December 5, 2015: The Eastside Beltline 10K, year 3

Goal C: To better last year's time of 56:48

Goal B: To beat my course record from 2013, of 55:45

Goal A: To best my 10K PR of 53:50

I ran my first 10K race in December 2013 on the Eastside Beltline, greatly exceeding my hopes to finish in less than an hour.  Since that time, I've focused on improving my performances in the 10K distance, even setting a year 2015 resolution to complete a 10K in less than 54 minutes, which I managed for the first time in March 2015.  The 2014 Eastside Beltline race was a big disappointment: heavy rain before the race may have led to me twisting an ankle in the unimproved part of the course.  I finished about one minute slower than the previous year, but then could hardly walk from the finish line to the car.  The ankle took about a month to fully heal.  For that reason, I waited to sign up for the 2015 Eastside Beltline until less than 24 hours before the registration deadline.  I had resolved to skip the race if the weather was likely to be rainy.  Happily our last rain was Wednesday morning and the forecast was firmly in the 0% chance of rain, with cool temperature but sunny skies forecast for today.

Second breakfast at 8 am with Atlanta Track Club.  Look at the healthy and tasty options!

Before the relatively late 10 am start for today's race, Bonnie and I joined several hundred members of the Atlanta Track Club for the Grand Prix Award Breakfast.  The participants celebrated the work of all-star volunteers by running 1.3 mile laps around the new headquarters building of the Track Club, followed by a tour of the impressive facility and a complementary breakfast.  We left a few minutes before the awards ceremony so that we could park near the start of the Beltline Race, but in addition to joining some of our running friends at the Track Club breakfast, I also managed about 3 warmup miles at a gentle pace before today's big race.  I was also well-nourished with two small breakfasts eaten over a few hours, so my preparation and attitude were ideal for a good performance this morning.  Moreover the sunny skies and 45 deg temperatures were ideal for running this morning.  

Shortly before the start with Tucker Running Club buddy, Linda Bode Phinney

After joining the starting group for stretches and warmups and the National Anthem, our race began a couple of minutes before the 10 am starting time.  I didn't see a timing mat at the start, so I may have started my Garmin watch a few seconds late, but the race started smoothly.  As we made the first turn from the Krog Street Market area to approach the southern terminus of the Beltline, we had to run between a cement truck and a utility truck, but somehow we made it onto the Beltline without any real hindrance. 

Bonnie found me shortly after the first mile!

I had resolved to run splits of 5:00 running with 30 second walk breaks, and managed the discipline to take every walk break in today's race, even if some of the walk breaks were a little short, 15 - 20 seconds especially in the early stages.  From the runs in 2013 and 2014, I knew that I had to save energy for a short but severe uphill stage at the northern terminus of Piedmont Park, shortly before the 3 mile mark, and was hoping that my fourth walk break would coincide with that uphill section.  The plan was then to maintain a decent speed on the return trip, and try to kick into high gear at the Highland Avenue underpass, about a half-mile from the finish line.  

Midway through the second mile - feeling strong and fast!

The first two miles were slightly and steadily downhill, and I covered the distance in 8:03 and 8:22 respectively, even though I could have run a bit faster.  The third mile was the treacherous strength along the unpaved section of the Beltline, working carefully on the gravel sections while speeding up a bit more where the route was smooth dirt.  To my surprise and delight, when we reached the northern terminus, the "hill of death" was omitted from this year's race route, and we immediately turned into the northern part of Piedmont Park.  We were all buzzing about the change, and I started thinking about the possibility of running a personal record as I passed the 3-mile sign in the middle of the 25th minute, with the Garmin alert shortly afterwards recording 8:40.  I slowed down a bit more through the park, which was net uphill, completing the fourth mile in 9:04, but I was feeling strong as we returned to the paved Beltline for the return trip.  The route was clearly uphill, but I was feeling strong enough to keep up with the fastest runners in view and passed a fair number of other runners.  Here I was careful to take 25 - 30 seconds for each walk break, letting my heart rate drop, and rewarded with a burst of speed each time I returned to running.  The fifth mile was covered in 8:54, which was a little slower than I had hoped for, but at 43 minutes elapsed, I felt that I had the energy to run the last 1.22 miles in 10 minutes or so, needing only slightly under 11 minutes to match my 10K PR.  

Running through Piedmont Park - somewhere in mile 4

 Here the physical and mental strength acquired over some difficult summer runs paid off in a big way!  Everytime I started to flag a bit, I just had to concentrate and make a small adjustment in my gait and I surged forward more strongly.  This is probably the best that I have ever felt in the sixth mile of a 10K race, feeling strong and confident.  I was able to put aside the sense of some slight tiredness knowing that I didn't have much further to run.  Although the only mile marker that I saw along the route was at mile 3, I remembered that the 6 mile marker was near the southern end of the Beltline, which later I saw was reached in 7:53, 50:56 elapsed. 

As we reached the end of the Beltline, the road leveled out - in fact I felt that we were heading downhill.  I was closing ground on a young woman but she was also speeding up going into the finish.  As I turned onto Krog Street for the final dash, I could see Bonnie standing on the right side of the road just past the finish line, and then saw the amazing number of 51 minutes on the clock!  At that moment I heard footsteps rapidly closing on me and a young man shot past at incredibly high speed, but I maintained a good pace into the end.  I finished just a few steps behind the young woman but didn't care that much about catching her, incredibly pleased to finish before 52 minutes had passed on the clock!  As I crossed the finish line I raised both arms in victory and shouted "PR!!" 

About 100 feet before the finish, the man in blue rocketed past us!

Celebrating a new PR for 10K, at 51:45 on the clock!

Then I checked my watch, and saw recorded 51:37 but a distance of only 6.07 miles!  Even if I started the watch a few seconds late, it certainly appeared that the route was short.  I was hoping that maybe my watch wasn't recording accurately - it's the third race in a row when the distance has been a little short - but the other finishers confirmed that their recorded distances were also short.  My official time appeared online within a couple of hours, at 51:44.  In any case, any disappointment was quickly dispelled when I realized that I had run the 6.07 miles at an average pace of 8:30 minute / mile, which is a personal record for that distance.  Best of all, I didn't get injured, and wasn't even terribly winded despite having run pretty hard through the last half-mile.  

Celebrating after the race with Bonnie!

Tucker Running Club finishers! with Linda Bode Phinney and Becky Caldwell

Notes: 

1) I forgot to drink beet juice beforehand, didn't even think about beet juice until a couple of hours after the race had ended!  I do think that the additional light breakfast didn't hurt. 

2) The warmup miles over a few hours earlier this morning probably also helped. 

3) The weather conditions could hardly have been better for a fast race, 45 deg F with low humidity. 

4) And, I will credit the conditioning that I've gained this year. It's really nice to see some tangible improvement.

Today's race was a great confidence builder in advance of next week's half marathon on Sunday December 13!

November 26, 2015: The Bay Area Turkey Run 10K

Goal C: To better last year's time of 55:59.9

Goal B: To celebrate Thanksgiving holiday with family

Goal A: To celebrate my mother's birthday

In the United States, the fourth Thursday in November is Thanksgiving Day.  We usually get together with my mother and other family members, not only because of the holiday but also because Thanksgiving always falls near her birthday.  This year Thanksgiving actually falls on Mom's birthday, and we're celebrating a round-numbered year as well.  She is a role model for me in so many ways, including taking good care of her health, although she probably has a bit of luck with genes as well.  I've inherited her genes for hair color and I think that I look a lot like my maternal grandfather - other than the male pattern baldness that I inherited from my own father - and hopefully I've inherited her healthy genes as well! 

My aunt prepared a delicious applesauce cake for her sister's birthday!  

In this time when the plight of refugees is in the news, I think of my Mom's family at the end of World War II.  My grandparents were born in the first decade of the twentieth century in the Austrian Empire.  After World War I, their region became part of the new country of Yugoslavia.  As ethnic Austrians, they were in the minority, but became Yugoslav citizens, and my grandfather even served in the Yugoslav army during peacetime in the mid-1920's.  That may have saved them when civil war came to Yugoslavia in the early 1940's, sparked by the anarchy of the German-Italian invasion and occupation.  In approximately 1943, a group of Partisan soldiers demanded entry into their home in Sarajevo, but the group's commander ordered the soldiers to leave after he realized that my grandfather had served in the Yugoslav army.  However, my grandparents felt that the next group might not spare them, so they decided to leave to join relatives in Austria, only to be picked up by the German army and sent to a labor camp, as they weren't officially Austrian citizens.   

Family photo from ca. 1948, from left-to-right:
My mother, Cecilie Kefer; my grandfather, Rudolf Kefer;
my grandmother, Elizabeth Zamola Kefer; and my aunt, Mira Kefer.
They sat for this photo to send to great-uncle Ed Zamola,
when they wrote asking him to sponsor them for immigration
to the United States. 

They were fortunate to survive the war, but found themselves among millions of other displaced persons when the war in Europe ended in May 1945.  My mother was only 9 years old.  Although the Yalta agreement required displaced persons to return to their countries of origin, some of the first groups of non-Slavic people to return to Yugoslavia were murdered shortly after crossing the border, so my mother's family desperately needed to stay out of Yugoslavia, even though they were living in Austria as undocumented aliens.  They were spared when Eleanor Roosevelt, the widow of the U.S. president, gave a speech at the new United Nations in 1945, insisting that the victorious Allies must not demand the return of displaced persons if their lives might be in danger.  My grandparents, my mother, and her older sister lived discreetly in Linz, Austria while they tried to find a country that might accept them.  It turns out that my grandmother's older brother, great-uncle Ed Zamola, had come to the United States in the early 1900's, under dubious circumstances, possibly without visa.  At some point Uncle Ed was offered a path to citizenship, and by the late 1940's, he was eligible to sponsor his younger sister and her family for immigration to the United States.  They arrived in Port Arthur, Texas in summer 1950, when my mother was 14 years old.  My mother along with her sister and parents proudly became United States citizens after the 5-year waiting period, and built new lives in the country that welcomed them. 

Family photo, ca. 1970:
in front center, my mother, Cecilie Kefer McDonald;
on the left, my brother, Will McDonald;
on the right, my father, Frank McDonald Sr.;
and I'm in the back center.

My mother and brother came out early this morning to watch Bonnie and I run the Bay Area Turkey Run, Bonnie running the 5K and me taking on the 10K.  My goal was to run faster than last year's time, which was 55:59.9 on a flat course.  However, it was relatively warm and quite humid this morning.  Even though I grew up accustomed to constant heat and humidity near the Gulf of Mexico coast, I had quickly lost my tolerance after moving away, so I wasn't sure how well I might run today.  

Bonnie, me and Mom shortly before the race

It took me awhile to work out some stiffness in my legs but fortunately we arrived early enough for me to warm up thoroughly in the parking lot.  After jogging for 15 - 20 minutes, my legs felt good and I was ready to run.  The children's 1K race started around 7:30 am, and after they were done, the 5K and 10K runners began together, around 7:45 am.  I started a bit too quickly in the first mile (8:02) and slowed down a bit in the subsequent miles (8:22, 8:45, 9:00, 9:17, 9:01), but was able to speed up in the final stretch, and ran my third-best 10K time at 53:59, only 9 seconds slower than my PR.  

Goal C: To better last year's time of 55:59.9; Achieved 2 minutes faster!

Goal B: To celebrate Thanksgiving holiday with family; Achieved, with a dozen family members around the dinner table!

Top: sister-in-law Sara Werland McDonald, cousin Rudy Noble, Rudy's father-in-law John Combi,
Christine Combi Noble, Rudy and Christine's son Patrick Noble, cousin Paul Noble,
and uncle Don Noble.  Bottom: uncle Don Noble, aunt Mira Kefer Noble, mom Cecilie Kefer McDonald,
me, Bonnie Youn, brother Will McDonald, and sister-in-law Sara Werland McDonald.

 

Goal A: To celebrate my mother's birthday; Achieved! My aunt prepared a delicious applesauce cake for her sister's birthday cake.  

Happy Birthday to you, Mom, as you prepare to blow out the candles! 

November 21, 2015: The Hill Country Trail Race, a k a the Serenbe Mud Run (15 K)

Goal C: To enjoy a nice run in the forest on a pleasant fall day

Goal B: To pace myself better in a challenging trail race

Goal A: To finish 9.33 miles in less than 1:50

I first learned about the Hill Country Trail Race a bit more than a year ago, but was training for my first half-marathon at the time and decided not to risk my training with an unknown type of race.  However this year I registered a few months in advance and was looking forward to a nice run in the forest, in the "New Urban" community of Serenbe.  I had visited the Inn and Farmhouse at Serenbe on a few occasions for farm-to-table dinners, but had never seen the growing community just a mile or so off of the main road.  

The fall foliage has been particularly nice in Georgia this year.  A couple of weeks ago, I joined a couple members of the Emory chemistry faculty on a 12-mile hike through the forest to the top of Brasstown Bald, the tallest hill in Georgia, and enjoyed the trek through the fallen leaves.  A few days ago I looked up a bit of the chemistry behind the changes in leaf color with the season, and learned from a news article in Nature that green leaves contain both chlorophyll and carotenoids, and when the chlorophyll is not replenished with waning sunlight as autumn progresses, the yellow - orange carotenoids are no longer masked and show up as the dominant color in many leaves.  But the striking red leaves on some trees are colored by another compound that is generated only in autumn, known as anthocyanin.  Anthocyanins are also produced in the tissues of many flowers, and appear as different colors depending on the pH of the tissue, with red arising at acidic pH. 

Chemical structures of some representative compounds responsible for leaf colors

It took only about an hour to drive from my home to Serenbe, without any traffic early on Saturday morning.  I had not run at all since Monday, due to a combination of a busy schedule at work and heavy thunderstorms causing the cancellation of the usual Tucker Running Club group run on Wednesday evening.  However the weather has been beautiful for the past few days and I assumed that the ground would have mostly dried out by now. The temperature at the start was around 50 deg F with some warmth from the sun. 

Shortly before the 15K start.  I wore orange for a reason!  Read on...

The race began on the main street of the Serenbe community.  The 5K runners departed first, getting about a 10-minute head start, and then the hard core 15K runners lined up.  With a few casual announcements about a "mountain" shortly before the 3-mile mark and some mud along the route "but you're trail runners", the airhorn sounded and we started.  The first mile was on asphalt and I easily ran a 9-minute mile without exerting myself.  Then we turned onto the first trail and immediately had to navigate through some muddy rutted trails!  We had not gone more than a few hundred feet before a runner in front of me tripped over a tree root, hidden by a layer of leaves!  Fortunately he wasn't hurt and was making a joke about scoring a "9" for his flip - and then it was my turn right before the 2-mile mark.  I decided not to fight to stay on my feet and rolled into a soft bed of leaves, quickly getting back up and running again hardly losing a beat!  Fortunately I wasn't injured, but it took a full mile of running before the big toe that I had stubbed on a tree root stopped throbbing.  

The race route.  The mile markers measured on my Garmin are not accurate,
probably due to elevation changes and switchbacks. The mile markers do
provide general information where I was at the beginning, middle, and end of the race.
The Garmin recorded a distance of 8.87 miles, whereas a 15K route is 9.33 miles.

We crossed a wooden bridge over a creek, and saw some of the faster runners returning in our direction.  Then our path took a left turn, and there it was, the "mountain"!  Conserving energy, everyone slowed to a walk as we marched up a rather steep slope.  Climbing about 100 feet, each runner began to speed up to a jog as s/he crested the top, only to slow down to safely navigate a trail downhill that was just as steep as the one that we had just climbed!  That was definitely a slow mile, yet I passed the 3-mile marker before 30 minutes had passed on my Garmin.  Upon making a turn at the 4-mile marker, an older man in front of me fell, but quickly got back to his feet.  We chatted for a moment as we jogged together.  He was trying his first trail race and was just hoping to finish.  I tried to console him by telling him that I had also fallen earlier in the race. 

We then re-entered the community, with the race organizer encouraging us to enjoy a run about the lake, taking a gravel trail past the back yards of several lakeside houses.  After returning to the dirt trail through the forest, we climbed a hill to reach the 5-mile marker.  During some of the walk breaks, I pulled out my cellphone and took a few photos.  Other runners streamed past, but my attitude was that I wasn't going to win anything, and part of enjoying my run through the forest was to take a few photos to share on this blog.  From time to time I heard what sounded like gunshots.  As I think that November may be hunting season, that was the primary reason for wearing orange this morning!  Then I thought, morbidly, of the cannon shots in "The Hunger Games" announcing when a contestant had died.  And some of "The Hunger Games" movies were filmed in north Georgia....

Some time after the 5-mile marker, we briefly ran on a road.  It was really nice to run on asphalt, even though it was only about 100 yards.  We reached the first water stop, where virtually everyone stopped or slowed for a half-cup of water.  At the last minute I had decided to carry my own water bottle, out of an abundance of caution, although most of the other runners relied completely on the water stop.  Then we plunged into the forest again, leaping across some crossings of little creeks, struggling to avoid soaking our feet.  In a flat section of the route, passing by a structure that looked like a giant treehouse, a runner about 100 feet ahead of me went down.  A few of the other runners helped her to her feet, but she stood still for a long moment, hands on knees, apparently catching her breath.  I was concerned that she might have been injured, but shortly before I caught up to her, she began running again.  

Before long we had passed the 6-mile mark (59 minutes elapsed) and reached a road.  It was evident that a right turn would have taken us to the finish - which apparently was the 5K route - but we took a left turn.  The road went up a relatively gentle hill, so I took another photo of a horse surrounded by a flock of ducks.  

I can hardly see the ducks and horse in this photo, but they are at the horizon, looking uphill. 

A race volunteer directed us into the forest, saying "just a loop and then run back to the finish".  I thought that the loop wouldn't be that long, but in fact it was a full two miles.  My legs were starting to ache from the changes in elevation, and I was thinking of how well this would strengthen me for an upcoming 10K in a flat community on Thanksgiving.  In the meantime, my legs were feeling a bit rubbery, but I just kept moving forward as best as I could.  After the 7-mile marker, we passed a waterfall that was a featured attraction of the race route.  I stopped to take a photo, and had just safely returned my phone to a pocket when I fell again, this time sprawling forward on my stomach into the mud.  Fortunately I wasn't injured but now my right hand and wrist were quite muddy, with mud even caked into the wristband of my Fitbit.  The sudden stop also caused my left gluteus to ache with a slight muscle cramp and that really slowed me down, as several other runners passed me in this section. 

There is a waterfall in the background of the photo.  This might have turned out better if I had stopped moving before I snapped the photo. 

It took a long time to reach the 8-mile marker, and now my elapsed time was substantially beyond 80 minutes, but I hadn't expected to run a 10 minute / mile pace in this race.  We were scrambling up and down trails of red Georgia mud, leaping over the occasional little creek.  In the last one, I didn't get enough speed before jumping and nearly slid backward into the creek, but grabbed a little tree with my left hand and pulled myself forward.  Finally, we reached the volunteer at the road once again, and he cheered us on with promises that the finish line wouldn't be too far.  I estimated that it was about a mile to the finish, and tried to speed up.  It took awhile for my legs to respond, but gradually I did find the higher gear.  I had managed to conserve some energy on the slower miles on the trail, and now that we were on asphalt, I was running fairly well.  Going up a gentle hill, I managed the occasional pass.  Spotting the photographer ahead, I sped up a bit more as I passed a couple.  Then there was the 9-mile sign!  Only 3 minutes to go (or less), as I glanced at my watch to see 1:35 elapsed.  I continued running strongly, passing some of the people that had earlier passed me in the last two miles on the trail.  Then as we approached the first buildings of the community, the road turned gently downhill and I went into high gear.  It seemed that no one around me was able to speed up, whereas I kept passing other runners even as the finish line came into view.  I saw 1:38 on the clock, and nearly caught up to another finisher who managed to cross just a split second ahead of me. I was tired but didn't feel badly.  I stepped into the clearing to get some sport drink, then went back to the finish area to watch a few of the others cross the line while I also tried to stretch a bit.

Conclusion: I'm not much of a trail runner.  I'm so much more comfortable running on asphalt.  It's not only the difficulty of the climbs and descents that concern me, but I really don't like falling in a race, and am grateful that I had soft landings in both instances.  Nonetheless, I suppose I will continue to occasionally run a trail race once or twice a year, as I like being in the forest, but it's unlikely to become my major running activity.  In any case, I wasn't disappointed at all in my result: today I ran a substantially faster overall pace than in my first trail race in August. 

Goal C: To enjoy a nice run in the forest on a pleasant fall day; Achieved! 

Goal B: To pace myself better in a challenging trail race; Achieved (probably)!

Goal A: To finish 9.33 miles in less than 1:50; Achieved with a chip time of 1:38:34!!

http://hillcountrytrailrace.com

November 7, 2015: The Uptown Rhodes Race 5K

2013 time: 27:46
2014 time: 25:06
2015 time: ?

I recently read a scientific article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) on the biochemical basis of the "runner's high", published by a group of researchers in Germany.  The runner's high has been described as a "sudden pleasant feeling of euphoria, anxiolysis, sedation, and analgesia."  A few decades ago, scientists discovered that physical exercise stimulated the pituitary gland to produce peptide molecules named "endorphins", with beta-endorphin the best studied of these peptides.  Beta-endorphin apparently triggers opioid receptors, dulling the sensation of pain.  For years, beta-endorphin was thought to be the causative agent for the "runner's high".  The problem with this idea is that the structure of beta-endorphin is much too large to cross the blood-brain barrier (31 amino acids, molecular weight over 3000 g/mol).  The blood-brain barrier allows small molecules (glucose, ethanol, caffeine, nicotine) to enter the brain, but protects the brain against virtually all substances with molecular weight greater than 500 g/mol.  

This is the free content of the article: Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 2015, vol. 112, no. 42, pp. 13105-13108

The 2015 PNAS article studied the behavior and biochemistry of mice that exercised on a running wheel, covering an average of 6.5 ± 0.7 km in a five-hour period, analogous to the time required by the average human runner to complete a 42 km marathon.  A relatively small and fatty molecule named anandamide was also produced in the laboratory mice upon strenuous exercise.  Anandamide was recently discovered as a trigger for cannabinoid receptors in the central nervous system, and has low molecular weight (347 g/mol) consistent with its ability to cross the blood-brain barrier.  The researchers reported that anxiety reduction, sedation, and analgesia were observed in these mice, and also showed that the diminuation of anxiety and pain sensation was directly related to activation of cannabinoid receptors.  (The researchers did not account for the causative agent for sedation, and were unable to test for euphoria, as "euphoria is a highly subjective feeling that may be difficult to model in mice.")

Chemical structure of anandamide.  The next time that you hear someone talk about feeling the endorphins, please do correct him/her, because he/she is actually high on anandamide. 

When my running mania began in fall of 2013, the Uptown Rhodes Race was my second 5K.  By the time that I ran this race again in 2014 - on a slightly different route - I had run several 10K races and the Atlanta 10-miler, and was registered for my first half-marathon in less than a month.  The experience and training definitely showed in a substantial improvement in my time.  Since that time, I've plateaued in my speed, while working more on distance and pacing.  

I didn't sign up for the race ahead of time, as I wasn't previously 100% committed to running this one.  As the day for the race approached, the weather forecast was quite ominous for today, with an 80% chance of rain forecast as recently as yesterday morning.  In fact I was awakened by an explosive bolt of lightning near the house around 6 am!  But when I checked the weather forecast for the next few hours, it was apparent that there would be a window of rain-free weather for a couple of hours coinciding with the 9 am start.  I quickly ate breakfast, dressed in running gear, hopped into the car, and arrived at Rhodes Hall in midtown Atlanta shortly after 8 am, where the organizers were happy to accept my $30 payment in exchange for a race number.  I warmed up by jogging about 2-1/2 miles of the route beforehand at a relaxed 10 minute / mile pace, and was glad to have a reminder of several of the hilly sections immediately before running the race. 

Runners gathering for the start near Rhodes Hall, registered with the Georgia Trust for historic preservation.
A modern office building is in the background. 

As this race didn't use timing chips, we all would get the same start time, so I took a spot about 15 feet behind the starting line.  Shortly before 9 am, the organizer raised his hand, a police cruiser blocking Peachtree Street sounded its siren, and we started running!  My goal was to start out a little slower than last year on the downhill section, to save energy for the second and third miles that would be mostly uphill.  I did manage the discipline to run slower than an 8 minute / mile pace in the beginning, but then picked up some speed in a rather steep downhill section near the end of the first mile.  The road felt a little slick with wet leaves on the street, but everyone kept their footing.  I finished the first mile in 7:43 (net 110 feet downhill).  

Lots of wet leaves on the streets, but I didn't see anyone fall. 

As we passed the Ansley Golf Clubhouse, the road turned uphill, but I managed to keep up a decent pace.  I did a good job focusing on technique, pushing off my toes with each step, keeping the turnover of my legs light and fast, and using my arms to propel my body up the hill.  This was the best part of the race in terms of the view, looking out over the golf course and enjoying the autumn hues of the trees, which helped to take my mind off of the fact that most of this mile was uphill (net 40 feet, finished mile 2 in 8:29).  

Views of the Ansley Golf Course from the race route

Just past the 2-mile marker, there was a water stop at the beginning of a rather steep uphill section, so I slowed to a walk to accept a cup of water, and after about 30 seconds resumed chugging uphill.  This section of the race is the toughest part every year, but before I knew it, we were making the last turn onto Peachtree Center for the last half-mile to the finish line.  

Top: elevation profile recorded by Garmin Forerunner 15
Bottom: actual elevation profile

I knew that I needed to run fast if I had any chance of breaking last year's mark of 25:06. Fortunately I had enough energy remaining to speed up a bit.  Thankfully the road was fairly level in this area (actually my Garmin registered it as gently downhill).  The police were having trouble keeping the street completely free of moving vehicles and the runners had to weave a bit on one side or the other of the cones to avoid the occasional resident that was trying to get out of the neighborhood.  As the road curved to the left past a traffic circle, I could see the clock at the finish line, showing 24:20, but my initial joy at seeing that I would beat 25 minutes was quickly tempered by the realization that I would have to work hard for it!  The finish was gently uphill and the seconds were ticking by much too quickly, but I entered the chute and crossed the finish line at 24:57, exchanging a congratulatory handslap with a volunteer at the end of the line, thrilled to finish in less than 25 minutes!  The only disappointment was that the race was a bit short in distance (just as it was last year), registering only 3.06 mi on my Garmin.  Nonetheless I was very pleased with my run, especially as the temperature was relatively warm and humid (66 deg F, 88% humidity), and I was happy that I made the last decision to run the race, even though it wasn't a certified 5K distance.  The final 1.06 miles were covered in 8:57, 53 feet net uphill. 

After catching my breath and rehydrating with a bottle of water, I jogged back along the race course to take a few photos of the route.  Altogether with the warm-up and cool-down, I got in about 8 miles this morning, including 3 miles of "speed work" in the middle of the run!

2013 time: 27:46
2014 time: 25:06
2015 time: 24:57  Progress!!

Courtesy of Georgia Historic Trust, probably near the middle of the race

October 25, 2015: The Atlanta 10-Miler

Goal C: To finish without injury

Goal B: To better last year's time of 1:31:13

Goal A: To run faster than 1:30:00 (9:00 min / mile pace)

I haven't posted in awhile, in part because my last scheduled race, the Winship Cancer Institute 5K on October 3, was cancelled due to bad weather.  There were concerns about a combination of a big storm front colliding with the outer bands of Hurricane Joaquín, and there was significant lightning and some standing water in the streets of the Emory University campus that morning.  Fortunately for Georgia, we missed the intense rain and resultant flooding that created a significant disaster in a large part of the neighboring state of South Carolina.  In the meantime I've been training fairly diligently, working on improving my half-marathon time when I next run the Galloway 13.1 in mid-December.  The Atlanta 10-Miler was to be a good test of my fitness to this point. 

I ran a great race in last year's 10-Miler and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and have been looking forward to this highlight of the fall 2015 running season.  The race seems to steadily grow in popularity, from 3000 finishers in 2014, up to over 4000 finishers this year, selling out a week in advance.  The weather was cloudy and pleasantly cool at the start (63 deg F), but the tops of the buildings at the start/finish area in Atlantic Station were shrouded in fog as sunrise approached.  Before heading to our corrals for the start, the participants from the Tucker Running Club gathered for a group photo. 

Great turnout from the Tucker Running Club! 

For major events, i.e. the races that aren't free, the Atlanta Track Club goes all out, including a professional announcer for the start.  This year I was assigned to corral C, for runners with a 9:00 - 10:00 minute / mile pace - the perfect corral for me.  It took a little longer than expected for corral A and B runners to clear the starting area, but at 7:35 am sharp, the airhorn sounded to start our group, and the corral C runners were off with great spirit! 

My plan was to run the first 8 miles at an average 9-minute / mile pace, hopefully reserving enough energy to turn up the speed a bit in the final two miles, to achieve my "A goal" of finishing in less than 90 minutes.  Last year I started in the front row of corral D and covered the first mile in 8 minutes.  This year I vowed to have more discipline, sticking closer to a 9-minute mile from the beginning, and managed that for the first three miles, in 8:49, 8:59, and 8:50.  Once again there were some great cheering groups along the route, and for each group I managed to move over to the right to exchange hand slaps with the cheerers.   

As we turned off of Peachtree Road into the Brookwood neighborhood, we encountered our first serious hills.  Taking short (15 second) walk breaks every three minutes or so, I powered through the hills, feeling strong and fast.  Unfortunately my heart rate monitor signaled that my heart rate had exceeded 170 beats per minute before we had even finished the fourth mile!  I took a short walk break but then seeing that my pace was slower than 9 minutes / mile, I managed to speed up quite a bit as we ran a steep downhill to the 4-mile marker, letting gravity do much of the work.  The obsessive-compulsive section of my personality was pleased to finish the fourth mile in 8:53, so the better than 9-minute mile streak was safe for the moment! 

Unfortunately the hills were not over, far from it!  I had taken a walk break almost immediately after clearing the 4-mile alert, and had to press to get the pace time back down.  It didn't help that I elected to take a gel approaching a water station in the middle of the fifth mile, but I wanted to make sure that I stayed strong and consumed some calories before I badly needed them.  Despite my best efforts, I couldn't finish the fifth mile "in time", in fact I gave back most of the "excess" that I had earned in the first four miles with a 9:27 fifth mile.  But not to worry, I was exactly at 44:59 at the midway point!  Now it was time to execute the negative split strategy. 

Running due north on Northside Drive, the right lane was under construction - although it might be a new lane.  I was still feeling good, but the heart rate alarm sounded every time we went up a hill, even small ones.  This was really too early in the race to be running with a high heart rate, and I only managed 9:13 for mile 6.  Shortly after turning onto Peachtree Battle Avenue, I saw an ambulance up ahead near an intersection, hoping that I wouldn't need to stop!  I jogged past without incident, approaching a table where volunteers were handing out packages of Sports Beans.  I don't normally use Sports Beans in running, but had taken a cup of them around mile 8 in the Publix Georgia Half Marathon in March and had no problems in that race.  Unfortunately this time I kept chewing and chewing and chewing some more.  I washed some of them down with a cup of sports drink, but it felt like I must have run a quarter mile before I managed to get the sports beans properly chewed and swallowed. 

Turning from Peachtree Battle onto Peachtree Road, I approached the "Conquer Cardiac Hill" challenge, sponsored by some sadists at Mizuno.  I slowed down a bit in the approach to the timing mat, trying to gain a smidgen of reserve, then sped up through the timing mat.  Of course it wasn't like I had any chance of making into the top 100 runners up Cardiac Hill to win one of the commemorative mugs, but I was determined to make a strong showing this year.  Passing the mile 7 marker in 9:30, I definitely needed to speed up to achieve my A goal for the race.  The beginning of the Cardiac Hill challenge was actually flat as we crossed Peachtree Creek.  But as the elevation increased, I began to slow.  A particularly humbling moment was when my Tucker Running Club friends Curt and Kathie Walker, ages 68 and 66 respectively, passed me going uphill.  I don't know how I managed to get ahead of them early on, but that advantage evaporated on Cardiac Hill.  With the heart rate alarm beeping urgently, I had to take a short walk break midway up Cardiac Hill, then was able to speed up a bit again.  There were several cheering groups along Cardiac Hill, but I was in no mood to exchange hand slaps and just stayed in the middle of the running lane, as we passed Piedmont Hospital and the Chest Pain Center near the top.  From time to time people would cheer  "Go Tucker Running Club!"  I think I managed each time to flash a smile and a wave.  Finally I finished the Cardiac Hill challenge, in 9:20 minutes as I discovered afterwards.  I immediately took another walk break upon clearing the timing mat, then tried to get back up to speed to keep the Walkers in sight.  

I remember last year that I was feeling really good as I passed the mile-8 marker.  This year, not so good, as I finished mile 8 in 9:51.  I would have to run two 8-minute miles to achieve my dream goal, so I tried to get into a higher gear.  Epic fail.  I was starting to feel a little sick, perhaps from the sports beans, maybe from the humidity, but fortunately my stomach was empty enough so that I wasn't in danger of causing a messy incident on Peachtree Road.  I was so relieved to turn onto Deering Road at the Amtrak station, heading downhill.  I wanted to speed up, but my body wouldn't cooperate this time.  Quite a few runners passed me from here to the finish, and I lost any view of the Walkers as I slowed down.  I finished mile 9 in 9:46, seeing 1:23:20 on my watch.  

Now the goal was simply to beat last year's time.  Surely I could bang out a final mile in 8 minutes or less.  As I write this post a few hours after the race, I realize that my brain must have been short on oxygen by this stage of the race, because that was a completely ridiculous expectation!  We finally cleared the last uphill section with about 1/2 mile to go.  My watch was at 1:28 as we turned onto 17th Street, overlooking the neighborhood just north of Georgia Tech.  Last year I was cheered by the view, this year I just noticed the fog.  The volunteers were very encouraging and cheering us on, which helped most of the other runners passing me, but I just couldn't find any more speed.  Finally we turned into Atlantic Station at State Street.  Last year this was a celebratory dash to the finish, this year I was just determined to finish.  I saw Susan from Weight Watchers along the sideline, who had earlier run the 5K, and was cheering me into the finish.  I muttered something with the words "feeling terrible" as I passed her.  Finally making the last turn toward the finish line, I tried to speed up a little, and crossed the timing mat at a respectable speed.  9:51 for mile 10, 1:33:11 overall.  

Whew, I finished! 

No celebration today. 

At first, I was pretty disappointed with my performance.  But as my heart rate began to drop and the haze cleared from my brain, I realized that it wasn't that bad, I just didn't achieve some challenging goals that I had set for myself.  Certainly I had run an outstanding race in 2014.  I knew going into today's race that it wouldn't be easy to run a better race this year, but I had expected with a year of additional conditioning that I could at least run the same time again. 

I believe that my problems began in mile 4, when I pressed too hard much too early in a long race, just to beat a 9-minute per mile pace.  That was when goals A and B were lost, although it took me 4 more miles to realize it.  So the great thing about today's race is what I learned from the experience.  And I did manage to run every single mile faster than 10 minutes. 

After the finish, I learned that quite a few runners including some elite athletes finished about two minutes later than their desired time, so I felt a little better about my struggle today.  At least I didn't get injured or sick.  After easy walking and a little light stretching for a few minutes, I changed into some dry clothes.  The morning ended with a celebratory late brunch with Bonnie at Egg Harbor Cafe, which I had run past twice during the race! 

Double bling! And smiling again.  I should never forget that this
is a huge accomplishment in light of my poor fitness 3 years ago.

Goal C: To finish without injury: Achieved, thank goodness! 

Goal B: To better last year's time of 1:31:13: nearly two minutes slower

Goal A: To run faster than 1:30:00 (9:00 min / mile pace): Nope. 

My results: 1141st out of 4058 finishers, 1265th up Cardiac Hill

790th out of 1812 males, 95th out of 227 in the 50-54 age group

427th out of 1066 male masters, 177th out of 501 male grandmasters. 

So, I was in the top half in every category.  I'll take that, even if I'm not "Grandmaster Flash."