November 5, 2022: Dental Dash at Dawn 5K

After 8-1/2 years, I return to defend "my title" as the 2014 second-place age-group winner in the Dental Dash at Dawn 5K. Back then, the race was run in the spring and in the Old Fourth Ward near the center of Atlanta. After I began running spring half and full marathons, I didn't return to this race for several years, but early in 2020, when the course moved to the Vine City neighborhood, I had registered and was planning this race on March 21 as my first event after my March 1 2020 personal best marathon. In those three short weeks, the COVID pandemic had swept across the country, and the USA joined most of the rest of the world in lockdown. One of the least consequential changes for me was that in-person running races were cancelled. The Dental Dash at Dawn became the very first of my virtual races over the coming year. Although the pandemic is not yet over, I feel relatively impervious for the moment, having received a fifth dose of COVID vaccine in September, this one being the bivalent booster protecting against both the original strain and the recent Omicron variant.

The Dentistry for the Developmentally Disabled (DDD) Foundation and treatment office has moved to an office park in Chamblee, one of metro Atlanta's many northeastern suburbs. This year's race route would start and finish near the office, on a route that several people said would be quite hilly! I registered relatively late, but that was only to ensure that this race would fit into marathon training, now four weeks into a 20-week program. The Tucker Running Club had a relatively large contingent for today's race, with 11 of our most regular participants joining this race!

Left-to-right: Lourdes Martinez, Raeanne Watkins, Kimberly Harrell, Rebecca Ludwig, Donna Roberts, Judy Tennell, Frank McDonald, Lisa Calas, Carolyn Weber, David Watkins, and Wende Johnston. 

It was relatively warm for early November, 64 deg F and cloudy at the start, almost ideal conditions coming out of summer heat conditioning, so I opted for a singlet, planning to run a fairly fast race. I did a few 3 - 4 minute warmups, which probably totalled around a mile, although with starts and stops I didn't record any of it on the Garmin, but I mention it here only because my instructions for today were a 1-mile warmup. As we lined up to start, I took a position in the middle of the pack, wanting to ensure that I didn't begin this race too quickly, despite David Watkins trying to encourage me to move up in front of him. At 8:00 am, a DDD patient and her mother started the race in a wheelchair, and five minutes later the rest of us began with the "crack" of a starting pistol. 

Ready to start! 

I had no trouble running once I crossed the timing mat, and upon turning right onto Clairmont Road, we faced a long but gentle uphill start. As I caught up with Carolyn Weber, I commented "I like the uphill start, get it out of the way while we're fresh!" and at another point as I passed Donna Roberts, I joked "I was hoping to draft behind you!" but of course that had no chance of working since I'm taller and wider than Donna. My watch was set to kilometers to break the race into smaller chunks. For most of Clairmont Road, I ran about a 6 minute per kilometer pace (around 9:30 per mile), which seemed appropriately cautious. I picked up the pace a bit once we crested the hill, a half-mile into the race. The runner lane was well-protected by cones, although when I realized that auto traffic was passing fairly quickly, I decided to stick to the right side of the road just in case a driver couldn't stay in the lane. As we approached the business district along Buford Highway, I remembered some sad weeks that I spent at an extended stay hotel in the later years of my first marriage. That memory shook me up a bit. Kilometer 1 sounded just as we made a right turn into a residential neighborhood, 5:41, 80 feet uphill. 

Race route with kilometer markings

We immediately began running downhill into the neighborhood. It was nice to enjoy the benefit of what we had just earned running uphill on Clairmont Road. But it quickly became apparent that we were losing all of the elevation that we had just worked for, and as it turned out, even more. We passed the 1-mile marker around 9 minutes into the race, although by this stage I had definitely picked up my speed gliding along the route. At one point, the elevation drop was steep enough that I had to slow down to ensure that I kept my footing. Nonetheless I finished kilometer 2 in a speedy 5:01, 20 feet ascent and 122 feet descent. 

Around that stage I caught up to a runner who looked like he might be in my age group - who I met after the race and his name is Chris. We laughed about the hilliness of the route, and I commented that we had just given back all of the elevation and would have to run uphill again. And rounding a curve, there it was up ahead, a 40-foot climb. I shortened my stride and powered my way strongly up the hill. At the intersection, we were directed to turn left. And as I made the turn, I saw a rapidly moving young woman moving in the opposite direction. I quickly darted across the street, managing to avoid a collision. Not surprisingly, she turned out to be the woman's winner. Fortunately I didn't spoil her run. Although I spent the next several minutes wondering why the organizers made us cross the route. Probably we should have run on the left side of the road, but I guess we're all so accustomed to driving on the right, that is where the lead group must have been directed and everyone else followed like lemmings. 

How does metro Atlanta pack so many hills into a short distance?!

Powering up the hill wasn't my best idea. Around 15 minutes in, I saw a water station and decided to accept a cup of water and take a 30 second walk break, to the turnaround point. One of the volunteers at the water station encouraged us "Halfway done!" and I flashed her a smile and a word of "thanks!" After the turnaround, I resumed running strongly, and finished kilometer 3 in 5:29,  56 feet ascent and 20 feet descent. On the out-and-back section, Kimberly Harrell was just 30 seconds behind me, followed by Donna Roberts, Rebecca Ludwig and Wende Johnston, and we encouraged each other as we passed. Once again I had to cross paths, this time with the runners behind me, but at least none of us were trying to win the race, so there was more time to avoid collisions. We continued start for another minute, then turned left to return the way that we had run in the first mile. 

Remember the hill that was so steep that I had to watch my footing? Now we had to run back up that hill. And at 19 minutes into the race, it was too much to continue running. I began walking, but noted with some satisfaction that everyone that I could see in front of me was also walking. I took a full minute walk break to climb 30 feet, and in that time no one passed me. Shortly before reaching Clairmont Road, the alert for kilometer 4 sounded, 6:17 at a 10:06 min / mile pace, 89 feet ascent and 16 feet descent. But at least I knew that the rest of the race route was downhill. 

A short walk break for the water station, followed by a long walk break up a long hill.
 

It was an Orange Theory run today. 

Upon turning onto Clairmont Road, I took a quick look behind me, and Chris was about 10 - 15 seconds behind. I was hoping to pick up the pace to regain some of the time that I had lost in the neighborhood, but even with the downhill assist I couldn't run all that fast at first. After Chris passed me, I found a little more speed, and while I never caught up to him, I wasn't passed by anyone else for the rest of the race. I was closing on a young man - when he asked the policewoman how far, I realized from his high voice that he was younger - turns out that he was only 13 years old. The policewoman told us that we had a half-mile to go, which matched up with my thinking. As we ran downhill on Clairmont Road, I finally caught up with the boy with about 2 blocks to go and started to pass him. But then he saw me, jetted ahead, and I just waved ahead with my left hand and called out "Finish strong!" Then I could see the finish line. The boy sped past a 27-year-old woman, who I briefly thought about trying to catch, but she also sped up. Making a left turn toward the finish line, I ran as fast as I could, as I didn't want anyone to pass me at the end. Turns out that I had nothing to worry about: the next finisher was 24 seconds back according to the results. I saw from the finish line clock had not yet reached 28 minutes, but was disappointed that I had needed more than 27 minutes for this race. Shawn Roberts gave me the race medal. For the last 1.06 kilometers, in 5:15, 3 feet ascent and 83 feet descent! My chip time was 27:38, guntime 27:45, and 26th place overall, which was a nice surprise out of 227 finishers in this race. 

Kimberly Harrell finished just a few places behind me. I walked back to Clairmont Road and to the first intersection at the mile 3 marker to cheer in some of the other Tucker Runners. "Just one more minute of pain and you're finished!" was one of my first cheers, followed later by "You've done all of the hard work: it's all downhill from here!" which was probably more appropriate. Donna Roberts, Rebecca Ludwig, and Wende Johnston passed about 30 seconds apart, then Carolyn Weber followed a minute later by Lisa Calas, Judy Tennell, and Lourdes Martinez running together. Then I began my one-mile cool-down (also in the instructions for today's race). I was running on a road parallel to the finish road, and some volunteers who saw me began calling out "Go back, go back! You turned too early!!" I was still wearing my bib and probably moving at the pace of a 35-minute 5K runner. I held up my medal and shouted back "I already finished, on a cooldown run!" 

I didn't know how I had placed within my age group, but having seen a message that I was 26th overall, I was hopeful. I figured that Chris would be first, but that I might have a chance at second in our age group. Then I discovered that the age groups were 51 - 60 and 61 - 70, and that Chris and I weren't in the same age group! Nonetheless I still finished second, and was delighted to hear my name called during the award ceremony. 

It was pretty close, the 3rd place finisher almost caught up with me! 

As was the case in 2014, the award was a model of a tooth!
Donna Roberts won first in her age group.

Successfully defended my age group 2nd place title, 
although I had expected to have advanced into the next age group.
It would have worked out the same for me either way.