With 5 weeks to go until the marathon, my confidence is gradually returning. A 20-mile long run last Sunday was successful, as well as a good recovery within the next couple of days. I hope that enough of the humility knocked into me a couple of weeks ago will remain: part of the marathon taper will be finding that perfect balance between confidence and humility to support my best performance on race day.
Today's Jerome Scales races moved to a new location: the city of College Park, an Atlanta suburb adjacent to Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport. The community was founded in the 1890's and was an early education center, home of the Georgia Military Academy which since evolved into the Woodward Academy, an excellent private K-12 school. Unfortunately for College Park, in the 1920's the city of Atlanta elected to build its airport immediately to its east. As aviation has advanced from the Wright Brothers' propeller plane into today's wide-body long-range twinjets, College Park has declined, as one of the world's busiest airports has overwhelmed large sections of its neighbor. When I looked at the race route, it looked like we would run through the middle of College Park, thinking that we would run down the Main Street with a lively number of restaurants and other businesses.
I had worked late Friday night on a grant application (due February 5) and was nervous that I might miss a 5 am alarm this morning. Fortunately our cat Milo conscientiously and cheerfully took on the job of ensuring that I didn't oversleep. Milo knows how much I enjoy running - he's a smart guy, and I think he reads this blog even though he denies it, but he never admits to any of his other mischief.... Anyway, Milo put his very best effort into waking me up around 4:45 am. Thanks to Milo, I was "grateful" to turn off the alarm a couple of minutes before 5:00 am, sparing everyone from the annoying noise. And after feeding breakfast to Milo and his older sister and brother, and getting dressed with two layers for a cool morning run, I drove to the College Park MARTA station with plenty of time to park and pick up my bib, even staying warm inside the car for a few extra minutes.
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| Bryan Greenberg's son Ben ran his first Atlanta Track Club race this morning! Notice that Ben is wearing a Maryland Terrapins cap, to match his father's distinctive race day kit. |
Around 7:30 am I finally began to warm up. Coach Carl had recommended taking this race "nice and easy", with 1 mile warm-up and 1 mile "warm-down". Today was just a good opportunity for 7 easy miles in advance of next weekend's 22-mile long run. Unfortunately I had trouble finding a good place to warm up, as the parking lot was fenced in. The only outlets were the road from the highway that I had driven into the parking lot, and a path across the timing mat, which I didn't want to trigger ahead of time. I managed to safely navigate 0.84 miles at 11 min / mile pace, and after a quick porta-potty stop, another 0.59 miles slightly faster, arriving in the C corral just a few minutes before we were due to start.
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| Right before our start, an airplane took off from the airport (in the background). I wanted to photograph the next takeoff, but our wave began the race before we saw another plane. |
The airhorn sounded at 8:04 am, and I cautiously started, practicing a marathon day conservative start. Just ahead of me was Linda Bode Phinney, so I caught up with her, and we chatted for a few minutes. Then my watch sounded the 4:30 walk break, so I dropped back, while Linda went on to win her age group. Good thing I didn't try to keep up with Linda beyond the first half-mile, otherwise I would have messed up the "nice and easy" part. After 30 seconds walking, my pace had dropped from low 9 min / mile to high 9 min / mile, and I decided that I would aim for no faster than marathon goal pace, around 10 min / mile.
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| Blue is slow, dark blue is walking. I picked up the pace after passing the mile 4 marker, where the route turns green. |
I could see Main Street in the distance, but it turned out that the road didn't cross the MARTA right-of-way. So we turned right onto East Main Street, while I looked left across the tracks to try to see if I remembered any of the restaurants from a walk with Bonnie on Main Street about a year ago. I remember the sign for "The Breakfast Boys". On East Main Street we passed what looked like a small bed-and-breakfast, mixed among a church, some homes and various small businesses. Mile 1, 10:05. Perfect!
In mile 2, we turned into a neighborhood for a few blocks. I decided to take a cup of water at the hydration station, even though I had taken a walk break just 1 minute earlier. In a couple of more blocks, we separated from the 5K runners, with the 5-Miler folks turning back onto East Main Street. I passed the mile 2 marker in 9:59. I wasn't paying much attention to my watch during the race, occasionally glancing just to make sure that I wasn't running too fast or that my heart rate was too high - around 140 bpm, in the middle of my aerobic zone, so that was just fine. It was good to learn today that I could take an extra walk break at a water stop without expending extra effort or sacrificing marathon goal pace.
Early in mile 3, a fellow caught up to me and an older runner (I think) that I was leapfrogging with my run-walk intervals. "Is this the senior group?" he asked? I replied jokingly "we're competing for the AARP age group award." He looked like a relatively new member of the senior group himself, definitely younger than me. He said "I have three goals: 1) don't walk, 2) don't fall, and 3) don't require paramedic assistance." I responded "Well, I do run-walk, so #1 is out for me. But for the third one: have you heard, 'you haven't tried hard enough unless you end up in the medical tent!'?" That brought out a laugh, "I'll have to remember that one" he said as he moved ahead.
We crossed the city limit into East Point, then turned right onto Willingham Road. To our right there was a nice track with soccer goals - and without any American football goalposts, which not a common sight at high schools in the Southeast. Then I saw the sign for Woodward Academy. Throughout the next couple of miles, we ran near the academy. Before today I had not realized the size of Woodward Academy, but makes sense with four campuses in this part of College Park divided by age grades. Certainly other private schools located closer to the center of Atlanta, such as Paidaea and the International School, have much smaller campuses. Mile 3: 10:05.
Shortly afterwards, we passed a sensor at the 3.11 mile mark, i.e. the 5K split. Aha, that's to ensure that the 5-Mile participants have covered the full distance, or at least will detect that if a registered 5-Miler only runs the 5K distance, they can get sorted into the correct race results. As we made a couple of turns, Alice Pate caught up with me, then she seemed to slow down and we didn't end up running together. In the meantime, I was thinking appreciately about how this course was relatively easy, with some gently rolling small hills but nothing difficult. What a nice comparison to the previous courses for this race at Wolf Creek Amphitheater, where I had badly strained several muscles in my legs running downhill far too fast in the 12K distance, or last year's 5K in a different neighborhood but just as hilly.
It's a good thing that I had kept my thoughts about an easy course to myself, because midway through the fourth mile, we began climbing up Harrison Road for a couple of blocks. Fortunately a 30-second walk break at 34:30 allowed me to avoid the worst of the difficulty of this hill. When I resumed running, I could reach the crest of the hill rather strongly. Of course we all know that it wouldn't have been an Atlanta Track Club road race if there were no memorable hills. There was another water station on Walker Avenue in front of a park. The water was bracingly cold, sitting out in 40 deg F temperature. I was thinking about how great it will be to have similarly chilled water stations at the Peachtree Road Race in July. Hopefully someone in the Track Club administration will see this blog post, will realize what a great suggestion this is, and will make it so by July 4. More than five months is plenty of time to act on my fantastic idea. You're welcome, Atlanta Track Club.
Upon making a turn, we joined the route of the 5K participants. The route was a little crowded, especially when there was a scrum of people in the middle of the street just past the intersection. Oh no, that means a medical problem of some kind. I tried to give plenty of room as I passed. A woman had fallen and had blood on her head, but at least she was sitting up and speaking with the Atlanta Track Club staff and/or paramedics attending to her. There were quite a few potholes and depressed manholes on this course. I definitely paid more attention to the road surface for the rest of today's race.
Just ahead of me I saw 75-year-old Sam Benedict. Sam is still a strong runner, and he was on his way to another age group win. Sam often runs a similar pace as me, but I realized that I was going to catch up with him and probably pass him today. With a "Click!" the competitive switch in my brain turned ON. I said "Hi Sam" as I passed him as we turned a corner. Mile 4: 9:42. I had not gone into today's race with much of a plan, since I wasn't really racing. But as the miles progressed, I was feeling good, and had already decided that it would be fun to speed up a bit once I passed the mile 4 marker. At 39:30 it was time to take a walk break. But I had just strongly passed Sam Benedict. How would it look if I took a walk break now? So I just kept running, hoping that I was strong enough to finish the last mile without a walk break. We were now running due south on Adams Street. My watch was showing ca. 8:20 min / mile pace, which I felt was sustainable for 8 minutes or so. I was passing quite a few walkers in the 5K group, and also occasionally passing some runners that I think were in the 5-mile race. I remember passing one man wearing orange sleeves who definitely was in the 5-mile race. Although I was moving quite a bit faster than marathon goal pace, I kept my mechanics solid. My increased effort was well-controlled, and I definitely wasn't going all out. We passed a large cemetery to our left, as the man with orange sleeves caught up to me and passed. Oh well, I wasn't trying to pass everyone at the end of the race. The watch sounded a walk alert at 44:30, but I totally ignored it. With the run alert at 45:00, I was thinking, just three minutes or so.
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| There were some hills, but notice the vertical axis: only about 70 feet difference from lowest to highest elevation. |
At this stage we crossed the same intersection that we had turned on the outbound start. Some of the faster finishers were doing their cooldowns in the opposite direction of our finish. I guess they were able to get out of the finish zone in the MARTA parking lot without crossing the timing mat again. What I notice most is that we were running uphill, again. The finish line must be close, but exactly how far? 2 minutes now? I could see the highway below and to the left. As we made a right turn, it suddenly looked like most of the runners ahead of me sped up. I guess they were excited to approach the finish line, although I could not see any indication of it. After the race, when I checked the Garmin results, I realized that it was me that slowed down, not necessarily that the others sped up. After a block I realized that I must be within a minute of the finish line, and sped up again. One 5-mile runner was trying to encourage the 5K walkers to pick up the pace into the finish. As I passed him, he said "See that guy, kicking my ass?!" I shrugged my shoulders after I passed, trying to signal with body language - 'please don't take it personally'. I imagine that my shrug was too subtle for anyone to see, but I think that his comment was said in good humor.
Then there was a left turn, and I realized that the finish line was just ahead and to the right. In the last mile, I must have passed the runner who had referred to our "senior group" early in mile 2, since he tapped me on the left elbow, said "Let's go!" I accepted the invitation and launched into a stride toward the finish line. He was making a broader turn, whereas I saw that I could run a perfect tangent to the finish line. The only problem is that I had to squeeze myself between a 5K walker and the right post of the finish banner, but I managed it without colliding into anyone or anything. I looked to my left and the feet of my new competitor crossed the timing mat precisely in synch with my finish. I turned and said out loud "Photo finish!" which was echoed by Atlanta Track Club director Rich Kenah. We exchanged fist bumps but I didn't get his name. We don't show up next to each other in the results since we didn't start together, so I won't be able to figure out his finish time, whether he was faster or slower than me over the 5-mile course. Only then did I stop my watch, but no problem, my official time was 48:12, and my final mile was a solid 8:21. Not earth-shattering but an excellent way to finish out a 5-mile race.
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| I'm very happy to see that I passed 22 people net, in the 1.9 mile stretch between the 5K timing sensor and the finish line. |
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| This afternoon, Milo was sound asleep, as if he had run the 5-mile race this morning. Or maybe he was just tired because he woke up very early with me. |
