With my focus on the Thanksgiving Half Marathon, I was not proactively thinking about other races. However, last weekend one of the run leads posted a note on the In-Training FaceBook site encouraging us to form teams if we were interested. I had recovered well from the half-marathon, posted my interest, and David Bloomquist responded. As the week developed, it looked like we were going to have a mixed master's team, but before I went to bed Friday evening, saw a note that read like one of our team members was under the impression that either the race or the team wasn't happening, not clear. When I woke up this morning, I wasn't sure if I would have a team when I arrived, but decided that either we would find people wanting to run with us or I would find a team that might want me.
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| I love this sign! (but I don't know who created it) |
Indeed we had three members ready to go: David Bloomquist, Sheelagh O'Malley, and me. David wanted me to be the anchor, so I took the "D" bib, Sheelagh the "C" bib, and David the "B" bib. David thought he had someone lined up for the "A" bib, so around 8:10 am, 20 minutes before the start, we went out for a short warmup jog on the Southwest Beltline. We covered a mile in 10 minutes, returning to the start-finish area at 8:20 am, with 10 minutes to go. David checked with the volunteers managing the event, only to discover that the person that he had identified an hour earlier for bib "A" was no longer available. Fortunately, the volunteers were trying to match up a young man who was looking for a team. Meanwhile I was looking at our "A" bib sitting alone on a folding chair without a runner, and MC Ronnel Blackmon was summoning the "A" runners to the start line. With David and Sheelagh's assent, I decided to switch my "D" bib for the "A" bib, to ensure that our team could start on time. It was just a fun run, no one had expectations of me or anyone else on the team, and I figured that I could continue my warm up in the first mile of the race.
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| Ready to start, competing against Stephanie Batson on the Tucker Running Club team |
I lined up near the back of the starting wave. Within a minute, Ronnel had sounded the airhorn, sending us on our way. Stephanie and I ran together for the first few minutes. I was determined to start out slow (like the turtle) but when I first looked at my watch, was running 8:35 min / mile pace, faster than I had expected. Everything felt fine, so I decided to just stick with that pace. I had never run with a baton before (to which was strapped a timing chip) but it wasn't heavy, I just didn't want to drop it. After passing under the MARTA underpass (remembering a Friday evening last year when Bonnie and I waited out an unexpected thunderstorm in the underpass) the route was noticeably downhill. I've run this section of the Beltline many times on easy group runs, and knew that the return trip would be challenging, so I did my best to conserve energy. Eventually I pulled ahead of Stephanie and paced alongside a couple of other runners. Mile 1: 8:25, approaching the Metropolitan Parkway overpass. I stayed with that couple all the way down to the turnaround. We were about 10 minutes into the race before the lead runners on the return trip were passing us, four speedsters in quick succession. At the bottom of the hill, shortly before the paved Beltline ended at the I-75/I-85 underpass, we turned around, about 13 minutes elapsed.
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| At the start: I'm on the far left, wearing the green 2023 Publix Atlanta Marathon shirt |
Heading uphill, I shortened my stride and immediately passed the couple that I'd been running with. I thought, I sure hope that I won't regret that move if they end up passing me. It turns out that was my fastest minute of today's race. Meanwhile my pulse was rising, reaching 171 beats per minute by the time I reached the mile 2 marker, right before Metropolitan Parkway. In the humidity and with sweaty hands, I was concerned about losing my grip on the baton: that would be embarrassing! For mile 2, I had slowed to 8:34, but that wasn't bad considering that we were running uphill. 17 minutes elapsed, on pace for a sub-27 minute finish, which was my plan for my leg of the relay.
I kept running uphill, past a group of volunteers and a medic on a bike as I crossed Allene Avenue, the only road crossing our route. 21 minutes elapsed, around 2.5 miles covered. 5 - 6 minutes to go: I passed one more runner, but could hear the footsteps of a couple not far behind. The uphill effort was taking its toll: I badly wanted to take a walk break, but I was more afraid of being passed, so I kept pressing forward. At 23 minutes, I was approaching the MARTA underpass. 3 - 4 minutes to go, and the route was finally leveling out. Running, running, I saw Sheelagh up ahead, to run with me for the final section. I thought it would be only 0.1 mile to the finish, but after running together for a minute, there was the 3-mile marker, and what I had thought was the turn to the exchange area was blocked off! "I thought I was nearly done!" I gasped to Sheelagh. 8:43 for mile 3, 25:42 elapsed. I had slowed down a bit more, but understandable given the amount of uphill running in that mile.
Finally we reached the right turn off of the Beltline, Sheelagh cheered me forward. I had noticed a slick wooden bridge at that mark during our warmup, but fortunately I had no trouble with footing. Staying on the path, avoiding the temptation to cut the tangent, I made another right turn heading into the exchange area. No one had passed me to this stage: I kept moving forward on the muddy ground as fast as I could, waved the baton in the air as I spotted David standing on the right. Crossing one timing mat, I put the baton firmly into David's outstretched hand, and he took off.
26:27 for my leg: not bad, especially for a fun run! I ran a minute faster than in my last 5K race in late September. But I had really pushed myself, was completely winded. I needed several tries to properly stop my watch. I bent over for a minute to catch my breath, then remembered that the best thing that I could do for myself was to walk slowly. I eventually made my way back to the Beltline to wait for David on his return leg. If there was any consolation, most of the wave B runners in front of David were really working hard, looking quite tired, probably the same way I had looked with 0.2 miles to go. About 24 minutes after I had finished, I saw David approaching, snapped a couple of photos, and then turned around to run with him.
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| David near the end of leg 2 |
I quickly slid my phone into a pocket and began running as David caught up to me. "2 minutes to go!" I said for encouragement. I had thought that I would run alongside David, but I wasn't sufficiently recovered to keep up with his pace. As we reached the mile 3 marker, I called "You can do anything for 1 minute!" and dropped back, stepping off the course to avoid interfering with any runners behind David, after all my race was already finished. The bike medic asked if I was OK - I assured him that I was, and walked the rest of the way to the exchange area, making sure that I didn't get in the way of any runner on the narrow pathway.
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David had already handed off to Sheelagh, completing his leg in 26 minutes as well. After David had cooled down a bit, he introduced me to our "D" bib runner, a young man named Johann. He looked ready to run fast, probably faster than the masters / grandmasters runners on his team. I was happy to see that we had a full team, and Johann assured me that he had met Sheelagh and would recognize her when the approached the exchange area. After 26 minutes, I saw Sheelagh making the final turn to approach the exchange area. Sheelagh smoothly transferred the baton to Johann, and our last leg of the relay was underway!
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| Johann on the left, orange jersey and maroon shorts. In the distance, Sheelagh has just made the final turn. |
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| Sheelagh holds up the baton as she approaches the timing mat |
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| Crossing the timing mat, Sheelagh spots Johann |
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| who steps out on cue |
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| Smooth handoff! |
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| Johann is quickly moving out of the exchange area |
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| and Sheelagh has just finished a 26 minute leg of her own! |
Johann ran a strong leg of his own, sub-25 minutes. We joined him to run together to the finish, but Johann was competing with two other "D" bib runners, and their teammates were trying to join: 12 people together on a narrow path, fortunately no one was tripped up. I couldn't keep up with Johann and happily fell back and jogged on the side of the path. Ronnel was there to give each of us a high-five to congratulate our team's strong performance!
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| Team David Bloomquist #328: great job!! |
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