January 14, 2023: Livvy's Love 8K Fun Run

I've run the Livvy's Love 8K fun run in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2020, to support the Hayes' family foundation created to honor the memory of their daughter Olivia "Livvy", who tragically lost her life in a school bus accident in 2008. The in-person race returned this year after a two-year COVID pivot to a virtual-only race. I was trying to decide whether or not to register for the race, and whether it would be separate or a part of a 20-mile long run weekend. Shortly after completing the Red Nose Half Marathon last weekend, I told Bonnie that I wasn't going to run Livvy's Love after all. It took most of this week to recover from the rough race in Columbus. But after I had a good experience with an easy 7-mile medium-long run on rolling hills yesterday morning, I decided to run the race after all. Bonnie and I registered separately yesterday afternoon (Bonnie for the 5K), and I picked up our bibs and T-shirt from Big Peach Running Company in Decatur on the way home from work early yesterday evening. 

Nikki Hayes, Olivia's mother, was working at packet pickup. She immediately recognized me even though it had been 3 years (and I was not wearing running clothes!) and we exchanged a hug in the store. I asked Nikki, "I hope that you don't mind me asking, but ... how old would Livvy be today?" I was thinking college age, but Nikki answered "25 years old; she was age 10 and would have turned 11 the next month." "I've been told that a parent losing a child is the worst loss that a person can experience," and Nikki said "We don't even have a word for this. One loses a spouse, they are a widow, but there isn't a word for this." In that moment, seeing Olivia's photo, stopped in time as a 10-year-old child, we'll never know what her life might have been. I was so relieved that I had decided to run this race this year, no matter that it didn't perfectly fit in my marathon training program.  

I was already scheduled for 4 miles today (3 miles easy and 1 more covering the four strides), so the plan was to run-walk 4 miles with a very easy effort, not racing anyone at all, and then finishing the last mile of the race with the 4 strides, which would match up with a strong finish. My mantra for today was simply to save myself for tomorrow's 20-miler. 

It was a cold and windy January morning this year, but at least the temperature was slightly above freezing, and I never saw any ice on the race route. I wore three layers and carried a chemical handwarmer, as I knew that I would not run fast enough to work up much additional heat. It was a joy to warmly greet Olivia's father Norman, who also remembered me after 3 years. I stretched and then jogged in the parking lot with a couple of very easy loops, did the pre-race warmup with the group (which did leave me a little out of breath!), then walked with Norman to the starting area. There wasn't a big group for the 8K race, 10 finishers total in the results. No one looked anywhere close to my age. We counted down from 5, and then the 8K group started ahead of the 5K group. Olivia's older brother Norm Jr., age 29, began the race with a few of his good friends. Committing to my easy run-walk plan with the first steps, I didn't attempt to keep up with anyone. I had set my watch to 2:00 run, 0:30 walk intervals, and faithfully followed that plan as we worked our way on the Ring Road around the base of the mountain. (It's named for a rebel general. I don't know if or when the park will ever rename the roads, but I propose just calling it the Ring Road, as a non-offensive yet properly descriptive name.) A young woman running the 8K caught up and passed me during a walk break. I easily caught up with her when I resumed running. As I passed, I said "I'm running intervals, so we may be leapfrogging each other today." Sure enough, in my next walk break, she pulled well ahead. I deliberately reined in any thought of trying to keep up with her. About 1 mile into the race, a man close to my age caught up with me. I had no intention of trying to win anything today, and I asked if he was running the 8K. "The 5K" he replied. "And you?" I responded "I'm running the 8K." "More power to you!" he said as we approached the turnaround sign together, running uphill. Before we separated, I pointed out "You'll get to run back downhill! Have a good race!"

Another great thing about being a runner: 
seeing beautifully colorful skies at sunrise!

The sky had heavy clouds when we had arrived, but by the time that the race started, the clouds were beginning to clear, and the sun was beginning to provide a few rays of natural warmth. I settled into a comfortable routine, amongst other people who were apparently on their regular Saturday morning run or walk around the mountain, as most of the people that I saw weren't wearing race bibs. My splits for the first four miles were 11:27, 11:38, 11:50, and 11:13. I wasn't really trying to speed up in the fourth mile, but happily my legs and body finally warmed up enough so that the effort remained easy even though my pace slightly increased. After the trouble with elevated heart rate in last weekend's half marathon, I was very satisfied to see only high 120's beats per minute every time that I checked my watch, a "Zone 2 sub-aerobic" workout to this stage. 

Blue corresponds to the walk breaks;
yellow, orange, and red mark the strides,
followed by a push to the finish line. 

Around the 4-mile mark, I had caught up with the woman again, while she was walking. I tried to be encouraging, "Just a mile to go, we're almost done!" I didn't tell her that I was about to begin a series of strides as part of a training plan, and I hope that she didn't feel like I was trying to show her up. When the next walk break sounded, instead of walking, I began the first stride, 15 seconds of increased effort. I was running uphill, not exactly the best place to run a stride, but I thought of it as a short hill repeat. Then I slowed back down to an easy jog for 2+ minutes, until the next walk break alert, another 15-second stride uphill. Cresting the hill, it was now net downhill to the finish line. In two more minutes, I was running down a fairly steep hill when the alert sounded for the third stride, where I reached top speed for the day at 7.5 mph. I remembered how badly I had strained a quadriceps muscle five years ago foolishly running downhill for a mile as fast as possible, so I was very careful today, slowing down as soon as I had completed a 15-second count. 

The last stage of this race is uphill. As I made the last turn, an alert sounded for the fourth stride, so I picked up my pace for another 15 seconds. I saw no runners ahead of me, no one was close behind me. But with the race organizers cheering for me as soon as they saw me coming, I felt that it would be bad form to just easily jog into the finish, so I didn't slow down very much. About 100 feet from the finish line, I heard Nikki Hayes cheer "Go Frank!" and that encouragement helped me finish strongly, crossing the finish line just under 56 minutes. I thanked the people gathered at the finish line. I was just a bit out of breath from that last little push, the only time that I exceeded 150 bpm during today's race, but very satisfied with my pace discipline, and with preserving my energy for tomorrow's long run. Today's easy run was just enough to lubricate the hinges and knock off any rust, without adding any wear-and-tear. That will come tomorrow....

Rolling hilly route, fairly similar to any random five-mile stretch of
next month's Publix Atlanta marathon course. 

After Bonnie finished the 5K, we both ducked into the heated tent to get warm coffee (so good!) and to wait for the awards ceremony. I saw Nikki Hayes carrying a young girl, and by the especially affectionate way she carried the child, I felt like that was her granddaughter. Indeed, that was correct, in fact Nikki and Norman had two young granddaughters at today's race. I congratulated each of them on this happy news, hopefully two bright spots in their lives during the past three challenging years of the pandemic. I know that no one can never replace their daughter, but I felt a lot of joy to know that Olivia's older siblings were now parents/aunts/uncles to their next generation. 

I had not come to win anything, but I wanted to respect the Hayes family in the likely event that I had won my age group by default. The Hayes family gave out the 5K awards, then a special award for the oldest participant. As Norman Hayes called the name of an older Hayes relative (not sure if he was Norman's uncle or his father, but 72 years young), I whispered to Bonnie "I was afraid that I was going to win that award!" Olivia's grandparents and godparents were also among those honored as attending the event this morning. Then it was time for the 8K awards. Nikki gave a very gracious introduction to Bonnie and me as regular participants, before she called out my name as the winner of the men's 50 - 99 age group! (Full disclosure, I was both first and last place in my age group!)