Training for the Publix Marathon relay is going well. Last weekend Brian Minor and I covered nearly 12 miles of the second 13.1 miles of the course that Brian will run on February 25, and the next weekend we plan to run all 13.1 miles of the first half of the course that I will run. In between, we decided to run the Hot Chocolate 15K this weekend. We resolved that it wasn't a "mano-a-mano" race, but rather a chance for us each to try out our half-marathon pacing, on a race course in the same part of town as the Publix Marathon, including several sections of the same streets.
At the expo yesterday, I heard that over 10,000 people were registered, so it would be important to arrive early. I made it to the Georgia World Congress Center "Red Deck" without much traffic. Brian's ETA at his home was only 5 minutes after mine, but shortly after I had parked and left the garage, the streets were badly clogged. What a difference 5 minutes made: I had plenty of time before the race, whereas Brian had to rush and only made it into the corral about 10 minutes before we were due to start.
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| Starting corral selfie from Stephanie Batson, with Brian Minor |
The temperature was 45 deg F, so I opted for my 2021 Chicago Marathon short-sleeved shirt under the 2017 Boston Half Marathon long-sleeved shirt, as well as tights and a cap. It was fairly windy, and so I hoped that I would be warm enough. I had intentionally left my gloves and skullcap in the car. I figured I wouldn't need them once I had warmed up. I did wear the SuperShoes, hoping that they would help. My half-marathon pace goal was sub-9:09 min/miles (1:59:59 total), so I planned to try for a range of 9:00 to 9:09 minute miles. That could also get me to the finish line in a range of 1:24:00 - 1:25:30, which would be a new personal best for a 15K race distance, having run 1:26:58 last May. Conveniently, there was a 9:00 pacer at the back of corral A. I wasn't sure that I was a corral A runner for this race, so the back of the corral was exactly where I wanted to start.
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| "No walkers" - not very inclusive.... |
A moment before the start, the runners surged closer to the starting mat. Had missed the start? Then everyone stopped short of the starting banner. Countdown: "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, airhorn!!!!" I was over the starting mat within about 15 seconds, and running next to the 9-minute pacer. Brian was right behind me, and Francoise Levinson just ahead. We ran south on Ted Turner Drive (formerly Spring Street). Once we had cleared the first block or two, Brian and I ran that section together, about 20 feet behind the 9 minute pacer. It was really windy, and I pulled my cap more tightly onto my head, saying to Brian "I'll be lucky if I finish this race without losing my cap." We made a left turn onto Mitchell Street, heading toward the State Capitol Dome. About 5 minutes into the race, the 5K runners peeled off to make a right turn. At that moment, it seemed like the 9 minute pacer "was on the mark" as I said to Brian. We passed the mile 1 marker around 8:45, then I heard my watch record mile 1 at 8:59 (21 ft ascent, 53 ft descent).
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| Starting at sunrise |
Making a left onto Capitol Avenue, at the intersection of the new state Supreme Court building, we headed toward Center Parc Stadium. Turning right onto Pollard Blvd, we were on mile 19 of the Publix Marathon route, which Brian and I had covered together last weekend. That was a nice downhill stretch between stadium parking and the interstate highway. Left turn onto Georgia Avenue, running across a large "F" marking the finish line of the Thanksgiving Half Marathon. The mile 2 sign had blown down in the wind, but my watch sounded shortly afterwards, 8:42 and 17:40 elapsed (51 ft descent). Whew, that pacer was running "hot".
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| Net downhill, but constant rollers from start to finish |
After crossing Hank Aaron Drive, I walked through the first water station, as I had planned, counting to 30 seconds. Somehow I had gotten in front of Brian, and he caught up with me as I resumed running. We continued straight on Georgia Avenue through the heart of the Summerhill neighborhood, making a beeline for Grant Park. The pacer had opened some distance during my walk break, but he was still clearly in sight, probably only 100 feet ahead of me. Occasionally other runners were passing me fairly strongly; I think that they were probably corral B runners, who should have swapped places with me in the starting corral. After passing the Cheney Track Stadium, we began our first real uphill climb, to cross what is appropriately named Hill Street. I slowed down a bit, Brian was probably 20 - 30 feet ahead. After we reached the top of the hill, I and the other runners around me all sped up. Suddenly I saw a man near Brian veer off to the right, then rolling into a fall. There had been quite a few road hazards all along the route. Now we had a casualty - then fortunately he popped back up on his feet. We slowed down to check on him, a woman to the right called "Do you need for us to call someone?" Remarkably, he began jogging again, as I passed. In the meantime I had carefully stepped over a rather big seam in the road, undoubtably what had tripped up the other runner. Remembering when I broke my collarbone 10 years ago, it could have caught me as well if I hadn't been looking for it after his fall. I tried to point it out to the people behind me. We could see a policewomen up ahead at the intersection with Cherokee Avenue, so the runner who had just fallen didn't have far to go if he needed help. We passed the mile 3 sign, also blown down - or perhaps intentionally set down so that the signs wouldn't blow away. I picked up some speed running north on Cherokee, mile 21 of the marathon, where Brian and I had begun our long run last weekend. I had nearly caught up with Brian, and could still see the pacer, although the distance was growing. I checked my watch as we approached the 5K timing device: officially 26:29. It wasn't until 26:55 elasped that my watch actually registered 3 miles, so something was off. 9:13 on my watch (50 ft ascent, 50 ft descent).
My mind began dwelling on the possibility that I was running a course that would be shorter than 9.33 miles. The way it was going, I might reach the finish line before my watch registered 9 full miles. My obsessive-compulsive disorder had kicked in at that point in the race. It didn't help that we were now steadily running uphill, over the I-20 overpass, continuing uphill onto Bryan Street, then in just one block, turning northward toward Memorial Drive. The police were holding back quite a bit of traffic on Memorial Drive, as we turned back toward the center of town. The road seemed fairly level in this section. I recall Oakland Cemetery to my right, as I began to regain a bit of speed. We passed the mile 4 marker, before turning right onto Grant Street. Just in time, I remembered that I planned to take a gel before the mile 4 water station. As I ripped open the gel, the runner who had fallen on Georgia Avenue caught up to me. I said "Are you OK? You had a bad fall back there." He just said something that sounded like "Yep" and moved ahead as I walked through the water station. I wonder if what saved him from more serious injury was his clothing. Not only was he was wearing tights and a long-sleeved jersey, so his skin had some protection from severe road rash, plus he was wearing a bubbly-jacket that may have protected his torso in the fall. I was glad to see that he had recovered, and I didn't mind at all being passed by him. Mile 4 on my watch, 9:32, 36:27 elapsed (58 ft ascent).
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| 15K race route |
We turned right onto Decatur Street, running in the opposite direction as we had in mile 12 of the Thanksgiving Day half. This was definitely uphill until we crossed Boulevard Street. And my mind became acutely aware that we were still running away from the finish line. Up ahead I could see Brian make the left turn onto Bradley Street. I began counting, up to 30 seconds before I made the turn myself. Whatever happened to "we're not racing"?! Anyway, Bradley Street was uphill. I recalled that it seemed uphill in the other direction on Thanksgiving Day? Up ahead was Edgewood Avenue. If we turned left, we would be making our way back toward the finish line. Instead, we turned .... right. There was another mile marker, for mile 5. Then left onto Randolph Street, again following the Thanksgiving route in reverse. By this point, I couldn't see Brian any longer. I sped up a bit as we had a short gentle downhill respite. My watch didn't sound the mile 5 alert until I was approaching the intersection with Irwin Street: 9:26, 45:53 elapsed (31 ft ascent, 18 ft descent). My overall pace was now at 9:10 min / mile. How quickly I had lost the time that was banked in miles 1 and 2.
Crossing John Lewis Freedom Parkway, I noticed a famous quotation from Martin Luther King. At the modest speed I was running, I could easily read: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that." Words from 60 years ago, words we really need right now. Somehow that reflective moment improved my attitude. I had been concerned that I was already struggling, before I had even completed the first 10K. Turning left onto Highland Avenue, running due west, a runner to my right said "Finally we're heading in the right direction." I laughed and replied "I've been thinking the same thing." Having climbed to the "Highland", I now picked up a little speed on a gentle downhill section. We passed the mile 6 marker before making a right turn onto Central Park Avenue. There were some irate drivers laying on their horns. I said to someone "I wish that honking made me run faster!" I recalled that there would be a water station there: indeed it was, just in time for a welcome ~30 second walk break. With the 10K timing device ahead, I resumed running before 30 seconds were up. At the same moment, my watch alerted me for mile 6: 9:17 (46 ft ascent, 99 ft ascent) and 55:10 elapsed (officially, 55:07 at the 10K mark). So my watch was off by 0.22 miles. That's a huge difference.
My plan had been to speed up for the final triumphant 5K. Crossing Ralph McGill, I heard the music of a band from a building across the street, trying to pump us up. I tried to find a higher gear, accelerated a bit, until another roller uphill forced me to slow down. We were running mile 3 of the marathon route, but in the reverse direction. Around this time, I recall Francoise Levinson catching up to me. She's a smart, experienced runner, so I'm not surprised that she caught up with me. I tried to pick up my pace to stay even with her. I was hardly able to even say hello, but she was saving all of her air for running. Before long, we turned left onto Pine Street, and then right onto Piedmont Avenue, heading north. I remembered that when running on a parallel road from Piedmont Road to the south, the road was uphill all the way to 6th Street. Turns out, running to the north, it was also uphill all the way to 6th Street. What was worse, as I crested a hill, the wind was blowing from the north so strongly that I could hardly move forward! There was a mile 7 sign near North Avenue. More importantly, I saw Erin McGerald and Chris Carino cheering us on. I held out my left hand and received an energy boost from Chris as we touched hands. The mile 7 alert was three blocks later, 9:20, 1:04:30 elapsed (28 ft ascent, 43 ft descent).
By now I was assuming that the course would be short, in fact I was actively hoping that the course would be short. Then I might have only about 2 more miles to run, not 2.33 miles.
As I write this afternoon, I'm kicking myself for not preparing for today's race with some positive mantras. I don't think "relax and glide" entered my mind at all in today's race. The one thing that I did right in my mental preparation this morning was to listen to part of an interview on "Ali On the Run" from late January, with Fiona O'Keeffe. O'Keeffe won yesterday's Olympic marathon trials in a spectacular debut at that distance, and will represent the USA in the Paris Olympics this summer. I had heard the interview a week or so before the trials, but listening again today knowing the outcome of the race, I can now hear this quiet confidence. O'Keeffe was very well-prepared, and was expecting to surprise some people. Congratulations to Fiona O'Keeffe, and the five other great runners that will represent our country in the final event of the Olympics.
Back to the race: left turn onto 6th Street, and a couple of blocks of serious uphill running until we crossed Peachtree Street. I began to pick up some speed, a quick left onto West Peachtree followed by a right onto 5th Street, heading toward the Georgia Tech campus. I thought that I remembered that there was a water station on the overpass crossing I-75/85. And I thought I could see a sign for it in the distance, indeed it was there! Every single runner ahead of me passed the water station without taking anything. Volunteers weren't handing out cups but were cheering, as I picked up a cup. Perhaps I was sort of like a professional picking up their water bottle from their table. Except my cup had only a few milliliters of water. Thank goodness I had carried my own water bottle to this stage, so I was using the water stations more for the walk break than for hydration. As I resumed running, a man caught up to me and said "Glad you're running again - I've been pacing off of you!" I guess that was my Zack Panning moment.
Yesterday Zack Panning led the men's race for the first 23 miles, pacing Connor Mantz and Clayton Young to their 1 - 2 finishes. I don't know that Panning had intended to help Mantz and Young. When they passed Panning, one of them said something that I would like to think was "Thanks for getting us this far, let's race in together so that all three of us go to Paris." Panning held on for a while, but in the final miles was passed by a few others, to finish 6th. It was a shame after he had run so well. On the other hand, I was very happy when I saw Leonard Korir finish in third place, because he had finished in 4th in 2020 and didn't get to run in the Tokyo Olympics.
There was a mile 8 sign at the corner with Techwood Drive. Just 1.33 miles to go. I took a quick glance at my watch: 1:12 elapsed. If the sign was in the correct place, I had a 15 minute span in which to break my personal best. As tired as I was, I was confident that I could run sub-10-minute mile pace for the rest of the way. I was already speeding up, trying to take advantage of the gentle downhill that I had earned in the earlier miles. I could see that we would make a sharp left-hand turn into the Georgia Tech campus, and just one block ahead I could see the runners ahead of us returning to Techwood Drive. As we made the turn, the runner who I was inadvertently pacing said "It would be so much easier to just run straight ahead and catch up with them." Not revealing that I had been thinking exactly the same thing, I said "Then we would be the cover story on Marathon Investigation." Around this time, my watch sounded the mile 8 alert: 9:04, 1:13:34 elapsed (26 ft ascent, 80 glorious ft descent). By this stage, I had noticed that the distance of the difference between the mile markers and my watch alerts was not increasing. I started to think, perhaps the race distance will be correct. I remembered from the Atlanta marathon experience that sometimes, my watch did not record accurately at the start of the race, when we were in downtown Atlanta.
We emerged on the back side of Georgia Tech's Bobby Dodd Stadium. I was thinking "it's now a straightaway to the finish". Even though it was uphill, I knew that the route would flatten out and I would enjoy a downhill finish. Then, to my surprise, we turned right onto North Avenue, following mile 11 of the marathon route. "Oh, snap! The finish is from Luckie Street." That's just one block, but uphill the entire way. Finally, we turned left onto Luckie Street, in front of the Coca-Cola Headquarters building. This part of the route is very familiar: the final mile of the Atlanta's Finest 5K, and what can be a brutal last mile in the Hotlanta Half Marathon. It wasn't long before we passed the mile 9 marker. My watch showed 1:20-and change had elapsed. Only three minutes to the finish line? From memory, I was pretty sure that we were more than 1/3 mile from the finish. Still I was going to beat my previous 15K time. The mile 9 alert sounded on my watch shortly thereafter: 9:36, 1:23:10 elapsed (77 ft ascent, 18 ft descent).
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| I went out a bit too fast in the first two miles |
Suddenly it seemed that my watch was almost correct. I estimated that I was still 2 minutes from the finish, as we had not yet crossed Ivan Allen Blvd. Staying to the left, I had to dodge a few pedestrians, including people who had completed the 5K and were walking north. To my right, I saw the walkers in the 5K race, which was a huge group. I became acutely aware that they were looking at me, taking in my suffering even though I raced past. I remember having a feeling of sympathy the first time that I watched people approaching a half-marathon finish line.
In yesterday's women's marathon, the first two finishers, Fiona O'Keeffe and Emily Sisson, looked strong and confident. Then the cameras moved back a couple of minutes to watch the intense race for 3rd place. The difference in prize money was $10,000 between 3rd vs. 4th place, and --- running in the Olympics vs. watching the Olympics from home. Dakotah Lindwurm earned 3rd place, staying in front of strong challenges from Jessica McClain, Sara Hall, and Caroline Rotich. Sara Hall, who in the 2020 London Marathon had run an amazing finish moving up from 4th place to 2nd place in the final mile, yesterday collapsed to the ground after crossing the finish line in 5th place, missing the team by just 35 seconds.
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| Right before crossing the finish line - and I didn't lose my cap! Brian is in the background, taking a video of my finish |
Then I had to focus on the here-and-now as a huge gust of wind blew in my face, from the south, nearly pulling off my cap. I passed the race photographer with my hand on my head as I pulled the cap down as tightly as possible; unfortunately I haven't received that photo. Fortunately we were running downhill, so I may have accelerated a bit, even running into a stiff wind. From the Atlanta's Finest and Hotlanta races, I remembered turning onto Baker Street and then having to run 100 feet uphill to the finish line. Today, I saw the finish banner as soon as I began to make the turn, so I was seconds from finishing. I saw Brian waiting with his camera just to the left of the finish line - wow, he must have had a great race to have cooled down enough to return. The official race clock showed 1:25:30 as I finished! 1:25:17 on my watch, and 1:25:11 officially! A new personal best for a 15K race by over 100 seconds!!
I was tremendously fatigued, but happy to accept the medal from a volunteer. Then I heard "Frank!" "Frank!" I thought I was hearing things, but a volunteer caught my attention - it was Elizabeth Harrell, who had completed the 5K, and was now waiting for her sister and friends in the 15K, cheering me in. She asked "how was it?" I collapsed on the rail, mumbled "really tough, but I ran a new PR" and she gave me a congratulatory hug. Then I needed to move on, to find a bottle of water, and walk slowly into Centennial Olympic Park for the post-race party. The chocolate sauce and hot cocoa were both warm, just perfect after finishing a race in the cool and windy temperature. I caught up with Brian, who had run 1:23 flat. His watch measured 9.35 miles, so I think that the course was the legitimate distance. I'm still not sure if the mile markers were in exactly the correct locations for the distance, but overall I believe that my watch was not accurate, so I'm happy to claim this run as my legitimate new personal best.
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| Sigh: I managed 9:09 average pace, but from the way I was slowing down with each 5K, I wouldn't have made it under 2 hours for the 21.1K length of a half marathon. |
The race was well-organized and I'm sure that I'll run it again, although perhaps not every year, now that I own one of the sharp Hot Chocolate jackets.
