"I'm in the 60+ age group - how the hell did this happen?" I thought to myself, as I lined up for the second race today, the Adidas Running City Mile. "One day I'm a 20-year-old college student, I blink and I've turned into a 60-year-old." Maybe I was the only one feeling this way. The mood in our wave was festive. I sized up the group, there were some fast runners in this wave of about 40 runners. Even among those that don't run as regularly, I felt some nervous energy regarding what we were about to do. It was only a mile, not a marathon, yet these short races can also be extremely challenging if one tries to run as fast as possible.
I went home after the
Run with Maud 5K this morning, took a shower and a nap. Bonnie made brunch for us, and I wrote up
the blog post on the first race, followed by another short nap. Then it was time to return to downtown Atlanta. The temperature was warmer and the sun was out this afternoon, so I wore a singlet and sunglasses for this afternoon's race. After an easy warmup, less than a mile on a loop around the perimeter of Centennial Olympic Park, it was time to line up for our 5:05 pm start. My legs still felt warmed up from this morning's race, I was ready to take on another race, this one "just a mile". Before we began, I recognized that one of the men in our wave was Hemanth Digumarthi's father. Hemanth unexpectedly passed away last June, while training for the Peachtree Road Race. We had met only once, at Hemanth's funeral, so I didn't expect him to recognize me, but he did know Bonnie. They had a quick reunion at the starting line just a minute or so before our wave began, then Bonnie dashed back off of the course.
 |
The race start was on Centennial Olympic Park Drive,
near the Olympic Rings sculpture. |
 |
with Hanmantha Rao Digumarthi, a minute before we began.
I wish I had thought to pull out my phone to take Bonnie's photo! |
Ronnel Blackmon was still working as MC, seemingly tireless. Ronnel is training for the New York City Marathon, and
raising funds to support Kilometer Kids - hopefully some of you will click on the link and make a donation. Anyway, Ronnel gave us a 10-second warning: I counted down to 10 in my head, I hit the start button on my watch with his command "On your mark", and I took off with the rest of the wave at the sound of the air horn.
 |
| We may have a bunch of years, but we certainly have a ton of intensity! |
Speedster Matt Grzeck took off in front of me, no surprise there. We were heading slightly uphill on Centennial Olympic Park Drive. After crossing Marietta Street, the road climbed more steeply over "The Gulch". I took a quick look at my watch to see if I had started too quickly: 6:35 min / mile pace, which seemed OK, considering that I was wearing the Supershoes for this race. But then I caught up to Matt. He was struggling a bit - and as I pulled even with him and then ahead, he called out "I hate hills!" I didn't reply, as I was laboring and couldn't spare a breath to speak. There was a timing mat across the road in front of State Farm Arena, next to a sign that read "400 meters". That's cool, we might get quarter-mile splits. 1:42, on pace for a 6:50 finish. But I had already burned my wick too brightly. My pulse was 160 bpm and rising. "I hope no one in our wave will need a defibrillator today - I hope I won't need a defibrillator today!" We kept climbing toward Mercedes-Benz Stadium, over the railway bridge. Finally, a right turn, and another timing mat! "800 meters" at 3:39. Oops, I had definitely slowed down. All of a sudden, a sub-7-minute finish was nearly out of reach. I tried to accelerate, because now we were definitely going downhill, but couldn't find the spark in my legs. This morning's 5K took more out of me than I had realized.
 |
| Red is faster, blue is slower. |
Now it was just a matter of holding on, trying to keep the gap with the runner in front of me from growing. We were still running downhill, I kept trying to throw in a surge, but I had nothing left to surge with. At least the Supershoes helped me maintain some form, I think. I made a sharp right turn onto Andrew Young International Boulevard, between State Farm Arena and the Georgia World Congress Center. "1200 meters" at 5:33 elapsed. The only thing going for me was that we were still running downhill, and I knew that I had only 409 meters to go. Approaching Marietta Street, I was ready to dig hard into the left turn, almost ran over an oblivious pedestrian about to cross the road. Collision averted, I saw a sign "200 meters to go" showing 6:40 as I dashed past. I remembered that I had run 6:47 in the Peachtree Mile in December. I tried to dig again as I made a right turn into the park. A metal ramp was protecting us from tripping over the curb, although Rich Kenah was stationed to give each runner a verbal warning of the ramp. I planted one foot heavily on the ramp, then onto the concrete. There was Bonnie taking a video - she held out her hand, I responded with a firm slap as I sped by. At least I didn't miss!
 |
"The longest 150 meters ever."
And I wasn't the only one saying that! |
A feature of the Atlanta City Games was an elevated 5-lane 150-meter track, where about 45 minutes ago I had watched a couple of sprint races with local high school students. Getting up to the track, I bounced uncomfortably on a spongy surface from the sidewalk, then finally up and onto the blue track. Surely I was almost done! But I had no idea where the finish line was. I was closing the gap with a runner ahead of me. He looked back, saw me charging, and threw in his own surge. Once I realized that I wasn't catching up to him, I slowed down a bit, then remembered that Matt was somewhere behind me, probably not far behind at all. I could see the Olympic Rings in the background, where we had began 7 minutes earlier. Only then did my eyes register the finish line.
 |
Screenshots from Bonnie's video:
turning the corner onto Marietta Street ca. 6:30 elapsed |
 |
| ca. 6:40 elapsed |
 |
| ca. 6:47. Rich Kenah is in the blue shirt at the far right |
 |
| I see Bonnie! |
 |
| ca. 6:52 elapsed |
 |
| up the ramp .... |
 |
The runner a few steps in front of me looks back.
That means that he was thinking "how not to lose"
rather than "how can I best finish". |
Crossing the timing mat, I was disappointed to see 7:24 on my watch. Official chip time was 7:21. The Supershoes hadn't saved me this afternoon - or maybe I would have been even slower with regular shoes. Matt finished a few seconds behind me, he congratulated me with a fist bump. I needed a moment to catch my breath, but then I enjoyed standing at the end of the track to clap for the other runners, including Han Digumarthi finishing together with Bob Wells.
 |
| The first 20 men |
No comments:
Post a Comment