Goal A: To run 10K in less than 54 minutes
Goal B: To break my 10K PR of 54:33
Goal C: To finish a 10K without injuring anything (unlike the last 10K on Dec 6!)
The four-week break from running races has definitely worked out well for me. I was very pleased with my 8K race last weekend at Stone Mountain and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It's also a confidence booster that everything is well with my legs and feet. Yoga stretches and massaging my legs with the foam roller virtually every evening have made a huge difference. And so far I've managed to stay on a reasonable training schedule to prepare for the Publix Georgia Half Marathon in a couple of months.
Going into today's 10K race, I was feeling strong and fast, and felt like I could have a good race. Only two disadvantages: 1) I was completely unfamiliar with the race route, and 2) it had rained fairly heavily the day before. But it appeared that the route would be on paved surfaces, so hopefully I wouldn't sprain an ankle on an unpaved trail. The route included some substantial mileage on golf cart paths, one of the hallmarks of Peachtree City's plan when the community was planned 50 - 60 years ago. Peachtree City is famous for having the highest per capita ownership of golf carts in the world, with 10,000 golf carts registered in a city of 34,000 residents.
It took about an hour to drive to Peachtree City (far southwest suburbs) from Tucker (northeast suburbs) and there was no traffic until we arrived to park near the start of the race. Fortunately everything was well-organized with satellite parking lots, and the half-mile walk to pick up our race bibs was a good way to begin the warm up. It was cool, damp and a bit windy, but I had brought a variety of running clothes in the car so that I was comfortable enough for the conditions.
Wave A for the 10K was for runners at 7:30 min/mile paces or faster, and wave B was for everyone else, starting two minutes after the leaders. I took a spot about 25 feet behind the starting line for wave B, hoping that was a good position to start well but avoid going out too fast. But it only took a few seconds to reach the starting line and we were off!
Most of the first mile was on residential streets, and as we approached Lake Peachtree, the water level looked fairly low. We turned left onto a golf cart path and across a level bridge spanning an inlet of the lake. The cart path surface was asphalt, perfect for running vs. a harder concrete sidewalk. We quickly reached the 1-mile mark, with the volunteer calling out "10:20" as I passed. Subtracting two minutes, that would mean about an 8:20 start for the first mile. That was probably a bit too fast to be sustainable for 5.22 more miles, but I was jogging at the same pace as most of the others around me, and certainly not aggressively passing people. As we approached Highway 54 at the north end of the course, the cart path jogged to the right and we gently went uphill leaving the lake behind. The neighborhood was middle-class homes, backing up to the cart path, and we passed a resident cheering us on from her back porch - thanks! We then made a sharp turn onto a residential street, where the road leveled out as we reached the 2-mile mark, at 17:00 even (8:40 for mile 2).
Shortly afterwards, we turned right onto another cart path, and then crossed under a busy thoroughfare through the first of what would be five tunnels along the race route. Amazingly the tunnel was not very high, with a corrugated metal roof which I could even touch with my hand held high. Emerging from the tunnel, we made a loop and started a mild but relatively long uphill stretch. In this mile I began chatting with a fellow runner, James, who was also running the Peachtree City 10K for the first time. His goal is to run a marathon before he reaches age 40, and he's approaching age 39. I told him about my half-marathon training, and learned that we're both planning to run the ATC Spring Tuneup 15K in Inman Park in mid-February. He was aiming for about a 56 minute finish, right about what I have typically run in 10Ks, but we both realized that we were on a ca. 54 minute pace if we could maintain our current pace. Near the top of the hill we passed the 3-mile marker (26:00 overall, 9:00 for mile 3) and the volunteer told us that the next mile would be all downhill. Hurrah!
I had pulled a few feet ahead of James while heading uphill, but he caught up with me as soon as we began going downhill. As the road leveled out a bit, I was able to catch up with him, but then he would pull a few feet ahead whenever the path went downhill and then I would catch up again. It was really helpful to run with someone else as we were able to pace each other, but also by occasionally talking while running, I knew that I was staying at a reasonable level where I would not get too tired. I definitely wanted to finish strongly. When we reached the 4-mile marker at 34:30 (8:30 for mile 4), I was thrilled to be 30 seconds ahead of my 4-mile pace in last week's race at Stone Mountain. Yet I also knew that I had enough 'fuel in the tank' to have a good finish.
The only thing that was a bit disconcerting about the race was that I never quite knew where I was on the course, being mostly isolated from the town on the cart paths, which were through forested greenspace. A couple of the tunnels were quite dark and my eyes didn't adjust quickly, and on those occasions I was just hoping that the surface was even. In the final tunnel, there was quite a bit of standing water in the last part and I had to skip around a bit to try to keep my shoes relatively dry, but did so successfully. I once caught a glimpse of a shopping mall around the Crosstown Drive area, at the south end of the course.
I reached the five-mile marker at 43:30, corresponding to 9:00 for mile 5. Here is where a slight psychological problem always arises for me: I start thinking it's just slightly over one mile to go, rounding off to one mile. Somehow that becomes 1.0 mile in my mind. Then I add 10 minutes to my current time, and I start thinking that I will finish in less than 54 minutes. I made that mistake in the Bay Area Turkey Day 10K on Thanksgiving, and ended up barely beating 56 minutes.
Somehow I failed to remember that I should add on 2 more minutes for the last 0.22 mile. But in any case at the 5-mile marker I began to gradually accelerate. James could tell that I was speeding up and said something supportive but that made it clear that he wasn't going to try to keep up. There were a couple of runners ahead of me, a man in black with white stripes on his sleeve about 50 feet ahead of me, and a woman about 25 feet in front of him. Despite trying to speed up, I didn't feel that I was closing on them, but at least I was keeping up with them. To my right I could see the parking area for the Amphitheater where we had picked up our race bibs earlier that morning, and was excited to know that I must be getting close to the end! As I approached McIntosh Trail for one of the few grade crossings, it looked like the policeman protecting the intersection was waving a car through right after the two runners ahead of me, after all there was about a 50 foot gap. Thankfully, the driver chose to stay stopped, perhaps even seeing me come up the cart path, so I didn't have to slow down, in fact I put on a burst of speed to clear the intersection as quickly as possible. The 50-minute alert sounded just as I crossed McIntosh Trail. Surely the finish line must be really really close!
With that acceleration I had shortened the gap between the two runners ahead of me. In the distance, I could see Bonnie along the side of the path! That encouraged me to go into high gear, and I accelerated past both runners, showing off for my wife as she took photos! The woman runner congratulated me as I passed her. Surely the finish line must be just around the curve. No, perhaps around the next curve? No. Then the path went fairly sharply uphill! I passed another runner but that hill slowed me down a bit, as I saw myself looking up not at the finish, but at the 6-mile marker (52:30 elapsed, 9:00 for mile 6).
At that moment I knew that I couldn't finish in less than 54 minutes, but I was still hoping to match my personal record of 54:33. As the path leveled out again, I sped up as much as I could manage. The 10K route joined the 5K runners coming from the north as we both turned to the east for the finish. The clock was showing 56 minutes and some seconds (so definitely no chance for less than 54 minutes chip time) but I sped past a couple of 5K runners and crossed the finish line at 56:22 (1:52 for the last 0.22 miles, an 8:30 pace).
Whew! I realized that I had probably finished under 54:30! And sure enough when I checked the chip times shortly afterwards, my official time was 54:22, overall pace of 8:45! I waited near the finish line and James crossed less than a minute after I had finished. He was equally delighted to set his own PR. We chatted for a few minutes as we walked back to the Amphitheater, and introduced him to Bonnie as we caught up to her.
The great thing about the Atlanta Track Club free races is that they are low-key but very well-organized. The annual membership fee is about the same as the typical entrance fee for a single 5K or 10K, so it's a great deal with a half-dozen free races each year, not to mention the discounts on bigger ATC events and guaranteed advance entry to the Peachtree Road Race - as long as you're a member by February 1! The first three mile markers were manned by volunteers calling out times. There were always volunteers at key turns to make sure that we didn't get lost on the spiderweb of cart paths. And our results were available on the internet within minutes of finishing. There are a lot of fast runners in ATC races, and despite achieving a personal record, I was only 18th out of 28 in my age group! But I can't be disappointed at all with that. It feels good to challenge myself among a bunch of good runners.
Wave A for the 10K was for runners at 7:30 min/mile paces or faster, and wave B was for everyone else, starting two minutes after the leaders. I took a spot about 25 feet behind the starting line for wave B, hoping that was a good position to start well but avoid going out too fast. But it only took a few seconds to reach the starting line and we were off!
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| The wave A start (7:30 min/mile or faster). I'm definitely not in this photo. Look at the intensity on their faces. One of these guys is going to win the 10K. |
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| And here are my people, in the friendly, relaxed, fun-run band of wave B runners. I can't find myself although I'm possibly one of the green-capped people on the left side of the bunch. |
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| Yay, wave B has started! Look at all the smiles! And some of us will finish in less than 60 minutes!! |
Most of the first mile was on residential streets, and as we approached Lake Peachtree, the water level looked fairly low. We turned left onto a golf cart path and across a level bridge spanning an inlet of the lake. The cart path surface was asphalt, perfect for running vs. a harder concrete sidewalk. We quickly reached the 1-mile mark, with the volunteer calling out "10:20" as I passed. Subtracting two minutes, that would mean about an 8:20 start for the first mile. That was probably a bit too fast to be sustainable for 5.22 more miles, but I was jogging at the same pace as most of the others around me, and certainly not aggressively passing people. As we approached Highway 54 at the north end of the course, the cart path jogged to the right and we gently went uphill leaving the lake behind. The neighborhood was middle-class homes, backing up to the cart path, and we passed a resident cheering us on from her back porch - thanks! We then made a sharp turn onto a residential street, where the road leveled out as we reached the 2-mile mark, at 17:00 even (8:40 for mile 2).
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| Elevation map |
Shortly afterwards, we turned right onto another cart path, and then crossed under a busy thoroughfare through the first of what would be five tunnels along the race route. Amazingly the tunnel was not very high, with a corrugated metal roof which I could even touch with my hand held high. Emerging from the tunnel, we made a loop and started a mild but relatively long uphill stretch. In this mile I began chatting with a fellow runner, James, who was also running the Peachtree City 10K for the first time. His goal is to run a marathon before he reaches age 40, and he's approaching age 39. I told him about my half-marathon training, and learned that we're both planning to run the ATC Spring Tuneup 15K in Inman Park in mid-February. He was aiming for about a 56 minute finish, right about what I have typically run in 10Ks, but we both realized that we were on a ca. 54 minute pace if we could maintain our current pace. Near the top of the hill we passed the 3-mile marker (26:00 overall, 9:00 for mile 3) and the volunteer told us that the next mile would be all downhill. Hurrah!
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| Route map for the ATC Peachtree City 10K |
The only thing that was a bit disconcerting about the race was that I never quite knew where I was on the course, being mostly isolated from the town on the cart paths, which were through forested greenspace. A couple of the tunnels were quite dark and my eyes didn't adjust quickly, and on those occasions I was just hoping that the surface was even. In the final tunnel, there was quite a bit of standing water in the last part and I had to skip around a bit to try to keep my shoes relatively dry, but did so successfully. I once caught a glimpse of a shopping mall around the Crosstown Drive area, at the south end of the course.
I reached the five-mile marker at 43:30, corresponding to 9:00 for mile 5. Here is where a slight psychological problem always arises for me: I start thinking it's just slightly over one mile to go, rounding off to one mile. Somehow that becomes 1.0 mile in my mind. Then I add 10 minutes to my current time, and I start thinking that I will finish in less than 54 minutes. I made that mistake in the Bay Area Turkey Day 10K on Thanksgiving, and ended up barely beating 56 minutes.
Somehow I failed to remember that I should add on 2 more minutes for the last 0.22 mile. But in any case at the 5-mile marker I began to gradually accelerate. James could tell that I was speeding up and said something supportive but that made it clear that he wasn't going to try to keep up. There were a couple of runners ahead of me, a man in black with white stripes on his sleeve about 50 feet ahead of me, and a woman about 25 feet in front of him. Despite trying to speed up, I didn't feel that I was closing on them, but at least I was keeping up with them. To my right I could see the parking area for the Amphitheater where we had picked up our race bibs earlier that morning, and was excited to know that I must be getting close to the end! As I approached McIntosh Trail for one of the few grade crossings, it looked like the policeman protecting the intersection was waving a car through right after the two runners ahead of me, after all there was about a 50 foot gap. Thankfully, the driver chose to stay stopped, perhaps even seeing me come up the cart path, so I didn't have to slow down, in fact I put on a burst of speed to clear the intersection as quickly as possible. The 50-minute alert sounded just as I crossed McIntosh Trail. Surely the finish line must be really really close!
With that acceleration I had shortened the gap between the two runners ahead of me. In the distance, I could see Bonnie along the side of the path! That encouraged me to go into high gear, and I accelerated past both runners, showing off for my wife as she took photos! The woman runner congratulated me as I passed her. Surely the finish line must be just around the curve. No, perhaps around the next curve? No. Then the path went fairly sharply uphill! I passed another runner but that hill slowed me down a bit, as I saw myself looking up not at the finish, but at the 6-mile marker (52:30 elapsed, 9:00 for mile 6).
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| In the midst of my final kick to the finish line, shortly before the 6 mile marker. |
At that moment I knew that I couldn't finish in less than 54 minutes, but I was still hoping to match my personal record of 54:33. As the path leveled out again, I sped up as much as I could manage. The 10K route joined the 5K runners coming from the north as we both turned to the east for the finish. The clock was showing 56 minutes and some seconds (so definitely no chance for less than 54 minutes chip time) but I sped past a couple of 5K runners and crossed the finish line at 56:22 (1:52 for the last 0.22 miles, an 8:30 pace).
Whew! I realized that I had probably finished under 54:30! And sure enough when I checked the chip times shortly afterwards, my official time was 54:22, overall pace of 8:45! I waited near the finish line and James crossed less than a minute after I had finished. He was equally delighted to set his own PR. We chatted for a few minutes as we walked back to the Amphitheater, and introduced him to Bonnie as we caught up to her.
The great thing about the Atlanta Track Club free races is that they are low-key but very well-organized. The annual membership fee is about the same as the typical entrance fee for a single 5K or 10K, so it's a great deal with a half-dozen free races each year, not to mention the discounts on bigger ATC events and guaranteed advance entry to the Peachtree Road Race - as long as you're a member by February 1! The first three mile markers were manned by volunteers calling out times. There were always volunteers at key turns to make sure that we didn't get lost on the spiderweb of cart paths. And our results were available on the internet within minutes of finishing. There are a lot of fast runners in ATC races, and despite achieving a personal record, I was only 18th out of 28 in my age group! But I can't be disappointed at all with that. It feels good to challenge myself among a bunch of good runners.
