Running The Race

I know I’m a week late in writing this race report, but I guess better late than never.

Late Friday morning, Gayle and I headed westward toward Memphis. It was almost 4 PM when we finally got to the expo. It was a lot more crowded than last year but the vendors were not a good.

After working our way through the crowd, we headed toward the hotel.

We arrived in the lobby of The Peabody right at 5. Of course it was standing room only because everyone had come to see the ducks.

On checking in I was told that late check out was not available for Saturday morning and we had to be out of the room by 12. This was contrary to what I was told when I made the reservation in May.

We settled in the room before heading out for supper at Pa Pa Pia’s. This is the same place we ate last year with Joe and Darrell.

Saturday morning the temperature was in the mid-twenties and even with the sun, the forecasted high was only in the upper 30’s. So I decided to dress a little warmer than I did last year and wear tights.

Finish line and gear check was across the street from the hotel in the Auto Zone Ball Park which was very handy.

I check my gear and walked the three blocks to the starting corals. I found the 4:00 pacer and started making friends.

The thing that makes this race special is the cause, the St. Jude Children’s Hospital. This year they had an 8 year old patient sing the National Anthem. It was very touching.

Soon we are off. It was rather crowded for the first several miles. Shortly after mile 3, the course passed by the The Peabody and I saw Gayle.

About mile 5, we ran through the St. Jude campus.

I stayed with the pacers. I kept checking the splits and knew we were getting ahead but they kept saying we were right on pace.

I stayed the the pacers until about mile 20 and then let them go. I was slowing down and paying for the faster pace.

During the RRCA Coaching Training, the instructors said that for every 20 seconds too fast in the beginning of a race, it will cost you a minute in the end. That proved to be true. I crossed the finish line in 4:16.

Found Gayle and retrieved my gear. Lucky, runners could use the showers in the ball park locker rooms, so I was able to clean up before we went and got lunch.

The St. Jude Marathon is good race but I had forgotten all the rolling the hills and the course seemed to be more crowded than last year.

But all in all, it was a good day and a good race…I was pleased.

Tags: running, St. Jude Marathon, race report

There is always a first time for everything and today it was mine for a leg cramp.

Now I have had leg cramps before but never while running. They have always been after the run or race, until today.

This morning I ran the 10k at the Franklin Classic. It was a great morning to run. I was hoping for a sub-50 and was on pace until just before mile 4 marker.

It started as just a tightness in my right calf. But all of a sudden I couldn’t put any weight on my right leg and had to stop.

I walked best I could and it slowly loosened up, at least enough to finely start running again.

I was able to finish. But I lost about 5 minutes, rats!

Now I am home with ice on my calf. I can hardly walk because my calf is so sore. This not how I planned to spend Labor Day.

Here are the splits…

or “Who Knew That Swine Flew?”

Late Friday morning Gayle and I headed North to Cincinnati.

We stopped and ate lunch and rolled into town about 5:30.  It was not a bad drive from Nashville.

After checking into the hotel we headed off to find some place to eat supper downtown.

Woke up Saturday morning to a beautiful day.  We ate breakfast in the hotel and then headed across the street to the expo. I had promised to get the girls T-shirts that read, “ I’ll run a marathon when pigs fly”.

This race has the best swag of any that I have run.  They gave us technical shirts, posters and a messenger bag, not bad.

Once we finished at the expo, we headed off to get our bearings in the city.  We scoped out a place on the race course, about mile 5, that was two blocks from the hotel, where Gayle could go to take photos.  Then we headed to find the start and finish lines.

About mid-afternoon, Michele rolled into town and the three of us headed out to preview the course.  We picked it up about mile 5.  The two parts I really wanted to see was “the climb” and “the finish”.

The forecast for race day was a concern.  The weather folks were calling for light rain at the start and getting heaver as the morning progresses.

Met Michele in the lobby at 5:30 and we headed to the start.  It was raining lightly so we wore trash bags to keep dry.

We made our way to the 3:50 pacer in the coral.  Even though she said she was going to run negative splits.  She took off at the gun.

It was rather crowded for the first several miles as we crossed three bridges in a trip over to Kentucky and back. By mile five the pacer was long gone but we did see Gayle.

We started the climb at mile 6 and kept a reasonable pace to the top.

From there the course was rolling hills with several long ups and downs but by mile 15 we were running 8:47 miles with an average pace of 8:47.  I was feeling good but knew it was too early to celebrate.

At mile 18, I told Michele to take off to get her BQ.

By mile 20, my pace had slowed.  The hills had worked their magic and this pig was having trouble flying.

Mile 22 and 23 were tough but by mile 24 I was able to pick up the pace some.

I finally shuffled across the “finish swine” at 4:24:11.

Luckily, it stopped raining about mile 4, and the heavy rain never materialized.

The elevation chart on the web site is deceptive. They have smoothed it out. My Garmin makes it look more like the roller coaster that it is.

All in all it was a good race.  Gayle and I got to get away and it was great to see and run with Michele.

Here are my splits in all the gory details.

My original plan was to run this race as my last training run.  I would run it with Amy. Thereby guaranteeing I would not run it too fast.  When Amy decided not to run, I looked for plan B.

Monday, I called my friend Keith and he said I could run with him.  I knew he would run faster that I wanted (under 2 hours) but I figured it would be a good training run even though it was a little late in the training for a tempo run.

Got up before the alarm went off at 3:30 Saturday morning.  Got ready and was parked at LP Field a little after 5. It was already warm.  I didn’t need any extra clothing to stay warm while I waited.

Caught the bus to Centennial Park. Todd and Jeff from the running group from my church were on the same bus. There was some trash talk that got a few laughs from the folks on the bus.  It doesn’t take much to get folks going at that hour of the morning.

Headed to the “tree house” at the park that Amy and I waited in last year.  There was no one there this year since there was not a need to stay dry. It was a good place to sit and relax.

It was a beautiful Spring morning with the temperature in the lower 60s.  The big discussion of the morning, though, was how hot it was going to get.  Since we have and a cool wet Spring, Saturday was the first 80 degree day.  Normally, that would not be a problem. But without any time to acclimate, it was a concern.

Found Keith and friends.  Keith’s brother-in-law, Chris, wanted to run with a money on his back. You can imagine the looks and the comments we got as we waited in the corals to start.

One of things I enjoy about this race is that is is such an event.  With 30,000 runners, the start is really something to see. Runners as far as you can see.

We all lined up in coral 5 and waited for the start.

The course was changed to include more of downtown but in doing so, they add several more hills.

Keith wanted to run under 2 hours. So I just stayed with him.

The first couple of miles were too fast for me but we began to get back to more realistic pace on the hills on miles 4 and 5.

Around mile 7, Keith said that he had a side stitch and need to walk for a bit.  He told me to go on and that he would catch up.  I was on my own, Plan C.

By this time we were heading up Belmont and the heat was kicking in. I seemed to set in around a 8:50 pace.  I didn’t push it.  Just ran what felt comfortable knowing that the real race is next weekend in Cincinnati.

When I got to where the half marathoner and the marathoner’s split, I was glad I was only doing the half this year.

As I headed toward the finish, I saw several folks cramping up.  About 200 yards from the finish line, one guy grabbed his hamstring and limped to the side of the road. I was glad I was finished, 1:57:56.

Here are the splits….

I waited around after the race for Keith. He finished about 5 minutes behind me.

Came home and took an ice bath to start the recovery for the Flying Pig Marathon next Sunday.

A friend at Church this morning who has run the Half several years made the comment that this year she felt like she was constantly running up hill. I agree.  I am stiffer today than I should be for only running 13 miles.  Hope the recovery is quick.

For the second year in a row, it is rained for the Tom King.  Last year it was stormy. This year is was also cold.

Left the house around 7 am and headed downtown to LP Field.

Picked up my chip, number and shirt and headed back to drop the stuff off.  Then went to met up with Michele and Ronnie.  About 8, I headed back to the car to change for the race.  I at least wanted to start out with dry clothes.

The race started at 8:30 in a steady rain.  Ronnie’s goal was to break 2 hours. Michele wanted to do 1:45.  I was just happy to be at the starting line.

I stayed with Michele until about mile 8 and I was beginning to feel my lack of training from this winter.  She took off and I slowed down a little.

When I finally made it across the finish line I was glad to be done.  I was soaked.

My time was 1:51:45.  A little more that a minute off from last year.  But with all things considered, it was a good race.

Michele finished in 1:48:37 and was waiting at the finished line.  After getting my metal. I joined her and we waited for Ronnie to finish.  He did GREAT finishing in 1:53:43!

Here are the splits…

Friday, Gayle and I headed to Memphis. Since the expo was right off the Interstate, we stopped there before checking into our hotel.

We picked up the race packet and spent some time walking around. I did find a deal on my model of Asics so I pick up a couple of pairs.

After checking into the Residence Inn, we walked the two blocks to Auto Zone Park to see where things were for Saturday and Gayle and I could get an idea of where to meet up after the race.

Friday evening we met Joe and Darrell for supper at Pa Pa Pia’s, an Italian restaurant that was a block away from the hotel. We had a great pre-race meal and it was good to catch up the guys. One of the topics of discussion was what to wear for the race. The forecast was for the upper 20s at start warming to 50 by noon. But the wind was going to be a factor. The consensus was to layer and and throw away as needed.

Saturday morning it was 34 degrees at 6 am and overcast. I knew I was going to wear shorts but I had trouble deciding how heavy the upper layers should be. I finally decided on a long sleeve shirt and a short sleeve shirt on top, cotton gloves, and a light skull cap to keep my ears warm and a ball cap.

When I walked out the door and headed to the ball park, I could see that the 5k had already started. The runners were going up the street that separated me and the ball park. I waited for a slight break and cut across. I felt like frogger in the old arcade game.

Took off my warm up pants and put them in the gear check bag but decided to keep the skull cap. I needed it to keep my ears warm. Just as I had checked my bag I ran into Joe and Darrell.

They checked their stuff and we headed over to the starting line.

The corals were already filling up so we wished each other well and headed off to find our places.

I found the 4 hour pacer in coral 6 and settled in to wait for the start. I introduced myself to several folks. Needed to make some new friends, since we were going to send the next several hours together. Met a couple of guys for Nashville and Murfreesboro. Also, met Carlie from Birmingham. This was her first marathon.

The race finally started but with the staggered start, our coral was not released up till about 9 minutes after the gun.

With 8,000 running the half and 3,000 the full, it was rather crowded.

About a mile and a half we turned onto Riverside Drive. It was one of the coolest sights. We were at the top of the hill looking down on the Mississippi River with all these runners on the road beside it.

We soon turned on the Beale Street and after crested the hill, was serenaded by an Elvis impersonator. How fitting. There were several other bands on the course and the song of the day was Sam & Dave’s “Soul Man” made famous by the Blue’s Brothers.

We turned onto Third and I saw Gayle about mile 3.

About mile 4, I had warmed up enough to toss my sweat shirt.

We made the loop out and back and dropped off the half marathoners at mile 12. It was good to finally have some space to run.

We ran back down Beale Street before heading East again. By this time the 4 hour group was getting smaller. We were hitting our splits and in fact were just a little a head. But by mile 19 our group was down to three, Carlie, me and Amy from Paducah, Ky.

Just before mile 21 we made the turn to head back West toward the Finish line. This part of the course doubled back on mile 5, 6 and 7, so we knew what to expect.

We had two pacers in our group, Laurie was the lead and a guy who was at the back of the coral. We had stayed with Laurie, until about mile 22, when Carlie asked if Laurie had sped up. Carlie and I stayed together but Amy had dropped back.

I was a few feet ahead of Carlie around mile 24.5 when I heard her say, please don’t pass me to our other pacer. He told her that he was about 40 seconds a head and just to keep him in sight.

Soon after that Carlie, passed me. I was running out of steam.

About mile 26, Amy caught up with me and she pulled me in the rest of the way to the finish line inside the park.

It was a new PR, 4:01:52. I beat my old record by almost 10 minutes.

After I got my blanket and medal, I spotted Gayle in the stands. As I made my way from the field Carlie was waiting by the gate to the stands, she wanted me to meet her husband and take a picture. When I got to the concourse, I Gayle snapped another one for me.

The concourse was cold! I went and got some food but was quickly getting chilled.

We pick up my gear and Gayle helped me put on my warm up pants. That helped but with the wind and the wet clothes, the blanket didn’t help much.

We shuffled the back to the hotel. It was good to get inside where it was warm.

I got out of the wet clothes but it I was just shaking. It took a good 30 minutes to get warm. After that, there was NO WAY I was going to take an ice bath!

The warm shower felt good but I knew my legs would suffer. After I got cleaned up we checked out of the room and then headed to Rendezvous for Barbecue before heading back home.

The temperature was in the mid-30s when Amy and I left the house a little after 7 am for the Habitrot 5k this morning. It was a beautiful morning, blue sky, sunny and a light wind. A perfect morning for a race.

The Habitrot is held at the local mall and benefits Habitat for Humanity. We get to run around the mall a day before everyone else runs to the mall.

We parked and headed off to get our timing chips. (I had picked up our race bibs and t-shirts on Wednesday.) Made it back to the car and stashed my warm up paints and jacket, snapped our annual photo and headed to that starting line.

As we waited, we spotted one guy dress up as a turkey and another as an indian. Didn’t see any Pilgrims. Also, spotted my friend David S.

We lined up near the front but when the gun went off. We walked to the starting line.

Once I crossed over the line, I couldn’t find any room to run. This race attracts a lot of families and people who want to do something for a good cause on Thanksgiving. For that I am thankful. But it also makes the start of the race rather congested due to the lack of etiquette. I was able to work my way to the outside of the cones that divided the road and quickly got up to speed.

Mile 1 was more or less flat (7:18). Mile 2 had some elevation changes(7:30). The last mile was flat (7:19).

Just before the first mile marker, I passed the turkey and the indian.

I crossed the finish line in 23:01, a new PR by 10 seconds.

I grabbed a cup of water and headed back out to run in with Amy. With about a 100 yards to go, she took off and sprinted to the finish. Her time was 32:12.

At the finish line, I saw David S. again. Last year he called me later in the morning to tell my that I had placed third in my age group. So I asked him if he would pick up my award if I placed this year.

Amy and I headed home. She headed to the shower and I headed out to run 2 more miles. (Have to stick with the schedule.)

About 10 am, David S. called to say I had placed 2nd in my age group. This was my first time in second place. I’ve had several thirds before, but never a second. I was thrilled. But then again, at my age, I know a lot of it is who shows up. (David S. had moved to a new bracket and snagged first place for the first time at the Habitrot.)

Spent the rest of the morning eating and cooking with Gayle. It was good to have all the girls home for Thanksgiving.

Happy Thanksgiving all…for one of the things I count as a blessing is my blog friends.

In planning my training schedule for the fall, the Murfreesboro Middle Half Marathon fit nicely into the plan. With ten weeks behind me, I felt it would be a good check point for the last eight week of training.

The race starts and ends on campus of Middle Tennessee State University. Fall break for the students was scheduled to start at the end of classes on Friday. Sara had talked about not coming home until Saturday morning to watch the race. Because there was some threats on campus, officials ended classes at noon on Thursday and sent students home started bread early.

Despite that, Sara got up early Saturday morning and to be my support crew.

We headed out at 5 am. It was still dark when we got to the MTSU Track just before 6.

Picked up my race packet and returned to the car to wait for the start. I had printed a map of the course and Sara wanted to know when I would be at a couple of points where the course ran by the campus.

With our plan in place, we headed toward the starting line.

This is the second year for the race and there were more 1,700 registered on a flat course.

From the McMillan Running Calculator, I had been training with a projected 8:11 half marathon pace. I knew that was faster than my current PR but it was based on my 5k PR this past Spring. I hoped to just be in that range.

The race was about 10 minutes late in starting but that was the only hitch.

When the gun went off, I moved over to the edge of the crowd so I could holler at Sara as I went by.

Surprisingly, the crowd began to space out nicely by the first mile marker and I was settling in the a good rhythm.

About the one and a half marker, I was matching sides with a lady who asked what pace I wanted to run. I told her 8 to 8:10. She asked if she could tag along.

My new friend’s name was Wendy. She has a one year old son and her husband is in the military and is about to be posted again over seas. (One of the best parts of racing is the people I have met along the way.)

The miles seemed to go quickly.

Sara was waiting at mile 6. This is where the course turns and there are several long sections.

Around mile 8, Wendy started fading a little. She said she would catch up.

About a half mile later, I got to talking with a guy who again asked what pace I was running. I told him what I was aiming for. He said he hoped to hold an 8 minute pace to the end.

I ran with him until the next water stop. He kept going while I stopped to drink.

Sara was waiting at mile 9 and a half. It was good to see her and inspired me to keep pushing.

I spent the rest of the race playing chase with the 8 minute guy. I would catch him just before a water stop and then he would pull a head. With about a mile to go, I passed him for the last time.

I was beginning to feel the pace in my legs but I could see the stadium, so I kept up the pace. When I turned onto the padded track surface for the last 200m, it felt like I was running on springs.

As I crossed the finish line, I was very pleased with my time, 1:47:11. Exactly what the calculator had as my predicted time!

It was a new PR. Beating my previous best by 3:15.

Sara was waiting at the finish line. I had a pouch of Gatorade mix, that she helped pour in the bottle of water that they handed out at the finish. (Accelerade was the sports drink on the course. After my experience with it at the Country Music Marathon in 2006. I vowed to never again drink it during a race.)

I grabbed some food. The best part was the chocolate milk!

Didn’t hang around long at the finish line. After showering in the field house, Sara and I headed IHOP for a breakfast of champions! She had a chocolate chip pancake and I had an omelet.

Here are my splits…

The Franklin Classic is one of those “must do” races for me. There are not a lot of 10k in the area and so it is always a good chance to do a sanity check on my fall marathon training. Also, it is for a good cause, the Mercy Children’s Clinic, and what else is there do to on Labor Day other than to get up and run.

Franklin is about 6 miles south and I pulled into the parking garage about 6:15. There was already a crowd gathering for the 5K race that started at 7. The 10K race started at 7:30.

I put on my race bib, Garmin and grabbed my camera and headed to pick up my timing chip.

As I left the parking garage I turned on my watch.

After getting my chip, I looked at my watch and notice it was not on, strange. I turned it on again and saw the low battery message just before it cut off….rats. I didn’t bring my sports watch, so I was running “blind”.

I took photos of the 5k start and then headed back to the car to drop off the camera and my Garmin.

Went a found Joe and hung out with him as we waited for the race to start.

It was very humid with no air moving. I told Joe that this reminded me of Chicago last year.

When the gun fired, we slowly made it to the starting line. Joe said he would see me at the finish. I told him I would save him some food.

Without a watch, I just took off and ran. The pace felt good but with the hills and the heat, I was fearful that I started out too fast.

When I got to the first split, I realized I didn’t look at the clock at the start so I didn’t know what my offset was. The split was a clock time of around 9.

At mile 3, I grabbed some water and then again at mile 4.5. I felt that I had slowed down some but kept pushing. By that point, it seemed that everyone was struggling with the humidity.

The race starts and finishes at the Square. The last two block are through the “downtown” district. It is a really cool finish because of the crowds, it has the feel of a big time race finish.

I pushed for the finish line as the clock turned 52:00. Now I just had to wait to see what my chip time was.

Headed for the food tent and got PowerAid and bananas. When they finally posted the results, my chip time was 51:06, a PR. Beating my time from last year by 29 seconds.

Even though I placed 16 out of 64 in my age group, I was the first 54 year old to finish. When you get old you look for small victories!

It had rain overnight and it was dark and muggy when I loaded the car Saturday morning. I had checked the weather radar and there were showers in the area but it was dry for the time being.

Gayle and I left the house a little after 5 am. Lebanon, Tennessee is about 50 miles from my house and I wanted to get to the park around 6. The rain held off until we turned off the interstate.

We got to the park around 6 and got a great parking space. As I later learned, parking was at a premium. It was still raining, but not hard, as I went and picked up my race packet. Jeff Y. from work was signing in at the same time.

Gayle waited in the car as I got my “stuff” together and headed off to set up my transition area.

I had anticipated the rain and brought a couple of plastic shopping bags to keep my shoes dry. Because of the rain, everyone seemed to be concerned about the wet road on the bike.

As I was setting up saw Greg F., also from work. This was his first tri.

Headed off to the pool to do a “practice” lap. The water was cool but not too bad.

I headed back to the car to check on Gayle. Gave her the “lay of the land” and headed back to the pool to wait. With 450 participants, it was a little crowded on the pool deck as we waited our turn.

I spotted some friends and we passed the time chatting. Gayle pointed out that the dad of Sara’s boy friend was doing the race. I had not met him before and Gayle documented the “meeting”.

Finally it was my time to swim. They let us get in the pool and push off the wall for this race. I liked that much better.

I felt good about the swim, even though I am slow and a bunch of people passed me, I just kept to my rhythm and pace. On the last lap, the lady in front of me stopped and stood up, blocking the lane. It messed me up. But I took a couple of breast stokes and was able to get around her, recover. I headed to the stairs out of the pool and to the transition area. The rain had stopped by this point but the road was still wet.

The bike route had been described as rolling hills. Here is the elevation chart from mapmyride.com.

The hills were not that bad, I was constantly working the gears.

The race folks had warned us that the last 3 miles of the bike course were “rough”. I had talked with several folks that had done this race before and they said that the road was heavily patched. It was terrible. It was the one place where it was down hill to flat that I could have made some time up but felt I was all over the road trying to find the least bumpy path.

As I headed up the final hill to transition, I saw Gayle.

Changed shoes and headed out for the run grapping a cup of water and a gel as I left the transition area.

Had a great run and felt strong. I don’t remember being passed by anyone.

One of the “cool” mind games I play when doing a tri is ” I can beat this guy.” When they do the body marking, they write you age on your left calf. So when you come up behind someone, you see their age. So my version of this game is “I can beat this guy, he is 34 or whatever.” It is a great motivator.

I had less than a mile to go and I was about to pass a lady who’s age on her calf was smeared but I though it said 54, my age. She was doing great and really looked strong. As I passed her, I told her she was doing great. A second to two later, she responded, “Old people rock!”. I knew she had seen my age. I told her they ought to give us extra points for being out here. To which she responded, “like in golf”.

Made it to the top of the last hill and across the finish line. Glad to be done because the humidity must have been 100 percent.