Location: Charleston, SC
Date: January 15, 2011
Placing: 17th Overall, 2nd Master, 1st 45+
Format: Half Marathon Running Race
My Race Photos
Results: Click Here
Check the run on Garmin by clicking HERE
Doing good at a race never does anything for me. What I mean is that when I perform 'well' - as defined by the little man inside my brain who is in charge of the G-Man record-keeping and race archive - I really just performed as I had hoped. That sounds great...but what it lacks is an incentive to push harder. It's like humming along with a solid 'B' in your trigonometry class. Yeah, I could just sail through the semester right there in the "comfort zone". 'B' is good, right? But what happens when you have a bad test and it drops you down to almost a 'C'? Or maybe you ace a test and suddenly you are hinging on an 'A'?! Well, if you're like me...you run faster. Scoring a 'B' doesn't drive me. Scoring an 'A' or a 'C'? THAT drives me. Today, I studied hard and I thought I knew the material but alas...a C+ (and no extra credit for style points)
I went into today's race with 'reserved confidence'. It was my second weekend in a row for running a half marathon and I was using my performance last week as my gauge. I used to be that consistent. After all, similar weather and terrain were on the menu (although this race was much closer to the arctic circle - and it felt like it). My time of 1:18:24 last week already seemed a bit slow to me and I figured that this week I would run a 1:17:59 because...well...because once again, the man in my head who does my record-keeping also does my higher math calculations and that's what he came up with. I believe he factored in that most of the point-to-point run would be away from the ocean which would provide a prevailing tailwind and away from the sun which which create a rift between low pressure and high pressure causing lift (vis-a-vie Bernoulli's Law). Personally, I just figured I would be a bit faster because I was a week older and therefore, wiser. OK, really. This event had 3 times as many runners and statistically speaking...3 times...bell-shaped curve...1 standard deviation...carry the 1. I should finish between 7th and 11th on a normal day. (I got a solid 'A' in statistics)
I once again warmed up by running the first mile of the course and back. It was quiet except for the police who were already positioned at their intersections in the center of downtown Charleston. It was actually the prettiest mile out of the 13 and quite serene just 10 minutes before 3,000 people were to come charging through. I saw a woman setting out tables at a small coffee shop and thought about how nice it would be to grab a cup of coffee with Janis...but that would have to wait. I returned to the start line at 0750 hours and met Janis at the drop point for the ritual 'disrobing' and the obligatory 5 minutes of deciding 'do I wear a hat or not'. I opted for not. I knew so many people that were doing this event that I was surprised that I only saw a handful as I mulled around the start line. Entertainment was provided by the start-line crew who were trying desperately to get people to stop crossing the electronic timing mat so that it could be reset.
There was an absence of pre-race fanfare - no Star Spangled Banner or invocations (either that, or I was sleeping; or dreaming of a chocolate milkshake. Sometimes that happens). Out of nowhere, Greenville elite runner Kevin Mosteller popped up next to me (Kevin finished 5th in 1:15:55) and we chatted for a minute or two before we both suddenly snapped back to the realization that they were about to say 'GO'. Kevin and I almost missed the start of the Greer Half Marathon last year for the same reason - discussing all the reasons we might not do well today. It's just something we do.
We all leaned forward in that moment of deafening silence between "runners take your mark" and "GO!". I can always start pretty hard because it takes a couple or minutes to get this engine from a 40 heartrate to 145. At about the quarter mile mark I was actually accidentally in 2nd place. But as soon as I hit the magic 145, I threw it into neutral and slowly watched a group of about 7 runners start to pull away. Near the end of mile one, a runner who had just pulled up beside me threw off his hat. It was a nice-looking hat. And I had pockets. Oh yes, I seriously considered grabbing it but then decided I was here to run and not to shop. That runner left me behind. Oddly enough, I would see him again at mile 12 and finish the race just 3 seconds ahead of him. Funny how that works out.
Not feeling bad early on...just moving a bit slower than expected. And a REAL good day to have my Rudy Project shades on (note the direct sun in the face) (photo courtesy PBC Sports Photography - pbcsportsphotography.com)
First mile was a 5:45. Excellent but I knew it was just me getting up to speed and my plan on this day was to keep a lower HR through mile 4 and then kick it into the next gear. I totally knew the plan. Problem was, I don't think the plan knew the plan. I remember the smell of fresh Brueggar's Bagels as we passed their stor around mile 2. I eat there about twice a week in G'Vegas and as an Italian, fresh bread is like a dessert. For the first time in a long time, I began to get frustrated. First, my mile splits seemed slow. Then on top of that, my Garmin seemed to be marking the miles short again (just like last week). But most importantly, people were still passing me a couple at a time. And I know I shouldn't think this way but the honest truth is it hurts way worse when the assailant is wearing a cotton t-shirt and basketball shorts; or they look older than me; or they're wearing pink compression socks; or they are enjoying a cup of tea; or they exist...
Although my 'easy' HR seemed a bit harder than expected, I was all but ready to jetison the first stage at mile 4 and catch back up to some people. Not gonna happen. I had a serious discussion with my body at mile 5 when my speed increased by only a few seconds. At mile 6, I looked at my watch and blurted out loud "seriously?!". At this point, I knew I was in for a difficult day and that I would be lucky to hold my pace, let alone increase it the final 2 miles. The Yin of it was that I actually had some people in front of me to keep chasing. The Yang of it was I actually had some people in front of me to keep chasing. From mile 6 to 11 I focused on one runner ahead of me. I actually got close enough at one point to reach out and knock him out with a baseball bat...if I had one ;-) He was my saving grace...until we reached mile 11 and he suddenly turned off because he was running the full marathon. Ouch. With 2 miles to go, it was sheer survival. I was now merged with the 10k racers and having people around always helps. At mile 12 I passed the guy from mile 1. The last mile had all these little 'whoop-de-doo' roller coaster bumps and that didn't help at all.
The pain train looms in the distance...metaphorically of course. (photo courtesy PBC Sports Photography - pbcsportsphotography.com)
The pain train was in full swing and with a half-mile to go, I could hear the sounds of the finish line. I focused all my will power on moving the line closer to me. That trick has never worked, but it is still ALWAYS worth trying. I was passed with a quarter-mile left by a 20-year-old that I had left five miles earlier. When I turned down the final hundred yards, insult was added to injuury when I saw the finish clock already past the 1:20 mark. I believe I actually started walking a step or two before the finish line. Done. Cooked. Finished. Twice as hard as last week and 2 minutes slower. If I had run the exact same time as last week, I would have ended up 11th as I had statistically predicted. But apparently nobody was on board today - my plan, statistics, the clock. They all smited me.
We hung around just long enough to get my free shrimp & grits before heading out. I wanted to be sure that my race day didn't interupt Janis' workout plans. She did a 5-mile walk/run all around the Patriot's Point area and I rode her mountain bike alongside her. I highly recommend hopping on a bike after a hard run. It's a trick I learned a long time ago to keep your legs from getting too sore.
I look like a frail child here...which is definitely better than I felt. (photo courtesy PBC Sports Photography - pbcsportsphotography.com)
I still managed to wrangle a top 20 finish (17th) and the 2nd overall Master but the story doesn't end here. I knew that this performance had much less to do with training or racing tactics and a lot more to do with my cursed 'allergy induced asthma'. I talked about a good bit in my race reports from 2010. I've had it pretty much under control for over a year now and it only rears its ugly head every once in a while and usually at shorter events where a more maximal effort is involved. If you read my report from the 2nd week in December you know that I got hit really hard. A couple of weeks later, my pulmonologist told me that a live Christmas tree was a huge no-no for me now. We took it down right after Christmas. During that visit my doctor tested my lungs; something we hadn't done in a year. Then just a couple of days after this race, I went back to the doctor and said that I was still feeling 'off' both at night and during hard exercise. So we performed the test yet again. Here are the results:
Lung capacity readings as a percent of predicted lung capacity (for a normal human male my age)
End of 2009: 144%
Late Dec 2010: 124%
Mid-January 2011: 112%
You don't need to be an 'A' math student to see that something's awry. That's a 22% drop. Doc put me back on some meds that I have been off of for nearly a year. We'll see what happens. But I wouldn't say that all this is a 'ray of sunshine'.
Race Notes:
* Lots of friends in Chucktown and some great performances. But the standout was a 2:57 marathon by my friend Kristi Arledge who decimated the women's field (definition of decimation = 12-minute lead). She was so close to breaking the SC state record for her age group. It is only a matter of time.
* The moment of the day had to be after the race and I asked Janis if she was worried when she didn't see me before an hour and twenty minutes. She looked at me in a 'matter-of-fact' way and simply said "I figured the wheels just fell off".
* It turned out to be a great weekend and we took advantage of the weather. On Sunday, we traded and Janis rode her mountain bike alongside me as I ran over the Bridge and back.
Next Up: the Greenville Downtown 5k - then a few week's break to hopefully get the lungs back to normal
Enjoying an easy bike ride after my race, alongside Janis while she does her workout on a beautiful Charleston day!
