February 6, 2021: Hearts and Soles 5K, + 19 more miles

The marathon is 22 days from today! On the schedule today was the longest run of the training plan, which coincided with the Hearts and Soles 5K race sponsored by the Atlanta Track Club. In the first half of the training plan, I was struggling to get into the groove. Although I completed all of the mileage and didn't miss a workout, my attitude was not that positive. I had a couple of bad runs mostly because I tried to do too much in the beginning of the workout and then had trouble finishing the workout in a quality fashion. For instance, I did an 18-mile long run on December 26, where I ran 9 easy paced miles outbound on the Silver Comet Trail at a few seconds slower than 10 min / mile pace, then tried to run a few seconds faster than 10 min / mile pace on the way back. That lasted for only 3 miles. Then I suffered through a long slow slog for the final 6 miles, talking myself out of calling a Lyft to pick me up at one of the few road intersections. 

With the new calendar year, my running took a turn for the better. I finally had a strong long run, 16 miles on January 9, first mile slowest - last mile fastest. The 20-mile long run on January 16 was solid from start to finish. I also nailed all of the mid-week workouts, including a nearly perfect 2 x 3 mile repeat workout on the Tucker Middle School track earlier this week. 

The last 4 weeks of the personalized 14-week training plan, prepared by Coach Carl Leivers. 
The Monday and Thursday workouts are consistent easy days in my plan, 

as well as the Tuesday and Friday recovery days, and the Sunday recovery walk. 

On occasion I've moved up the Wednesday morning speed workout to Tuesday evening, 

if the weather forecast for Wednesday looks ominous, or if I had an early morning commitment

 on Wednesday, which was the case this week.    

On several occasions, I've raced the Hearts & Soles 5K race hard. The traditional out-and-back course in the Panthersville neighborhood in south DeKalb County has one hill near the start - and near the finish, but I've run some of my fastest 5K races there, including 24:00 in 2016, which at the time was my 5K personal best, and then 23:35 in 2019, which was my second-fastest 5K ever. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the Atlanta Track Club has had difficulty obtaining permits for most of its traditional routes, but apparently the City of Tucker was willing to allow the race this year. Hopefully it's because the track club has developed a strict and effective protocol for physical distancing in the scaled-down races that I've joined in the past 6 months. 

The 8:00 wave has just begun. 

As the start of the race at the Tucker Recreation Center on Lavista Road was just a few minutes drive from our home, I didn't need to leave for my 8:15 am starting appointment until 7:45 am. Instead of parking at Tucker High School, I decided to park a couple of blocks further away, on Main Street. This was so that I could freely come and go from my car if I needed to pick up anything before or in the middle of the long run to follow the race. My plan for today was: race course, Tucker to Scottdale to Clarkston and back, then pick up the remaining miles, either heading to the east for Lilburn, or running a loop around city of Tucker, depending on how many miles I had left to run.

After showing my completed health questionaire to a volunteer, and another volunteer recording a temperature reading on my face that was low enough to indicate that I had no fever, I was cleared to pick up my bib. The temperature was 30 degrees Fahrenheit, so I wore double layers, and the mask was an additional facewarmer! Fortunately it wasn't windy today. Although it was difficult to recognize people behind the masks (which everyone wore, without exception), I spotted Carol Gsell as she was attaching her bib. And Tucker Running Club original member Linda Bode Phinney was one of the volunteers distributing bibs! It was great to see her: I've done all of my workouts absolutely alone since mid-March 2020, but we used to run together a lot in my early years in Tucker Running Club. 

I'm not too good at the selfie technique, but on the second try,
 I managed to get both me and Ellen Ausley in the photo,
along with a nice view of the trees in the background. 

I found a tree to balance against. As I did a few leg swings to loosen up the muscles, and Rhonda Moore-Kelly from TRC came over to say hello! She's another TRC member that I haven't seen for a year, since I've been running on my own. And then I saw Ellen Ausley, who is a speedster but was always kind enough to slow down for me during some TRC Monday evening runs. By this time I made sure to pull out my phone to take some photos. It seemed that there were more people around today, probably because no one had to travel halfway to Alabama for this race. 

After checking in for my wave, right after the 8:05 am wave has begun,
with the 8:10 am runners gathering ahead of me. 

The 8:15 wave, one person next to each cone. 

When it was time for our wave to line up, I took possesion of the area around a cone about 2/3 of the way back from the starting line. I had no intention of running this race fast, with 22 total miles prescribed for today. This was my opportunity to practice my conservative marathon start. In the previous Atlanta Track Club events, we've been allowed to remove our masks when we line up a few minutes before the starting horn. But today, the volunteer at the front line was very firm that we were required to keep our masks on until after we had crossed the starting mat. That makes sense, given that there are some more infectious strains of SARS-Cov-2 beginning to circulate around the country. And afterwards, I realized that this might have been a strict condition for the City of Tucker to grant a permit. 

At 8:15:00, the airhorn sounded, I started my watch, and began running very slowly. I didn't remove my mask until I was nearly out of the parking lot turning onto Lavista Road. I checked my watch, and saw 10:27 min / mile. That was fine for a conservative start, although I felt like I was running much more slowly. I had deliberately not warmed up other than some dynamic stretches, intending to use the 3.1 mile race course as my warmup jog. I also set my watch to 4:30 run / 0:30 walk, and activated autopause, as I knew that I would stop at many traffic lights once I had completed the short race distance. Within a couple of blocks on Lavista Road, we turned right onto Henderson Road.  

New sidewalks on Henderson Road! 

I have never run any distance on Henderson Road, because until recently, there were no sidewalks on this narrow winding two-lane road cutting through the heart of residential Tucker. A few of the Tucker Running Club routes have had short, one-block sections on Henderson Road, connecting to quieter streets on either side, and those sections are always challenging. I now remembered hearing something about sidewalks on the Tucker Running Club Facebook site. Thanks City of Tucker! One of the reasons for Tucker's incorporation in 2015 was a sense of insufficient services provided by DeKalb County. The recent (since 2005) cityhood movement has been controversial, and not all of the referenda in metro-Atlanta have succeeded. But Tucker had already long enjoyed a sense of a community, so it was a more natural step to take. In fact I did not know that Tucker was not an incorporated city when I moved here in 2010, until the talk of cityhood for Tucker dominated the local news in 2015. Our neighborhood is still a half-mile outside of the city limits. 

Before we reached the mile 1 marker, we turned right onto Tipperary Trail, a quiet residential street. We climbed our first hill, although I was moving so slowly and taking walk breaks every 5 minutes, so it didn't bother me. Then there was another, shorter and steeper hill. Welcome to Tucker, I thought! For people expecting a fast flat Hearts & Soles course like the route in Panthersville, this may have been a rude surprise. And after cresting the hill, the downhill direction was an even steeper elevation drop. I felt my toes braking against the front of my shoes as I slowly moved downhill. This might have even been hazardous for an uncoordinated runner such as myself if I had been racing the course. 

Going uphill (above),
and then even more steeply downhill (below).

Shortly after the ginormous speed bump, I heard people calling my name, "Frank! Frank!" It was the Tucker Running Club cheer group, who had gathered in the driveway of Katie and Mark Vernon's home! I stopped to take a photo, below - and on Facebook there is a photo of me taking their photo. And a couple of houses further down the street, Rebecca Ludwig was cheering us on. 

I couldn't recognize anyone for certain as I passed, but now that I look at the photo,
I think that Lisa Calas is in the middle of the driveway holding a green cowbell, and
definitely Katie Vernon sitting in a lawn chair behind Lisa. (above)
Rebecca Ludwig posted this photo of me on Facebook - thanks! (below) 

We had a long straight gradual uphill on Livsey Road, heading past the elementary school. Then we made a right turn onto Chamblee-Tucker Road in the direction of downtown Tucker, to the start-finish area. This is a four-lane winding hilly road, with a 40 mile-per-hour speed limit, routinely exceeded by most drivers. I almost never drive this road as it simply doesn't connect where I need to go, in part because there is a semi-parallel road about a half-mile to the east and closer to my house. And I try not to run long distances here, although for some of my local routes, it's unavoidable to get between neighborhoods without running a few blocks on Chamblee-Tucker, which at least has sidewalks on both sides. As I approached the mile 2 sign, I remembered falling on the broken sidewalk somewhere in this area several years ago, when I was a volunteer for the Eric's FitLab 5K. This was at the mile 1 marker in that race, which basically ran a similar loop in the opposite direction. I'm the only person that I know who has injured himself volunteering at a race. I can't find any mention of it in my blog, but I think that it was in 2016 or 2017. At the time, I was probably too embarrassed to share that information. 

On Livsey Road (above);
on Chamblee-Tucker Road (below)

A DeKalb County policeman was up ahead, protecting the race route and signaling vigorously and shouting to the drivers to slow down. I appreciated that and shouted out "Thank you very much!" to the policeman as I passed. Whenever I run on Chamblee-Tucker Road, I always think of Janet Pickney, a Tucker Running Club member who was fatally injured in summer 2017 on her morning run, hit by a car moving at nearly twice the speed limit, ironically driven by another DeKalb County policeman. She was hit at the intersection of Brown Road with Chamblee-Tucker Road. 

As the parking lot for Tucker High School came into view on the left side of Chamblee-Tucker Road, it was time for our dash to the finish line on Morgan Road. We turned onto a little access road winding through the woods to the back of the Tucker Recreation Center. Normally I would have turned up the speed, but today, I maintained pace discipline and just continued jogging until I had crossed the finish line, at 8:48 am on the clock. I wasn't sure of my race time until the results were posted later today, but my official time was 33:21, a 10:45 min / mile average pace. So that was a perfectly successful start to my day! I had stopped to take a few photos along the way, so that artificially increased my finish time by a minute or so, but the point was just an easy warmup.  

Hearts and Soles 5K race route (above)
and elevation map (below)

Following the pre-race instructions to the letter, I put on my mask within seconds of crossing the finish line. Of course I had not exerted myself at all, so I didn't need to catch my breath. I scooped up a bottle of water and a protein bar, then resumed running around the side of the building to get back onto Lavista Road, heading to my car less than a half-mile away. I quickly picked up my water bottle and belt along with three gels, and resumed running with what I estimate was no longer than a 30-second break. Is that what they call "transition" in triathlons? At least I didn't have to peel off a wetsuit or change shoes.  

22 miles of work

I ran southbound on Main Street, then turned right onto Lawrenceville Highway, following the route of the Charles Harris 10K that I ran for five consecutive years, from 2014 - 2018. This was a popular race, both for the overall downhill elevation profile from Tucker to North Decatur, and for being held in the weeks before the window for Peachtree Road Race qualifying. I learned a lot about 10K strategy on this course, setting new personal bests each of my first four years (2014) (2015) (2016) (2017), until running it cautiously a week before a marathon in 2018 - and while injured, although in serious denial at the time (2018). I was sorry to see this race close down in 2019, but I do understand why the family wanted to stop hosting the race after nearly 40 years. I took my first gel around 50 minutes in. I stopped taking photos, because it was challenging to repeatedly remove and then replace my phone every few minutes, plus my fingers would freeze when I removed a finger from the glove to swipe up to activate the phone.

My plan was to run miles 2, 3, and 4 of the old Charles Harris race route on Lawrenceville Highway, while also running a virtual 5K that began at 9:00 am, using the Charge Running app. My time in the virtual 5K was 33:24, which was just three seconds slower than the in-person 5K that I had completed at 8:15 am. Talk about consistency! I then turned onto McLendon Road to explore a new route through Scottdale. On my most common route driving to work, the Stone Mountain Freeway passes under McLendon Road. I've always wondered what's on top. It's a middle-class residential suburban community, with some apartments close to the freeway. Fortunately it had a sidewalk on the east side of the roadway, which meant that I was facing oncoming traffic, not that there was much to speak of - perfect! Second gel consumed at 1:30 elapsed.

With 9 total miles complete, I turned onto East Ponce de Leon Avenue and within a block, found the Stone Mountain PATH trail. This is a pedestrian - bike path that connects Stone Mountain Park to Centennial Olympic Park in downtown Atlanta. I've never run the entire distance, but had previously run this section through Clarkston on a few occasions during spring and summer 2020. After passing back over interstate 285, the PATH trail separated by a half-block from the adjacent street, for even more protection from auto traffic. There were hardly any other pedestrians or bikers out this morning, so while I carried my mask in a pocket, I never felt that I needed to put it on, as long as I just moved to the far side of the path. Clarkston is always an interesting place to run through, for its incredibly diversity of international cultures. In addition to English and Spanish signs, there are businesses and places of worship with script in several different south Asian and possibly east African scripts. I thought that I could distinguish Arabic from Hindi script, or maybe it's Urdu that was substantially different from Nepali or Thai or Burmese. And one of the scripts was likely Amharic. Without an additional clue in English such as "Ethiopian restaurant", or perhaps a national flag, I guess I really don't know after all.  

Anyway, I was feeling really good with 11 miles down, precisely at 2 hours elapsed, half the mileage for the day completed. 5-1/2 miles per hour seemed about right for a long run pace. At one point, I thought I saw Michael Reid, who I used to occasionally see on group runs at Big Peach Running Company in Decatur - and later on Strava, we confirmed that we had a "fly-by". I was trying to figure out where to get off the trail and to cross the railroad tracks to look for Idlewood Road. I had looked up some street names on a map yesterday, but I couldn't remember what I was looking for (it turns out it was Erskine Road, right before completing mile 12) and in any case I didn't see any road signs. I knew that there were rail crossings every few blocks, so I didn't worry about this. And then I was on "Brer Rabbit Road", and there were no more rail crossings. At 2:15 elapsed, I took my third and last gel. I had two more gels waiting for me along with another water bottle of Nuun in my car, back in Tucker. When I saw a cemetery across the tracks on the other side of East Ponce de Leon, at the end of 13 miles, I finally took a long walk break to check my phone. Uh oh, I was far beyond Idlewood Road. I could backtrack, or just keep going. I wasn't concerned about being a little bit lost, because I still had 9 miles to run, but I didn't want to find myself on a busy road without a sidewalk. Brer Rabbit Road left the railroad tracks and passed a couple of large auto repair shops. I was a little concerned that the road might come to a dead-end, but when a car came from the other direction to turn into one of the shops, I figured that there must be an outlet. And sure enough, turning left onto Kelton Drive, I made my way back to East Ponce de Leon. No sidewalk on Kelton Drive, but at least there were only a few cars that passed in the quarter-mile or so. 

As I crossed East Ponce to get back onto the PATH trail, I was almost down to Mountain Industrial Boulevard / Hairston Road. I really wanted to avoid Mountain Industrial. It goes back to Tucker, but it's a really busy road, and I wasn't at all sure of the sidewalk situation. But I remembered that if I returned west on the PATH trail, there was a pathway through an industrial park that eventually connected with Idlewood Road. 14 miles done, only 8 miles to go for the day. The map had indicated about 3 miles to downtown Tucker. I just had to make sure that I didn't make a wrong turn. But there was really only one apparent way through the park, north on Roadhaven Drive past the TOPCU tile and stone company, the House of Cheatham, which is a hair products company, and DeKalb County Watershed Management. Then a left on Greer Circle, which fortunately connected to Saar Parkway, parallel to Stone Mountain Freeway, and now I knew exactly where I was. Mile 15. Now past a Macy's warehouse, and then Stone Mountain Middle School. 

I had planned to take my fourth gel at 3:00 elapsed, but I was at 2:50 elapsed before I reached Idlewood Road. I couldn't remember how far I needed to run on Idlewood Road to get back to downtown Tucker, but I was pretty sure that it was further than 1 mile, so that gel was more than 10 minutes away. Fortunately I still had some Nuun from my first water bottle, so I wasn't going to suffer from thirst. When I reached the intersection with Fellowship Road, I knew that I had no more than 1 mile to go. Turns out it was 0.8 mile. 

I was a little tired, but happy that I elected to run the later miles in an area well-known to me. It had been mentally taxing to get a little lost. My body felt pretty good, until I stopped for a traffic light at Lawrenceville Road, just a couple of blocks from my car. And the light took forever to change. I tried to stay loose by moving my legs and some butt kicks. But when the pedestrian crossing light finally switched from red to white, I felt incredible stiffness in both legs as I resumed running. That two-minute stop was not good for me. But I reached the car, tried not to stop for more than a few seconds, threw my gloves into the car, grabbed the two remaining gels and swapped water bottles, and resumed running. 

Slowly. As I reached Lavista Road and the intersection with Fellowship Road / Chamblee-Tucker Road, where I had begun my day, the mile 17 alert sounded. So only 5 more miles for the day. I knew of a loop approaching 6 miles that took Lavista to Northlake Parkway to Henderson Mill Road (different from Henderson Road) and then returning on Midvale Road. That's the route for the Tucker Running Club 7:15 am Sunday morning run. So that was too long. Plus ... I wasn't up to running the long Midvale Hill, totally unnecessary torture for today. 

Instead I decided to run east on Lavista Road, intending to run 2-1/2 miles, then return. I ate the fourth and last gel of the day. The route was fine until I approached I-285 and heavy traffic in the Northlake area. I had to wait for more than a minute at a couple of intersections, and my legs stiffened up again. At 19 miles completed, I didn't want to just turn around and run back, as that would probably cause me to quit after 21 miles. So I turned right on Parklake Drive, past the Doubletree Hotel and Marlow's Tavern. Bonnie and I spent the first night of our marriage at the Doubletree, before flying the next day to Prague for the rest of our honeymoon. Unfortunately that pleasant memory didn't erase the pain in my legs. And as I hoped, that little loop around Northlake put me at 20 miles complete as I passed Einstein's Bagels and Coffee. 

I had averaged 10:58 minutes / mile for the first 20 miles. But now my legs were so sore, I couldn't move any faster than 12 minute miles. And I took walk breaks about every 2-1/2 minutes. Tears came to my eyes at one point. Everything from the tips of my toes to the depths of my psyche hurt. Then I remembered the advice to force a smile as broad as what Eliud Kipchoge flashes when he has completed 20 miles. That is how he holds on to get to the finish line before everyone else, again and again and again, excepting the London Marathon a few months ago, but blame the pandemic. The smile trick also helped Frank McDonald, a little, although it's debatable if I was showing a smile or a grimace. I was still in pain, but the tears stopped. Then I had to wait again at a light at Midvale Road, at Henderson Road - at least I was past 21 miles - and at Chamblee-Tucker Road. The break felt good for the moment, but then moving again was excruciatingly painful. 

Finally, I was back in the center of Tucker. I approached the intersection with Main Street, and my car was only two very short blocks away. But that wasn't going to get me the full 22 miles on the schedule. I remembered what Coach Carl had said a couple of years ago, when I had cut a 20 mile run short at only 17 miles completed. I had confessed to him and described the six minor logistical issues that derailed my resolve, plus two more excuses (see the link!). He simply responded, "Too many exit ramps."

Those words stuck in my mind. And as I reached Main Street, instead of turning right toward my car, the pedestrian light was white! So I had no excuse, and I ran straight through the intersection. Adding just one more block on Lavista also required a second additional block to get back to Main Street. Checking my watch, I had just 1/3 of a mile to run, to complete the total distance. I wasn't moving very fast, but the goal was mileage and perhaps more importantly, time on my feet. As I returned to Main Street, my car was on the other side of the street. My watch read 21.97 miles, then, then, 22.00 miles! Instead of jaywalking directly to the car, I ran slowly the rest of the way to First Avenue before turning off my watch, because I knew that Strava would steal 0.01 mile. Garmin registered 22.03 miles, indeed Strava registered only 22.02 miles, but I did it. 4:04:43 total moving time, about 4:15 total elapsed, mostly due to unavoidable stops at traffic lights. 

Unfortunately, that effort was much tougher than I remembered from last year's longest run, on February 8, 2020. When I checked my records at home, I actually ran 23 miles a year ago, in 4:00 flat, and ran consistently from start to finish. I looked at my comments on Strava to see if I had complained, but only left a comment about some big hills in the second half of the course. That was more about sharing information on the route and perhaps just a little bragging about my fitness at that time. 

Today's long run was good information, and confirmed what I had suspected, that I'm not currently capable of improving my personal record time of 4:24:07. This will guide me to set a realistic goal for the marathon on February 28. I don't want to push for a super-ambitious goal of breaking 4:24, only to crash and burn before I've even completed 20 miles. But I can probably realistically run a second-best time, i.e. sub-4:48, if I run intelligently. So for the moment, my A goal or tier 1 goal is to run another negative-split marathon. If I have a quality run, then I'll have a good experience. And really, that's what should always be my goal.