rob field

Duluth GA 22:30

I did not have a good training week. I worked too much and ran too little. I did get in one good run and one day in the gym, but that was it. I had three goose eggs in the training log for Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So I was not feeling that great about running a 5K this weekend. I didn’t even sign up until late in the week, but I thought the motivation of a race might get me going.

I chose the Race for the River (http://www.runfortheriver.org/) mostly because it benefited the Upper Chattahoochee River Keepers (http://www.chattahoochee.org/), an organization whose mission is described as "to advocate and secure the protection and stewardship of the Chattahoochee River, its tributaries and watershed, in order to restore and preserve their ecological health for the people, fish and wildlife that depend on the River system."  Just for the record, "Chattahoochee" is a Creek Indian word meaning "river of painted rocks".

It was a cool morning out, the temperature in the mid-50's. The sky was overcast and the wind was really whipping up. I was able to sleep in since the race start was only about twenty minutes away from the apartment. The course itself runs through the main drive of a multi-building office complex in sort of a giant horseshoe shape and back again. It's a very flat course, although not flat enough for the woman I was chatting with after the race.

I did have a several gripes about the race itself. There were many non-runners at the race and before the race, they lined up in front of the starting line. The race officials then backed those folks up into the runners that had lined up according to their pace behind the starting line. The result was that many folks that were running for time started behind folks that were just running. As a result, there was a lot of jostling and some hurt feelings at the race start. An attempt should have been made at the start to sort folks out according to their expected pace. It makes the start a lot smoother. My 5K pace is just over 7 minutes which usually puts me about 5-10 feet back from the runners in the front.

Gripe number two was that although the splits were marked, they chose not to staff them. Gripe number three also relates to staffing. The course itself was simple, an out and back in a big horseshoe shape. Traffic cones divided the four-lane road into two lanes. Going out they said stay to the right, but after the turn around nobody was sure what lane they were supposed to be running in and there was no race official there to remind people. (If you are running a great big horseshoe shaped course, it makes quite a difference if you run in the inside or outside lane of the horseshoe.)

It was not my best race, despite the fact it was supposed to be a fast course. I could tell that I had taken a few days off. At the start, I had trouble getting clear of the slower runners. I was unsure what lane I was supposed to be in for the last half of the race. I finished the race in 22:30.

Most of the energy of the organizers of this race went into the goodie-bags and the post-race festivities which where probably the best I have ever seen. They had Starbucks, bagels, fruit, beer, pizza, energy bars, and bottled water. They had a silent auction to raise money for the River Keepers. I generally like to hang out to wait for the results of the race, but today I almost gave up. Remember I mentioned it was windy? They were just about ready to tabulate the results of the race and start announcing the winners when suddenly a great big cloud of time cards appeared from the direction of the scoring table and flew across the parking lot fluttering in the wind like confetti. For a while, I was wondering if they would be able to announce any results at all. Eventually they got their act together and awarded some nice trophies, river rocks with small brass plaques.

There were many FREEBIES! I ended up taking home a New Balance water bottle, Princeton Tec Pulsar keychain light, Nalgene unbreakable water bottle, Duravision Pro night-time safety flasher, a coffee table book (The Riverkeeper's Guide to the Chattahoochee River, 6 HoneyBar natural energy bars, another New Balance water bottle, a Subaru water bottle, a Fleet Feet water bottle, a genuine boxed Swiss Army Knife, and a partridge in a pear tree. Okay I did make up that last one. No t-shirt this race.

To sum up: I wish that they had spent just a little more effort on managing the race than having the most goodies for after the race. No matter how nice the goodies and your expo if you neglect the race itself, then next year I am probably going to look for a different race.

Boling Park, Canton, Georgia

I woke up, got dressed, grabbed a protein bar, walked outside around 6 AM and found it was pouring down rain. It had not occurred to me to check the weather before leaving the house. I turned around and went back inside… changed in my old pair of running shoes, grabbed my hat, and headed off to the races.

By race time the pouring rain had transitioned into a drizzle and finally into nothing at all. The course was nice and wet with puddles along the gravel path and some slick, muddy sections in the grass.

I was a bit apprehensive about doing well, having run a 15K the day before, but I got off to a fairly strong start. By the end of the first mile, I could tell that I had raced the day before. For the last two miles, I felt like I was really struggling to keep the pace. I was glad the race was not any longer than 5K.

I finished with a time of 22:40, hardly my best 5K time, but given it was a cross-country race and I was tired from day before, it was a time I am pretty happy with.

15K (9.32 mi)
13/71 Age Group
102 Overall
Time: 1:10:22.35
Pace: 7:33/mi

The Peachtree City 15K is a wonderful race. It takes place mostly on paved golf cart paths that wind through the trees, through short tunnels, and besides some lakes. It is a beautiful course. The 15K race is RRCA Southern Region Championship and the USATF Georgia Association Championship.

Peachtree City is a little less than an hour and a half away from my mom’s house in Roswell. We left early so we would be able to park close to the starting area and have easy access to the car to ditch our outer garments before the start of the race. With about 15 minutes to go before the race started, we shed our coats and headed towards the starting area. Within about 5 minutes, my teeth were chattering away (the temperature was around 40 degrees) and I was wondering if I was under dressed. About sixty seconds after the start I was perfectly comfortable, not noticing the temperature again until about thirty minutes after the race was over, so in retrospect I was dressed correctly in shorts, a light weight long sleeve shirt, and gloves.

The race started at 9:10 AM with about 500 men and 400 women in the 15K event. The first two miles of the race are on wide streets to give the runners a chance to thin out a bit before switching to the narrow golf card paths. From the start to the second mile marker is gently uphill. I ran those first two miles at close to a 7:00/mi pace and was a little worried that I was starting too fast. I had made the mistake of wearing sunglasses thinking the sun would soon be out and I kept fogging them up with my breath, an annoying and needless distraction. Eventually I ixnayed the sunglasses idea and hung them on my shirt collar, they just were not worth the hassle.

Not far after the second mile mark, the course transitioned to the golf cart paths. For me the feel of the race completely changes at that point. Things seem to be moving much faster and I was much more aware of the folks around me. A lot more of my attention was on navigating the path’s twists and turns. I find trail running, or even golf cart path running a lot more interesting than running on the open road.

At this point, I kept fretting about my pace. I did not want to run slower than I was capable, nor did I want to run so fast that burned out before the end. I tried to ease back a bit, but not so much that I felt I was taking it too easy. I was still worrying about this about mile five when another runner passed me. I passed her back, she passed me, we’d run stride for stride for a while, one of us would pass the other, and then the other would return the favor. We ran miles five and six at a 7:00/mi pace or better. Finally, she dropped off the pace a bit and I pulled ahead. A good thing, because I thought that pace was going to kill me. I am not sure which was worse however, being matched stride for stride, or feeling for the rest of the race as if she was right behind me waiting to strike.

By mile eight, I felt I was slowing significantly and I was sure folks were going to start passing me left and right. But when I went back and looked at the numbers, I ran the last mile and a third at exactly the same pace I had run the rest of the race. (7:33)

The last part of the course is particularly beautiful as it winds its way past several lakes. I cannot say that I was able to appreciate it however, by that point I was just thinking over and over, "Where’s that damn finish line."

The Peachtree City Classic is a very well run event. I am not sure I have ever seen as many volunteers stationed along a course to make sure things ran smoothly, safely, to see that runners did not get off the course, and provide traffic control. Veteran folks called out the time splits every mile and there was plenty of food, water, Gatorade, and sweatshirts, even for the late finishers. They used timing chips and the results were available online right away. They gave away an attractive high quality sweatshirt.

A great race.

World War II Paratroopers went through basic training at camp Toccoa at the base of Mount Currahee. As part of their physical training, recruits were regularly required to run up and down the mountain, approximately a 900-foot change in elevation.

When I woke up Saturday morning, I found the first real frost of the year. I had to dig around to add my gloves and hat to my running bag. It was a pleasant 2-hour drive to Toccoa, watching the sun come up, sipping my coffee, and wondering what the race was going to be like. The flier for the race said the following:

CAUTION; This is a strenuous race with the 5K following an out and back course on the mountain Forestry Service road while the 10K goes out and back to the top of Currahee Mountain.

The reason I signed up for this race was that I was looking for something that would be a bit of a challenge. Some of my recent reading material has included Dean Karnazes Confessions of All Night Runner and Kira Salak's The Cruelest Journey, and Four Corners. Reading those books has the effect on one of making you want to do something out of the ordinary.

I had visions of the race being a little challenging. Scoping out the first part of the course before the race, it certainly look doable. I was a little concerned about my footing running on the gravel roads. The first part of the course was a short steep uphill followed by a long rolling section that slowly gained elevation. Just before the mile and a half mark, there was a short, steep downhill. It was about a half mile after that, I was doing okay, getting used to the footing and trying to find my pace when suddenly the road started going up. I slowed my pace a bit and focused on getting up the hill. Unlike the hills on my regular runs however, this hill kept going and going. My run slowed to a jog, then slowed to a shuffle. I began gasping a bit for air. My shuffle turned into a walk. Fortunately, for my pride, pretty much everyone else was in the same boat. Only a select few made it up the mountain without walking at least a bit.

The sensation at the turn around point at the top of the mountain was exactly like when you get to the top of that first hill on a roller coaster. All of a sudden, the gravity that had been working against you completely takes over. As I plummeted down the rough gravel road, I found the trick was to take full advantage of gravity, but not to the point of losing complete control of one's descent. The steeper sections I navigated by taking short rapid strides. When the grade was not too steep, I was able to open up my stride and really set a blistering pace.

By the time, I got down the mountain my legs were a wreck. My calves hated me. My quads felt week. Even the small hills on the way back humbled me into walking parts of them. By the last mile, I was starting to recover a little bit and even managed to hold off several challengers.

I finished the race 44th in a time of 48:34. Given the difficulty of the course, I was nothing short of amazed.

It was a relatively small race and didn't have many amenities. However, the hospitality of the folks from Toccoa more than made up for it.

Atlanta Track Club Cartersville 10K - This course winds through scenic farmland near the Etowah Indian Mounds. Moderately rolling, the course is mainly blacktop and finishes with one and one-half laps on the Cartersville track. It was a new course this year, moving off some now busy roads and instead incorporating wide scenic running trails making one of my favorite races even better.

It was a crisp fall morning, about 50 degrees, clear skies, and a full moon just above the horizon; a perfect morning to jump in the car, and head off for a race. The race was in Cartersville, about 45 minutes north of Atlanta up Interstate 75, near the Etowah Indian Mounds. The race started in Dellinger Park and wound its way down surface streets before moving onto the wide asphalt of The Etowah River Walk near mile two. I was running about a 7:12 /mi pace and by that second mile was beginning to feel it. I have been feeling under the weather the past couple of days dealing with long hours at work and what is either seasonal allergies or the beginning of a cold. For the first few miles of the race, I was completely congested and felt like I was having difficulty breathing.

About the two and a half mile mark I fell in with someone running about the same pace and for the next two miles we made a contest of it, passing each other several times. Eventually he was able to pull ahead and put a little bit of distance between us, about twenty yards, which I was not able to make up before the end of the race.

The River Walk is a beautiful trail running through and around a large farmer’s field although there are a couple of minor rolling hills and a short section where some misguided person decided to use cement instead of the more knee forgiving asphalt. Even so, Dellinger Park and the adjacent River Walk are tremendous community resources and a great place to run.

For me those last two miles of the race were an exercise in willpower. About mile four, I realized that the physical conditioning was there and the only thing standing in my way was the mental toughness to keep pushing and not drop off the pace. I find it hard to tell sometimes in races what is a mental wall and what is a physical one.

The race moved back onto blacktop for the last couple of miles before turning back into the park. Once back in the park, cones directed us onto the running track for one and a half laps. With just a lap to go, a fast runner fell in beside and then passed me. I passed her back then she passed me back. Around the final turn I let her have the inside lane, but sprinted it out with her for the finish. I was surprised to find how much kick I was able to muster at the end, but she nipped me by two seconds.

My time was 45:32, a personal best. The post race analysis also shows that I kept a steady pace the entire race. My average pace was 7:20, almost exactly what I ran the first mile at.

On an unrelated note, as we were walking around before the race trying to keep warm, we came across a pull-up bar. I have not done a pull-up for years. However, just to see if that work I have been doing in the gym has paid off at all, I jumped up there and surprised myself by easily doing several pull-ups. The glow of that success might have been one of the factors that helped me have such a successful race.