Race Recap - Kaiser Permanente Corporate Challenge 5k

In the immortal words of Josh Ferenc this race was a colossal “cluster cuss”. I entered this race as part of the Falcons G.O.A.L fitness/Health & Wellness program (Get Out And Live). Through our company we got a free entry so I figured I had nothing to lose, save maybe a little pride if I got smoked. I entered the elite field with my Run the Rails 10k time, but I never got my number at work. I figured someone would have it at the race so I hoped in my buddy Matt’s new truck with him and we headed downtown to Turner field on for the race. Upon arrival, all hell broke loose for me.

It took us forever to park then when we got to our tent it was abandoned and resembled the scene after the Skywalker ranch got ransacked by storm troopers in Episode IV. We eventually found everyone in the middle of the pack getting ready to line up at the start. Of course no one had my number. I’d already given up on any hope of being able to warm up, but I thought I’d at least have a number, no dice. At this point I was kind of pissed because I really wanted to see what I could run. I thought about just jumping in and running it with the people from work and hanging out, then I decided (again in honor of Ferenc) cuss that! I threw on my Saucony jersey, hopped one of the fences and lined up just behind the elite section.

Just before the start the race volunteers dropped the rope dividing the rest of the runners and the elite section so I made my way up to the second row and got ready to roll. At the start, I got out good to try and get up with the leaders. About 200 meters into the race I was finally able to latch on to a group of four or five runners, running between 4^th and 8^th or so. I had to do a little extra work to get there but once I got in the group I settled in and ran right on the shoulder of the guy in front of me. I recognized one of them, David Bell, who I remembered from the Thrill in the Hills half marathon. I hung with that group for about three quarters of a mile, but I have a tendency to get impatient, especially with all the anxiety of trying to get to the starting line, so right around the mile mark I made a move to try and catch the next group of guys ahead of us.

I used a downhill to surge and catch the guy in third then second. I took over second place and then focused on the leader thinking I’d probably blow up somewhere around two miles. I took a look at my watch and realized I was running at a good clip, between 5:06 and 5:08 pace on my Garmin. I was a little worried it was too fast, but I just tried to tune those thoughts out and focus on catching the leader. About 1.5 miles into the race we climbed a long gradual uphill that I ran surprisingly well. I was able to maintain that pace and was slowly but surely chipping away at the lead.

I missed the second mile mark and I didn’t hear my watch beep for the spilt, but I was really trying to focus on cutting into the lead. I knew I didn’t have much in the way of wheels, but I figured if I could catch the leader on the long straight away over the final 600 I’d be able muscle past him and get the win. At this point I was really surprising myself. I took a quick glance back as I rounded a turn but I didn’t see anybody, I still felt good and I was almost sure I would catch the leader. This was a shock since I figured I’d be struggling to finish in the top 10 not having a shot to battle back for the win.

With 800 to go I was sure I was going to win. I could see myself powering past this guy and running away from him at the end of the race. We made the final turn onto Hank Aaron Blvd and I started the hard charge for the finish line under the Olympic rings outside of Turner Field. I’d closed to within 20 or so yards of the leader and felt like I was going to pull even and then past him any second, he went out too fast I told myself…but…with about 200 to go, reality set in. I just didn’t have any more gears or any more gas. I made one last push but it didn’t do any good, over the course of the race I’d closed what was probably a 100-meter lead down to 10 or 15 meters but that was as close as I was getting. I ended up cruising through the finish in 15:58 for second place.

When I looked down at my watch, I was pumped. There is no way in hell I thought I’d run that fast. I thought 16:30 would be a great result. It was the fastest 5k I’ve run since Iron Teams in 2007 when I ran 15:30.  The last 5k I ran was in Philly in 09 and I ran 17:04. I’ll take 15:58. I just wish I would have run one during the summer when I was really training. Either way, it was a great race for me and it has really made me feel good about the fact that I’ve pushed myself to get into work early and run before starting my day.

Overall it was a good experience. It was fun to run with people from work. Everyone was pumped that I got second and finishing under the Olympic rings was really cool. My only complaint, besides running bandit and having to explain my situation to the RD was that they had no results and no awards. Kind of weak sauce for such a big race (25,000 people).

Catching Up

Catching Up

I’ve been MIA from the blog for over a month now, so this is going to be a brief rundown of the last couple of weeks. After I got home from vacation it was right into training camp at work so I haven’t had a ton of time to run or blog. I will say that this was probably my best camp in terms of running. That’s not really saying a whole lot since last year I logged a whopping 51 miles for the entire month of August and probably even less the year before that. Comparatively, I ran 174 miles this August, not bad when you consider I took four days off after the Dirty Spokes finale. At this point though, just getting out the door is a victory in my book. While I do hope to run some races this fall, my training is more focused on being prepared to hit the ground running in the winter after the football season ends, unlike the last two years.

 

Picking up where I left off…Amanda and I spent about a week back home and I ran on the roads in Middleton and then I ended up biking 35 miles one day to mix it up a little bit. After getting back to Atlanta I raced the finale of the Dirty Spokes Trail Series at Sawnee Mountain. I won the race in 24:38, Tim has it posted as a 3.5 mile race, but I think it is a little bit longer. Last year I ran 21:34 and after talking with a couple of people post-race I was able to confirm that they took out the steepest section of the decent and made the trail a little longer to reduce the risk of someone falling. As it turns out the results are listed as 4.0 miles so that makes it about three minutes longer than last year and that would make sense.

 

My running hasn’t been great over the last few weeks but it’s been solid. My parents got me a Garmin 210 for my birthday and after playing around with it a little bit I came across the Strava Trail Runner Magazine 100 mile challenge. The premise was to run 100 miles in 16 days. That doesn’t seem all that hard on the surface, but with my work schedule it was definitely a challenge. I ended up getting to work early and running seven miles (occasionally five) during the two week stretch. I finished with 104 miles in the 16 days, including one day off and one day that didn’t count because Strava.com only counted miles logged with a GPS device, so I lost out on 8 miles.

 

Since I got back from my vacation back home, I’ve hit 40, 15 (oosh), 33, 37, 45, 37, 45, 49 and 48 mile weeks. I can’t believe it’s been nine weeks since my last post. At this point in the year my training is all working towards being prepared for the spring, but in order to keep myself going I am trying to use short term goals, like the 100 mile challenge to keep me from getting lazy or bored.

 

I’d love to be able to hit between 40 and 50 miles each week, but I think my log over the next few months is going to resemble the last few weeks, sometimes I’ll hit 40-45 others will be 30-35 and then I’ll have a handful of low weeks due to long days at work and late games. For example, this week I ran Monday before our game, but took Tuesday and Wednesday off because I was completely exhausted. That’s just kind of the way it is at this time of the year.

 

On the Horizon

I have a couple of things that I’m using to keep me motivated right now. It’s tough to say focused and get out the door most days if the goals I set are all months away, so this fall I’d like to run the Xterra Georgia trail series  as well as a few 5k road races.

 

 The first thing on my extremely tentative schedule is the Kaiser Permanente Corporate 5k during the second week of September. I’m not sure that I’ll actually be able to make it from the office to Turner Field for this race on a weekday, but I’m going to try. 95 percent of the reason I entered was the fact that we have a company team running it and I got a free entry, but if I can get down there in time it should be fun to run with some people from work and it will be a good test to see how much fitness I’ve been able to hang on to over the last month since my mileage has dropped from 70+ mpw to 30-40 mpw. I entered the elite field, since my Run the Rails 10k time qualified me (you had to have a race result that was six minute pace or faster), but I am probably going to get roasted. After a quick look at the results from the last couple of years, it would probably take a mid to low 15 minute run to win (last year was 15:13 – 2010 was 15:37 and 2009 was 15:14), earlier in the summer I think I would have gotten under 16 minutes, but right now I’m hoping for anything under 17. I’d like to finish in the top 10, but this is going to be more about having a little fun and getting a good hard effort in.

 

After the corporate challenge, I’ll be aiming for the Xterra Georgia series. Last year every race was on a road game Saturday, so I had no chance to make any of them. Even the fall fitness race that is literally in my backyard was the week we went to Seattle and left on Friday. This year I should be able to make most of these races, which the exception of the opener at Harbins, as I will be in San Deigo that weekend. I’m okay with that though, since I always, without fail, run slow at Harbins. I’ll aim to kick off the series with Fall Fitness at the GEHC in early October. After or before that…who knows.

 

Other than that I will just try to keep getting out the door and getting runs in as many days as possible. Amanda got me a Nike fuelband for my birthday, so I’m currently obsessed with reaching and surpassing my goal (3500 fuel points – that seems soft but my runs aren’t worth what I thought they would be). Without a run I come in between 2500 and 3000 fuel points for an average day, so in order to get my goal I need to get out the door for a run. I am really looking forward to testing it out in the offseason. I’d love to know what those 20 mile days with 10-12 mile workouts would be worth! It’s a little silly, but it’s a fun way to keep me from being lazy during the football season.

 

I’ve also gotten a good bit of use out of the Garmin watch that my parents got me for my birthday, yes my arm basically like the Ironman suit now. It’s been good to know the distances of runs around work and it’s allowed me to do a little exploring.