PLANET3RRY

There wasn’t a whole lot of fanfare at the Run for the Deaf this year. There was some worry that the weather would dump on us, as it was the weather was perfect, but rain would dampen the race.

I got to race early enough so that I could get a nice pre-race warm up in before reporting to race start. At race start, I saw that quite a bit of the fast runners were there in the front, so that I knew getting an age group award was out of the window for this race. And that was actually a stress that I didn’t have to carry the burden over the race.

The race started and it’s a nice downhill start. Although this is tough on the legs, it’s easier on the psyche and lungs as you pick up speed for the race. As I mentioned before, parts of Island Home is “Level Flat” not “Knoxville Flat”. Apart from the Start/Finish, the race is a combination of “Level-Flat” and “Knoxville Flat”.

Mile 1

So with a down hill start and the rest of the mile is flat. It’s really easy to go out fast. This is great if you are going for a PR time. However, if you are unexperienced, you’ll be out like at the 1/2 mile mark like the kid that was running ahead of me, then his friends caught up and he said “I’m Done” and proceeded to walk.

Mile 1 in 6:58

That, by the way, is a big forecasted PR pace for me. I knew that I wouldn’t be able to hold on to that pace, but my in situ race plans changed to hold on to that pace. In Marathons, the common Rule of Thumb is don’t go out to fast… which is on the money because it’s a long race and going out to fast is costly. However in shorter races, if you want to get a PR, you have to go out fast! The trick is finding that threshold which you can go out fast yet still maintain your endurance to carry you. If you go out fast, your body “feels” that speed, so when you “slow down” your body relaxes but that new speed may be faster than what you would have been running had you tried to start the race at a conservative pace and tried to get faster over the course. It’s easier to slow down at the end of the race, then it is to speed up. A consequence is that if you go out to fast, you exhaust your Kick at the end of the race.

Mile 2

I tried to hit a rhythm with my strides and breathing. I was far enough ahead in the mass of runners that I had little traffic in front of me, and I tried, as we rounded corners or curvy streets to take the shortest distance from point to point, even if it meant I was running on the other side of the street.

I could feel that I was starting to slow just a little and I wasn’t sure what the last little hill of the Second mile would do to me.

Mile 2 in 7:33

I remained steady up the hill, but it was tough to maintain that speed afterwards. Once back on the Level Flat Street, I could nothing more than try to keep my pace going. I was fading. With 1/2 mile to go, I was praying for a shoelace to come untied so that I could take a break. A quick look at my watch and I knew that I would finish somewhere under 24 minutes, even with a teeny-tiny stop. I moved along.

The finish is a 2 tier up hill with the first tier being shorter/steeper than the second teir. Neither of them are monster hills but you do have to work at them. Before the race, I had practiced my Race Finish, looking at landmarks that I would use to begin my final approach into the Finishing Chute. There was the Speed Limit 25 sign that I would use to start to accelerate. Then there was the rug that Duct Taped to the Road to cover a pot hole that would be the final kick. I had no energy left for either. I had gone out too fast and I had no Kick left at the end.

I was actually relying on people to shout out to friends and family running that they could “catch” the guy in blue for motivation to encourage me to run faster. For the last 15 steps, I did sprint, or do my best sprint imitation. After finishing, I had to lie down in the grass with a bottle of water to catch my breath.

23:27 Official Time
52 Out of 204 Finishers
10 Out of 14 Age Groupers (35-39)

I was fairly pleased with my result. My personal goal time was 23:30, which I was pretty close at getting, although, I wasn’t exactly happy at HOW I got it with the fast first mile. I was hoping for a little more evenly paced race. But What Can You Do?

I did win a Door Prize – Papa John’s Large One Topping Pizza… so with a decent Race Shirt and a Free Pizza Coupon, I didn’t walk away empty handed.

So, I am wrapping up the week, Race Week, at that with a lazy Friday. There’s not a whole lot going on right now. But let’s see what I have to share:

After my Run on Tuesday, I took Wednesday & Thursday as rest days. Mainly because my legs were sore from the run and I didn’t want to over tax them for my race on Saturday. I did today (Friday), swim 800m in the pool. That was nice and refreshing. I was able to work out my legs without the pounding, plus the distance wasn’t too tiring either.

My Upcoming 5k is the Run For The Deaf. This is one of my favorite races. 1) It’s run on Island Home, South of the Tennessee River and is just gorgeous. Not only is the scenery really nice, there are sections of the race that are totally flat… not “Knoxville Flat” but “level flat”. I had been hoping to use this race to attempt at my PR time, but with missing most of February with a sickness, I had a late start. Based on my last two 5k times, I would venture into a Sub 24 pretty easily, but an attack on 21:56 would be a little far fetched (although not totally impossible). The other reason why this is one of my favorite races is that the race profits go to support the Tennessee School for the Deaf. Now, I don’t personally know anyone who is deaf and without being able to communicate with them, I get REALLY uncomfortable, because I don’t want to be rude (or look stupid). But I think this is an awesome resource for those with this disability. Back in 2000-2001, I was a soccer referee for a short time and had the privileged of reffing some of the games for TSD. I was totally amazed, thus when I was able to do this particular 5k, I enjoyed it enough to put it as a “regular” on my annual races.

I generally do fairly well (personally) in this race. I’ve finished in 22:29 and 22:28 on two different occasions. My last running of it in 2005, I finished 24:01 and actually WON my age group with that “relatively” slow time. Although with it being the only race in the area now, I don’t expect that I will fare in my age group as well. I look at the 2007 results and based on my estimated finishing time of 23:30, there would be 7 people ahead of me in this year’s Age Group Males 35-39. But they do have door prizes and I might win one of those!

Also on Saturday, I am going to get the rest of my supplies to work on the flower gardens and vegetable garden. I had around 15 starter plants go wild, but then all but one died… *sigh*

Sunday, is up in the air, but I have 3 people who are having birthdays… What date is 9 months back from May 4th? Hmmmm…

The weather Saturday morning was absolutely wonderful for running. There was a slight chill in the air, it was about 50 degrees at dawn and was about 53-54 degrees at race start at 8:00am. There was some fog that was coming off the river as I approached Island Home, but none of the fog bothered the race.

As the name suggests, the 5k race goes to benefit the Tennessee School for the Deaf and is run on the island home section of Knoxville. For those of you who ran the marathon, part of the marathon course is on the same streets, right around the 21-22 mile mark.

I wasn't exactly sure how I was going to do since I had ran hard on Thursday and just the fact of limited training. I went out and ran a warm-up one mile run to get my engine up and running. I did a variety of tempo run and 50m strides to loosen up my legs. I made it back to the race start so that I could line up for the race. The nice thing to see at this race is the number of people who are signing to one another… something that I do not know how to do. It is customary to play the national anthem before the start of our road races here in Knoxville. Well, at this race, they have someone signing the national anthem… very cool. During the milling around before the guns went off , I tried to size up my competition in my age group around me. There was a number of men who were obviously 45-50+ and not too many that looked close to my age group. And who am I to guess ages, I don't look like I belong to the 30-34 age group. There was one person who looked liked he “could” be in my age group, so I decided to pace behind to him and see what happens.

THe gun went off and we cruised down the downhill start, turning left at the guard shack, the rest of the mile would be flat right until the 1 mile marker. My “target” was right in front of me and was able to keep up pretty well for the first 1/2 mile until I realized that he was running alot easier than I was… this meant that I would be unable to pace with him.

One of the secrets to getting a PR time in a short distance race is to start out fast. I don't mean sprint, but I mean faster than what is comfortable. The reason is that you will be getting distance between you and other runner behind you so that when you do slow down your relative velocity will be such that the other runners cannot make up the distance in the short distance left in the race. Now, if you bonk and have to walk, that is a different story, BUT if you go out running quickly and the have a healthy jog at the end, you'll generally do better than being consistent.

Anyway, I started out fast. I turned the first mile in 7:03 min and the hill at the mile marker didn't help me much. I slowed down some on the long downhill and took water at the 1.5 spot. It actually hurt to take the water, since it threw my whole rhythm off but I recovered. At the mile 2 split my time was 15:05, mile 2 was a whole mile slower. I would have to crank out a sub 7 mile to get a PR for today. Well, I wasn't shooting for a PR at this race anyway… so to save the suspense… I did not PR.

The last 0.2 mile of the race is a uphill finish which is something that I enjoy because I know it is the end and I can crank out the energy if I need it. As I turned to go up the hill, I saw someone almost at the halfway mark and it was my quest to pass him. As I came on the 3 mile mark, I saw that the time was 23 something and now my goal changed to passing the runner AND coming in under 24 minutes. I was able to pass the runner with about 250 ft left on the course and not only was passing him but was accelerating as well. I locked my eyes on the timer and it read 23:54… 55… 56… 57… and I cranked up the juice. Focusing on the timer, trying to get to the white strip… 23:59… 24:00 (Crap!)… FINISH.

In the finisher's chute, I tried to catch my breath, give up my bib strip and get some water. I had to walk a bit to catch my breath, but I headed to the gym for food and the awards. It ended being that I won a door prize! WOO HOO! It was some organizer thingies that are definitely not very masculine… so I gave them to Jen, but I was happy to win something… after all it might have been the only thing I might be winning today.

Interesting enough, none of the local hotshots were there. The overall Male winner was a 15yo and the over all female winner was a 12yo.. go figure. Anyway, on to the 30-34 male group. So the count up went as follows: “With a time of 28…” SWEET… that means that I either came in first or second! “And in Second place with a time of 26..” OH HELL YEAH! I won my age group with a measly time of 24:01 and was the recipientof a NICE marble plaque and a certificate.

My Split Time:

Note: The split times are MY watch times and the Finish time is the OFFICIAL time, so they might (and are) off by a few seconds because I start my watch when I cross the start line not at the gun.

You can check out the photo album Here

Well folks, I have graduated from The University of Tennessee with a Masters of Science degree in Statistics. I am now looking for a job in which I can utilize this new found knowledge in order to acquire some dead presidents to get me some bling-bling.

This was Jen’s first Mother’s day (as a mother to human children, not ferrets) this past Sunday. The weather was nice and so I hope that she enjoyed it. I got her a gft certificate to her favorite massage place (can’t go wrong there) and Eric got her a picture frame that has a clay impression of his monsterous foot, now preserved for all of time.

This past Saturday, I ran in the Race for the Deaf 5k in which I finished in 22:28 which was sufficient enough to get 2nd place in my age group. I won a mug from the Tennessee School for the Deaf and a certificate noting my accomplishment.