Suwanee Day and Other Stuff

Oh the fun life training for a marathon! I have wanted to write for over a week now, but this time it is not my fault. I ran a 10k on September 13th and I have been waiting for the official results to be posted to put up a race report. Based on the organization of the race I should have known it would be a long wait. So here I am, 10 days out, still no results, but how can I withhold my writing any further and deny all of you the pleasure of reading about my… sweating?

First, the race. With all of my focus (obsession) with running this summer, some of it finally wore off on my wife. As I wore on about how a good race is "the validation of all your hard work"… blah, blah, blah… I finally talked her into signing up for a race. The perfect opportunity came in a local town’s annual carnival affiliated race, the Suwanee Day 5k & 10k Classic. I call it perfect because it is the first race I have seen where they run the two races an hour apart allowing Jamie to run the 5k and me to run the 10k.

First let me say that I am WAY proud of my wife. I think she obsessed about her training schedule more than I do. Of course she was more obsessed about running etiquette than the actual running I think. You can read about her view of the experience HERE, but my view of the experience was one of awe and pride. I can tell you that she did way better than I would have done decorating a cake or the million other crafty things she does! Although she missed her goal but roughly a minute, a post race drive of her roller coaster coarse made me wonder why they didn’t suggest a Sherpa for the runners. Holy Hills Batman!

It was during her race that I had my first signs of the lack of organization. About 300 yards from the finish line the runners crossed a set of railroad tracks. The leaders had come across but somewhere around 25 minutes, a looooooong train came by holding up every runner that would have finished in the 26 to 30 minute window. In a 5k, that’s probably your largest group. When the train passed, a slug of roughly 50-60 runners all sprinted to the finish making a nightmare at the finish line where they couldn’t hand out slips fast enough and the line backed up to where people were waiting in line to cross the finish line… almost comical. Of course, with the train interruption, its not like they were setting any PR’s anyway! I also noticed that the only thing they had for the runners finishing was a bottle of water, no fruit, no food, no other drinks. All of which is fairly common at most races. Jamie also reported that they only had 1 water stop during the 5k and although I have seen that for some 5k’s, the better-organized ones usually have two.

Thankfully, the 10k course went the other direction and other than one big hill (½ mile) down to start and the same hill up at the end, was almost completely flat. As usual I started out a bit further back than I should have as there are a lot of runners who feel like they have to be at the front despite the fact they know they are not fast enough to be up there. I spent the first ½ mile passing people. With the steep downhill gradient and my push to get past these slower runners that first mile was FAST. As they didn’t have mile markers, I don’t know how fast, but I knew I was going out faster than normal.

When we reached the bottom of the hill I slowed some but still tried to push it. The interesting thing about the course was that it was held on a popular local jogging route on a Saturday morning so there were almost as many non-racers as racers out there. At about the 2 mile mark one of the non-racers pointed at me and said "You’re number 22". It was great feedback that I don’t often get in a race. With that as motivation I pushed to see if I could break into the top 20.

I soon discovered that the 10k only had one water stop as well. That was a first for me and it was really not enough on a warm and very humid morning. The water stop was at the turnaround point (more of a small loop than point), I assume somewhere around the 5k mark. After drinking, I glanced at my watch and it read 23:15. I had caught and passed 2 runners by that point moving me to 20th. Pushing back the other way it was odd to pass runners going in the opposite direction. I have only raced loops or point to point courses in the past so an out and back course was a different sensation.

I could tell I was slowing somewhat but not too much. In my mind I wanted to save something in the tank for that last ½ mile climb at the end. On the back half though a few runners did catch me, 3 or 4. I still felt good about my running though. My PR for the 10k was 48:00 set on Memorial Day. I had about the same 5k split then but then really tailed off to finish at 48:00. Since that race I had run over 400 miles. I had confidence that that training would prevent the much slower 2nd half split.

When I reached the hill at the end I pushed into it with full vigor. I did catch one runner on the climb and I was closing on 2 more when we crested. With that I thought it was just a short sprint to the finish but one of the volunteers yelled out, "not yet, you have one more". I thought he meant one more hill and if we did a lap around the park we would indeed have one more hill so I delayed my sprint as I scanned the horizon for indications of the course. It had been as I thought originally, I kicked anew and was closing fast on the two runners I had almost caught on the hill but ran out of course before I got there. Maybe that volunteer meant one more sprint or one more tenth, who knows, and who knows if I actually could have caught them if I had started my sprint where I intended too. But I later discovered that one of those gentlemen were in my age group, and not catching them would hurt.

In the confusion of the finishing area I accidentally cleared my watch before I saw the time. I had vaguely seen the finish clock at the line in the rapidly approaching 47:30 so that is what I put on my finishing card, a new PR by 30 seconds. I glanced at the other cards in my age group, I was the 5th card in with the 4th card listing a time of 47:27. A volunteer was writing down the top three for each age group and I saw the 47:27 time written in the third place slot. This meant that the top finisher in my age group had finished in the top 3 overall. So instead of giving that person an award for both overall and age group they are removed from the age group pool to determine those finishers. So long story short, I missed the podium and a medal by 3 seconds, one of those runners I didn’t catch… 35-39 M is the most competitive age group out there. To put it in perspective, I would have finished on the podium in every other age group!

Of course the organization woes continued. Not only did they not have food for the 10k runners either, they had run out of water after the 5k and hence had NO WATER for the 10k finishers. They had hastily set up 2 coolers (well away from the finish line) with Powerade but had no volunteers working with the runners so you were on your own to get a cup and fill it. The delay posting the results was just the icing on the cake. I’ll let you know the official results when I get them.

My facebook friends also know I completed a 20 mile run on Saturday. This was my best long run to date by far. It has given me the confidence that I will meet my 4 hr (9:05/mile) goal for the marathon. I ran the 20.06 miles in 2:59:24 which works out to 8:56/mile. I felt great the whole way and after an ice bath, I was good to go about 2 hours later. I will repeat the 20 miles this coming Saturday, hopefully with the same results.

I also have to say how proud I am of Caleb who is now running a bit and will complete a 1 mile fun run on October 4th, the date of my next race. I will run the Stonemill Race for Autism 5k while Jamie and Caleb do the 1 mile fun run a little later. Hopefully that will be a better experience for my wife. Caleb is also running the "Jr Marathon" that is part of my marathon. For that he is required to log 25.2 miles of running before the November 8th race day, then he runs the last mile on race day, while I am doing my marathon, to complete his 26.2. He will get a medal just like the full marathon finishers.

I’m also proud of my twin brother who has been running in the morning for 2 weeks now. Although I am the only person on the planet that he has the desire to be competitive with, I think it is killing him to know I am 20 lbs lighter than him after spending 35 years as "the skinny one" of the two of us. Eventually he will get used to it. He can always fall back on being "the bald one" now. ;o)