The Sweetest 6 Seconds

My chip time for the Provo Freedom Run 10K was 47:54.

After training and obsessing about this race for the past 10 months it was nice to get the race over with. I was confident that I had run every training run I was supposed to, including 10 milers and sprint intervals.

The night before the race I could not sleep at all. I didn't even doze. I laid awake in my hotel all night tortured by waking "what if" dreams. What if my playlist was too slow, maybe it was too fast, maybe I should insert "Roll Tide" into the playlist. What if people roughed me up or tripped me because I was wearing a Canada shirt? What if I didn't drink enough water last night, what if I drank too much and needed a break during the race? What if I started out too fast, what if I started too slow and got boxed in? What if we couldn't find parking and I had to jog 2-3 miles to the start? What if I got up too early, what if I got up too late? A thunderstorm rolled through at about 4AM with some rain. What if the roads were wet and I slipped on the downhill...?

As the restlessness wore on my head began to spin and I got a low grade headache.

The hotel wake up call at 530AM was most welcome. The "what if's" stopped and I decided to get out of bed. I was so tired.

The roads were dry and the sky was now clear. We found parking easily. Nobody even noticed my Canada shirt, let alone objected to it. I went for a warm up jog and felt surprisingly fast and awake. But my mouth was very dry.

I lined up in the area marked "7 minute mile pace". A thin black man, dubbed "The Kenyan", finished his warm up and lined up at the front of the pack. As I expected, slow runners began lining up in my area. Usually I politely tolerate this, but today I pushed closer to the front ahead of them. I didn't have time to weave past them at the beginning. The thin unshaven unshowered man next to me had a jersey on with a little "New Zealand" in the upper left chest. "Looks like I'm not the only non American in the race...", I joked. He chuckled nervously. He managed to share that he was from New Zealand but living in Nevada and was in town to visit relatives but really was here to run a race. He was worried about starting out too fast...

The race began after a ten minute delay. I pushed my way to the starting line. No more Mr. Nice Guy and getting passed by everybody at the beginning. This was a new philosophy: start like Seabiscuit. I was going to push the first mile, hoping to finish that mile in 7 minutes, then push the downhill section which was almost another mile, and finally settle into a 7:30 pace for the rest of the race. The point was to get ahead of the crowd so as to not waste energy trying to maneuver through them or being boxed in.

The first mile was uphill. The mouth dryness was bothering me. I didn't think it was dehydration as it had started before the race, but it wasn't helping at all. Still, I pushed on and managed to finish the first mile in 7 minutes. Now on to the downhill section I had been practicing for months. Most recreational runners are uncomfortable on downhills, but I am confident and comfortable with them. And I didn't slip. I finished mile 2 at 14:15.

Now the race flattened out until mile 6. My mouth finally moistened up at about the three mile mark. That first 3 miles was finished at 21:22. At the time I realized vaguely that it was a personal best time. Unfortunately, the lack of sleep prevented me from realizing that A. It was a 43 minute 10K pace, much faster than my predicted finish and hence likely too fast and B. It was a 7:07 mile pace, again too fast to expect to sustain. I think that even had my sleep deprived brain been able to accomplish the simple math, the ability to decide to slow down was not there. So I continued to race at that pace.

Mile 4 was finished at 29:12, a 7:15 mile pace. Mile 5 was finished at 37:34, a 7:31 mile pace. I glanced at my watch at the five mile mark and noticed I was there at 37 minutes. My goal was 45 minutes. I thought I was on track to make my time, but again, my sleep deprived brain could not do the math. I needed to finish that final 1.2 miles in 7 minutes 26 seconds in order to make my goal. That is a 6:12 per mile pace. And the final mile was uphill.

It was a moot point anyway. The wheels fell off after 5 miles. In running terms, I bonked. I couldn't even hear my playlist cadences, let alone move my feet that fast. I reverted to my natural resting pace. My head started telling me to stop or walk. But then I saw my mom and niece and nephew waving and cheering for me. And somewhere ahead near the finish my wife waited. "No," I thought, "I may not be running my fastest, but there is no way I am going to let my family watch me walk to the finish." I also realized that to them it appeared that I was running hard. So I stood up straight and started swinging my arms and pushing as hard as I could.

By the time I could see the finish line, the race clock read 47:40 with 40 yards left to run. I could not accept that I had come ten months and hundreds of training miles only to run 48 minutes or longer. This race had to be a personal best, if only by a few seconds. Other runners were sprinting past me to the finish, inspiring me to push on. I could see the seconds ticking down as I got closer...45, 46, 47...my legs and lungs burned...50, 51, 52...waves of nausea passed over me as I fought off the dry heaves...53...Once last glance at the clock before I crossed the line showed 47 minutes.

My head was spinning. I could barely stand, let alone keep moving as one of the race volunteers shouted at me to get out of the finish area. Somehow I walked to the chip removal area where a young lady snipped the timing chip off my shoe. The dry heaves began again. I wandered to a picnic pavilion and laid down on the concrete floot. The world was spinning.

47:54. I had beat my personal best by 6 seconds. On no sleep. At 4600 feet of elevation. Uphill for the first and last mile.

10 Mile Training Run

I can tell that the hills are making me stronger. My weekend ten milers include a downhill for the first 1.5 miles, two large hills in a row for mile 4, steep uphill a mountain for mile 5.5-6.5, steep downhill for mile 6.5 to 7 and mile 9-10 are uphill. No more flat 10 miles for me.

I like the down hill portions. They are perfect because the most important parts of the Freedom Run are downhill: the start and the finish. I am working on making the initial downhill mile my fastest. That is, I run as hard as I can in that first mile to keep the crowd behind me and then settle into my race pace. I am practicing running that first mile hard without being winded on my subsequent miles. I can see improvement in that area.

Also, I am working on running hard on the final uphill miles -- at race pace if possible. Because if you're not tired at mile 9 then you won't be tired at mile 6.

I feel strong. I feel confident. I am still excited to run the race in Provo.

D-Day

Not many people remember, but today is the anniversary of D-day. I had no relatives who stormed the beach in Normandy, but I had two great uncles who fought in the Pacific. One was wounded in Bataan and the other was wounded at Guadacanal. I thought about them today on my ten mile run.

Mile 5 of the run is up a mountain about 400 feet. I pretended they were hills at Juno Beach and kept telling myself to "get up those hills."

I also saw two fawns that were just barely bigger than a chihuahua. I stopped to watch them for a few seconds before they scampered into the bushes.

Physically I felt fine once I started running, but it was a struggle to get out of bed and get moving. Feet, knees, legs and everything else felt really good. I ran the ten miles in 1 hour 21 minutes, which is one of my better runs.

Countdown to Provo

July 4th is coming soon. About 4 more weeks to train. My training schedule is now simple: 30 mile weekends and two speed sessions. I will run 10 miles on Saturday, Sunday and Monday morning. Tuesday and Friday are rest days. Wednesday will be 1/2 mile intervals with a 2 minute rest on a treadmill at 9.0 mph. Thursday is an 8 mile run on a treadmill. The first two miles at 7.0 mph, the next two miles at 7.5 the next two at 8.0 and the final two miles at 8.5 mph. All sessions are followed by ninety minutes of stretching, IT band massage and ice.

I can't say I'm nervous about the race, but I am thinking about it all the time. Running the course last year was a great idea because now I can visualize the race and how I want to run. I imagine myself charging out of the start and running hard for the first mile to avoid getting boxed in like at the Times Colonist. I am running hills now and imagining that they are the big hill at the finish of the race. I am at peace with the race and confident that if I complete my training schedule then I will physically be ready to do well. I have also come to peace with my own limits and no longer feel burdened by having to win the race. If I get 45 minutes in Provo I will feel great.

Physically I feel great. I have no injuries at this point. I just bought new shoes and they should be broken in but still fresh by July. I am sleeping well and have no symptoms of overtraining at this point.

I can't wait to start my 10 milers this weekend.

Times Colonist Part II: Be Like Seabiscuit!

I have admit that I was very disappointed in my race at the TC 10K. I honestly was expecting 40-45 minutes. But I have reconstructed a time line of mistakes and what I learned from them so that I am better for my goal race, the Provo Freedom Run 10K on July 4.

6 days before the race: I decide that my taper will consist of one hard ten miler the Monday before the race and then no running at all for five days. The thinking was that my legs will be fully rested for the run.

3 days before the race: I decide that my race plan will be to run the first 5K slow and the second 5K fast. The rationale is that by purposely running slower I don't risk burning out in the first 1/2 of the race, and I had some fast 5K training runs in the three weeks leading up to the race. If I could save some energy for the final 5K I could rip off another fast 5K.

The night before the race: I decide that my cadences will be 184 bpm for the first 5K and then jump to 196bpm and 224bpm for the final 5K.

The day of the race: I wake up at 6:00 AM for an 830 AM start. There was no rationale, I just couldn't sleep any more...

So here we are at the race. Actually 13000 people is alot more than I thought. I was warming up by running around the block but had to stop when the crowds of runners got too thick to run in. So I decided to walk up to the race start and eventually found a quiet corner where a couple of elite women runners were warming up. You could tell they were elite because they had impressive warm up stretches, cool sunglasses and shiny singlets. That and their race number said "elite".

So with about fifteen minutes to the race start I decided to get to my official starting area before it got too crowded. My race number was green because my estimated finish time was 45 minutes. So I was proud to line up in the green area near the front...until I look around and see just about every color lined up in my area. The nerve! I worked all winter for that race start position and these posers were crowding my space. I should have taken that for a clue.

Mayor Fortin was speaking before the race. Telling lame jokes etc and at one point even welcomed everybody to the tenth annual Times Colonist 10K race...except all the marketing posters, flags, t shirts etc said 20th Annual Times Colonist 10K. I don't think anyone else was listening to him though...

So we counted down the start and off we went. So here is where my decisions started to play a role. My five day taper had made my legs a little stiff. Combine that with a decision to start slow and me forgetting to start my stop watch meant that instead of running the first kilometer in 4:30, I ran it in 6:00! Except I didn't know that when I got to the 1K marker, because I hadn't started my stop watch...I guesstimated that I had run it in 5:00.

Also, I underestimated the size of the crowd. Its one thing to let 400 people run past you at the beginning and then to fight your way past the crowd later like I did at last years Victoria Marathon 8K. But it is quite another problem to let thousands bolt past you at the start and then try to fight your way through them later on. It was a disaster. The course quickly narrowed and I spent kilometer 2-5 boxed in at a 5-6 minute kilometer pace.

I hit the second half of the race discouraged by my time and worn out. I wasn't worn out from the pace, I was worn out by the mental effort of running through crowds. Then my fast cadences started. The problem was that although I had run to each individual song before in training, I had never run to each song in a row for a full sustained 5 kilometers. It became readily apparent that I could not maintain the pace. Unfortunately, I had not put any backup medium tempo cadences in the playlist, so I had to revert back to my slow tempo cadence the rest of the way. I pushed as hard as I could, but could never get into a rhythm. I was happy to cross the line at 48, because it sure felt alot harder than that.

Afterwards I got some advice from my brother Aaron. He races triathlons. First of all, it was nice to have another athlete to discuss the race with. Non competitive runners just don't understand what its like to train for months and then come up with a disappointing effort when it matters. Anyhow, he pointed out that the problem was traffic management and race tactics. Without going into details the new strategy is to attack the first kilometer and then run the race, attacking when the course allows and settling when it doesn't.

Its not my style to run hard at first. I need a couple of kilometers to get loosened up then I take off. But that is what cost me the race. A friend at church pointed out that Seabiscuit was the same way. Remember Seabiscuit? In order for him to race War Admiral, they had to retrain him to run hard right at he beginning. So I have to be like Seabiscuit. I have to train to run hard at the start without dying at the finish.

Times Colonist Part 1

Today I ran my first big race of the year, the Times Colonist 10K. It is a good gauge of how I am doing after my winter training. My unofficial time (i.e. my own stopwatch) was 47:10. It was a fairly comfortable run that started out with me getting passed by just about everybody, as usual. The race had almost 13000 entrants so I spent alot of time getting boxed in and trying to politely run through crowds.

I'll post more when I get my official time tomorrow.

Speed Training and Sharpening

I have finally entered the speedwork phase of my training. The mileage is cut down a little bit but the tempo and cadences are definitely faster. The main training days are Wednesday (880 meter or half mile repeats) and Thursday (1-3 miles at six minute mile pace.) These training sessions are done on a treadmill. I am up to 6 half mile repeats at 9.5 mph (6:18 minutes/mile) and eventually will work up to 12 half mile repeats at that pace over the next 6-8 weeks. I can finish one mile at 10 mph and will keep working until I can run that pace for 3 miles straight.

My weekend running (Friday - Monday) consists of 6-14 mile runs with sections run at my goal pace or faster. I also practice my race plan. My race plan is to run the first 4.5km at 4:30 km pace/cadence. The second half of the race will be run at 3:30km pace/cadences.

Its amazing to think that a year ago I was injuring myself trying to run 5 minute kilometers. Now that is a warmup pace.