Today I completed one of my favorite races, the Big Peach Sizzler 10K. I have so many good memories from this race series: successfully adapting to adversity in the 2014 race, setting my personal best 10K time in the 2017 race, and the infamous "mano-a-mano" contest with Brian Minor in 2019. Time has nearly completely healed the emotional scar suffered in my defeat in the last 0.1 mile of that race.
Today is also Day 1 of the Atlanta Track Club's Training Program for the Thanksgiving Half Marathon. After not running more than 8 miles since the Memorial Day 15K, I realized that if I was going to improve in that race distance, I needed the accountability of a training group, to make sure that I would actually complete all of the weekend long runs. I'm looking forward to it!
My birthday is coming soon. Bonnie proposed taking advantage of the low-stress (for me) Labor Day weekend for an early birthday "Staycation", over Saturday night, at the Hotel Intercontinental. It happened to be on the race course, just over 1 kilometer from the finish line. We dined elegantly, beginning with High Tea in the Astor Room at the St. Regis Hotel, dinner at The Americano restaurant, and a Sunday morning massage at the St. Regis Hotel. That was very relaxing, especially on my lower calves which are often sore when I wake up or haven't been moving for awhile. Thanks Bonnie! 💕
Today's temperature of 68 deg F at the start felt absolutely refreshing, after 2+ months acclimatizing to running in warm / hot weather. My goal was to run an average 9 min / mile pace, gradually progressing just a little faster with each passing mile, to mimic what I hope to do over 13.1 miles in the Thanksgiving Half. My goal over the next few months is to train well enough to run that race at 9 min / mile pace to finish my first sub-2-hour half marathon since December 2019.
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| With Lindy Liu, Joshua Isaacs, and Susie Hill |
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| With Donna Roberts |
I did a warm-up mile around Chamblee with Lindy Liu, saying hello before the start to Susie Hill, Long Tran, Jeff Norris, David Bloomquist, Jordan Eison (zipping past during his warmup - on the way to 6th place overall!), Susie Kim (age group winner), Caroline and Paul Dunn, Donna Roberts, Joe Lenahan - sorry if I missed anyone! Lindy told me that she was going for about 57 minutes. When I shared that I was trying to beat 56 minutes, Lindy proposed using me as a pacer. Gulp! The burden of responsibility weighed more heavily on me than Lindy probably expected - since I wasn't completely confident that I could achieve that goal - but too late for me to back out now! Fortunately everything felt really good, so it was up to me to execute a conservative start and then to parcel out my energy reserves over the 10K distance.
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| Our start: Lindy (in purple) is right behind me (in yellow) |
Right before we began, I realized that we were fairly tightly packed. I mumbled something like "Let's hope no one gets trampled", then we heard the gunshot starting the race at 7:32 sharp. It didn't take long to get to the starting mat, I said more loudly "Good race everyone!" and we were off. Fortunately, it seems that we had self-seeded appropriately. It was a little slow going in the first block but in the second block I saw a 10 min / mile average pace since the start, and figured that I was probably moving close to my goal pace. "Relax and glide" I reminded myself. I enjoyed the sensation of cool air as I ran forward, attentive to my technique. We turned onto Peachtree Road without incident, enjoying three lanes of roadway in the beginning. Making the turn, I thought I caught a glance of Lindy close behind me, so I guess I was doing OK. The first mile went quickly, 9:01 as I passed the mile 1 marker and 9:11 elapsed on my watch. Perfect! I decided that I didn't need to change anything. Around 1.5 miles in, I walked through the first water stop, quickly got back up to speed. Mile 2 in 8:56, again I was really happy with that.
Midway through mile 3, I began to notice a little fatigue. That worried me, so I tried some intentional diaphragm breathing, and that helped a bit. My heart rate was 163 beats per minute, a little above my threshold of 160 bpm - as of 5 years ago. My watch indicated that I was running at an 8:40 min / mile pace. I reined in my effort a bit, but then up ahead was a long downhill heading into the middle of Brookhaven. To my right was Caroline Dunn. I figured that I might run with her for a few minutes, but my momentum kept carrying forward down the hill. I said as I passed "Taking advantage of my mass" and then remembering that Caroline is an engineer, I added "It's inertia, not gravity". Now the problem with passing anyone that I know in the middle of the race, is that I don't want to face the shame of getting passed later in the race if I start slowing down just because I'm getting a little tired. Mile 3 in 8:52, 27 minutes elapsed, still on the plan. I estimated that I reached the 5K mark at 28 minutes elapsed, perfect for a 56 minute finish - as long as I didn't slow down!!
The next water station was up ahead. I put on a little acceleration to have a clear lane on the right side. I accepted a cup of water from one of the last volunteers, then took my second walk break of the race, counting to 30. Getting back up to speed, refreshed by the hydration, it seemed like we were heading gently downhill throughout mile 4. Indeed the marker came up quickly, mile 4 in 8:44, now under 36 minutes elapsed. At this point, I adopted the mindset of passing mile 24 in a marathon, just 2.2 miles to go, "You can do this Frank!" I had no idea if Lindy was still behind me and was too focused to look back, I was racing for myself.
Mile 5 is always a tough mile in this race, and is usually my slowest mile even in my best performances on this course. It's net uphill by just 15 feet, and the rises are short and gentle in slope, but I have to rely on grit to keep moving forward. At the water station between Peachtree Dunwoody Road and Wieuca Road, I probably stretched the walk break beyond 30 seconds. I needed 10 seconds to slow my breathing so that I could drink the cup of water without choking, but it was worth it. When I began running again, I was moving quickly, taking advantage of a gentle downhill stretch until we approached Lenox Road. The dividing line between Wave D and Wave C in the Peachtree Road Race. My watch sounded the mile 5 alert in the middle of the crossing, I waited to check until I had safely crossed in front of the car that the police had stopped for me - "thanks!" and was pretty happy to see 8:52, so I had not really slowed down very much. The mile 5 marker equalled marathon mile 25 in my head today.
I was beginning to struggle. I think that I kept my form together, but I had to remember to keep my head up to look ahead instead of down. I remembered Coach Carl's advice for the last 1.22 miles: "Just 5 laps on the track!" To me I didn't feel like it was going to be "just" 5 laps to go, but then the mile 2 marker for the 5K race appeared, so 1.11 miles to the finish, and I realized that I was halfway through the first "lap". A few 5K finishers were walking back up the race course to cheer us on - I recognized Angelina Stasulis, who publishes a weekly blog "Doin' it for the hashtag", one of the few blogs that I still regularly follow. Heading uphill over the GA-400 overpass was challenging. Sweat was running into my eyes, I wanted to take a walk break so badly, but just in time I heard Kristi Swartz cheering me on by name. I kept running. My heart rate was now well above 170 bpm, as we passed the Hotel Intercontinental. I reminded myself that over the weekend I had revved up above 170 bpm a couple of times on the 20th floor, so my heart would also survive this, even if it didn't feel as fantastic today.
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| Thanks to Paul Dunn for these photos, on Lenox Road, 20 - 30 seconds before the finish line. |
Finally, the right turn onto Piedmont Road was ahead. For me, it's reliably 4 minutes to the finish line from that turn. I took a quick glance at the watch, ignoring the heart rate and pace, but seeing 51:30 total elapsed time. Mentally I relaxed, because I realized that I was now almost certain to achieve my 56 minute goal. And after getting over the hill at the intersection, I began to pick up speed. One, two, three blocks to the next turn, where Paul Dunn was cheering me forward. I missed hearing the mile 6 alert but it was 8:42, so that was my fastest full mile of the race. On Lenox Road, the elevation seemed to increase just a bit. I may have slowed down a bit but remembered to "relax and glide", and I was still moving fairly quickly. One final right turn, and the finish line was ahead of me. There was no one directly in front of me - and unlike my last race, no one outkicked me at the very end. The race clock to the left of the finish line was showing 55:30-something as I approached. The announcer, as in past years, called out "Tucker Running Club in the house!" It may have been my imagination, but I thought he then said, "You're slowing down!" WHAT---EV---ER. My steps were carrying me quickly enough to the timing mat. I saw Bonnie up ahead on my right and heard her cheer as I crossed the finish line at 55:43 gun time, 55:29 on my watch.
After accepting a cooling towel and the race medal, I recovered quickly enough to circle back to join Bonnie in cheering others into the finish line within the next few minutes after my finish. Mission accomplished! Not only did I achieve my goal finish time, I also ran the race with a nearly perfect progression - and I'm pretty happy with mile 5 as well. But, I don't think that I could have pushed myself for another mile today, so I have a lot of work to do in the next 12 weeks if I'm really going to run a sub-2-hour half-marathon.
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| medal on top of the race shirt logo |
