Tag Archive for race report

2008 Calhoun’s 10miler Race Report

January 31, 2008 planet3rry 4 comments

This past weekend was the 2008 Calhoun’s 10 miler, the first in the Long Distance Series with the Knoxville Track Club. This was the 16th Running (I think) of the race and the 5th time that I had run it. It coincides nicely with a Spring Marathon since in a couple of weeks, there is the Strawplains Half Marathon.

Since this is a race that I know I am going to do in advance, I do two things. Pre-Register my entry form and sign up to volunteer for pre-race activities. The race is normally $15, but if I pre-register as a Knoxville Track Club member, I can take $3 off and if I go with a “no shirt” option, I can take $5 more off, making this race only $7. A real bargain.

My volunteer duties was with Registration. I would either help with Day of Race or Pre-Registered entries. I actually was a gopher for a while. There was a problem with the numbering. The person who does the preregistration showed up a little late and so the numbers were being issued for the day of race registration. This cause about 15 or so people to have the wrong bib and that had to be adjusted. I was able to help out with resolving this problem. I didn’t do anything fancy but it was nice to help.

Since I wasn’t running this race competitively (against the clock), I opted to stay at the Table until the very last moment. I had even decided that I would just stop off by my car in the first 1/4 mile to get the rest of my racing attire (hat & gloves) then to run out to the car and run back before the gun went off.

We had the national Anthem and the gun went off. I started towards the back knowing that I would be going to my car just moseying along. It was kind of nice. I wandered over to my car, not rushing, I got my hat and gloves and power gels and Clif Bloks. When I made my way back onto the course, I realized that I was the very LAST person. There was no one behind me and only a very slow jogger ahead of me. It was kind of a surreal experience knowing that I was the very last person. I knew that this was going to be short lived, but I kind of took it all in to try to gain perspective.

Once, I got situated I sped up some and started to easily pass the back of the packers. The Calhoun’s course is known for a leg buster of a hill going in the first (and again at the ninth) mile. It’s funny that a mausoleum and a grave yard is at the crest of the hill (I guess so the zombies have a good view). But it’s not that it’s up and then evens out or a slight down hill. It’s UP and the DOWN! So on the way back, it’s UP and DOWN again. And the hill is steep, both ways (up hill without shoes… in the snow… and we liked it!).

Mile 1: 10:40 with the trip to the car and big uphill

Mile 2: 8:52 with the big downhill and starting to find my comfortable pace

Mile 3: 9:17 thats more like it

Mile 4: 9:25

At this point, the non-competitive stance on the race that I had is beginning to wear off. I am starting to think that perhaps, I could speed things up. Of course, I hadn’t run this distance in a while and wasn’t really conditioned for this speed.

Mile 5: 9:06

Mile 6: 9:18

Mile 7: 9:16

I’m hitting a nice groove here. Coinicidentally, it’s the same pace that I was training at for my marathon last fall, so I think my body was recognizing this as “comfortable”

Mile 8: 9:18

Mile 9: 10:05 This has most of the big hill on the return trip

The last 3/4 mile is very flat by East Tennessee standards. Although around mile 6, I was beginning to be plagued with some gastro-intestinal problems (details I’ll omit) and I had my chance to visit a porta-potty at the 1/2 mile mark. I decided to hold it and just make do (and not doo-doo… HAHAHA!). I’ve run this course 4 other times, so I knew how to handle the finish line. Once I was near the 1/3 mile to go mark, I started to pick up speed and then at the end just let everything go Full Throttle.

Mile 10: 8:21

I finished in 1:33:50 which was less than the 1:35:00 time I told My Lovely and Talented Wife was the time I was shooting for.

Funny thing was about this race is that I was fine on Saturday, a little sore on Sunday and Monday before the whole stomach virus thing, I was REALLY sore. When I ran the Chickamauga Marathon last November, I was a little stiff but never sore at all. I took no pain medication after the marathon. Very strange, but a good example on how conditioning can really make a difference both in performance AND recovery.


running ,

2007 Reindeer Run 5k

December 3, 2007 planet3rry 7 comments

The forecast was for some wet weather in the area for today’s race. It never showed up when it was supposed too and good thing too. When it did show up in the evening, it was a monsoon.

At lunch while we were eating our GFCF pizza, My Lovely and Talented Wife asks me, “Are you going for a PR?”

“I dunno, it’s going to be a race time decision.”

“Don’t you think you better decide now?” she asked. And as I thought to myself, “Well, I guess I should decide”, I began to move to the goal that I would go after my PR time for the 5k of 21:56. But, I wasn’t exactly convinced. I needed to see if I got a warm fuzzy at race start.

For some reason, I always have a hard time getting to this race on time. Although I was early enough this year, I have in the past been sprinting to the start only to have the gun go off 10 seconds later. Today, I had enough time to get my bib number and put my ticket in for the Triple Crown Door Prizes. I made it back to the car with about 10 minutes to spare.

I pinned my running bib to my shirt and put on a Breathe Right strip. This was another indication that I was serious about going for a PR. My DNA blueprint for my nose must have not gotten the memo to have widened pathways for air intake. Couple that with some nasal cavity build up, it makes it harder to breathe and if you are needing oxygen at a greater rate, this is not a good thing. I don’t always wear the Breathe Right Strips, but I probably should on races that I want to perform. As soon as I had the strip on my nose, I could feel the extra volume of air, ahhhh… breathing!

We had our pre race instructions. I lined up only about 10 feet away from the starting line. If I am going for a PR it’s best to be as close to front as I can without impeding the fastest runners. Of course, I line up behind 2 girls that aren’t going to run as fast I am, so as soon as the gun goes off and we are 50′ into the race, I find myself have to dodge them as not to run them over.

Although I this was the 3rd time that I was running this particular course layout, I forgot a few things. Mainly, the hills after the first one!

I overheard a couple of people saying that the 1st mile was fast. Seeing that my watch had a split time of 6:40, I would say that was right. And I mapped the course out in Gmap-pedometer and sure enough, the split time was too soon. The second mile split does seem to be right and the course is right at 3.1 miles. Just like with other GPS based tracking system, you really don’t know the path they used to certify the course (and there is allowance for overage and underage). That is, the 3.1 course might be 3.05 or 3.13, who knows. Most race courses (from what I have read), really stay close to corners on turns (where us runners sometimes take the curves wider to avoid slowing down) and take a straighter path (and we may not be able to do that because of traffic)

During the first mile I wasn’t feeling quite “right”. I had had some stomach problems which had me make repeat trips to the bathroom early in the morning. So, early in the first mile, I was serious hoping that the Troops were not heading South. I was shadowing some faster runners for this first mile, since I didn’t get that much warmup before race start, I didn’t want to go out too fast, but since it was a short race, I didn’t want to go too slow either.

My Second Mile Split came in 13:55 (6:58 minute average mile) and I was probably running closer to a 7:00 min mile the first mile. I felt fairly comfortable even though I could tell that I was slowing down a little bit. I hadn’t remembered the mid race hills, just the one at the beginning and one at the end, so I hadn’t planned very well. Regardless, I was running pretty much the best race that I could at this point. Much better than my “Match” race last time, where like a match, I was REALLY hot to start off and then died in the middle of the race.

At Mile 2, I was still on pace for a time close to my PR time. I would have to pick up speed at the end to break it, but this was under the assumption that the 1st mile split was in the right place.

During the last mile, I was no longer worried that the “Troops were heading South”, now I was worried that the “Troops would head North”. Thankfully, I never got the nausea feeling, but I did think that this might be the first race that I would have to stop and puke.

The last 3/4 is flat save for a hill right at the 2.9 mile mark where you turn, go one block (up a hill) then turn again and 0.1 mile and your done. So during this 3/4 I had a younger runner pass me and this other guy and set out about 15′ ahead of us. At some point the other guy drops off and I am following the younger kid still 15-20′ ahead of me. I look ahead and I see a woman and a guy about 25′ ahead of the younger runner.

The woman is still ahead, but the older guy has dropped back and the kid has almost caught him and I am catching on the kid. Then we turn to the last hill. Advantage: Terry.

The last hill wasn’t as big as I had remembered, thankfully. The Kid has overtaken the Older guy and I am about to over take the Older Guy. Halfway up the hill, I pass the Older guy and focus on The Youth ahead of me. Could I beat him? He’s now ahead and the race is about over. So, before I crested the hill, which is also a turn, I go for it. I know that the finish line is around the corner and I am going to beat The Kid. I let everything go… somehow, I still had some extra energy stashed away because I had to sprint the last 0.1 of mile to catch him with about 30′ to go and then stay ahead of him for a 1.2 second margin of victory.

My official finishing time was 22:33, not a PR but I was really pleased at my performance. Given that at one point I though that I was running 10 seconds that my fastest mile, EVER and that I forgot about the hills in the middle of the race. Or that during the race, I thought I was going to purge at one end then, a little later, that I was going to purge from the other end.

I could get a 5k PR right now, or rather in 7-10 days, if I was on the right course, but there’s no 5k races that would support it. There’s a 5k race next weekend but the Day of Race registration is $30 (it’s a charity tie-in) and it’s been crowded before. There is a half marathon, but I am going to go after my Half Marathon PR in the Spring.

Although I was happy about the race, I wasn’t thrilled with time and I physically felt yucky. I went to the car and got my camera. I was not feeling like taking pictures but I did manage to take a few in between finishing the race and the awards.

Reindeer Race Door Prizes Won: None

Triple Crown Door Prizes Won: None

Overall Finish 50/390

Age Group Finish 6/15


running ,

2008 Autumnfest 8k

November 26, 2007 planet3rry 4 comments

Thanksgiving isn’t Thanksgiving in our household without going to the annual Autumnfest 8k, at least not for the past 7 years. In 2000, My Lovely and Talented Wife’s grandfather passed away right before Thanksgiving, his wake was thanksgiving evening with the funeral the next day. My Lovely and Talented Wife decided to join me since she had some extra energy and we weren’t leaving for Albemarle, NC until later that day. In fact, our Thanksgiving dinner was at an O’Charley’s restaurant. We took that year’s race shirt and put an iron-on the back saying that we were running in honor of her grandfather. This is the only race shirt that I will wear at sanctioned races, all other races, I make an effort to not wear a road race t-shirt. Don’t ask me why… it’s one of those weird things about me.

Either we run the race or volunteer for the race or sometimes, if we can get a pre-race job, we do both at the same race. This year, I was part of the Day of Race sign-in crew and My Lovely and Talented Wife was part of the Finishing Line crew. But she didn’t stop there, she helped out with the post race food, which I missed out on (I’m not crying though) and actually took my spot with 3 minutes to race start so that I wouldn’t miss the race. She’s so sweet.

Pre Race
Day of Registration went from a slow walk to 5k pace in the matter of minutes. There were 3 of us there and we were processing people as fast as we could! It was extremely hectic! Come to find out there were over 800 people registered with 740 finishers, compared to last 2 years of around 600+ finishers. Plus the place that we were located was smaller than it was last year. We ran out of safety pins and we ran out of entry forms. People were having to use masking tape to fasten their bibs. I had two weird requests, one I didn’t get until I was thinking about during the race, the other was very obvious.

The first guy asked if I could reach down into the stack and get the number 777. We were pretty busy and I didn’t want to start to set a precedent for getting numbers. You get the number that you get even if it’s 666. So, it wasn’t until that I was running that I put 2 and 2 together and figure that he wanted 777 for the religious reference to the number “7″. The second request was someone came up while it was really busy and ask if he could change his number. Apparently, he didn’t like his number “666″. Well, I really couldn’t do anything at this point, because the entry form was already taken and entered into the computer. Had it been a smaller race, we probably could have swapped his number for something less controversial such as “69″ (dude) or “911″ but today he was running with the Mark of the Beast. Although if he ran on his hands, he would be “999″.

Race Start
I make my way out to the race start and I see the effect of how swamped we were at Day of Race registration… it was packed! There was no way that I would be able to get to the upper 3rd of the mass of people, I stuck off to the side and wished for the best. After the national anthem and the gun, I followed the mass to the starting line. I was still walking as I cross the start line… so much for a PR (not that I was shooting for one).

Mile 1
The biggest problem with Autumnfest is the start, for the first 0.25 of a mile, the mass of runners are confined to a one lane exit ramp, until you hit Neyland Drive, where it widens to 2 lanes. To make things a little worse, the exit ramp is enclosed with concrete barriers. So just as water expands out to the sides of it’s container, so do runners on the road. This in essence stifles the faster runners who are behind groups of slower runners, thus making positioning before the gun goes off to start the race much more important.

I was not making too many moves to pass runners though. I made that rookie mistake of weaving in and out of traffic once in a race and paid for it dearly. Instead, I stayed steady until it opened up, swung to the left and passed on the shoulder of the road. I now had a clearer path in front of me. Unfortunately there was a small demoralizing headwind. My Split time: 8:26

Mile 2
At the call of the split time, I realize that I’m about 20 seconds in the hole finishing time wise, but that I could still salvage something. A cold light rain is now falling and I am wishing that I had some more layers on that what I have. I’m slowly picking up speed, but holding back some as I know where the hill is on the course and I have yet to reach it. My Split time: 7:44

Mile 3
With the hills out of the way, I know that I can speed up a little bit. I am pacing behind runners that are faster than me, glancing ahead to see the color of shirts. This way I can pick out my goal runner to beat, a standard race strategy. My Split Time: 7:27

Mile 4
I’m finally warmed up, and things feel easier now. In addition, I am starting on the part of the course that I ran earlier in the week. I do an analysis to see how much I have left in the tank for the final approach. I’ve abandoned my normal “goal runner to beat” strategy. I know that my split times have been going down and that I can get a decent time, if I just hang in there. My Split Time: 7:27

Mile 5 (really 4.972)
I’m on auto-pilot right now, the test run in week of running the last mile has paid off. I don’t have to think about anything other than my pace. I’m not even concerned about the runners in front of me. As I divert onto the exit ramp, signaling the last 0.25 of a mile I look ahead for the time clock. I notice a group of runners in front of me and I find another gear and speed up some. I see the time clock in the distance about 0.1 to go and there are 4 runners that I can pass before the finish line. I have this finish line mindset where I “disengage” my brain from running and I really stop thinking about everything other than pass “x” number of runners, or the runner in the red shirt, etc. That’s my only focus and I lay it all out on the course. Here at the end, I disengaged and pass those four runners and came in just behind the last person of the group in front of us. I knew that I couldn’t pass them in the short distance, but I was able to cut the distance to nothing. My Split Time: 6:52 (but with the extra 0.028 mi for a standard mile, the pace was really a 7:04)

A 38:26 official finishing time is not bad at all for me considering the congested, windy, cold start. The fact that I was able to maintain negative splits as well is very encouraging as well. So, a nice Thanksgiving run in honor of My Lovely and Talented Wife’s grandfather overall. I finished 187 out of 740 and was 29th out of 54 in my age group. The guy who won my age group came in 24:58! Now, that is FAST!


running ,

2007 Chickamauga Marathon

November 12, 2007 planet3rry 8 comments

Training Motto: Train, Just in Case.
Here is the grade:
Expo/Registration: B ; I didn’t go to the past a dinner or pre-race pickup., I drove down from Knoxville the day of the race. I did have a little trouble getting to the race site. THe directions on the race form and the directions from Mapquest were totally different. Thankfully, I had been there before, so I had some vague idea of where to go… and it paid off. Once I found a place to park, I followed the crowd of people to Packet Pick Up. I never saw any signs on where to go but the crowd of people made it easy. It was packed in the little gym and it took me a second or two before I found the preregistered table.

Race Goody Bag: A ; I haven’t plundered through it all yet, but there are at least 2 SoyJoy bars and 2 bags of Clif Bloks. You can always score high points with free stuff!

Weather: A ; It was in the 40s for most of the race. It started to warm up just a tad toward the end of the race but it still was very comfortable. There was a slight head wind from time to time, but the course layout sheltered us from both the wind and most of the time.

Course: A- ; The course is a very gently rolling course of which about 23 miles of it is inside the Chickamauga Battlefield. The course is protected from mature pine trees that offer ample protection from wind and the sun. Not only does the trees offer protection but provide a very scenic course as you run past countless monuments, canons, and markers in the battlefield. If you have any interest in history, there are markers with descriptions about activities that took place in certain location. There are 1 and 1/2 drawbacks to the course. The full drawback is that there are often a couple of miles between spectators, so you can go for some time without crowd support, but when you do get it, it is very refreshing. The other drawback that’s only a partial drawback is that it loops twice in the park. The bad thing is that you have to do two loops. The good thing is that you have an idea of what to expect in the later races. This way you know when you are going to get aid stations, crowd support, have to face hills, etc.

Volunteers: A ; Volunteers were great on the course. There was plenty of water, powerade, bananas, and other foods. I think the only thing that I had a problem was that would call out “water, powerade”, but you didn’t know which side or what order until you were right there. This is more of a perk than anything else and is more beneficial to faster runners because they don’t have to slow down as much or weave.

Official Course Support: A+ ; Because there were many locations on the course that were pretty far between aid stations, aides on bike patrolled the course. They were constantly around, with big yellow signs on there backs saying “Runners Aid, Ask Me For Help”, you couldn’t miss them.

Finish Line Spread: B ; They were out of pizza when I got finished. I was going to cheat with a piece of gluten (half piece) but I opted for the Southwest Chicken Soup, which was a nice touch. I’m sure there was better food there, but mid/back of the packers just had to deal with the leftovers, which is pretty typical at any longer distance race. They did have plenty of water and powerade at the finishline, which was better than anything.

Shirt/Medal: A- ; The medal is a standard metal medal with the race logo. It’s a decent medal and will go in it’s own shadowbox along with my running bib and finisher’s certificate. The race shirt was totally over the top. Not only was the race shirt a LS tshirt, it was a technical shirt (moisture wicking) as well. Not only was it a technical shirt, but it was a brand name (ASICS) shirt as well. Very, very cool!

My Race: A ; Give how little I had trained for the marathon

I started the race with a hat, gloves, shorts and a long-sleeved shirt for the mid 40s temperature. Something happened at race start that I have never seen before and it was totally awesome. The national anthem was done by bugle, which in itself is pretty cool. Shortly after the bugle started, I hear a murmur in the crowd that became clearer that the runners were singing the national anthem. Typically, you get a few people who sing it, but this was a majority of the runners. The volume never was too loud, it was the most reverent version of the national anthem that I have ever heard.

Miles 1-4 [36:33] For about the first few miles, I was having a hard time (my perception) to find a good pace. The weather was cool and my hamstrings were not warmed up yet. This was the coldest temperature that I had run since the fall and I wasn’t accustom to it. It wasn’t cold enough for me to warrant wearing long pants, especially since it was supposed to get up to the 50s at some point. Both hamstring felt like knots in my legs and I had an idea that by 2-3 miles they would warm up, but they didn’t.

Miles 5-9 [1:22] I’ve found a nice 9:10ish pace for the first 9 miles. I had paced with a few people the first 5 miles as a way to keep me from going out too fast, but by mile 7 my hamstrings were warmed up and I was on my own. At the turn around point at around 9.5, I see that I am about 45sec to 1 min ahead of those that I paced with earlier. I figured that if I were to slow down, that I could pace back with them… like a safety net.

At the aid station at mile 8.5, I did have a gel packet malfunction. I opened the gel, normally, but as I was bringing it up to eat it, I squeezed prematurely and shot a big squirt of gel on my chin neck and some even dribbled down my running bib. I have a picture to include.

Mile 10-13.1 [2:00] By mile 10, I already had my gloves off as I was warm enough, but still needed the hat. The shade of the trees really helped in keeping the runners sheltered from the sun as there were few clouds for protection. Had most of the race been in the sun, I wouldn’t have fared as well. Just after mile 11, I took the hat off but proceeded to carry it with me, I wasn’t sure if I would still need them. The second loop starts at mile 13. My chip time was 2:00:26 and for the first half, I ran a fairly consistent half. I only had to take a pit stop, once at mile 11 which threw off the pacing for that mile, all the others were a low 9 min pace.

Mile 14-20 [3:04] It was about mile 17.5 that I could feel the first permanent fatigue start to set into my legs. It wasn’t bad, but I knew that I was on the other side and that I would eventually hit The Wall sooner, rather than later. After the aid station at mile 18, I had miscalculated the number of gels that I had. I knew that I brought 6 but only remembered eating 5 after the mile 18, but feeling for the gel packets, I couldn’t find any more. This was going to be a slight problem as I would need to scavenge for food at the aid stations. At the 20.5 aid station, they were offering Clif Bloks which I had 2 and felt better very quickly. I finished the first 20 miles in 3:04:14, which was a 9:14 min pace and only 44 seconds off pace of my predicted 4:02:05 finish. It was nice to know that if I missed pace for a mile or two, that I wouldn’t be sunk.

Mile 21-25 [3:56] By now, my legs are hurting, both quad and hamstrings. I’m also getting pains in both shins, something that I hadn’t expected. I imagine that I wasn’t 100% healed from the shin splints before. Then something funny happened, not really believing that I missed calculated my gels, I searched again and found the lost gel. It was wedged in such a fashion that I could not feel it the first time. So after the slower Mile 22, I had a gel for the 23.5 aid station and was able to salvage paces at mile 23 and 24 of around 10:20 pace average. For these last 6 miles, I was unsure if I was going to get a PR or not. I could imagine that I was and I could imagine being really close but not making it. I hadn’t hit The Wall yet, I still had the will and power to move forward, but I could tell that it was coming fast. At Mile 25, I started my marathon survival mode, but I really should have started it earlier.

Finish [4:08] At the 25.2ish point, is when I had to stop again. This time it was That Wall that made me stop, but I didn’t walk. I stopped, stretched and then started to run again. I knew it was going to be like this for the rest of the way, but I wasn’t sure when I would stop again. Just after Mile 26, I had to stop again, this time a little more defeated than before. I knew I was really close not just from the finish line, but also from a PR, yet it was hard to move forward. Then something happened and I had that spark again.

The last 0.1 of a mile is down a different street that the one I stopped on. I had a little way to go before making the final turn to the finishers chute. I’m in a daze when I had stopped and then I’m snapped out of it as a runner that I had been passing each other early passed by me. I figured that if nothing else, I would pace behind her and that would carry me to the finishline. I started following behind her by about 5 feet or so, but then I could feel some strength come back to my legs, then my mind focused again on the PR time and I picked up speed. As I rounded the corner the first thing I saw was the clock reading “4:08″ something and realized that I could still make it.

I ran as fast as I could to get to that finishline. I don’t know if it was a 8:00min pace, a 9:00 min pace or a 10:00min pace. All I know is that it was fastest that I could run and it was enough. My official Gun time was 4:08:53 and my Official Chip time was 4:08:38, a 35 second PR.

The volunteers led me to get my chip off. At this point I was pretty out of it. I knew that someone would take my chip off and that I needed water. Someone gave me a medal and I looked around for some water. I found a water and powerade then found a patch of grass so I could collapse. I sat down, took a drink of the best powerade ever and then laid down on my back and reveled in the new PR that I just ran.

After a couple of minutes to regroup my thoughts, I found myself making my way to post race food. My legs were sore from top to bottom, but I could still walk. I had some Southwest Chicken soup, which I thought was a great post race snack. It hit the spot and didn’t make me feel bad for missing the pizza, which now I am glad that I didn’t eat. I’m going to post a “what I learned at this race” soon, because even though this was my 10th, I stilled learned a few things.


running ,

20 bags of mulch and 23:4?

April 18, 2007 planet3rry 10 comments

Through a series of divine interventions, the ability for me to run the Spring Sprint 5k came to life at about 10pm Friday night. Even though I was coming off an injury, I was drooling at the ability to run a 5k, it would give me the feel on how:

1)the status of my healing

2)See if attacking my 5k PR time on May5th is still feasible.

The only thing I had to do was get 20 bags of mulch.

I had run the Spring Sprint 5 other times, so I was very familiar with the race location as well as the race course. I knew that a Lowe’s in Alcoa wasn’t to far away. I could (in theory) take the van, get down to Lowe’s, get the mulch, go to the race, run the race, go home and unload the mulch.

This could all be done before 10:30am. When I checked the forecast for the morning, it didn’t look good. Actually it looked all green (rain). This was the same system that in 2 days would pound the runners at the Boston Marathon.

But when it was morning time, it was wet but not bad. So, I was off at the crack of dawn to Lowe’s. I was running about 10 minutes late, but I had some buffer of time to work with. If I could just get to race signup with 15 minutes to spare, I should be okay.

My plan when I go to Lowe’s was to get one of the flat carts, put the 20lbs (40 cubic feet) and haul it to the van. When I got to the garden center, the door wouldn’t open… oh great. But an employee came through and I was in the outside part of Lowe’s. Next, I needed to find a flat bed. Sure enough, someone had put tons of flatbeds all near all the big bagged outdoor stuff (mulch, grass seed, soil, etc). So that was nice…

Then I realized that 20 bags of mulch is going to be ALOT of mulch and that I would need 2 flatbeds instead of 1. So, I find the mulch that I need and start piling it on, 10 bags to a cart. Then I have to pull the cart through the garden center back into the store because the garden center’s gate was closed and locked.

But another sign that I was going to make it to the race, one of the workers comes over to check me out and let me out the door. However, the machine wouldn’t read my card, but she worked it out and opened the gates. I wheeled the cart over to the curb, ran to the van, drove it over, piled 20 bags of much in it, which took 2/3 of the van floor and headed to the race.

I made there in plenty of time to register, get back to the van. I even recorded new audio for Episode 10 of Gravity@1053 which details my experience as a volunteer on the Knoxville Marathon course. My previous attempt at recording ended in me getting very angry at the wind! Bastard!

So, I moseyed to race start, not really sure what to expect. Would I run fast? Would I run slow? Would the rub come back? I didn’t know… I was running on proverbial unchartered territory.

The gun went off and I moved with the mass of 200+ runners. The start is downhill for about 0.2 of a mile and then proceed to go up a hill for about 0.3 of a mile. I proceded with caution as I hit the uphill. I wasn’t sure how the hill would affect me, if at all, but I found a groove that seemed to feel good but I wasn’t sure exactly how fast I was going… I couldn’t tell if the pace exertion was because I was still injured, out of shape, just going up a hill or a combination of them all.

To be safe, I was “drafting” behind other runners to get me up the hill, but I was picking people that were slowing down on the hill, not maintaining their speed. So, I was forced to move forward when I could. At the top of the hill, it leveled off and I tucked behind for a few steps before pulling alongside him to pace off of him as I recovered from the him.

At the first mile marker, there was a sign saying Mile 1 and there was even a guy with a watching, looking at his watch as if to say the time at the split. But nothing ever came out of his mouth, nothing, no indication of our times. I was kind of anxious to see how I was doing, I could tell that I was running a good tempo pace but with the lack of running for over 2 weeks, the feel of that pace would be relative.

The runners in the group I was in started to mutter about not getting their split time, even though the guy was acting as if he was going to do it. So, I looked at my watch and called out “Seven forty-two give or take a few seconds.”

7:42? Niiiiiiiiiiiiiiice. That’s no landspeed record but it sure is speedy given my conditions. So, I’m in the race now… and my thinking changes. It drifts to Episode 91 of Phedippidations, A Duel in the Sun, about the 1982 Boston Marathon in which Alberto Salazar and Dick Beardsley battle in warm conditions during the Boston Marathon. One of the methods that Salazar used during the race was to draft behind Beardsley to keep up with him and match his pace; Beardsley would watch Salazar’s shadow and adjust his pace accordingly if Salazar sped up.

So, there I was, looking ahead at the runners before me, getting ready to attack the longest hill, with a renewed sense of victory for this race and thinking “What can I do?” I saw a guy with a bright yellow shirt with the number “32″, way far away and thought he was too far, but there were 10-15 other runners between us, so I make a plan… over take runners.

During the climb on the hill I paced alongside another runner sizing up who I could catch and who I couldn’t. I knew that I had less than half the race to go, so I would have to run a little gutsy. The one thing that doesn’t intimidate me is hills, in fact, pass the milk, I eat hills for breakfast! So on the climb, 4 or 5 runners were history.

At the top of the hill, it was judgment time. Here was the last flat part of the course, I was at the lead of the pack of runners and not too far, but not very close was another pack of runners… so what do I do? Do I play it safe with a 7:42ish pace and hang where I am, or do I speed up and catch the runners ahead. Time was running out, I was running out of flat meters before hit a substantial hill and then undulating hills to the finish.

My mind drifted back to the Phedippidations episode and I thought, “what would Salazar do?” He’d run “balls to the wall” and so in a “I race to see who has the most guts” Prefontaine move, I sped my pace and pushed it to leave the pack that I was running with and catch the last runner in group ahead of me.

Mile 2: 7:37

I had to recover while going on the uphill, but still managed to keep my pace. As I crested the hill, but who did I see Yellow 32 dude, a whole lot closer…

New goal… catch Yellow 32.

The one part that I hate about hills is going down them… I don’t have enough proper technique practice to make running downhill efficient. So, I would pass people on the uphill, but would get passed on the downhill. I was pushing to keep my pace, to catch Yellow 32.

The final approach to the finishline, is to turn right at the midpoint of hill you ran up at the beginning of the race. This means that the last 0.2 of a mile or so it slightly up hill but where you turn, you still have 0.2 of a downhill to negotiate. So, I turn for the final approach and lock onto Yellow 32.

I will have to give it everything I have to catch him and even then, if he knows that I am coming (and trust me, I sound like a loud elephant when I sprint) he can speed up and it’s all over. I speed up some, there are 4 runners between us. At the base of the hill where police officers are guarding the intersection, I pass 2 more runners, 2 runners now between us.

I turn on the juice and am running nearly 90% for the last 0.2 of a mile. I have just a small boost if I need it, but the exertion level is eating that up quick. I pass another runner with 0.1 of a mile. I am at full throttle now… I am giving it everything that I have and the finishline is closing rapidly but the distance between me and Yellow 32 is not.

Yellow 32 crosses the finishline and all I can do is tuck behind the runner infront of me as we cross the line. My net time (not official time) 23:40. I ran the last 1.1 mile at a 7:36 average pace. I was exhausted… it took me a while to catch my breath and I could tell that my rub was back. It didn’t hurt and it didn’t hinder my race, but it was back… poo.

I went to the post race area to get some water and bananas and tried to access how much of my rub was back. During the awards ceremony, I won no door prizes… and there was a glimmer of hope that my 23:4? time might have clout to win an age group award. There was another big race in Knoxville that day, plus a popular race in Chattanooga that would draw some runners.

When they announce my age group with “…in third place with a time of nineteen…”, I left. I was very pleased with my time and though trying for my 5k PR time at the beginning of May seems a little far, it’s not out of the realm of possibility. I would have to drop 2 minutes off of my time. I think technique and a flatter course would take 15-30 seconds off, so it would be conditioning for the other and what I am doing now will show up near race day. So, even if I couldn’t get the 5k time, it would set me up for my 10k time at the end of May.

After the fact: Yellow 32 dude finished only 3 seconds ahead of me. My official time was 23:46, which was my second fastest time for this course. I finished 61 out 214 finishers and 8th out of 17 in my age group.


Life In General, running ,

Knoxville Marathon Race Report

March 27, 2006 planet3rry No comments


My grades and race report for the 2nd Annual Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon

Expo/Registration: B
It's wasn't all that big of an expo, but it was well organized and carefully laid out so that race pick up was easy and intuitive. My only complaint was that free parking was a ways away and it has cold… plus with two kids and a stroller… well, you get the picture.

Race Goody Bag: A-
The race bag had the normal paper advertisements – ho-hum. However, you got a frisbee… because you want to chase it after the marathon. A lip balm tube with a neoprene holder. A pair of white (why white?) Covenant health gloves… I guess if you “lost” them at the marathon, it wouldn't be too bad. and a small bag of Mahatma Brown Rice… it's too cute.

Weather: B-
It wasn't that the weather was all that bad. It was cold at the start and then warmed up, but it did get cold again in someplace and hot in others, so with no way to vent the heat out, I was forced to take my LS shirt off, but good thing I kept it because I got cold again 5 miles later. But marathoners would rather have cooler weather than hotter weather. We did get some clouds in the later part of the race and that kept the sun off of you.

Course: B-
This was the toughest course by far. There was never any flat area for any significant time except at mile 21/22 in Island home. There were lots of short steep hills, and even though I trained with significant hill training, it was still quite a bit. The course around Knoxville was pretty scenic and finishing in Neyland Stadium was great – and like people last year… I forgot to look at myself on the Jumbotron!

Volunteers: A
The volunteers where wonderful, there were stretches of the course where there were few volunteers, but they were still very energetic. Hats off to all the police regulating traffic and the volunteers on the bicycles helping out on the course.

Official Course Support: A-
The course seemed to have enough water stations… I visited everyone except the first two… I had brought my own! The only problem was that the GU station that was supposed to be at mile 18 was at 21, but they had oranges at 19 and they helped quite a bit.

Finish Line Spread: B
Only a short walk out of the stadium to Thompson-Boling Arena for Water, Gatorade, fruit, pizza, chips & salsa, yogurt and some candy. It was all GOOD but a tad bit crowded.

Shirt/Medal: A-
The shirt was a SS cotton shirt, but it was a darker gray color, very unique. I like it. My first impression of the medal was… it's a skull head. No, it was the top part of the Sunsphere and it pretty sharp looking… pictures will be included in the album. The finisher hat was a Coolmax hat with the race logo on the front and “Finisher” on the back… very very cool!

My Race: B+
I woke up around 5:00am with plenty of time to get everything ready. The only thing that I really needed to do was finish my breakfast, sit on the throne, find my The Stick and load the car. Oh yeah… get dressed! I ended up choosing shorts over my Almost Tights in a last minute decision. I had tried to find my Breathe Right strips but could not find any, not even my back-ups. So I debated whether to go to Kroger and get some. So, I had better leave and I couldn't find my wallet… no where. Ugh!

So, I was strapped for time and headed out with some borrowed money from Jen to Kroger. Yeah, Kroger had a 30 pack for $12.99 but I only had $10. Crap. So I stopped by the Pilot near the interstate… none there. I then am cruising down the interstate at about 70mph when I debate (with myself… and I won) on whether to go the Kroger near the race route. I thought, okay… I have barely enough time to make it there. While I am driving, I am prepping my Carb-Boom gels by taking the safety pin and poking them once through the tab and then sticking them in the seat. I hadn't done this the night before because I didn't know what I would need to wear.

As I am off the interstate and on Northshore, I see a Walgreens… and I know they have them. It's about 6:30 (race start at 7:00) and YES, they are open! Sweet, I break a few laws and run it and the place is quiet. I found a small pack of 12 strips for $5.49 and found the first employee I could find to help me check out. This way, I could leave Walgreens and hit the interstate. So, I bust ass to UT and decided to park near the Stadium. This would mean that I would have to run over to the race start to make it in time… maybe.

I got out of the car and put on my hat, pinned the Carb-Boom on me. I had a sweatshirt, so I had to put my phone holder over than and then carry my phone head piece (which never was useful), two kids-sized bottle of Gatorade and the phone thing wouldn't stay on… so I had to hold that too…

I had a little cross country warm-up run getting over to the starting line. I have to see how far it was but if I had walked, I would not have made it in time. As I rounded the corner… I could hear the doing race announcements, then as I hoped on to Clinch the National Anthem started. Well crap. I don't want to not be respectful of the National Anthem… I mean Marianna would send the Brute Squad after me. So in a semi-compromise with myself, I took off my hat and walked quickly to past the race start and got in line. Since I had all my crap still hanging out, I put everything on the ground to sort it out. I got the phone ready to post an entry. Luckily, Solange wasn't far away and she found me and I took all my stuff over to Marty.

Then the gun went off… So I had all the crap and was talking into the phone “LIVEJOURNAL” – I had set voice activation so that it would automatically go to the recording section and I wouldn't have to do anything. But NOOOOOOOoooooooo… it wouldn't recognize the name, I think because of the noise, so I had to manually go to the address book and find it, while running.

[Mile 1-3]
The race start is probably one of the most exciting events that you can ever be around. A lot of anxious runners have that sense of relieve since the noise of the gun has set them free. Weeks of training are now coming to a head and at this point, everyone still feels good. The race starts off… uphill, but then turns and is a nice down hill. This is probably a very good thing because it forces you to start off slower and helps you to conserve that first couple mile jitters. On the downhill, I decided that my sweatshirt was ready to go, so Marty held my water bottles as I took off my sweatshirt, but I was in the middle of the road and had to carry it for about 1/4 mile before I could do a hook shot to the sideline. At the start of the second mile, we go down Lake Loudon hill… the same one that I train on going up. There was a big noise maker someone had fashioned with trashcans very similar to a gong. I told Marty that next year we should do that with some of his empty kegs. It was still pretty crowded, well not crowded but there was still a bunch of runners around.

Mile [4-7]
At Mile 4, Marty started talking with Keith, from the LawDogs, who was running the half-marathon. At the mile 4 split, I told Marty the time and he picked up his speed. So, Keith and I ran together talking through Cherokee Blvd. Luckily, this has a lot of rolling hills that I trained on before, so I was prepared and I didn't have the urge to look around much because I knew what around. We kept a good pace during these miles, for both of us. One of the big hills in the course is at Noelton. It's a two part steep hill (not as bad a Lake Loudon) and is well placed as it comes early in the marathon and is followed by about a mile of flat course good for recovery.

Mile [8-11]
My old stomping ground… Third Creek Greenway. There is a distinct advantage to knowing the course to where you know every little turn and hill that comes along. A Keith and I were able to keep a good pace, while carrying on a conversation. Mile 11 was the hill that I was dreading, it was a significant hill (not as steep as Noelton) but you start the hill in Tyson Park, and then turn onto Kingston Pike, Continue up to 21st Street where you finally crest in the middle of 21st Street. AS we turned onto Forest Ave, I got to see my Volunteer Post from last year. And sure enough, the course monitor was talking with someone who wanted to drive though the course with runners still around. Go Figure.

Mile [12-14]
Since Keith was running the half-marathon it was time for him to break off and head back toward the Stadium for his finish. I told him that he would finish just above 2 hours unless he gave the course hell. I think that Keith (because I don't know his last name, but there is a Keith about his anticipated time) finished in 2:02:06. This part of the course is part of the Expo 10k and so there was some familiarity here as well. Around here is when I could feel my foot. It wasn't hurting, but it was there. I could also feel the onset of fatigue in my legs.

Mile [15-17]
This was part of the course that I never been, neither on foot or a car. So it was all new to me. And there were hills. At the Mile 16 water stop was the first time that I stopped to stretch. Oh, and at this neighborhood, they had a big float as a pirate ship and there where 3 pirates cheering the runners on. I did not see a bottle of rum anywhere, so what gives? It was around here where my face started bleeding. Some spectators said “Hey, your face is bleeding”. I touched my face but no blood, so… oh well. By this time, there weren't a lot of runners around. At Mile 17, I had a biker come up and ask me if I was okay. He saw that my face was bleeding, but that it was dried. Since it didn't hurt or anything that I would probably be okay, he said it looked pretty dramatic and all I thought was “Coooooooooool”.

Mile [18-20]
I am now, full fledged hungry. I have one Carb-Boom and another GU station up on the course. As I turn the corner, there was a musical group playing some hip-hop music. Sort of an ad-lib version of “Rapper's Delight”, they were really jamming and the energy was well appreciated. I was starting to feel the heat effects of the sun since we were more out in the open. Right after the waterstop at mile 18, I decided to stop and shed my LS shirt. Unfortunately, it was underneath my SS shirt with my race number. I stopped and systematically took both shirts off and then put my SS back on and tied my LS shirt to my waist. I think my legs got the most satisfaction out of that stop. There were a number of smaller hills around here that were killing me. I kept forging up them as best as could and kept getting hungrier and hungrier. At mile 19, I saw my friend Beth, who was helping out at the oranges station. I must have eaten about 3 chunks of Oranges and they were what I needed. I was hoping for bananas but the oranges made a huge difference. I had made a pact with myself that I would not look at the overall time until Mile20. I didn't want to get depressed or anything from my time. There was a big time clock and I knew that my chance for a PR was out the door, but that I could still have a decent time if I just hung in there. We were now heading toward Island Home where I ran the Race for the Deaf on a number of occasions. Oh, and GU station up here on the right… how nice!

Mile [21-24]
Island home was nice and shady. The crowd support was nice… lots of people out, not too vocal, but enough to really help. I could tell that my body was ready to just shut down anytime. My foot had been partly asleep for a number of miles (I had retied my shoe earlier, which is the normal remedy), my legs were heavy, my hips hurt, I was having some sciatic muscle strain, I had a pain in my right calf and I knew that one of my toes in my left foot was going to be yucky. Hence all the systems were failing but my morale was still pretty high – Voice post reference. I actually had runner 336 pass me… I was race number 335. Runner 336 was from Birmingham, AL. Close to Mile 24, I stopped again because now the cold was getting to me. I put my LS shirt back on, stretched and kept going. There is a curvy hill at Mile 24 that I was not looking forward to running. It wasn't all that bad, but I totally forgot to say “God Save the Queen” at the Mile 24 mile marker.

Mile [25-26.2]
The last little bit of the course I had run before, so I knew what to expect. I was saving my energy for that last hill going back up Clinch before the final down hill. As I was coming down the hill of Clinch before crossing back the Start Line, the traffic going across Henley was heavy. There were two cops out there and close to the last second, they stopped their traffic and I was able to continue without having to stop for traffic… pretty neat. I remember looking at my watch when I crossed the Start line, but I don't remember the time. I made it up the last hill at Clinch and shortly after the turn, I stopped to stretch. I then set into motion my near expired legs and focused on the noise from the stadium. I past a runner as we hit the 26 mile marker and there were 3 runners a head of me. There were road blockade contraptions to help guide us into the stadium. There were 3 turns in that last 0.2 of a mile. At the 26.1 point, I passed one of the runners and picked up my pace a bit as I went into the stadium. As we came out of the tunnel and onto to the field, you could make out the crowd in the stadium and you knew that you were home. At this point, I kicked in the afterburner and flew past the 2 runner between me and the finish line. I was sprinting as fast as I could and it felt like 100 miles and hour. Nothing hurt… I just kept going. I could only see the chute in front of me and the timing mat on the ground. I heard them announce my name on the loud speaker, “Terry Higgins, from Knoxville TN” and then it was over.

Post Race
I had forgotten to look at my watch or hit the stop button. I was clueless at my time other than I thought it was 4 hours 20 something… I hadn't a clue. They took off my timing band from my ankle and I was given a Finisher's Medal and a Mylar “space” blanket. They then gave me a bottle of water and a coolmax hat that had the marathon logo and “finisher” on the back. Thank goodness that they were handing this stuff to me because all I could think about was how good I felt (mentally) about completing the marathon. I was so happy about my performance that even though my time wasn't really what I wanted, I knew that I had done everything that I could and I was pleased. There have been marathons where I wasn't happy at the end and was upset. Not today.

I walked around looking for My Mom, Jen and the kids. I couldn't find them, so I decided to go ahead and head on out to the stands to see if I could find them. As I was walking up the ramp, I found Jen and then the rest of the party and everything was good. We walked over to Thompson-Boling arena where the Post-race food was located. Remember… I was hungry and apparently Eric was too because he was eating all the food on my plate. So after about 15-20 minutes of hanging out at the post-race party we headed back to the car.

Notables:
Course Winner: James Mutuse 2:33:07
Marty Velas 4:01:48
Official Time 4:21:44 (4th Fastest Marathon Time) 293th out of 541 finishers; 32nd out of 48 in age group

Split Times

Split Split Distance Overall Distance Split Time Split Pace Overall Time Comments
1 1 1 9:14 - 9:14 &nbsp
2 1 2 8:50 - 18:04 &nbsp
3 1 3 9:28 - 27:32 &nbsp
4 1 4 9:43 - 37:15 &nbsp
5 1 5 9:23 - 46:38 &nbsp
6 1 6 9:19 - 55:57 &nbsp
7 1 7 9:28 - 1:05:25 &nbsp
8 1 8 9:35 - 1:15:00 &nbsp
9 1 9 9:02 - 1:24:02 &nbsp
10 1 10 9:40 - 1:33:42 &nbsp
11 1 11 9:31 - 1:43:13 &nbsp
12 1 12 9:36 - 1:52:49 &nbsp
13 1 13 9:33 - 2:02:22 &nbsp
14 0.1 13.1 0:58 9:40 2:03:20 &nbsp
15 1 14 9:37 - 2:11:59 &nbsp
16 1 15 9:43 - 2:02:42 &nbsp
17 1 16 9:49 - 2:31:32 &nbsp
18 1 17 10:11 - 2:41:42 &nbsp
19 1 18 9:40 - 2:51:22 &nbsp
20 1 19 10:47 - 3:02:09 &nbsp
21 1 20 10:46 - 3:12:55 &nbsp
22 1 21 10:19 - 3:32:14 &nbsp
23 1 22 11:25 - 3:34:39 &nbsp
24 1 23 10:39 - 3:45:16 &nbsp
25 1 24 12:30 - 3:57:46 &nbsp
26 1 25 11:32 - 4:09:18 &nbsp
27 1 26 10:38 - 4:19:56 &nbsp
28 0.2 26.2 1:48 9:00 4:21:44 10:00 overall Pace

running , ,

Reindeer Run 5k

December 5, 2005 planet3rry No comments

Sunday afternoon just in front of the World Headquarters for the Ruby Tuesday Restaurant corporation, the third leg in the Ruby Tuesday's Triple Crown of Running began in a flurry of fast runners. My ambition that day was to be part of the fast runner group and maintain a pace that would have me break my current PR for the 5000 meter distance, currently at a 21:56 from the Run for the Pumpkins (10-26-2002).

The night before, Jen and I went to a Sushi Party at the home of Marty (Beer Boy) and Solange and I enlisted Marty to be a “rabbit” for the first mile of the race. In the world of running, the term “rabbit” is used to describe someone who is pacing another runner for some period of time during a race. Some the elite women marathoners use male pacers in races. A pacer allows the runner to concentrate on performance as opposed to what is going on out in the road this conserves overall energy stores. The pacer is responsible for keeping up with traffic, possible problems ahead and of course, the actual pace. Having a pacer is also mentally calming because you don't have to worry about if the person in front of you is going to change speed and you have someone to keep you motivated as you do not want to let them down.

Right before race start, I had to go… and there was too much activity for me to “go” out in nature because… well, just because. So, I waited for the porta-potty and as a result, I was sprinting up the hill to the starting line, just so that I could take a 5 second break before the race started. I took off and with in 100 yards, Beer boy was behind me, but for all practical purposes he was still being my pacer. I knew that I shouldn't let him pass me to keep my pace up.

For most of the first mile, I was actually running to the cadence of “It Came Upon a Midnight Clear” since they were playing Christmas Songs at the race registration. Why, I don't know, but it worked… it's not too fast or a weird cadence, just something smooth. I tried to conserve myself up the big hill in the first mile and that seemed to work. I could tell that I was working hard but didn't want to look at my watch as the first mile marker was just up the road. I decided that if my pace was too slow that I would back off and just run with Beer Boy, but if one the other hand it was on target, I would stay the course.

I completed the first mile in a Terry Record Setting 6 minutes 50 seconds! Much faster than my goal mile of 6:56. Most of the second mile was relatively flat and I had decided before hand that I would slow my pace down a little bit so that I keep enough energy to still run a strong race instead of flaming out in the first mile. My second mile was a 7:19, much slower, but I was only 5 seconds slower than my forecasted overall time. It was only about a quarter mile up the road that I got the most excruciating pain in my side.

It hurt so bad, and only on my right side. It was the same pain I had at Autumnfest, only stronger… much much stronger. I contemplated stopping to walk which was probably the sensible thing to do, but I decided that my pain threshold, although exceed the normal limits was still barely bearable and that I would continue. I ended up being past a few times that last mile and it would really make no difference in standing for my age group… super fast elite freaks were there, so there was no chance to take home any hardware even if I had ran a 21:55. I started to feel better with less than a half a mile to go in the race. I knew that I need to conserve whatever I had left so that I could make a sprint for the finish.

A runner passed me who was the noisiest runner in the world. It sounded like he was slapping the ground with each step, so I heard him come from behind and then pass me. Good thing for me was that he was still close enough in my sights that I knew I could pass him in the end. The last 0.2 of the race consists of a small 0.1 hill, followed with a turn and then 0.1 flat to the end. Most spectators stood at that intersection cheering their favorite racer. One racer named, Lauren, had a big and loud group cheering her on and from the sound of them she was somewhat close to me. I wasn't sure from the cheers if Lauren was starting her surge, but I decided that it was time to give it what I had and lay it out all on the table. At the start of the hill, I cranked it up a notice and passed the noisy runner. At the top of the hill, I accelerated into the turn and focused on the time clock… it read 23 something. I then went full board for the finish line for a 23:16 official time.

It was a good thing that I went all out at the end. Lauren was a 11 yo girl with a finishing time of 23:17 and the noisy runner, was George a 50 yo runner with a 23:18 time. So although I didn't get the time that I wanted, the last 0.1 of a mile was an actual race. I did make a PR time for the mile, so that's pretty nice reward as well. I didn't win any of the race door prizes nor any of the Triple Crown door prizes (min value $100). Maybe next year.

I'll be posting some video footage of me as soon as Beer Boy sends me the file.


Life In General ,

Autumnfest

November 28, 2005 planet3rry No comments

If it hadn't been for my lining up a little towards the back and taking me 13 seconds to get to the start line, I might have actually made it 37:30. Instead I was 37:40 being 127 out of 607 and 8 out of 30 in my age group. Despite making the goal time that I wanted, it was by no means easy or that enjoyable while I was running. I started to get a stitch in my diaphram area around mile 2 and it stuck with me for the entire race. My legs felt fine for the entire race, it was my core muscles that felt like crap. I think it was that I was in auto-pilot for those last 2 miles that kept me on target. Actually, I almost ran negative splits for the entire race, which absolutely baffled me because I SWORE that I was slowing down for the last mile, which I ran my fastest… go figure. So here is my box score:

Split Split Distance Overall Distance Split Time Split Pace Overall Time Comments
1 1.0 1.0 7:40 - 7:40 &nbsp
2 1.0 2.0 7:44 - 15:24 &nbsp
3 1.0 3.0 7:25 - 22:49 &nbsp
4 1.0 4.0 7:52 - 30:21 &nbsp
5 1.0 5.0 7:05 - 37:40 Terry's “chip” time 37:26

Life In General ,

Chickamauga 10 miler Race(s) Result

November 14, 2005 planet3rry 2 comments

Well, sit right back and I will tell a tale of a little runner named Terry who decided that he was going to run the Chickamauga 10 miler on Saturday November 12th.

Friday night we made it down to Ooltewah, TN (just outside of Chattanooga) to stay with our friends Monika (mo-NEEK-ah) and Tod (Tod) since Jen was going to have a class with her friend Nina (NINE-Ah) on Saturday. Being the good runner that I am the first thing I did was check my race calendars to see what was going on in that area on Saturday and to my delight, the Chickamauga Marathon and 10 miler was not too far away. I had mentioned before that I almost considered running the marathon but quickly turned to the 10 miler as something more feasible. Chickamauga is close enough to Knoxville that I could run it next year (and after Saturday’s events… I think I will!! It’s a course made for my style, but personally, it could use a few more hills).

So that was the plan… go to Ooltewah Friday night, get up, run the 10 miler, get back in time for Jen to have the car for her class. Common pre-race advice is that before marathons or long runs that you should eat a carbohydrate rich dinner such as pasta or stuff like that. Well, Monika and Tod are on a low-carb diet, so our dinner menu was a pot roast (which has its own story). The pot roast, it turned out, was not on the menu anymore and we ended up getting some ribs from a little shack on the country road near their house. These were the best ribs that I have had in a long time. I must have ate closer to a 1/3 of all the meat (pulled pork and rack of ribs) and there were 3 other adults sharing. They were good stuff… next time we are down there, they are on the menu. So, I followed the rule: nothing new before a race but I did eat alot more protein than I did carbs. I have had ribs before, I like ribs, the ribs were my friend. We went to bed and it was all too early when 6:00am came around.

I mustered my running clothes together, but realized that I had no breakfast. I should have had brought some bagels and peanut butter since that is my pre-race breakfast of choice. Many thanks to M&T since they let me use their Tahoe to go to the race, there by elimating the need for me to come home right after finishing the 10 miler. So, as a thank you, I filled up with about 10 gallons of gas and ran in to the gas station to get some doughnuts and coffee. Turns out that I hit the bathroon right at the right time as I found myself having the pre-race evacuation of my bowels. Once I was empty and the truck full, I was on my way. It wasn’t too hard to find the race site, although parking ended up being a tad tight when I showed up at about 7:15. I should have left about 10 minutes earlier to not have been stressed out, probably the first of the components that lead to Saturday’s ordeal.

I got to the race site, parked and ran in to get my number and race bag. Race bag had a LS T-shirt, a Snickers Marathon Bar and some papers… nothing important. I went back to the truck, again stressed a little on the proper layering that I needed for the race. Since I was just doing 10 miles, I would opt for a LS coolmax shirt under the KTC shirt that I made the night before. I would also opt-out of the almost-tights that I have for temperatures in the 30s. It was 34 at race start, but I knew it would warm up some in the next hour. So I have my number on, I got my gloves, a hat, the car key is secure and I am ready for a PR time today. I had a little bit of water, I was stretching a little bit, it’s almost 7:25 and I get the sensation. Ugh. I make my way to the port-a-potties, not a long line, but long enough. I finally make it to the race start where they are giving out the last of the race instructions (but those aren’t usually important) and play the national anthem. And then in a few seconds we’re off…

The start of the course is on back streets and is a little congested with all the marathon runners. There are 3 turns in the first 1/2mile so, it makes it difficult to get up to pace, but then there is a 1.5 mile of straight away where the crowd disapates and you can find your pace. So I am in the park, cruising right along at under goal pace and feeling great. Like with any other marathon, there is a lot of talk early about goal times and other races leading up to the big event. I am near a group of runners that are from Chattanooga that are shooting for a 3:42. Perfect, at about the right pace for me, so I hang around with this group, 2 women running together and 3 guys in a seperate pack, all behind me. At the mile 2 mark, one of the women, named Nancy, asks the other woman about their split time and their pace. I chimed in and said that at mile 2, I was running a 8:24 minute mile and they were right behind me. So for the next 2 miles, I hear Nancy and her friend talk to their friends about what is going on, where they are going, hills on the course, etc.

The course is very beautiful. About 21 miles of it is set on the Chickamauga Battlefield and has plaques, statues, cannons and lots of other solemn Civil War items through out the park. One part of the course you have rows of trees overhead and others, there are large semi-rolling flat areas. I found myself thinking what it would have been like to be fighting a battle here, not with myself or the time clock, but with fellow Americans fighting for ideals. Very Eerie. I think that there were mass grave markers on the side of the road where there would have been trenches for the soldiers. I don’t know, but that was my guess. At mile 4, we saw two deer out a ways in an open field with the early morning sun reflecting off some of the mist on the battlefields. I sure wish that I had had my camera, because it was very sirene.

At mile 4.5, Nancy comes up and introduces herself and asks what goal time I was running. I told her that I was running the 10 miler but that I was running for a PR time. She says nonchalantly says that she thought that the 10 milers started at a different time than the marathoners. Huh? So she tells me that she is running for a 3:42 which would qualify her for Boston. We talked about qualifying for Boston and other running stuff. At about mile 7, things start seeming out of place. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but I knew that something wasn’t quite right.

At about mile 8 or so, (I’m still running a 8:23 mile) I think to myself, I guess the 10 mile course is a loop of some sort that we’ll break off from the marathon route to the finish line. Mile 9 comes along… still running great… getting more and more anxious about getting to that finish line. At this point, I am under my goal time of 1:26:00. I bet my face went white, as I went into a slight panic when I realize that up ahead is the turn around point for the marathon, not the finish line for the 10 miler. At the turn around, I stop to ask the course monitor about where the 10 mile course was. He said that he didn’t know, he was just at the this U-turn and that was all he knew. I thanked him and picked up the pace to catch up with Nancy and her friend. As I was trying to catch up, I was thinking… I didn’t see a turn around marker… I didn’t hear anyone call out about the 10 mile.

I catch up with Nancy right after the 10 mile marker and tell her that I just got an Unofficial 10 mile PR time on a Certified Course. I turned 10 miles in 1:24:20 (8:26 pace). So, now what do I do… I don’t know the course, I don’t know how to get back. So I do what I know how to do… run. I came across a couple of course monitors that that told me to stay with the marathoners. I ended up falling behind Nancy who finished in 3:49 and never got a chance to thank her for letting me pace with her for the better of 6-7 miles. Oh, and get this… my Half Marathon time 1:51:04, which is ONLY 1 minute and 49 seconds slower than my PR for the 1/2 marathon!!! If I hadn’t of stopped those 4 times to ask for directions/help, I might have made two unofficial PR times that day!

Turns out that the marathon course doubles back on the 10 miler course at about 13.5 or so. So, I was fortuante enough to get back on the course. At just past mile 14, the marathons turn back into the park for their second loop while the 10 milers head back home. Once I got back on the 10 mile course, it was lonely and I slowed down. I actually went into to “marathon survival” mode and did what works best for me after hitting The Wall in marathons. When I come to a mile marker, I start walking and I walk for about 1 minute, regardless of how I feel. I then stop and go into a squat position where I hold that from 5-10 seconds then stand up to a toe-touching position and hold this for 5 seconds. I then run to the next mile marker. By doing this, it keeps my average pace per mile down than if I had walked anymore without stretching. You can see that my mile 7 (~16) was only 9:28 even though I was hurting at that point.

Within the last two miles I missed a turn. I ended up staying on this crappy country road thinking ” They wouldn’t put runners out on this road, it’s very unprotected and no shoulder.” Then what happened next confirmed that I was, indeed, not on the right road. 8 unruly yappy dogs became a little aggitated at me as I approached. Once the swarm started moving in my direction I immediately decided I was in the wrong place and decided to turn around and do it quickly. At this point I felt like I was running 6 minute miles, it must have just been my perception since I was hearing the dogs closing in on me. After what seemed to be 30 seconds, I heard their “yaps” fade in the distance. Okay, that was a little scary. So, then I turn into the park.

As I turned into the park a gentlemen in a white cadillac stops me to ask how to see the marathoners. Who better to ask then someone with a race number on right? I wasn’t going to break any records today and after the savage dogs, striking up a chat was just the ticket I need to give my legs a little rest. I told him that I didn’t know where he could go but up around the way, he’d be right at the mile 14 mark and could see some runners there. Little did I know that he was right at the mile 24.75 mark and could have turned his car around and seen all the runners.

So, now I am back on course, with more than a mile to go, thinking about how stupid I was with the days events. Early on, after mile 10, I started to think what the Blog title would be for this post. Titles that didn’t make it: Comedy of Errors and Chickamauga 10, errr, 18 miler. I wanted to finish the last mile strong, so instead of walking, I stretched for 30 seconds and then went to work. I imagined the finish line and made that my goal… no walking, no excuses. I turned down the final 0.1 and then finish line guy got all excited “Marathon??” “No,”I replied “10 miler” and my replied seem to echo in the area. After all, I didn’t look like a 10 miler running a 13:30 pace. So, I finished (officially) in 2:13:24. So, here is what that means… I officially finished the 10 mile course in 2:13:24, but I unofficially had a 10 mile PR of time 1:24:20 and finished approximately 18.75 miles in 2:44:05.

So what went wrong? In the race packet there was a yellow sheet with Race Day instructions… I violated #1 and #4. #1 was know the course… I didn’t know the course. I didn’t print a map, I didn’t look at the nice maps in ther egistration area… I didn’t read the map in the race packet. More importantly I ignored #4 which was Marathon 7:30am, 10 Miler 8:00am. WHOOPS! Most (but not all) of the races that I have ever run all start at the same time… I assumed wrong. Now it made sense. If I left with the marathoners, I would have hit the turn around point at about 8:07am, it would have been another 16-19 minutes before the first official 10 miler would have been there. If 10 miler started on time and the winner (1:01:18) ran consistently, he would have been just past the 1st mile marker when I hit the 10 miler turnaround. So there was no need to have any signs up or people yelling directions. The only thing in my favor was that the race numbers were different colors, red=marathon and black=10miler, so someone may have been able to catch that, but… oh well. Even if I had turned around at the right place at the right time, I started too early (cheater)!

Here are my split times:

Split Split Distance Overall Distance Split Time Split Pace Overall Time Overall Pace Comments
1 1.0 1.0 - - 8:27 - &nbsp
2 1.0 2.0 8:24 - 16:51 - &nbsp
3 1.0 3.0 8:20 - 25:11 - &nbsp
4 1.0 4.0 8:16 - 33:27 &nbsp
5 1.0 5.0 8:39 - 42:06 - &nbsp
6 1.0 6.0 8:13 - 50:19 - &nbsp
7 1.0 7.0 8:18 - 58:37 - &nbsp
8 1.0 8.0 8:23 - 1:07:00 - &nbsp
9 1.0 9.0 8:39 - 1:15:39 - &nbsp
10 1.0 10 8:41 - 1:24:20 - 10 Mile PR and includes some stoppage time talking with a course monitor
11 1.0 11.0 8:35 - 1:32:55 - &nbsp
12 1.0 12.0 8:59 - 1:41:54 - Asked for directions some here
13 1.0 13.0 8:18 - 1:50:12 - 13.1 mile time = 1:51:04
14 1.0 14.0 8:49 - 1:59:01 - &nbsp
15 0.6 14.6 6:08 - 2:05:09 - This put me back onto the 10 mile course
16 1.0 15.6 9:28 - 2:14:37 - &nbsp
17 2.15 17.75 20:04 - 2:34:41 - This includes the yappy dogs and white cadillac dude
18 1.0 18.75 9:24 - 2:44:05 - FINALLY!

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Farragut Fall 5k

September 26, 2005 planet3rry One comment

The Farragut Fall 5k was this past Saturday and I got a chance to work the finishing line as a volunteer. Actually, I had been told that there were enough people, but I knew that even though that was what was scheduled, come to race day, it would not be the case. Strike one up for the Terrster! Despite all the cancelations, we had just enough people to easily take care of the finish line of the race. I really hadn't volunteered much for races up to this point, so I knew nothing, other than me personally finishing races on how the finish line operated and knew nothing about how the finish line operated.

Typically when I finish the race, in the last 50-100 meters I am either in a full-blown sprint, or I am passing people to find my place in the finish line. Normally, I am so out of breath that when I finish, I pull off the tab off the bottom of the race number and hold it in the air, so that the person taking the numbers can get it and I can regain my breath. Typically there is a chute monitor to make sure that you stay in line as you crossed the line, this keeps the paper trail of bib numbers in order. There is also someone who is punching in the bib numbers as they come through the line as well. Maybe more, I don't know… I've only helped setting the chutes up not actually manage the race.

So I found the Finish Line director when I got to the race location (It's the closest 5k race to my house) to find my assignment. I was directed to Ed Leaver, who had all the equipment and could tell me how I could help out. We first started by making the chutes, what the runners enter after finishing to keep them in line, just with polls and cord. But, since we were finishing on a narrow greenway, we had to make the chute a lot longer, so that the bib numbers could be collected with creating a traffic jam. Apparently, there are often a couple of chutes to rotate to keep the numbers straight. Once we got the chute up and running, we were given what we would do during the race. I was paired up with a lady named Terri, easy enough to remember, and were given the little computer thingy that records times and bib numbers. I had never even held one of those things up to this point. In fact, I learned that there is another attachment (much the Jeopardy buzzer that the contestants have) that someone else uses to mark when the runner crosses the finish line.

I was actually afraid that I would be responsible for the timing of this certified course and that the official times of 150+ runners would be in my hands. After all, the runners pour their guts out on a non-so-easy course for 15-40 minutes and to have it all in the air due to some rookie, just made me nervous… one wrong entry and someone could lose an age group award. Thank goodness that they had another counter that was used for back-up, redundancy… it's a good good thing.

We walked up to the race start so that we could synchronize with the gun start for the official timing. For this race, and I do not know about others, we set the main big clock up after we got back, so that could potentially be off by a second or so. We made it back with a few minutes before the overall winner crossed the finish line. That was easy! He was also all by himself AND 2 minutes ahead of the next runner! His time was 15:53 and that is in minutes for 3.1 miles! The not so scary part of using the apparatus was that I did not need to record everyone's bib number, but just “selects.” Selects, as defined to me, were about every 3rd or 4th runner, or runners that would probably be an age group winner, etc. Such as the first female, or young runner, etc. The hardest part of the whole process was reading the bib numbers as they came into the finish line. We were lucky that the orientation of the finish line funneled the runners down to 1 or 2 way before the crossed the line. So, it's not rocket science, but it's a lot of responsibility because you always need to be looking for the next bib number and hope that you enter it in correctly. The other Terri was responsible for hitting the button when the runner crossed the line… so she had to make sure that she got EVERY runner. We ended up with 190 runners by the race end. It was then time to disassemble the finishing chute, pack stuff up and call it a race.

I had loads of fun, as everyone was nice and everything ran smoothly… ask me again when it's chaotic, I may have a different answer.


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