July 15, 2023: Westside Beltline 8K

"9:25." That was my goal for today's Westside Beltline 8K, 9:25 min / mile pace, at least for the first four miles. That would get me to the finish line in less than 47 minutes, maybe faster than 46:52, which was my time on this course one year ago. Last year's race was rough: I thought I would maintain a sub-9 min / mile pace, but had fallen off of that goal by mile 3, and struggled to finish. 

It was warm and muggy this morning, about 90% humidity, and 78 deg F at the start of the race at 7:30 am. About 30 minutes before the race start, I went out for an easy warmup, about 1/2 mile outbound on the race course, then 3 strides on the return trip. Part of my warmup route was the challenging uphill block on Matthews Street, where I slowed to a walk. I told myself, "In today's race, I will not take a walk break on Matthews Street." 

Before my warmup, with M.C. extraordinaire, Ronnel Blackmon

I started with wave B again this year. The airhorn sounded at 7:32 sharp, Ronnel calling out "Go-go-go-go-go!" We were heading northwest on White Street. I kept my pace easy, checked my watch a few times as the pace dropped from 10:00 to ... 9:25! Perfect, I stuck with that metronomic pace. Other runners streamed past, but I let them go by, confident that I would pass some of them later in the race. I was running on the left side of the lane, next to the cones separating our route from a single lane for auto traffic. At one point, a 25-foot gap opened between me and the crowd of runners ahead of me. I was very conscious of leading a subgroup, hearing dozens of footsteps just behind me, but resisted the urge to fill the gap. My watch displays pace to the nearest 5 seconds, so if it showed 9:25, that meant that I was running between 9:20 - 9:25 min / mile pace; if it showed 9:20, meaning 9:15 - 9:20 min / mile pace, I slowed down a bit.

After we turned left onto the paved Beltline, the mile 1 alert sounded: 9:22! That was as close to perfection as I could have hoped for. "9:25" I kept telling myself, as I ran along the left side. About 14 minutes into the race, I saw the water stop, pulling to the middle of the lane, holding out my right hand to accept a cup of water. Unfortunately for me, four runners immediately ahead of me took each of the cups that two volunteers were holding in each hand. But I heard one of the volunteers call out "Sir! Sir!" as he sprinted from behind to bring me a cup. "Thanks!" I said. I took a short walk break to drink the water - I thought it was 30 seconds, but the Garmin graph showed just a small blip of a dip, perhaps less than 10 seconds. 

I resumed running, working over to the left side of the path. On a gentle uphill section, I passed Jessie Abraham and then Susie Hill, saying each time "We love hills! We love hills!" That didn't seem to inspire anyone other than myself. I just kept chugging along, 9:23 for mile 2. This was going really well! I could have run faster at this stage, but today's race wasn't about being a hero in mile 2. Having refreshed my memory of last year's difficult race by reading my blog report last night, and the more recent memory of struggling through the mile 6 of this year's Peachtree Road Race, I stayed on plan. "Patience!" 

This year the race route proceeded all the way to the north end of the paved Westside Beltline, at Lena Street. (Within a couple of years, this path will continue straight for another couple of miles!) 2.42 miles at the turnaround, 22:35 elapsed, almost halfway. I ran uphill over Martin Luther King Drive, passing several others who had slowed to a walk. That validated for me that my patient start, "9:25", had been the correct strategy for me. 9:15 for mile 3, 28 minute elapsed! I hadn't been looking as carefully at the watch, but no worries, that wasn't way off of the plan, and would get me to the finish line a few seconds faster than last year's time of 46:52. My heart rate was 165 bpm, a little high, but with less than two miles to go, on a familiar route, I felt that I could hold on to this pace. I was running only 8K or ca. 5 miles today, vs. 10K / 6.22 miles earlier this month.  

After passing the underpasses for Interstate-20, I slowed down at the water stop, taking another walk break, but only 15-20 seconds according to Garmin, I guess I need to count to 30 when I do this again. Getting back up to my cautious pace, we passed under a couple more bridges. The lead 5K runners passed us on our right in the northbound direction. They started at 8:00 am. I tried to calculate, with my 28 minute headstart, how fast would a 5K runner need to run to catch up to me? The answer was that a 47 minute 8K finish from wave B would correlate to a 19 minute 5K finish from the front of their wave A. So some of them were likely to pass me before I finished. 

The route curved past the "Crayola" section and uphill to the intersection with White Street. A volunteer called out "Just a few more miles!" as the mile 4 sign came into view. Then I realized that she was cheering for the 5K runners, who had not yet completed their first mile. 9:21 for mile 4! I hadn't thought too much about my plan for the last mile. I hoped to speed up a bit, but at that moment, the route was gently uphill. "Don't force anything, relax and glide" I said to myself. After cresting the small hill, I felt my pace increase ever so slightly. I knew that we had one more hill ahead of us, so I still needed to bank a little energy. Making a diagonal left onto Matthews Street, this block was probably the steepest uphill section of this race course. "I love hills!" I thought to myself, as I shortened the length of my stride, maintaining ca. 180 step / minute cadence. Several others took walk breaks in this block, but not me, not today! I was so glad that I had covered this section during my warmup earlier this morning, I was psychologically prepared for the challenge. Sure, I slowed down a bit, but keeping my cadence kept me moving forward. Turning right into the runner lane on Lawton Street, the route continued going uphill. This is where I had taken an unplanned walk break in last month's Monday Nighter. But not today! I knew that after cresting the Lawton Street overpass, it was all downhill to the finish line. 

I definitely spent the last two miles in the maximum heart rate zone,
but still had enough energy in the bank to finish strongly!  

"Hammer time!" Today my legs responded well, taking full advantage of the gradual downhill. I saw Katie Winter up ahead, I wondered if I could catch up to her. One tricky part of any race on the Westside Beltline is the 180 degree U-turn at the intersection with Donnelly Avenue. I was on the left, Katie was a few steps ahead and to the right, and there was another runner in the mix as well. To avoid colliding with anyone, I grabbed the pole to help me make the tightest possible U-turn, while allowed me to turn without slowing down, getting ahead of Katie and the other runner in just a couple of steps! I don't know if that was a legal move, since I definitely felt a "slingshot" effect on my speed. But I didn't interfere with any other runners while making that turn: that would have been a much bigger faux pas.

Heading down the ramp to get back onto the Beltline, I heard a motorcycle behind me. Shortly after making the right turn at the bottom of the ramp, I stayed to the left side of the Beltline, as the motorcycle passed on my right. I guess that the 5K leader will be passing me soon, I thought. Before that happened, I saw the 3 mile marker for the 5K. "Great, less than a minute to the finish line for me!" and I accelerated some more. The first two runners in the 5K passed on my right, running a sub-6 min / mile pace (the winner finished in 17:33). My own pace had increased, now sub-8 min / mile, as I could hear sounds from the finish line. Ronnel saw the 5K runners approaching. I'm sure that he meant well when he announced, "8K runners stay to the right!" But as I moved over to the right side of the Beltline, the 3rd 5K runner nearly ran into me. "Sorry! I was just following instructions!" I thought to myself, not having any breath to spare to actually speak. A 4th 5K runner passed me, then it was my turn to cross the finish line. The clock showed less than 18 minutes, now on 5K time, but that meant that I had finished in less than 46 minutes! 

This was a really good time trial, showing me what I can currently realistically run. 

Official time, 45:44! And more than my time, I was thrilled with my pacing. The "9:25" strategy paid off, I banked just enough energy to have a fast, fun finish. The only people that I recall passing me in the last half-mile were the first 4 of the 5K runners, so that was a big win for me. Officially my average pace was 9:12; on the watch I measured 9:15 min / mile.

    

A slice of the 8K results

60 - 64 male age group: I'm in the middle of a bunch of fast old men! 

July 4, 2023: Peachtree Road Race 10K

Ass o'clock in the car in Tucker. Bonnie didn't run this year, 
but was my personal chauffeur and photographer. 

5:30 am, full moon through partial clouds.
Cloudy but not rainy will be ideal. 

6:00 am, walking on Lenox Road toward the start. 
It's still dark but the first bit of twilight before the dawn is here. 

I had low expectations for today's Peachtree Road Race. The last month has been very busy at work, mostly very good in terms of having time to write and submit a manuscript (looks like it will be accepted, just have to submit minor revisions tomorrow) and also a grant application that is coming together very nicely (also due tomorrow, before 5:00 pm). There were three thesis defenses last week, all of which went well, but faculty committee members did a lot of speed-reading. Fortunately I knew all of the students' research well (one of them from my lab!) and I've been on the other two students' committee for the past few years so I'm familiar with how their research has developed. 

6:35 am: Celebrity Sighting! 
Betty Lindberg with family members walking to their start corral.

Through this busy period, I've run mostly for personal equilibrium, but then bad storms have prevented me from going on a few of the planned runs in the past few weeks. And now, it's finally summer in Atlanta, hot and humid. I went out for a little shakeout run on Saturday morning - three days ago - and gave up after a single loop of the park. Partly I hadn't slept enough, partly my weight is up, partly my ankle was hurting that morning. On the bright side, we had fun with Brenden Minor and his parents Brian and Beverly, watching Brenden and the other children in the Peachtree Junior on Sunday morning. 

Brenden was 2nd in this group of the 3-year-olds.

Brenden did a good job with mini-hurdles.
Actually this looks like a good footwork drill for adults.

Monday I worked all day in my office at Emory, from around 9 am until 10 pm. It wasn't the best way to relax before a big race, but by the end of the evening, I was pretty comfortable with my priorities: proofreading and wordsmithing every single document that would be uploaded to the proposal site on Wednesday. Around 8 pm on Monday, a tremendous lightning storm came through metro Atlanta. Fortunately I was safely in my 6th floor office in the chemistry building. I looked up to see a bright lightning bolt, which looked like hit the top of the CDC main tower, visible from my north-northwest-facing office window. It was certainly close enough, based on the very short gap between the flash of lightning and the boom of thunder. The rainstorm guaranteed a very humid run for the next morning. 

I continued editing these files all afternoon and evening. A couple of the post 5 pm July 5 files
were revised by staff and sent to me for my records after the deadline. 
Thanks Sonja for helping me through the end, including proof-reading for compliance
 on July 3, when many others took the day off.  

I fell asleep around 11 pm with a 4:30 am alarm. Unfortunately I awoke around 3:30 am, and wasn't able to get back to sleep. I ate a light breakfast of oatmeal and a cup of coffee, then we headed to the MARTA station for the short train ride from Doraville to Lenox Mall, where the race would begin. Fortunately the weather forecast looked like it wouldn't rain or storm this morning. I decided to wear the lightest top in my collection, which came from the Running City Mile in May. I decided not to wear my SuperShoes, since I had no idea of the condition of Piedmont Park after last night's rain but it could have been a mudpit, so I wore my #2 pair, which were almost new when I ran the marathon in them in late February. Perhaps most importantly, Bonnie reminded me to wear sunscreen on my head and shoulders, since I decided not wear a cap. 

I had a wave C bib, using the Hearts and Soles 10K in early February as my qualifying race, 54:47. That morning, it was 27 deg F; today the two digits were flipped, 72 deg F. And 93% humidity. Although the race was heavily advertised, there wasn't a competitive lottery, only around 40,000 people registered (60,000 people capacity), and I heard that it was possible to purchase a last-minute entry at the Expo on Monday - very unusual. I guess Peachtree Road Race hasn't returned to its pre-pandemic glory of the largest 10K race in the world - or as someone else suggested, maybe it was just because this year, Independence Day is on a Tuesday, and not on or adjacent to a weekend. As the official 7:00 am start time for the main race approached, it seemed that wave C was unusually small this year. I tried to hang toward the back, and this year it wasn't difficult. We crossed around 7:06 am. 

With Paul and Caroline Dunn. Despite how it may look,
I'm on the correct side of the fence. 

With Kimberly Harrell and David Bloomquist

As soon as I had crossed the starting line, it didn't seem like such a small race. I picked a middle lane of the southbound direction, so mostly to the right of the entire race course, and reminded myself of "Patience" which meant not darting around people that were going a tiny bit slower than my pace. My goal was to finish in less than an hour, nothing more ambitious than that, usually pretty easy for me to manage. A 9:24 min / mile average pace was what I successfully ran on a warm evening 10K race 3 weeks ago. That would get me to the finish line in about 59 minutes. Today the mile 1 alert sounded at 9:24, 29 feet uphill. Unfortunately my heart rate was already around 150 bpm. That's due to not sleeping enough for the previous week. "Patience" I reminded myself. But my mantra was nearly undercut, as the first band was playing the Johnny Cash classic, "Ring of Fire." Actually the band was playing at an upbeat pace, sounded more like the Social Distortion cover from my younger days, my preferred version. 

"I fell into a burning ring of fire, 

I went down - down - down and the flames went higher,

And it burns - burns - burns, the Ring of Fire, the Ring of Fire."  

Usually up-tempo music would cause me to speed up, especially early in a race. But even though I was now running gently downhill, I was barely moving faster than a 9 min / mile pace. The first water stop came up on my right, I accepted a cup from a volunteer and walked for no more than 30 seconds. Being on the right side of the road, I decided to run through the first water spray, and that felt good, refreshing without getting soaked. More music on the left - this was really upbeat but I didn't recognize the song. As I came closer, I saw a large Ethiopian flag, then a group of women in white dresses with the tricolor stripes at the hem. Definitely the most enthusiastic cheer group of the day. 

Working my way down the road toward Peachtree Creek, I finished mile 2 in 8:53, 18:16 elapsed; 64 feet downhill. One jarring event: a man to my right wanted to avoid a water spray and darted just in front of my from right-to-left, nearly knocking me down! About 2.9 miles in was the bridge over Peachtree Creek, and then a water station, perfectly located at the bottom of Cardiac Hill. A 30-second walk break, then the Mile 3 alert, 8:56, 27:12 elapsed, 143 feet downhill! Shortly afterwards I crossed the 5K timing mat, official result 28:37. Thanks to the walk break, I was able to run all the way up Cardiac Hill. I was definitely slowing near the top, but didn't walk until another perfectly located water stop, near the Shepherd Center and Piedmont Hospital. The road leveled out and I picked up a little speed as I approached the mile 4 marker, 9:52, 37:04 elapsed, 122 feet ascent followed by 23 feet downhill. The only problem was that my heart rate was now above 170 bpm. 

Photos from Bonnie at mile 5:
Daniel Romanchuk, far ahead of the rest of the pack

The lead group of women

And a larger group of men, not yet separated to the final three.
Charles Langat (with the orange shoes) won the men's elite race. 

I crossed the I-85 bridge, which I was thinking was at 4.5 miles in - but actually only 4.28 miles! 40 minutes elapsed. Only 2 miles to go. But the climb on the overpass was now fatiguing me. Thank goodness for the water stop! I didn't realize it until looking at my Garmin results, but I stretched that water stop walk for a full minute. And then running uphill into Midtown past Rhodes Hall, that was also uphill. I know having run this race course 9 times, Cardiac Hill in mile 4 isn't the most difficult one, but it softens up the mentally unprepared runner for the one-two punch to come in mile 5! After passing 17th Street, I began looking for Bonnie, who was planning to be on the right side in front of the High Museum, between 16th and 15th Streets. I saw her in plenty of time to move over to the right, although I had to dash past a guy who had slowed to tap a child's sign "Hit target for power!" Bonnie leaned in for a handslap, which we managed, and then back to work for me. Mile 5 in 10:20, 47:24 elapsed, 47 feet ascent, 28 feet descent. Hmm, I needed to pick up the pace to ensure that I finished in less than an hour. But first, another water stop.

I saw Bonnie

I caught up to the guy to my right

and moved ahead of him toward Bonnie

and then back to the race.

Despite walking for about 45 seconds through the mile 5 water stop, I didn't recover that time, and ran for no more than 45 seconds before I needed to return to walking. After about 45 seconds, David Bloomquist caught up to and passed me, encouraging me "You can do it, Frank!" A second jarring event: I heard the "crack" of either a firecracker, or a gunshot. I can't tell the difference, but a police siren sounded, all was quiet, and no one else seemed to react or comment. With that, I felt recovered enough to resume running. Around that time, I was approaching Colony Square, between 15th and 14th Street. Just north of 14th Street would be 1.00 mile to the finish, which I had managed in less than 7 minutes back in December 2022. I tried to pick up my pace, knowing that I would need more than 7 minutes today - at 51 minutes elapsed to this stage, I only had 9 minutes left. I tried to speed up, then had to slow down until I had gotten up and over 12th Street. Finally, the last real hill was done, and it was net downhill from this point to the finish line. 

Making the left turn onto 10th Street at the iconic "Corner", also marked the 9 kilometer mark. 54:30! I was certain that I could run the last kilometer in 6 minutes, but not much faster. Nevertheless I tried to pick up the pace, as I turned into the middle lane on 10th Street. Passing the photographers, then through the Rainbow Intersection with Piedmont Road, I kept pushing myself. Piedmont Park came up on the right side, I was looking for the mile 6 marker, but then realized that the right lanes were blocked up ahead by an ambulance. We were directed into the leftmost lane: with the bicycle lanes, that was enough room for everyone to get through without having to slow down. I looked to my right but I couldn't see if anyone was down or being treated. Soon the entire road opened up for us again. I never saw the mile 6 sign but on my watch, 10:30, 57:55 elapsed, 43 feet ascent, 39 feet descent. 

I knew from past experience that the final dash to the intersection with Charles Allen always felt longer than it seemed it should be. Fortunately it was downhill, but as much as I was looking ahead, I couldn't see the Finish Line. It's not until crossing a little tiny hill at Taft Avenue that I finally saw the finish line. I looked at my watch and saw the numbers ticking up: 59:50, 59:51, 59:52 .... Not gonna make it, even though I'm sprinting as fast as I can. 59:59, 1:00:00, 1:00:01 .... it was so close - but I needed another 15 seconds at top speed to actually finish. 1:00:21 on my watch, 1:00:16 official. For a moment, I was disappointed to miss what I had thought was a reasonably easy time goal. But I quickly put that aside, joining in the smiles and letting in the words of "Congratulations!" soak in. 

The last walk break was unplanned. 
But I'm pleased to see my acceleration at the very end. 

My heart rate jumped as I began running up Cardiac Hill.

Whew, that was a long time to run while "redlined". 
The walk break around 50 minutes in gave my heart 
a welcome chance to recover, before pushing to the finish.

Definitely passed by a bunch of people in the second 5K. 
But at 8520th place, at least I outran my bib number! 

Link to results

with Sue Landa after the race

Leaving Piedmont Park around 9:30 am, to meet Bonnie.
An hour later, a severe storm closed down the final minutes of the course, 
and forced an evacuation of the Meadow.