A few days ago, I received an email from the volunteer coordinator for the Expo that they would need help in setting up the event. This would allow us to work the race, but still be able to run the race, so I said “Sure!” Well, that meant that I would need to get there at the Coliseum around 6:30am for a 8am start, so I would miss a little extra sleep but it would be for a good cause. I woke up around 5:20am and wandered around to make a pot of coffee. Jen and I had fallen asleep reading a parenting book and so I didn't have a pot of hot coffee waiting for me. I must have been a little sleepy because I pulled the coffee out, but brewed a nice pot of hot water… whoops. While I had “real” coffee brewing, I started to make my traditional pre-race breakfast… bagel with peanut butter. I scarfed down the bagel and had a little coffee while I surfed the internet for about 15 minutes. I put my bib # on my shirt (210) and got dressed, packed up the car and headed out to downtown.

I made it to the coliseum right at 6:30am, so I ran down to the registration to find out that the volunteer coordinator did not leave anything for us to do, well really he hadn't assigned us to do anything. I met my friend, Annette Hansen since she received the email mentioned above as well. She ended up helping with registration while I went off to help construct the finish line. Finish Line management is some tough stuff. You have to be as accurate as possible with runners coming in at different intervals and sometimes in packs. Often there is a runner who is sprinting at the end and passes a bunch of people right before the finish line, like 10 feet. I am usually one of these runners, but I don't push it to 10 feet, at about 25 feet, I slide into place. Anyway, I was helping with “the chutes”. The finishing chute is much like the velvet ropes in movie theatres. It is in place to keep runners in line, in their finishing order and gives them a chance to catch their breath.

They are also long enough so that runners don't clutter up the actual finish line to obscure the timer taking down the runner's times. Instead of using nice velvet rope, our chutes were made of long strips of plastic multi-colored triangle flags (like 100' or so). You could tell that these strips had seen some action… some flags were missing… some of the strips were shorter strips frankensteined together to make it long enough. The strips were in large plastic bags when I got to them and dumping them out on the ground, I looked puzzled… the process of uncluttering the strips was much like detangling Christmas lights but with some reprieve, you didn't have to check all the flags to make sure they were working… it is automatic!

I haven't mentioned the weather in the Greater Knoxville area up to this point. It was overcast, about 59 degrees and a drizzle had been coming down since about 6am. I finished with the chutes things and hung around until about 7:40 am when I bugged off so that I could warm up. 20 minutes… enough time to warm up but not enough time to do any damage. The rain had subsided by now and I ran to the car to put on my Breathe Right Strip, get my key arranged properly and to finish off the Access bar that I had. I also took a few pictures as well. Like all the other runner lemmings, I made my way to the Start Line at the top of the hill. I recognized some of the other runners and tried to line myself up with those whom I knew were about my speed. I also started away from the curb this year. I have been caught in traffic in previous years that have cost me sometime as I try to manage my way through fellow runners. They played the National Anthem, the sponsors gave their thanks and the wheelchair participants were off. A few minutes later they let the runners loose…

And we were off, finally. I thought that if I had stood around a little longer waisting for the race to start, I would have to warm up again. The first 1/2 mile or so is all downhill, then a slight up to Gay Street where we turn onto a actual flat strip. The most technical part of the race is uring the downhill. Since the 5k and 10k start together there are hundreds of people running downhill at the start. Even though it is easier on the lungs to run downhill, there is always the threat of hurting your knees, as they take a lot of your weight and are susceptible to buckling if you start running out of control. Add a bunch more runners around you and it makes it a little more difficult. This year, I never had to worry about having to change my pace from runners in front of me. I didn't have to waste energy weaving in and out traffic. I felt a little out of breath as I came to flat area of the race. Trying to gain my breath as went up and around hospital and back down on the Henley Street Bridge. By now, it was sprinkling down but not too irritating. I missed the split for mile 1, but when I came to the mile 2 marker I saw that I was right on pace, my watch said 16:07. My legs still felt heavy but I was able to pace with some other runners and that helped some. We went through Market Square and then the 5k people turned right on Gay Street toward the finish line, the 10kers turned left for another 4 miles or so.

As I was back on Gay Street, I knew that the course would be a little more agreeable (flat) to enable me to loosen up my strides and pick up some speed. Just as I was approaching the 3 mile marker, I saw the course leaders speeding past me in the other direction. The winner of the past two Expos was in second place and did not look very happy being in that position. The 4th and Gill section of the race runs through a historic (I think) district here in Knoxville spotted with victorian houses which gives it a distinct contrast to the rest of the neighborhoods downtown. It seemed like there were 4 waterstops in a 2 mile length. Not that I am complaining, but it seemed that we could have used one of them earlier in the race. I didn't bother to check my time at the mile 4 marker. I knew that I would save whatever I had for that last 1.2 miles and to just get myself there since Gay Street is flat and straight (heehee). At this point my legs started to feel light and I felt like I had gained a little bit of a boost in energy. Perhaps it was all the turns in the 4th and Gill area that got all the rust off of my legs or maybe it was the fact that the course was doubling back and could see all the people behind me on the course. I looked for my friend Annette Hansen who was running but I never saw her until the finish line.

Just before the mile 5 marker, I passed a guy who had an obvious hamstring injury but was insisting on running or rather some contorted limp-skip action that seemed to provide enough velocity for him not to give up and just walk. Having had a bad hamstring injury back in 2001, I couldn't understand why he would want to keep injuring it like that…

Up on Gay Street, for the final mile, I knew that I had to run a sub 8 minute mile to make it under 50 minutes. Not only did I have to be faster than 50 minutes for the course, but I had to makeup the time it took me get from where I was at the start to the actual starting line, maybe 5-6 seconds.

In the last 1/2 mile, I was hurting… I could tell that I was just about to ready to stop and walk to catch my breath, but then I thought about what Grandma would say. I could almost hear her, in her loving but authoritarian voice telling me “You better not quit now… I am not up here watching you to WALK”. So I focused for the 6 mile marker. I knew at that point it was 0.1 to the end of the block and then 0.1 up a slight upgrade to finish. I was still knocking on the door of 50 minutes. I let my mind “detach” my legs from my hips which allows me to have a longer stride and thus cover more distance, which is all in preparation for the sprint at the end.

I turned the corner and picked up the pace, probably a 7:00 minute mile. I can see the timer clock at his point displaying 49 something, but I could not make out the seconds. But when I see the timer clock during a race, that is my signal to let it all hang loose. I must have passed 4 or 5 people in the last 400 feet or so. I seemed to have had the best technical sprint of my career… I felt so fast without my body flailing wildly all over the course. There seemed to be a lot of cheering at the finish line, more than usual… I imagined that it was all for me and as I covered the last 20 feet of the course, I saw the clock timer 49:58, 49:59, 50:00, Damn, 50:01… then finish. I stopped my watch as I was gasping to get air back into my lungs… I walked through the finishing chute (which I helped build) to get some water and food.

I looked at my watch and it said 49:57, which was my “chip” or net time but not my official time. It turns out that my official time was 50:02, not exactly what I wanted, but I think was a satisfactory day especially since my net time was a 49:57. My split times are as follows:

So All in all I was the 194th runner out of 594 finishers. In my age group, I was 20th out of 30 runners. I have also added a few picture in my running gallery.

This race was dedicated to my grandmother, Bernice Varney who passed away this year from a hard fought battle against pulmonary fibrosis. It was my honor to complete the 10,000 meter race so that her memory will never be forgotten. I love you Grandma. Luke 7:47

I just got finished running on the treadmill… 3.2 miles in 27:00. It was TOUGH to just make it that far, I am not conditioned to be a hamster! Crap! I mean the first 1.2 miles was set at 8:30 pace and it was all I could do to keep that pace. I had to stop the treadmill and get some water and stretch. It was bad. I managed to crank out the rest of the distance with some trouble. I ended running the last 1/2 mile at excessive speeds… the first 0.2 mile was at a 7:30 pace, then up to a 7:00 minute pace and then the last 0.2 of a mile was at a 5:30 pace! My leg rotation was OUT OF CONTROL!!!! It BAFFLES me how the Elite can run at that speed for 2 friggin' hours. I thought that my nuts and bolts were going to shake loose and I would fall apart. I survived though and it was pretty rewarding.

I am actually backing up my USB drive I call Da Kruza, it's a SanDisk 1GB USB drive and it has been over a month since I have backed it up. It holds most of my life on it as in my homemade Excel Calenders from 1997 to present, running log, jenandterry.com, Jen's Mary Kay website, my photography, video, ALL of the fonts I download (for convenience)etc. It still has 27 minutes to copy to the desktop, then I'll burn it. But I am listening to Our CD Collection, all 500+ CDs that I ripped to the computer… I use Musicmatch to store my MP3s and right now have an AutoDJ playlist of 1500 tracks. Most of them aren't worth listening to as they are Artist's “C” and “D” songs, but enough played to have me post this blog, hence the title.

The first couple of songs reminded me of when I was in Charlottesville getting my Nuclear Engineering Degree:
“Nearly Lost You” from the Singles Soundtrack
“Gett Off” by Prince - a little early for Cville AND I prefer Violet the Organ Grinder, but it was a significant song when I was there
“Tukka Yoot's Riddim” - US3 the second song off the US3 album that released Cantaloop. I went to see them with UB40 with Jo Ann Foltz and her roommate
“Down” - 311

and to boot, I am drinking some Rolling Rock I found (THANK Goodness - I need it after the run) in the downstairs fridge. Gray and I would go to Macados on the Corner where they had $2.95 Rolling Rock Pictures ALL DAY EVERY DAY. That is what I thought you paid for pitchers of beer because that is all that we drink. Can you imagine my surprise when I learned the REAL price of pitchers of beer???

Miles for May = 202.5

This Saturday is the Expo 5k/10k here in Knoxville, Tennessee. It is Knoxville's third largest road race but probably the most popular among local runners. It is often used as an official Grand Prix course for South East Running circuit. Like 95% of all courses here in Knoxville, it is certified, which means that someone said… yup, this here course is 5 kilometers or 10 kilometers. What that means is that for diehard runners trying to get seeded in large 10k, such as Peachtree City 10k, your official time can be used to have you seeded, or placed, for the starting line. For faster runners, this is good. You don't have the people who are slower but line up closer to the front get in your way (that is WHOLE topic on it's own).

Another reason why this course is popular is that it runs through Downtown and the 4th & Gill district. A good number of races here in Knoxville are runs along Neyland Drive that parallels the Tennessee River. The course is “flat” for the area, but so many races are run on this course, it gets boring. In fact, there is a Neyland Greenway (which I blogged about earlier) that runs along the river. So, the only advantage of running a race on Neyland is running on the road… big whoop. The one race that I run on Neyland is the Fireball Classic 5k, which is held on July 3rd at NIGHT! They have fireworks, booths afterwards, usually a finishers trinket. Also, about 600+ people show up!

So, back to the Expo… This year, the Expo has more meaning for me. It is my first race since my Pneumonia. Now Wait Terry, what was that Run for the Deaf 5k that you did. Well, even though that was a paid event, it was a training run for the Expo. The ultimate goal was the Expo. Secondly, I am running this race in memory of my Grandmother. I had wanted to run a sub-50 minute 10k which would be a 8:04 minutes per mile pace. Now, I am so sure that I can reach that pace… I'll come close, but not sure. One of the reasons is the lack of training this past week. Since last Thursday, I have ran 0 miles. I'll probably be able to run on the treadmill tonight, but it won't be too strenuous and more of a calming of the nerves more than any training. Here is a list of all the 10k races that I have run, again, you'll see the sub-50 is an ambitious goal for me.

I have created a tshirt that I will run during the Expo, so that everyone who passes me and those that I pass, along with spectators and volunteers will know. I chose the yellow tshirt (thanks to my Aunt Phyllis) since that was Grandma Varney's favorite color and the scripture passage (Luke 7:47) was from my Mom. This logo, which was made just with my computer and a t-shirt transfer is on both sides of the shirt.

Be sure to check back after Saturday to read the race report and see how it all played out. Or better yet, you can capture my RSS feed and be notified each time I update this website. I know that the new Netscape has built in RSS feed detection and aggregation. There are other separate programs that will read the feeds for you in your browser doesn't have the capability. I use the Firefox browser with the Sage extension and am very happy with my set-up.

I was IMing with Devaney about his upcoming marathon Honolulu Marathon on December 11th and about a strategy that he could use to approach his training. He has (as of Monday) purchased a second home in Wilmington and plans to move down there this summer with Andy. He already has one house that is in a state of repair (so to speak), but his new house is all but immaculate and is ready to live in while the other fixer-upper is fixed up. His dilemma is that he has never trained for a marathon by himself. When he ran his first marathon back in 2001, he was part of the Aids Marathon group that was training, at the time, for the Marine Corp Marathon. This charity offers expert coaching, as well as organized long runs on the weekend to build up the mileage needed to complete the marathon. Most of the people are first time marathoners and sometime first time runners for that matter. Anyway, there is organized training whether you use it or not… it gives you an incentive to get out there and run on the weekends.

So Devaney's dilemma is that he has no official race group, as he is purchasing his own way to Honolulu. Also, he is in the middle of the relocation as well. I have kept asking him for the past two weeks, whether he has started running yet. HE PROMISES me that he is purchasing new runner shoes this week and will start running this sunday on the 29th.

I fit into this marathon training because I was the one who made up a schedule for his long runs so that he could be ready to go on December 11th. It actually started with finding a half marathon in Wilmington in November that would be a perfect pre-marathon practice, so to speak. In that he can use the race as a gage on the marathon will go and the race being four weeks out, will have plenty of recovery time that the racing will not hurt him. Since he has running experience, he can do that without any fear. The only thing would be a running injury, but really, that is always on the horizon. I mean, who gets pneumonia 3 weeks before a marathon?

So I hope that I have given him a schedule that he will stick to without missing much. It's a 28 week program that starts him from scratch and builds up to the mileage needed. I don't have him doing more than three 20 mile or more runs, the longest is only 22 miles. I follow the reasoning that the longer you are out running the more susceptible you are to injury, so you are better off stopping your long runs based on time rather than trying for exact mileage, say 24 or 26 miles. Plus, I don't think that he'll go out and want to run 20+ miles by himself more than a couple of times. Maybe so because he has an ambitious and acheivable time goal but he will have to hold himself accountable for the midweek runs.

He wants me to host another Mr. Arfns Marathon this February. The First Mr. Arfns Marathon was actually created because of Devaney back in 2001. His training was having him running 26 miles on Sept 30, 2001 which was the Sunday after my 30th birthday. So to accommodate the fact that he needed to run that mileage and I was training for Richmond, I created the Mr. Arfns Marathon that ran from Volunteer Landing to the Wal-mart in Turkey Creek. It turned out to be really nice and we had people join us for various distances along the course. I think that a Mr. Arfns Run (as I called it) would be in order for the first part of February as I am in training for the 2nd annual Knoxville Marathon in March. So, I might have to gen-up a course and see how it goes.

Six FREAKIN' days since I have any type of exercise so to speak. With a rather important 10k on the horizon, this is not what I want to be blogging about. I would rather be telling about my mini-taper, carb-loading excitement in preparation for the race. But alas, I speaketh of my misery, woe is me.

My intention over the weekend was to get a 5 mile run in the morning of either Sat or Sun or both, if I could work it in. What actually happened was a lot of sleep. Since my only window to run at home is when Eric is asleep, I had to plan my runs in the wee-hours of morning so that I would end my run close to Eric's wake up time of 7am. Neither day did I wake up with enough time to fathom a run in time to get Eric up. I had thought that I might be able to get a run in after Eric had gone to bed on Sunday night, but we got caught up in pre-Incognito planning and so the run was shelved.

Monday rolled around and I woke up pretty early, 5:40. I should have thought to run then, but I didn't. Normally, Monday night is a weights night while I am working on the bills when Jen is making calls. No chance to workout. Maybe Tuesday, oh but wait, we learned earlier that our babysitter was not available on Tuesday, so no running with Beer Boy.

Tuesday turned out to be a beast of its own. I find that when I am under stress, I tend to eat or crave chocolate a little more than usual. By noon, I had to go to the gas station and get a King Sized Snickers which I quickly consumed. Tuesday had no exercise to it. Maybe Wednesday?

So far, nope. I had planned on running in the morning. I found out that light starts to break here right around 5:45am and so, if I ran the 5 mile loop in the 'hood, I would be finished around 6:35-6:40 with time to shower and get ready to drive into work a little late. Yeah, I woke up around 6:40. So not only did I NOT run, but I was late to work. I did manage to crank out some banana (budda-budda-budda) pancakes for Eric and banana with peanut butter chip pancakes for Jen which proved to be a hit for breakfast.

My next chance to workout was to swim at lunch. I had all my gear and was heading over to the workout place when I noticed that the aquatic center was taken over by Destination Imagination kids. Destination Imagination is a some thinking competition for kids and UT is hosting the Global Finals this week. So, they have the run of the campus. So, alas, no workie-outie at lunch. SO what does that leave me to do… run at night? not likely… well, maybe on the treadmill. Run Thursday morning? Perhaps, but when I plan it, it doesn't happen. Run Thursday night? Well, even though it would be a little close to race day, I could get an easy run under my belt. But we found out that our babysitter will not be able to make it that night, so not only do I not get to run… but I also do not get to see Carbon Leaf at Sundown in the City, for FREE.

So, we'll see if I can break 50 minutes for my Grandmother or not on Saturday Morning. It is looking pretty grim.

Damn, I need some chocolate.

Thursday run turned into quite the adventure. We decided that we would meet a Concord Park, a gem of a run nestled in between an expanding subdivision and expanding commercial property. The trail within Concord Park total about 8 miles and are moderately technical single track as it winds up and down the hills with in the park. Some of the trail parallels the Tennessee River (or rather an inlet) although the view is obscured from the number of trees.

The foliage is very nice at Concord Park, as it is fairly dense and even one part that is extremely dense with some dark ground cover making it pretty eerie. But the fact of the matter is that you are covered from the sun making the run a little more enjoyable as we get accumulated to the soon to be summer heat.

At this Link is a portal page where they have pictures of the park, if you are interested.

As you enter the trail from the parking lot you can either head North, which is fairly level, or East which is straight up hill. The advantage of going East is that you hit the trail head sooner, in 0.4 miles as opposed to 0.5-0.6. We had decided after looking at the posted map, to “stay to the right”, this would ensure that we would hit all the loops and give us a good run of about 35 minutes and dump us back out onto the main trail.

I haven't mentioned the poison ivy yet. To describe the poison ivy, would be like detailing that we were running through a carpet of poison ivy with small (maybe 1-2') trails cut in them. With Marty and I both allergic to PI, we knew that it wasn't going to be very comfortable afterward. So we plunged through the woods… for about 30 some minutes live was good. It was very challenging run with lots of hills. It was the workout that I had been craving and it was at the right time.

At about the 25 minute mark, I got “the sensation”, but we were almost done, so I didn't think much about it. That was until Math Boy and Beer Boy were running through the woods lost in the enjoyment of being on the trails. It wasn't so bad holding it in, but the hills made things worse. Then we “may have” taken a wrong turn… once or twice.

For some runners, there is a change in character that is only associated during the actual event of running. Sometimes, it is drinking out of places you would not normally drink or a lowering of modesty to change to dryer clothes even in mixed company or maybe eat the brownest banana because (after all) it has carbs. I have been in (more than one) instances where I could no longer hold it… sometimes it worked out for me sometimes not. This was such a case where my commune with nature was a pleasant one. Did I mention all the poison ivy? Leaving the gruesome details to your imagination, I did find terry-friendly leaves and was able to enjoy the rest of the run back to the car.

We ended up running somewhere around the 53 minute mark. I don't have split times since we didn't have accurate distances to mark off. But we figured that we averaged a 10 min mile given the terrain and so I am logging in 5.3 miles for the day.

Miles for 2005 = 199.3

Yesterday turned out to be a decent run although it did not feel exactly wonderful at the time. I met Marty and Calhoun's on the River right next to Volunteer Landing for an afternoon scurry down Neyland Drive along the Tennessee River and then onto Third Creek Greenway through Tyson Park. Given that Marty had soccer practice at 7:00 and we were meeting at around 5:30, we wanted to keep it short for the most part so that we could drink a brew or two at Calhoun's before we left. What a great way to finish a run. The sun was out and was probably around the upper 70s, so when were in the sun it was a little draining only because we weren't accustomed to it. I hadn't been hydrating myself the past few days, so that didn't help me out either.

We ran the first split rather fast. It was a nice comfortable but challenging pace along the river. When we switched over to Third Creek, I could definitely feel that I was running out of steam, partly because that last bit of the Neyland Greenway is in full sun, but Third Creek is not. It was all that I had to keep up the pace until we came to the turnaround point (split 2). I had to take about a 5 minute breather to catch my breath and to regain some saliva as my more was like the desert. Plus, with a little bit of stretching, it would make the return trip a little easier.

The return trip was a huge positive split for us and by the time we were halfway back to Calhoun's Marty had pulled away from me. in the last 0.75-1 mile I tried to act as if it was race conditions and I was trying to catch Marty by the finish time and although I picked up my pace on the way back I was unable to catch him. Marty is just too fast for me. We made it back in 56:38 for an overall 8:51 pace and with enough time to get 2 beers before departing. But first, I had to de-gnat myself. During the run, I had found myself going through large clouds of gnats by Third Creek, yummy extra protein! Anyway, it was a good run and my legs are sore today. Tomorrow should be another good run and hopefully get my speed and endurance in check before the Expo 10k.

Here are out split times:

Here was our route:

Not a lot happened over the weekend in terms of working out… There was the friday swim with the olympian (see previous post). THat workout was about a half mile or so in the water. Saturday was pretty much a washout. It raied for a good portion of the day and I was watching Eric as well, so unless I ran on the treadmill or it had cleared up to take him in the jogging stroller, I was focused all on him.

I am not sure why the whole workout was skipped on Sunday. I should have gone out in the neighborhood in the early morning. I guess that I was too lazy (shame on me) and before I knew it there was no chance of running at all on Sunday.

Mondays have shifted to writing a paper with one of my ex-professors during lunch, so that cancels any swimming during the day. After work I have no time because I have to get home before Eric goes to bed or else I don't get to see him. Mondays are a household maintenance day where I catch up on bills, etc.

So today is Tuesday, it's been 3 days and i hope to get some running in this afternoon (we have a babysitter). I am not sure how I am coming along for the Expo 10k on the 28th. I obviously have enough base that the distance is not a problem, but do I have the speed to make it under 50 minutes? Not exactly sure yet how I am going to accomplish that feat.

I swam next to this olympian today.

She was FAST too. I should have asked for pointers, who better to learn technique than from a gold medal olympian??

It was about a Ba-zillion degrees yesterday, definitely the hottest day of the year to date. But probably won't be the hotest, those days are to come. Knowing that it would be pretty hot that day, Marty V and I decided that we should run Third Creek Greenway as opposed to say Lakeshore where the Water Treatment plant was pretty ripe. Also, the bonus with Third Creek is that a majority of it is sheltered by foliage, a true greenway.

In addition to location, I did not want to be out in the heat for very long today. Since we haven't run in the heat yet, we are not acclimated to the weather yet and could lead to some potential problems, e.g. heat stress. Plus with the heat, I imagined that it would be a harder run than normal of the beautiful weather we have had lately.

We ended up running 4.8 mile in 42:43 (8:54 pace). There were a number of people, mainly bikers on the greenway. I also saw my first snake out on the greenway. It was a black snake with some yellow trim and spots. I'll have to look it up.

I had a great run, I felt fast and had energy until the very end when the unshaded heat got to me. I sure hope that this training pace will translate into a sub 50 10k time, that is my goal.

Here are my splits:

After the run we decided to hydrate ourselves with some suds from Calhoun's after all, it is Marty's beer. I'm not sore today that I can tell and will be going swimming today at lunch.

Miles for May = 28.6
Miles for 2005 = 187.6