remarkably, I have never previously visited Legacy Park, and before today I didn't even know that this park existed, just a mile or so southeast of downtown Decatur. I wasn't sure what to expect from the race, but I had noticed in the participant information e-mail that "The course is a non-paved surface but free of any obstacles such as roots or rocks." Today was supposed to be an easy day, 3 - 4 miles, after last night's speed workout on the track (which had gone very well!), and the entire week was supposed to be recovery after Sunday's 10-mile race. I figured that I would run the 5K easily, and that I wouldn't exceed 4 miles even with the warmup sprint and returning to the car after the race. 

The marathon training plan did not read "Trail Race" for October 19. 

The race director made a few important announcements that I couldn't hear over the buzz of the runners, then the airhorn sounded at 6:00 pm sharp, and we were running. I had thought that I was facing toward the start, but then the crowd moved to my right and I suddenly realized that I had mistakenly found a spot very close to the starting line! Fortunately no one was trampled due to my confusion. Anyway we took off running down a dirt road "non-paved surface" which soon narrowed to a 5-foot wide trail. I felt like I was running easily, and only after the race did I discover that I had been running gently downhill for the first few minutes. We crossed a gravel path, someone behind me said "I thought that there weren't going to be any rocks" and a moment later encountered some tree roots embedded on the trail, fortunately painted orange for visibility. "Watch out for the roots" I heard. Within the first minutes, I recognized Alice Pate running ahead of me. I said hi as I caught up to Alice, thinking that we would run together for awhile. But after just a few seconds, I found myself in front of Alice. Alice is an excellent runner, so for the rest of the race, I was expecting that she would pass me at any moment!  

Two loops of this course, with many twists and turns.
At several points, I could see runners going the opposite direction,
 both in front of and behind me. 

There were plenty of volunteers at each turn of the trail, so there was no chance of getting lost. But about four minutes in, I was surprised by the first uphill section. Ahead of me I saw 75-year-young Sam Benedict. After cresting the hill, I gradually caught up with Sam, and also thought that I would run with him for awhile, but on a sharp downhill section I got in front of Sam as well. Sam is also capable of passing me. So now I'm running faster than my "easy pace", which wasn't in the plan. Mile 1: 9:05 elapsed. Pretty fast for me in a trail race. I reminded myself to watch my footing carefully. A fall could potentially ruin what so far has been a great start to marathon training. 

Midway through the second mile, there was a water stop, and I decided to accept a cup from a volunteer. I wasn't really that thirsty, but thought it would be wise to take a 30 second walk break so that I would stay fresh and alert for the rest of the race. For the most part, the order of runners was not changing. A couple of people passed me while I was walking, and I remember passing another participant that was walking up a hill. To my right, I saw a familiar face, watching the race with his dog. I'm thinking "That's Linda Phinney's husband" but at the moment I couldn't recall his name, which was a warning of incoming brain fog. I waved but didn't want to call out "Hi Linda's husband!" For the next minute, I thought that wouldn't have been that bad: in some circles I'm known as "Bonnie's husband" and proud to be associated with my better half. 

My reverie was broken bu the realization that we were running up a rather long hill. We leveled out for a moment, and then an even longer uphill section. I passed another walker in this stage. Then we were approaching the finish area, except that we were to stay to the left to run another loop. That was about 14 minutes into the race, so at least the speediest finishers were not yet lapping me. But I was wishing that I had paid a little more attention to the details of the route on the first loop. Where exactly were the downhill and uphill sections? 

I guess I was doing alright, because I passed the mile 2 marker at 18:08 elapsed, 9:03 for mile 2. The only problem was that my pulse rate had started relatively high at the beginning of the race, 140 beats per minute within the first mile, and was now above 160 beats per minute, which is threshold level. That was after going uphill; I noticed that my pulse rate dropped a bit as we ran downhill for a moment, and then I wasn't looking at my watch any longer, because I didn't want to trip over any trail hazards. In any case I could tell that I was slowing down on the uphill sections. I didn't want to take another walk break until the water station, but on a sharp switchback, I gave into the temptation and just walked for about one full minute. A couple of people passed me in that section, including a fellow named Joe that I had met at a race a few months ago. I recognized him but didn't remember his name during the race! Finally I started running again as I heard someone else approaching from behind me. I tried to consistently stay to one side of the course, to avoid blocking anyone if they needed to pass me, but fortunately I was now moving fairly well once again. 

I took one more short walk break on the second pass through the water station, then resumed running. I was at 25 minutes elapsed, so I knew that I didn't have too far to run, but I remembered that there were two uphill sections before I could complete the race. The first uphill started fairly well, but then my left toe caught on a tree root that wasn't supposed to be on this race course. Fortunately I wasn't moving that quickly going uphill, so I didn't lose my balance - unlike what happened to me in a trail half-marathon several years ago. "Pick up your feet!" I reminded myself. Then after cresting, there was the second longer uphill ahead of me. Despite not preparing for this race, I managed to deploy a mantra that had proven invaluable in another recent race: "just 2 - 3 minutes and then you can take a nice long walk break after crossing the finish line." I could hear another runner not too far behind me. I really didn't want anyone else to pass me just because I was giving up, so that propelled me up the final hill. There were also a few runners just ahead of me: I wanted to catch up to one of them, but they kept running away from me. 9:56 for mile 3, so I had really slowed down. 

I didn't see the finish line until making a gentle right turn, and then I still had to work to accelerate for a strong finish. I never did catch up to those other guys. Robin Mitchell was cheering for me as I approached the finish line, and then I was through! I stopped my watch: 28:53 on my watch, 28:50 official time. As I tried to catch my breath, Robin was cheering again, and it was Linda Bode Phinney who finished just 6 seconds behind me - on her way to an age group award. Linda was the first new friend that I made when I began group runs with Tucker Running Club in winter 2015. 

Finishers 124 through 131

I needed several minutes before I felt like I wasn't breathing heavily. I think that not properly warming up meant that my heart rate started relatively high, which made this race tougher than it might otherwise have been. Fortunately I didn't see Art Phinney until after my brain fog had cleared, and his name came immediately to mind. I congratulated Linda on a strong race, as she has worked hard to come back to her previous form. 

I was quite pleased that I had finished in less than 30 minutes. In a relatively small race, I thought that I could have a chance for an age group award: 

Turns out that a bunch of the grandmaster speedsters showed up this evening! 

Normally I might be disappointed to place 6th out of 7 competitors in any group. But none of us in the male 60 - 64 age group ran slower than 30 minutes!