Chick-fil-A 10K

I have been looking for a 10K race recently and when one of my friends posted on Facebook that they would be running the Chick-fil-A 10K a couple of days before the race and that the late registration was going to be at our local Chick-fil-A I decided to sign up.

I took a quick look at the course map and plugged the route in to gmap-pedometer.com to get an idea of the elevation and wasn't surprised that it was hilly (there really isn't a part of Raleigh that is flat!). I still wanted to improve on my 10K PR of 46.15 and with the RunRaleigh Half Marathon only 3 weeks away (where I hope to run at an average speed of 7:10/mile) I decided that I'd be really happy if I could finish under 44 minutes (7:04/mile) given how hilly the course was.

270 feet of elevation gain over 6.2 miles

When I looked at the weather forecast the night before the race it showed that the rain was supposed to clear out and be in the high 50's by the time the race started at 8am but it didn't work out that way and it was still raining when I arrived at the start line at 7:40am. I couldn't recall actually running a race in the rain before, but I had already decided that for 10K I'd just stick to a singlet and shorts as there was no real need to stay dry when it is nearly 60F and the rain might actually cool me down.

It seemed that the weather and the other 2 races in Raleigh on the same morning had kept the crowd smaller than I had expected when I signed up and received #1200. I warmed up for a mile, threw in some strides and even managed to chat with Officer Ken who had been assigned a busy intersection right near the start line. I set my Virtual Partner for 7:00/mile and headed to the start line ready to go.

As we lined up at the start line and I found myself right at the front I noticed that there were relatively few familiar faces. The 5K and 10K started at the same time and the other runners at the front were talking about how hilly the course was going to be but I couldn't tell whether they were running the 5K or the 10K. After some trouble with the starting pistol (the guest starter eventually ended up just saying 'BANG' in to the microphone) we were off and running and it was raining a little, but not much.

Mile 1: 6.19. The race started out with a quick sprint to the corner and a left turn on to Litchford Road. I had noticed a huge puddle on the corner during my warmup and decided that there was no point trying to go around it as my feet were going to get wet anyway so I followed the other runners ahead of me who just plowed straight through it. Positions were quickly established as runners fell in to their rhythm and we headed down the first hill.

Mile 2: 7:13. Just past the 1 mile marker the downhill became an uphill and we began to climb 170 feet over the next 1.75 miles. I worked on keeping my effort under control through this section and was passed by one guy who turned out to be the last person to pass me in the entire race.

Mile 3: 7:23. The majority of this mile was uphill as we turned off of Litchford in to North Ridge and reached the highest point of the course at 2.66 miles. I still felt pretty good at this point and had passed one runner that had struggled to get up the hill. I knew that the next couple of miles were mostly downhill which helped me deal with the fact that I'd lost 36 seconds over two miles and was only just ahead of my target pace.

Mile 4: 7:04. This gradual downhill section of North Ridge was pretty as we ran by the golf course and the huge houses and I noticed that my breathing had returned to normal and the pace felt easier. I passed a young high school cross country runner and noticed that the female leader was gradually getting closer (she had been a long way ahead earlier). I did a double take on my watch when I passed a sign that said "Mile 5" instead of "Mile 4" and wondered how many 10K runners would be caught out by that obvious mistake.

Mile 5: 6:48. We left North Ridge and made a right turn back on the Litchford for the 2.2 miles back to the start/finish area. I felt great at this point and stretched my legs on the downhill section. We started to come up on the slower 5K walkers and I was forced to run down the middle of the road to pass them as they were walking 4 and 5 wide - why people do that I have no idea. I could see the final hill looming in the distance and the female leader coming closer and closer.

Mile 6 + 0.2 : 7:31 + 1:25. I got to the female leader just as the final hill began and she obviously took it as her queue to speed up as she suddenly found another gear and moved away from me up the hill. I quickly found the hill hard going and my legs felt heavy for the first time. I worked on maintaining good form and trying to not work too hard but I was slowing quickly. At more than one point during this climb I really felt like I wasn't going anywhere and wondered whether the hill would ever end! It finally did and we made the right turn back towards the start finish line but I had absolutely nothing left in the tank and couldn't find any extra speed. We passed the 3 mile marker for the 5K at least 0.1 of a mile too early and weaved our way through the parking lot to the finish line which I crossed with a time of 43:44.

My finish time of 43.44 is a 7:02/mile average which I was really pleased with. The two big hills on the course had been tough which made the a 7:02/mile average even better and bodes well for the RunRaleigh Half Marathon. Oh, and it rained for the entire race but it didn't really bother me - it may have even helped keep me cool. My shoes were soaked from the puddles, but I didn't have a single blister or even really notice that my feet were wet when I was running.

I felt like I had to be in the top 15, if not the top 10. I tried to check with the timing company but they were taking a long time to calculate the results so we decided to hang around for the awards ceremony and eat some free Chick-fil-A biscuits.

To cut a long story short, the awards took a really long time and when my age group came and went without my name being called I was confused. I talked to the timing company and they didn't have a time for me (I was down as DNF). I was disappointed as when we looked at my age group, I would have won by over 6 minutes and would have received a medal. They assured me that they would fix the problem and took my information.

I waited for the results to be posted  and I still wasn't included and my emails so far to the timing company (connectrace.net from GA) have been ignored. It looks like I was 8th overall. Hopefully they'll fix the problem.

Update: The timing company has fixed the results!

Tobacco Road Photo

Quite possibly my best race photo ever!

Pace Leader - Tobacco Road Half Marathon

After seeing how rewarding and fun being a pace group leader could be when I ran with a group at the City of Oaks Marathon, I approached the organizers of the pace groups for the Tobacco Road Half Marathon to see whether I could pace a group. Luckily, the organizers of the pace groups are friends of mine and were happy for me to lead the 2:10 Half Marathon pace group.

The Tobacco Road race organizers had requested pace groups for 1:30, 1:40, 1:50, 2:00, 2:10, 2:20 and 2:30 for the Half Marathon. The job of the pace leader is to provide encouragement to the runners whilst maintaining the pace required to finish at their designated time. On a flat course like Tobacco Road, this would mean running consistent mile splits (on hilly courses pacing is more difficult as the extra effort required to go up hill must be taken in to account) at a relaxed and conversational pace. A 2:10 Half Marathon is 9:54/mile, which is certainly a relaxed, conversational pace for me (even if it was a pace that I hardly ever run).

I practiced running at 9:54/mile a couple of weeks before the race and did a pretty good job even though I found the pace to be uncomfortable to begin with. As the miles passed by I found that I was looking at my watch less and less and I had found a rhythm that was working.

On the day before the Marathon/Half Marathon, I worked at the pace group table at the Expo answering questions from runners about how pace groups worked and what groups would be available on race day. It became quickly apparent that every runner has a different goal and wants to approach that goal in a different way and that although the groups we had available wouldn't fit everyone's requirements, they would be useful to lots of runners.

On race morning I woke up at 4:00 am to the sounds of thunderstorms and pouring rain. I knew that storms were a possibility, but a quick check of the local weather station radar showed that the storms would be gone by 4:30 and the race should at least have a dry start. The temperature would be close to 60F for the majority of the race but there was some humidity in the air and no breeze at all which meant runners were going to struggle. I made it to the parking area at 5:00 am and got a ride over to the race start/finish area to start preparing the signs and balloons that each pace group leader would be carrying for the entire race. Each pace leader had a yellow shirt to wear with the time they'd be running on the back as well as the sign to carry with the balloons to help runners easily identify the pace leader as well as the pace they were running at.

I entered the already crowded starting corral (4000 runners would be starting the Marathon and Half Marathon at the same time) 20 minutes before the start of the race and positioned myself near to where people wanting to run at nearly 10 minutes per mile should be standing. I chatted to runners around me and answered some questions about what my strategy would be for the race and water stops (I wanted to run 9:50/mile consistently and would be slowing slightly for each water stop but not walking through them).

I had set my Virtual Partner on my Garmin to 9:50/mile and planned on using that to keep pace - this was my major mistake for the day.

Finally (20 minutes standing in a starting corral is a LONG time), the race started and it took nearly 2 minutes to slowly walk and then run across the starting line. The crowd of runners moved at a pace that was close to what I had wanted to run, but a little slower than I wanted. If I had been running on my own, I would have weaved my way through the crowd (well, I wouldn't have been that far back to start with, but you get the idea) but I had a group of about 20 people that wanted to stay close to me so I was hesitant to make any big moves. I remained patient, waited for gaps to appear and slowly moved through them. The first couple of miles were on the roads heading down to the Tobacco Trail, and we were right on track pace wise as we passed the mile 2 sign which helped me to relax a little as I felt like we were now in the right place in the crowd of runners as everyone seemed to be moving at the same pace with little passing going on.

Once we made the left turn on to the Tobacco Trail (which was wet under foot), the Marathon runners turned right the crowd thinned a little further. However, it was immediately more humid as the trees that run along the trail trap the humid air and I knew it was going to be hard for a couple of the runners that were already breathing heavily behind me. Unfortunately, there isn't anything I can do for them apart from to encourage them to run intelligently, respect the weather conditions and stay hydrated - I couldn't slow down to run with them as I had a group of about 10 runners that weren't struggling at the pace we needed to run at.

I missed the mile 3 marker completely, but I already knew that my GPS was having problems with the overcast skies and trees along the trail as my Virtual Partner went from 10 seconds ahead to 90 seconds behind (and stayed there) in the space of half a mile. By the time the mile 4 marker appeared my watch showed 3.8 miles but a quick glance at the elapsed time showed me we were still about 10 seconds ahead (at least 9:54/mile is easy math!). I have had bad experiences with mile markers being in the wrong place before, but I had no real choice but to trust them and ignore my "trusty" Virtual Partner.

The leaders of the Half Marathon had already made the turn (which was at exactly half way on the out and back course) and passed us not long after the 4 mile sign. I found myself having to constantly tell runners around me to move to the right side of the trail to allow the leaders space to pass us - maybe the trail isn't big enough for this number of runners.

As the temperature and humidity began to take their toll on the runners ahead of us that had gone out too fast we began to pass more and more walkers. I noticed how many runners around me were wearing headphones, which was most of them. I thought that it was a pity as even if I wanted to encourage them, they couldn't hear me. I had four non-headphone wearing runners that I chatted with about their race goals and how they were feeling - two men and two ladies. The miles passed by as we made our way along the slight decline then incline of the trail to the half way turn around point and we turned at exactly 1:05 - right on time.

As I made it to the mile 7 marker I decided that I should probably be pressing the lap button at each mile marker so I could get an accurate split as the GPS was still all over the place. As we approached mile 9 the Marathon leader appeared from nowhere - running without the lead bike (I'd later find out that the lead bike had made a mistake early on and lead the two leaders the wrong way - they wouldn't ever recover and finished 2nd and 3rd). A couple of minutes later a very confused looking lead bike passed us, followed by the front of the Marathon field. We encouraged them and amazingly, those that were outside of the top 15 or so encouraged us right back!

My four runners stayed strong and we stayed right on track. In fact, we passed the ten mile marker at 1:38:30 - a lead of about 40 seconds over where we needed to be. We finally left the trail and got back on to the road and all of a sudden there was a breeze. It felt great, except it made holding the sign and balloons that much harder! The wide open roads suddenly became cramped as we were pushed on to the shoulder of the road, so the road could remain open. The shoulder wasn't even 4 feet wide and it was impossible to run more than 2 people wide which made it very difficult to pass the increasing number of walkers. I watched our pace drop and decided that we had to run outside the cones. We hadn't seen a single car, so I felt that we'd be safe enough as long as we went single-file.

We passed the mile 11 sign and before we made it to the mile 12 sign a couple of runners that I hadn't seen before came up along side and thanked me for pacing them! They explained that they had been following 20 yards behind for the last 9 miles and that I had done a great job holding the sign and balloons so they could keep an eye on me. I laughed and wished them luck as they eased ahead to the finish. The young girl that hadn't said a single word during the entire race decided that she was ready to go and thanked me as well. She had been on my shoulder for the entire race but always just behind me - I'd assume so she wouldn't have to talk to me! As we made the final turn with half a mile left (and more than 6 minutes to go), the rest of my group made their moves and I momentarily lost concentration and sped up a little. I caught myself and slowed down but the damage was done and I crossed the finish line with a time of 2:08:30 (and a GPS distance of 13:00 miles). I was a little disappointed that I was 90 seconds ahead of my goal, but when I saw 3 of my group, who had waited to thank me for doing a great job pacing them, I felt a sense of achievement that I had helped them to their goals.

When I think back over the race, I think I did a great job as a first time pacer but I did learn a valuable lesson about using my GPS. If I get a chance to pace again (and I'd love to pace again at Tobacco Road next year), I'll use my watch in manual lap mode and take my splits between the mile markers instead of having the GPS calculate the distance. The main reason I was 90 seconds off was that my watch "lost" 0.1 of a mile (59 seconds) but it could easily have been 0.1 or even more off in the other direction.

St Paddy's 8K

I hadn't planned on running the St Paddy's 8K this year, but I changed my mind the day before the race for a few reasons:
1. I had been confined to the treadmill while working in New York for the week before the race.
2. The weather forecast for Saturday (race day) was rain and storms, and I thought I'd be more likely to run a race hard than I would be to drag myself to the track for my speed work.
3. My 8K PR of 41:30 (8:20/mile) from 2009 was laughable compared to my other more recent PR's

Liz, Jack and I went downtown to register the night before the race and we decided that they wouldn't come down to watch the race as it was going to be rainy and the 3pm start time was in the middle of Jack's afternoon nap.

On Saturday, I arrived downtown at 2:30pm, parked and then began my warmup. For a long time, I had never bothered running more than a few hundred yards as a warmup for a race, but I had had good success with the Run for Young and Run for the Roses after I had run a couple of miles as a warmup that I wanted to keep using what seemed to be working.

I ran a couple of easy miles, stopping occasionally for some stretching and got to the start line 3 minutes before the start of the race, warmed up and ready to go.

I knew there were plenty of rolling hills on the course and that the last mile was more up hill than any of the other miles, so I wanted to leave enough in the tank to finish strongly. Taking that in to account, I thought I'd be able to break 35 minutes and have an average pace of 7:00/mile or faster.

The race started promptly at 3pm and I was probably in the 4th or 5th row of runners to cross the starting line.

I don't remember a huge amount about the individual miles, but here are some thoughts that I do remember:

Mile 1: (6:39) I wanted to start quickly but not too fast and the slight uphill start followed by a nice steady downhill section meant I was able to get off to a good start and around some of the turns (there were lots of turns on this course!) before we came to the first of the rolling hills. I remember telling myself to relax on the uphill part and then run the downhill part harder instead of using up lots of energy going uphill and having nothing for the easier part - this is something that I think most runners struggle with, but I think I am getting better at it.

Mile 2: (7:00) This mile was rolling hill after rolling hill as we twisted and turned our way through Raleigh. The runners had spread out by this point, but I was in a little group with 3 or 4 other runners and I found it interesting that I was the only one dropping off the back of the group on the uphills and rejoining them on the downhills

Mile 3: (7:02) The course began to loop around the Oakwood Cemetery at the start of this mile and was mostly flat which was a nice change.

Mile 4: (7:12) As we completed the loop of the Cemetery we descended to the lowest point on the course and began the climb back to the finish. The climb was about 70ft over 0.6 of a mile and as I there wasn't much downhill left on the course, I knew I had to run the uphill harder or I wouldn't be under 35 minutes.

Mile 5: (7:14) The last mile was tough. The climb continued another third of a mile before a short downhill section and another quick climb as we made the final turn on to Blount Street. I knew my pace was dropping but I was about 10 seconds ahead of where I needed to be to break 35 minutes when the finish line came in to view. I waited until I had about 400 meters to go and kicked as hard as I could while watching the clock tick up. It seemed to take me forever to get to the finish line but the official clock was still in the 34:40's when I crossed.

Official Time: 34:43 (6:59/mile)
Overall: 56/2135
Age Group: 8/145

I had achieved all of my goals for the race - I broke 35 minutes and even ended up with a 6:59/mile average. I also ran a race where I had just enough for a finishing kick and ran most of the hills intelligently, so I was very happy with my afternoon's work!

Very tired about to cross the finish line!