Year of Races

The premier race in Atlanta this past Saturday was probably the Big Peach 5k.  I originally had plans to run the Derby Dash 5k near my home in Canton, but after a stretch of races that were slack about putting up race results, I decided to make the drive down to Atlanta and run a bigger, and probably better organized, event.  I’m certainly glad I made the trip.

Runners met in the Brookhaven MARTA station parking lot.  There was plenty of parking and plenty of room to do some warming up.  I checked in, pinned my bib on and attached my timing chip.  I was good to go so I decided to run some laps around the parking lot to warm up.  It was  a warm morning with really high humidity and an ever-present chance of rain.  I regretted wearing the long-sleeve shirt I had on, but at least it was light weight.

The race ended up having about 1600 runners.  Not everyone elected to pay the extra $5 to be timed, so they don’t all show up in the official results.  We lined up.  Here’s a good picture of the start.  I’m somewhere on the left, about 4-5 rows deep.  I lined up in a pretty good spot.  I didn’t have to dodge too many slower runners and I didn’t get trampled by 5-minute milers.  Here’s another good picture better showing the size of the race.

I had looked at the route on mapmyrun.com the day before, so I had a strategy going in. The first half was mostly downhill and the second half was mostly uphill.  I wanted to go out as fast as I could on the first mile so that I’d have built up a time buffer to use on the hills in the second and third miles.  My strategy worked pretty well.  Here were my splits:

Mile 1: 6:31

Mile 2: 7:01

Mile 3: 7:35

remainder: 6:01

As you can see, my pace definitely slowed on the hills.  I ended up setting a new 5k PR though on a fairly challenging course: 21:54.  Here are the official results.  Obviously, I didn’t win any awards. I finished 19th out of 76 in my age group.  In fact, to have taken 3rd in my age group, I would have had to run an 18:19.  I’m a long way from being able to do that.  The overall winner ran a crazy 15:06.  That’s ridiculous.  I was really excited to have gotten in under 22 minutes for the first time.  Maybe if I actually do some more focused training, I can get it down even lower.  Here’s a picture of me sucking wind as I approach the finish line.  I could see the clock and new I needed to pick up the pace to get under 22 minutes.

Big Peach 5k Shirt

• The shirt is very nice.  A Nike-branded short-sleeve technical shirt.  This was another perk of choosing a more popular 5k.
• The race results were up by Saturday afternoon.  That’s the kind of turnaround I like to see.  I know the timing chip helped in this, but it really is nice to see those results posted immediately
• Garmin Stats:

OLA Spring Stampede 5k Shirt

Well, due to some family obligations (my daughter competing in the Academic Bowl) on Saturday, I had to find a Friday evening race.  Luckily, the first annual Our Lady of the Assumption Spring Stampede 5k was right down the street from my office.  So, after work I headed over to get ready for the run.

Things didn’t go as well as I had hoped, but you can’t PR them all I guess.  I really just wasn’t feeling it Friday and ended up finishing a tough race in 24:37 — a full 2 minutes off my recent PR time.  I was trying to figure out what could have gone wrong and it wasn’t too tough.  I’m pretty good at making excuses.  So, here they are:

1. I’ve discovered recently that I just don’t have much energy in the afternoons.  After getting up early to get the kids ready for school, commuting an hour to the office, and working all day, I really am exhausted.  Basically, I didn’t have any energy before the race.
2. I hadn’t gotten the appropriate number of runs in this week.  I tried to squeak one in Thursday night.  I ended up pushing it a bit too hard and woke up quite sore on Friday.  My legs were still feeling it at race time.
3. I’m used to running in the mornings when it’s been 45° or so.  At 6:45pm in Atlanta on Friday it was 80°.  The increased temperature definitely didn’t help matters.

So, there you have it, the pieces just weren’t there to put together a great run.  Oh well.  It was a nice, well organized event.  According to the finisher card I filled out, I came in 25th overall.  Not sure of my placement in my age group.  I’ll update the post with the official results if they get posted online. (UPDATE: Official results – 7th out of 19 in my age group)

A few random items:

• The shirt is cute — white, cotton.
• The winner was the same guy who won the Run for the Children 5k.  By the way, he’s 61 years old.  Dude runs like a gazelle.  Very impressive.
• Some 11-yr old (or so) kid tried to pass me on the uphill about .3 miles from the finish.  He ended up slowing up and puking his guts out.  That’ll learn him.
• My heart rate got all the way up to 188.  Not good.  I ended up running almost half the race in Zone 5.  My body just wasn’t handling the race very well.
• The course was fairly hilly, with the worst hills coming in the loop around the church that we had to do once at the beginning and once at the end.  Really was a killer for me.
• First race since the Fallen Officer 5k where I didn’t have friends or family running with me.  Kind of missed everyone.  It’s a lot more boring running on my own.
• Garmin Stats:

Run the River 10K shirt

We were in Roswell Saturday morning running the Choate Construction Run the River 10K.  It was a beautiful morning with perfect running weather.  The course was advertised as fast and flat, so I was hoping to finally get that sub-50 monkey off my back.  My PR for the 10K was 50:09 set way back in February.  If you remember, I had a near miss at the Jog for a Cause 10K, but the course measured in at 6.45 miles and I missed my mark.  So, I really wanted to get it done Saturday.  Also, Alysia & Nate were running the 10K as well.  It’s much more fun to have some company with me.  This was Alysia’s FIRST 10K!

We got lined up for the race.  I stayed back near the middle of the pack with Alysia.  When the gun went off, I spent the first half mile or so weaving in and out of folks.  Once we got some spacing, I settled into a low 7 minute mile pace.  After last week’s hilly Operation Yellow Ribbon 5K, I had some confidence on being able to maintain that kind of pace.  I figured if I could run a hilly 5K at 7:21/mile then I could do a flat 10K at about the same.

Really the run was pretty uneventful.  I passed a bunch of folks at the beginning having started in the middle of the pack, but I did eventually end up with a group of runners that were at about my pace.  At around 2 miles we veered off onto a dirt road.  This was a bit more challenging with the loose rocks, but nothing to really slow me down.  I hit the 3 mile mark at 23-something.  I was feeling great and knew I could keep it going.  The only challenging hill came just after 3 miles.  It was short but fairly steep.  The good thing was that it marked the turnaround point for the course, so we got to then cruise back down the hill.

I was feeling really strong, so I kept up my low 7 minute mile pace and started passing some more runners the last 1.5 miles.  It was nice to finish strong.  I ended up coming in at 46:09 on my watch.  The official time will be a little off probably.  As I mentioned, I started in the middle of the pack, and they weren’t using timing chips.  Either way, I crushed my previous PR by about 4 minutes.

• Alysia did fantastic in her first 10K.  She only walked 3 times for a minute or so each time.  She crossed the line in 1:04:30.  Really good time for her first and I’m so proud of her.
• Nate also set a PR by coming in at 50:18.  Great Job!
• The shirt is a nice technical material.
• There appeared to be a decent crowd for this race.  I’d say around 400-500.
• There was an 80-yr old guy there trying to set the Georgia record in the 10K for his age.  I saw him cross the finish line as I was waiting for Alysia, but I’m not sure if he broke the record or not.  I hope so.
• Official results (Don’t have them yet).  Not sure where I finished in my age group.  Probably top 10 I’m guessing. (UPDATED:  Here are the results.  46:18.  Turns out it was a weak 35-39 group and I finished 3rd out of 32 and 38th out of 377 overall.  Guess I should have stuck around for the awards…)
• Pictures (UPDATED: Photos are at the Collages.net site.  Username is “Run the River” and password is “19065″.)

Saturday morning we were in Marietta, GA at the Operation Yellow Ribbon 5k.  The race was being put on by the Georgia chapter of the Operation Homefront organization.  They were raising money to help out the families of our brave troops stationed overseas.  It was a beautiful morning:  sunny, mid-40s.  Perfect race weather!

I had been looking forward to this race all week because I had quite a bit of company.  My wife, son, mom and sister(Missy) were all running!  It was my mom and Missy’s first 5k.  My son, Davis, was participating in the 1-mile fun run for his first race.  My dad and sister, Christina, were there to support the runners, watch the kids for us, and take some awesome pictures.  So, lots to talk about.  Let’s do it.

Pre-Race:

Alysia, Davis and I woke up early and ready to go.  The temperature was a bit on the chilly side, so Davis bundled up in mostly Under Armour gear.  I think the kid was trying to get sponsored or something.  He had on UA shoes, UA socks, 2 UA shirts and a UA beanie.  Looking sharp!  But can he run?

Davis - Under Armour - ya si me?

We met up with the family at the race.  My mom was a bit nervous.  At 59 years young, it’s never too late to run your first 5k!  We all got registered and got hold of our race numbers and shirts.  The shirt is a white, long-sleeve, cotton deal.  Nice shirt.  I especially like the long sleeves.  Not enough races give out long sleeve shirts, IMO.

Operation Yellow Ribbon 5k Shirt

1-mile fun run:

At 8:30, the 1-mile fun run was starting.  Alysia and I were going to run it with Davis since this was his first one.  Turned out there were about 10-15 kids & parents running.  Davis was probably one of the older kids at 8, so it was a light crowd.   The event director counted down.. 3, 2, 1… and we were off.  Davis shot out as if Usain Bolt was chasing him in the 100m.  I’m following right beside him thinking how tired he’s going to be in about 25 seconds.  He did pretty well though.  The first .5 mile was all downhill and he kept a pretty decent little pace and was well out in front of everyone.  At the bottom of the hill, you turn around and head UPHILL for .5 mile.  He was huffing and puffing, and ended up having to stop and walk a couple of times.  I’m right beside him yelling “Come on!  They’re catching up!  Pick it up!  You can’t let Mom catch you!”  He probably turned around 20 times to take a look.  He made it to the top of the hill and sprinted down to the finish for what I think was a blazing fast 9:20 mile.    I was really proud of him.  He won the race and declared himself to be the fastest person in our family.  Very humble child.

Alysia, Davis and I after the fun run

5k:

With the fun run behind us, Alysia, mom, Missy and I all anxiously awaited the start of the main event.  Alysia and I were sufficiently warmed up after running the mile with Davis.  We stood around chatting and took our places at the start/finish line.  I lined up in front.  It was a small crowd (around 150 runners) so I figured I’d probably be top 20.  Might as well get up front.

We took off.  I was immediately top 5 and moving pretty good.  As with the fun run the first .5 mile was all down hill.  I ended up getting passed by a guy and his dog.  This was the eventual winner.  He finished in 19 minutes WITH A DOG.  He’s a great runner and I’ve seen him at a bunch of other races.  It wasn’t a surprise when he flew by me.  At about a mile in, I settled into 3rd place.  I kept up a 7+ minute mile for most of the race and stayed in third until somewhere past halfway, where I got passed by a woman.  It’s ok though.  I’m used to it.  Besides, she was in her 20s.  I could never catch back up to her and I powered (trudged) my way up the .5 mile hill at the end to finish in …  wait for it…  22:23!  A new PR by 36 seconds.

(Christina took this picture of me crossing the finish line.  I have to be honest here.  I hate how I look in this picture.  What am I doing?  Power walking?  What’s up with my big ol’ butt?  What in the world?  Maybe if I stopped race-walking and actually ran I could break 20 minutes????…  ugghh.)

I don't like this picture.

I patted myself on the back and went to stand with my dad to wait for Alysia, mom and Missy.  Alysia came around the corner next.  She saw the clock and started sprinting to the finish.  She already had her PR (30:39) in the bag, but she wanted to finish strong.  Her pictures look great.  She’s really moving!!!

Alysia coming down to the finish line

New PR for Alysia

My mom and Missy came in a little later at 41:34 and 41:37 respectively.  I can’t express how proud I am of these two.  Their first 5k ever!  Good stuff.  I hope they come out and run some others with me in the future.

Post-race:

We all sat around cooling off.  The post-race food was good with bagels, bananas, apples, gatorade and water.  We took a group shot of all the runners:

Great day

Missy had to leave, but the rest of us stuck around for the awards.  They were doing 1st, 2nd, 3rd place awards in 10-yr increments, therefore I was in the 30-39 age group.  I finished 4th overall in the race, with one of those ahead of me being female, so I knew I had won something.  As it turns out both of the guys ahead of me were in my age group.  The overall winner got a trophy though, so I got the 2nd place medal for 30-39.  Not too shabby.  Nice reward for one of my better performances.

2nd place - front

2nd place - back

Unfortunately, none of the others won any awards.  Alysia did finish an impressive 7th in her age group.  Very nice!

Items of interest:

• Official results
• Garmin stats
• I’m so thankful for my dad and Christina being there to watch the kids for us.  It meant a lot to me.  Although, I must say, I could tell Christina was wishing she was running instead…
• There was a photographer out taking photos of everyone, so I’m sure I’ll have more pictures to post when they get them uploaded.  Possibly some cool shots of Davis in the fun run…
• They had clowns there to entertain the kids.  I found them to be extremely creepy.
• I’m really stocking up on those environment-friendly grocery bags.  We got 3 more at this race.  Sweet!
• Some 10 year old kid ran the race in like 23 minutes.  That’s pretty awesome in my book.  Maybe Davis can get to that level.  I mean he is number one in the nation and all. {sarcasm}
• The kids all made signs to support us.  It was really cute!

Wow, that sun is bright!

Next race is the Choate Construction Run the River 10k.  I think Alysia may go for her first 10k!  Stay tuned…

Yesterday, I was <10 minutes from my house running my first trail race at Boling Park in Canton, GA.  Dirty Spokes does a trail running series of races during the year and this was race #2.  It was a 4.5 mile run that had the following course description:

Start at Kiosk.
Parade lap around field for 1.12 miles
Hard left to single track that parallels field
1.68 follow sewer line
1.70 first hill
1.91 take left fork
1.94 left
1.96 first creek crossing (you will get your feet wet it was at about 18″ today)
2.09 Hill #2
2.24 Top of Hill #2
2.26 Hill #3
2.36 bottom of Hill #3 (very steep)
crossroads stay straight to 2.36 “The Wall” (you´ll know it when you get to it)
2.40 top of “The Wall”, turn right
2.45 right onto Yellow blazed trail
2.71 water station, hard right
2.81 right follow Yellow blazed trail (all down hill and single track from here following the “River Ridge”)
3.14 back at crossroads stay straight (don´t go up “The Wall” again)
3.18 small creek crossing
3.27 log crossing
3.28 small creek crossing
3.40 last small rise
3.65 left
3.68 left to Boy Scout Bridge (White blaze trail)
3.70 over Boy Scout Bridge
3.72 right (back onto single track that follows the parade field)
4.33 End at Kiosk.

Sounds fun, right?  Actually, it was a lot of fun and I’m really wishing I could have made it to the first race in the series.  Dirty Spokes puts on a great race — well organized with timing anklets that you just velcro on, a well-marked course, timely water station, and instant race results as they print out updated results every 5 minutes or so.

The shirt is probably my favorite so far.  It’s a light-weight, technical, short-sleeve shirt.  It fits me well and will be great to run in.

Dirty Spokes - Running the River's Ridge Shirt

I ended up doing pretty well considering the challenges the course presented.  I finished at 44:08 and 7th out of 25 in my age group.  I actually ended up ahead of a couple of serious local runners that typically thrash me on the roads.  They may have just been out for a leisurely stroll through the woods, but it still gives me some confidence that I’m improving.

The first mile+ we start out on an open crushed gravel path.  I really started out fast and clocked my first mile right at 7:00.  From there we hit some single track trails and I felt things were going pretty well.  Nate and I had come out earlier in the week and tried to identify “the wall” and the creek crossing, so I had a good idea what was in store and I didn’t think it was going to be too horrible.

We were wrong.

I ran up and over what we thought to be “the wall” without incident and then took a left which was different than the path we had scoped out on Thursday.  We came to the creek crossing and it was a good 4-5 steps across in mid-calf deep water.  It was a blast running through the creek, but, immediately upon exiting, my shoes were obviously sloshy and heavy.  My Asics didn’t drain nearly as well as I had hoped.  Unfortunately, the ill-placed creek crossing was but a mere .13 mile from the first hill which meant I was going to have to run up the hills with heavy shoes.  As soon as I saw the first hill, I thought “holy cow” this must be “the wall.”  So, I trudge up the first hill in heavy and wet shoes and end up having to walk up the 2nd hill.  My heart was pounding and I can’t imagine how anyone could RUN up those suckers.

Next thing I know, we have a decline that is just as steep.  So, in wet shoes, I go flying down this hill doing everything I can not to lose control and careen off into a tree.  There was so much downforce on the fronts of my shoes that I could feel the insoles sliding (another negative for the new trail shoes).  I safely reach the bottom and look ahead to what is actually “the wall.”  Straight up.  I took as many “running” steps as I could and then walked it.  This was probably the closest I’ve come to throwing up in a race.  I had my hands on my quads helping to push myself up this dang hill.  It was so tough I felt like reaching out for small branches to try to help me up the slope.  Even after cresting, I still had to walk for a good minute to calm myself down.  I actually think this ended up helping me in the remainder of the race.  My heart and legs needed that break.

I worked myself back into a nice pace and passed a couple of folks.  I ended up finishing the remaining 2 miles or so at around a 9 minute pace.  I hooked up with another guy and basically followed on his heels for those last 2 miles.  He was laboring too and, at one point, he yells back to me “How old are you?”.  “36,” I replied.  He threw his arms in the air, let out a big sigh of relief, said he was 44 and that he could let me pass without a fight.  I thought that was pretty funny.  I just told him I was good where I was and that I was using him for his pacing. I followed him all the way home, and he finished a couple seconds ahead of me.

All in all, I had a great time.  Although this was the first time I had to stop and walk in a race this year, my body needed it at the moment, and I was able to finish stronger because of it.  I’m looking forward to some more trail races in the future.  Also, after the race, Nate decided to rename our “wall” as “the curb.”  Very accurate.

• Defiant Photography was out taking some pictures.  (UPDATE: Pic 1, pic 2, pic 3, pic 4)
• Official Results
• Garmin Stats

Running the River's Ridge - Crossing the Boy Scout Bridge

With March in the books, I thought I’d take some time reflecting on the first quarter of 2010. I’ve put together a list of some of the highlights & lowlights from Q1:

Proudest Accomplishment: Finishing my first half marathon. I’m proud to have finished in under 2 hours and I’m looking forward to attempting to better my time in the Fall.

Biggest Improvement: Cutting 4 1/2 minutes off of my 5k time.  I went from a 27:35 on 1/1/2010 to a 22:59 on 3/20/2010.

Best Shirt: ATC Resolution Run 5k. It’s a black, lightweight, long-sleeve technical shirt.  It’s also the first shirt I got in this crazy adventure and I think it means just a little bit more to me.

Worst Race: Etowah Soccer 5k. I enjoyed Reid’s company for sure, but the race didn’t even have bibs, the course was insanely hilly, they didn’t publish the results anywhere, and the age groups were dumb.

Best Course: Chattahoochee Challenge 10k. Flat and fast!  It’s still my 10k PR and I could have easily pushed myself harder if I hadn’t been blindly following the pace group leader.

Worst Course: Jog for a Cause 10k. Advertised as a Peachtree Road Race Qualifier, the course measured in at 6.45 miles. How can a course be a PRRQ and not even be an accurate distance?

Best post-race food: Run for the Children 5k. Great spread. Could have easily eaten 5x as many calories as I burned during the run.

Best post-race schwag: Chattahoochee Challenge 10k. Very cool freebies that included free energy bar samples, a tree to plant, earth-friendly bags and more.

Biggest disappointment: Mardi Gras 5k. Because of the snow and ice in the Atlanta area, the race was canceled. This crippled my plan to run a race every weekend in 2010. I’ll still be doing 52 this year, but now I’ll have to double up one weekend.

Firsts: 10k & Half Marathon

Race Miles: 59.2 (7 5k, 4 10k, 1 HM)

Race Time: 8 hrs 14 min 52 sec

New gear:  Garmin Forerunner 305 & Asics Gel-Trail Attack 5 WR

Friends/family I’ve had the pleasure of running with:  Alysia, Christina, Nick, Reid, Nate, Tim

I’m still loving this challenge and I’m grateful I’ve been able to stay healthy so far.  I hope I can hold it together and make it through Q2.  Maybe even set some new PRs.  I’ve got at least 2 new distances that I’ll be running this quarter:  a 4.5 mile trail run and a 6k.  Here’s my schedule.  I’ve got quite a few “TBDs” on the board, so, if you know of a cool race coming up, let me know.

I get asked all the time “why are you running a race every weekend?  Why not just go out and run on your own?”  Well, the short and pathetic answer is that I’m too lazy to get out and run on my own.  I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work.  By registering (paying) for a race, I’m locked into running it.  I can’t make an excuse not to run, I’ve already signed up.

Hope to see everyone out there!  Tomorrow is the Dirty Spokes Running the River’s Ridge 4.5mi trail run.  Wish me luck!

Dirty Spokes

This weekend is my first trail running event.  I’ll be Running the River’s Ridge at Boling Park in Canton, GA for 4.5 miles as part of the Dirty Spokes trail running series.  After the Run for the Children 5k on Saturday I drove over to Boling Park to scope out the trails and give them a bit of a test run.

Earlier in the week, I had purchased some trail shoes:  the Asics Gel-Trail Attack 5 WR.  I paid $81 for them at Big Peach Running Co. on 3/20, came home, looked up the shoes on Amazon and saw that they had my size for $41.  Uggh.  So, I ordered them from Amazon and returned the other pair to Big Peach.  $40 is $40.  So, anyway, I was looking forward to breaking them in on some trails.

I ended up doing about 3 miles in the shoes (Garmin stats).  They felt ok, but, around mile 2, my left knee started hurting pretty good.  I’m not sure if it was the new shoes, the new type of running caused by trails, or the fact that I had already done a 23:15 5k about an hour before.  It makes me a bit nervous about the race on Saturday because I’m not sure how the knee will feel.  I’ve since done 2 sessions on the treadmill without issues, so maybe it really is the new shoes.  I’m going to get back out to Boling Park one more time before the race and test them out again.

Asics Gel-Trail Attack 5 WR

The actual trail running experience was nice.  No one was out there.  It was a beautiful morning and running alongside the river can be quite peaceful.  I’m thinking that mixing in some trail runs can definitely keep things interesting.  Heck, maybe I’ll end up liking trail running even more than regular street running…

On a side note, I have two kids: an almost 11-yr old daughter and an 8-yr old son.  I’m one of those parents who likes to put their kids’ sports/school info on the back of my vehicle in the form of magnets.  My son seems to appreciate the support and I’m proud of their accomplishments.  I also have a 13.1 magnet that my buddy Reid gave me after my first half marathon at Berry College.  Well, as I’m approaching my car following my run, I notice that while I was out enjoying nature and testing out the shoes, some individual had removed all of these magnets from my car.  So, if by some cosmic karmic coincidence, you, magnet-remover, have stumbled upon this blog possibly while googling the phrase ‘how to be a d!@k,’ I’d like to congratulate you.  You have effectively stolen from an 8-yr old boy.  I hope your friends found that to be hilarious.  Maybe next time you could steal a kid’s stroller or something; maybe an infant car seat.  LOL, that would be OMG epic!!!111!!11  Loser.

Garmin stats:

I ran the Run for the Children 5k this morning in downtown Canton, GA.  The race was put on by the Cherokee County Service League raising money for local needy children.  Temps were not in my favor as it was in the mid-40s with blustery winds.  Other than that, it was a great race.  I arrived around 7:30 and headed over to the registration table to get checked in.  The shirt is green, cotton, and short-sleeve.  Nice looking shirt.  As a bonus they were also handing out cool little Publix drawstring bags.  Not sure what I’ll use it for, but it’s better than the typical plastic Big Peach Running Co. bag.

Run for the Children 5k Publix Bag

Run for the Children 5k Shirt

Before the race, I met up with Nate, Christina & Trey (Trey was kind enough to come out for moral support in the cold), and Nick.  I didn’t really have a goal in mind for this race, but everyone else had theirs locked in.  Some PRs were destined to be set.  I obviously wanted to break 23 again, but, with the wind and hills, didn’t think I was up for killing myself trying.

The beginning of the race we did a parade lap around downtown and then headed out to see some of the older houses.  Downtown Canton’s a pretty cute little place.  Kind of reminds me of a small town you’d see in a movie.

The whole course was fairly hilly.  You were either going up or down at almost all times.  Some hills were just steeper than others.  The worst was around 1.5 miles into the race.  You’re heading down this stretch of road and the only thing you can see is this gigantic wall of a hill at the end of the road.  I did my best to shorten my stride and pump my arms, but I was gassed at the top.  The nice part was you had a nice section of downhill following.  The only problem for me was that I was so burned from the uphill that I couldn’t fully floor it down the descent.

We made our way back to the downtown district and had a nice steep downhill finish.  I came in at 23:15.  All in all not a bad showing.  I had a miserable stomach stitch for the last mile or so that was really annoying.  I ended up getting passed by a few folks in the last half mile or so which is always disheartening.  I’ve gotten into a bad habit lately of going out too fast and fading at the end.  I need to try to turn that around.

Nate & Nick both beat their goals, so congrats to them!  Christina had some stomach issues and ended up missing on hers.  I’m sure she’ll get it next time though!  I was impressed with the post-race food — bagels, cookies, donuts, etc.  It was actually one of the more impressive spreads I’ve seen at a race.  Well done.  All that food and I think I ate one chocolate chip cookie afterwards…

The volunteers were nice.  The miles were marked.  No chip timing, but the event was organized very well.  It’s really a nice event and great, challenging course.  Maybe next year the wind will be a bit kinder.

• Reviews
• Official results (UPDATE: Page 38 of this pdf)
• Pictures (UPDATE:  Nate pointed out this collection of photos – I’m at about 1:47.  This was right after cresting the nasty hill.)
• Here are my Garmin stats.  (I forgot to stop my watch at the end for a while, so the charts look a little goofy and the time isn’t right.

Downtown Canton:

Downtown Canton Gazebo

Downtown Canton Storefront

More Storefronts

UPDATED: Here’s a pic of me crossing the finish line.  I look tired.

Finishing up

After the race, I headed over to Boling Park to try out some trail running in preparation for next weekend’s Running the River’s Ridge 4.5 mile trail run.

UPDATE:  Official results here.  (6th overall but I’m 36 years old, not 35.  I’m happy my sub-23 came through on the official times — 22:59.6)

Wow!  What a beautiful day in Atlanta today.  I was in Powder Springs, GA running in the Fallen Officer 5k.  This was going to be a small-scale event, so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  Turned out to be a nice run for a great cause.

Fallen Officer 5k

The morning didn’t start off too spectacularly.  I’m not too familiar with the Powder Springs area, so I was relying on my ol’ Garmin to get me to the race on time.  Apparently my ol’ Garmin can be a real jerk sometimes.  After driving around for about 20 minutes, I finally pulled over, pulled out my phone and used Google Maps to get me to where I needed to be.  I arrived later than planned, but still with plenty of time to register, hit the bathroom, and stop thinking destructive thoughts on what I was going to do to my Garmin when I got home.

It was a small crowd with, not surprisingly, a lot of off-duty law enforcement professionals running.  We started off from Lost Mountain Baptist Church and wound our way through some back roads, finishing back where we started.  It was a nice loop course.  We passed some farms, and, with so few participants, I was kind of running on my own most of the race.  The toughest part of the course was a huge, long hill right near the end.  This was a killer, and I got passed by one guy who, unfortunately, ended up being in my age group.

Fallen Officer 5k - killer hill

I knew I had made fairly decent time, so rounding the corner to head to the finish line, the clock said 22:14.  I pushed just enough to cross (according to my watch) at 22:59.  I’m psyched about breaking 23 minutes for the first time and setting a new PR.  Here are my stats from my Garmin Forerunner.  The course measured out at 3.08 miles, so it was just a hair short, but still longer than the Polar Bear 5k that I had gotten my previous PR in.

I stuck around for the awards ceremony.  I knew that I had probably placed in the top 3 for my age group.  I think I finished 7th overall, so the odds were good that 4 of the 7 wouldn’t have been in the 30-39 age group.  Luckily, I was right and I got a nice little 3rd place medal for my efforts.  The post-race food was good:  sausage biscuits, bagels, bananas.

Fallen Officer 5k - 3rd place 30-39 Age Group

Fallen Officer 5k - Shirt

One of the reasons I chose this race was because is was organized by a Sequoyah High School student as her senior project.  My kids will be Sequoyah students one day, so, in a way, I was supporting the Chiefs too.  Besides, the race was for a great cause…

Officer James Fredrick (Freddie) Norman was part of the Cobb County Police Department until his death on February 14, 2009. Officer Freddie Norman succumbed to injuries sustained 21 years earlier when his patrol car was struck by a teenage drunk driver as he responded to an emergency call. The accident left him as a quadriplegic. His death was determined to be a direct result of the injuries sustained in the crash.

In May 2010 the Cobb County Police Department Honor Guard as well as Freddie Norman’s family would like to honor fallen Freddie Norman during National Police Week in Washington D.C.

All proceeds from this race will be distributed through the Chaplain’s Association to the Cobb County Police Department Honor Guard and the family of Freddie Norman. We would also like to make this an annual race with proceeds being distributed through the Chaplain’s Association.

Incidentally, I did meet a guy, Glenn, who is also doing a race each week for a year.  His year started in February.  He’s an experienced runner, unlike myself, and ended up winning today’s race.  He has some sponsors that are supporting him in his efforts during the year and he hopes to raise a ton of money for breast cancer awareness (he was decked out in bright pink: shirt, shoes, Oakleys).  Nice guy and I hope he realizes his goals and stays injury free for the year!

All in all, another fun Saturday morning.  Next week is the Run for the Children 5k in downtown Canton, GA.  What are you waiting for?  Sign up!

Jog for a Cause

UPDATE: 10k Official Results

I was in Alpharetta, GA this morning running the 7th Annual Jog for a Cause 10k.  The weather was kind of chilly in the 40s and fairly windy.  The streets were still wet from the rain the past 3 days.  Overall, not really ideal running conditions for me.  I’m not sure if I’m still sore from the Half Marathon last week or what, but I just didn’t have it this morning.  The race was advertised as fast and flat, so I was really hoping for a sub-50 time, but, honestly, I wasn’t even close.  51:42 on my watch.

Alysia and I

Both Alysia and Christina came out to run the 5k, so that was cool.  This was Alysia’s first 5k EVER, and she rocked it coming in at about 32:53.  Christina was aiming for a sub-32, but came up a hair short at 32:20.  Outstanding effort out of both of them.  I love having friends/family out there running with me.  I also got to meet Nate, a co-worker of Alysia’s, who has been running quite a bit lately.  Nice guy and I look forward to seeing him at some future events.

So, the course was a loop around the North Point area.  10k’ers did the loop twice.  I guess it was flat, but there was a long hill on the back stretch that took a lot out of me.  The weird thing is that this was a Peachtree Qualifier event, yet my Garmin Forerunner 305 measured the distance at 6.45.  I thought that maybe it was just a malfunction on my end, but then a fellow DailyMiler said that her Garmin measured in at 6.46?  So, was this a “long” 10k or were both of our devices going wacky?  Not sure.

I’m not sure what’s up with me this past week.  I’m assuming my body’s not fully recovered from the Half Marathon, but I just don’t feel right.  My hamstrings and calves have been tight all week, and, during the race this morning, they felt really tight again.  I think I need to incorporate some better stretching routines into both my pre-race and post-race activities.  I’m getting too old to just go out and run 6 miles without ample warmup.

Jog for a Cause Shirt

The shirt is great.  A short-sleeve light-weight technical shirt.  Just the kind I like.  Unfortunately, Alysia didn’t get hers today due to the large amount of race-day registrants (including Alysia), but the race volunteers assured her they would drop it in the mail.

• Official results
• Garmin stats.
• Reviews of the race.
• Photos from TrueSpeedPhoto (UPDATE: Pic of Alysia and I)
• They had really nice post-race food:  cookies, muffins, bagels, smoothies
• File this in the TMI file if you want, but I had to pee the whole race.  Problem was that the line for the port-o-potties was like 50 people long.  That’s ridiculous.
• No timing chip, which meant for us middle-of-the-pack runners, we had no idea where the actual starting line was and the official times won’t be as accurate.

I have no idea yet which race I’ll be doing next week.  Any suggestions?  There are 2 5ks in Powder Springs that are possibilities.  There is the ING Half Marathon in Atlanta on Sunday.  I’ve been torn on which one to do, but now I’m thinking my body’s just not ready for another long event.  Maybe a 5k is in order…  Stay tuned.  I’ll pick one eventually.