Boulevard Bolt Results

The official results are in and it looks like I'm still good at math. My predicted time was exactly right: 42:54 which is a new PR by 3 seconds! Not much, but still more than I thought I was going to be capable of that day. Out of 1370 runners with chips I was 60th in the 30-34 age group, 404th in my gender and 549th overall. My friend beat me by 44 seconds which I was expecting, but after I got to the finish and realized I had done better than I thought I would, I kinda hoped I had beat him. Oh well, I'll get you next time!

Boulevard Bolt 2008 - Nashville, TN

This morning was my first race with more than a couple hundred people in it (7900 roughly) so I thought I'd give a race report.

5:15 - 1st alarm went off and I groaned.

5:30 - 2nd alarm went off and surprisingly I got up (a typical work morning takes about 5 alarms and 2 hours). This could be because I was done icing (my leg, not a cake) and in bed by 9:15 last night.

5:40 - With contacts put in and eye buggers removed I start to get ready. I fired up the toaster and got my pre-race bagel with peanut butter. I proceed with my soon-to-be-patented method of intermittently getting dressed, stretching and eating the pb bagel. If you're thinking that's a sight that you don't want to see.. you are correct!

6:00 - Flip on the morning news, not for any purpose really, just because I've always wondered what they talk about at 6:00 am. Turn on the laptop and check the current temp (37) and race time temp (41). Double check that I have my new Nike gloves and hat. Update MySpace and Twitter with my current status because I'm sure everyone I know got up early to verify that my statuses matched what they already knew I was going to be doing.

6:20 - Jeffery shows up right on time. We pin on our numbers and get ready to head out.

6:30 - Walk out into what is most certainly NOT 37 degree weather! We head towards the race and in my zombie mode (it's because I was talking instead of paying attention) I head towards downtown like I'm going to work.

7:05 - After a slight detour we arrive at the race and park probably a half mile or so away. We walk over to the registration tents where I pick up my timing chip. Potty break (in the one that wobbled so I had to keep a foot planted in a certain corner to keep it from tipping) before the huge crowd gets in line. Jo Dee Mesina was on stage as part of the pre-race festivities, but not singing. I think the mayor was up there too, with a race number on.

7:26 - We are in line (and by line I mean huge crowd of people) near the start figuring out where to go. 2 women ask me what time it is since they see my Garmin and I explain that we were just discussing how I didn't know how to find the time on it. I eventually figured it out.

7:45 - Still no sign of John or Amber or anyone else that we know there. They have corrals for different pace groups so we get in the Under 45 Minutes thinking that would probably be about right. A rabbi from 1 of the sponsoring churches offers the longest prayer I've ever heard.

7:55 - The start of the wheelchair division which only included 1 person. I guess it's awesome to know that no matter what you get 1st place in your division, but that's still gotta suck to start all by yourself.

8:00 - Someone forgot the number 3 and announced "1....2....." and so we begin... to walk. A couple of minutes later we get to a huge banner stretched over the road that says "START" which for some reason I thought signified the start line so I started my Garmin. 10 seconds later we crossed the real start line which was the chip mat.

And we're off!

0 mi - Immediately I regret the corral we got in because there is no way anyone was on a 9:00mpm pace. I weaved around people and ran on the grass median to try to get up to the group I should be with, all the while my Garmin beeping at me telling me to speed up.

0.9 mi - I see the "1 Mile" sign ahead and really thought I had already gone farther than that. True I should have known, but I was only paying attention to pace on my Garmin.

1.66 mi - We see the 1st group of runners coming up the other side of the street which would put them around the 3.5 mark.. Discouraging.

2 mi - Water station and wisely this time I decide to come to a complete stop for 3 seconds so I can drink the water instead of wearing it. Success!

2.4 mi - The turn-around; which means more uphills than the first leg and the sun in my face instead of on my back.

3 mi - After running downtown so much my body is used to brief stops for traffic, lights, unobservant pedestrians, etc. So at 3 miles with only a 3 second stop for water so far I decided to do what I've been used to doing in my normal runs. Well I didn't "stop", but I did walk for 5 seconds once I got to a flat section. I've found that sometimes it does me better in the long run to take a few seconds to walk and re-energize.

3.5 mi - At this point I am absolutely roasting. My warm hat becomes a sweat towel and my long sleeves get pushed up. Thank goodness I didn't wear tights or a jacket or anything else that would have made it worse. Although I would like to thank LOTS of women who did rock the tights this morning. You have no idea how much you motivated me! You can call me a pig or sexist or whatever you want.. I'm a guy and they were motivating.

4.25 mi - I look up and realize the woman running 5 feet in front of me is the same woman who I battled with in my last 5 mile race, the Halloween Hunt. I immediately told myself there is no way she was beating me this time and HTFU from my 9:00 pace to around 8:00. I will now have to change my argument that I've posted on RA a few times about how you should always be running your best and someone else shouldn't affect how you run. I guess the correct explanation is you should always be running your best, but sometimes another person can bring out something that you didn't realize you had in you. If it hadn't been for her I would not have sped up which you will see would have made a huge difference, pending official results.

4.9 mi - I round the corner of cheering people (none of which know me) and UP A HILL to the finish line. There's something strangely exciting about that final moment, with everyone cheering and encouraging you that I think is part of why I enjoy running. My pace jumps to around 6:00 mpm for the finale.

5.0 mi - I did it! I stop the Garmin as I cross the finish line and once I'm walking I look down at it. It says 43:04. No way. Take away the 10 seconds before I crossed the chip mat and that gives me a time of 42:54 which would beat my only other 5 mile race by 3 seconds. I will wait to get really excited until the official results come in, but regardless it's better than I was expecting to do. I guess the brief walking break didn't hurt me after all!

Now it's Turkey Time! Happy Thanksgiving! :D

Halloween Hunt 5 Mile Race

This morning I ran my longest race to date, 5 miles. I've run 5 miles several times, but this was the first time doing it with a piece of paper pinned to my shirt. It's a flat course, but most of it is around a lake at Long Hunter State Park and it loops twice so I was worried it would be kinda boring. It wasn't as bad as I expected because the leaves changing color made it a very scenic run and a little portion of it is on a bridge that crosses the lake. But between the fear of boredom and my knee, my primary goal was to finish in under 50 minutes with a secondary goal of finishing in under 45 minutes. I figured that was a long shot since my fastest time for 5 miles was 46:58 just a few days ago.

So me, my sister and my friend John all started off and we severely misjudged where to start because we had to run around a ton of people (a lot in costumes). John and my sister started off pretty fast and once we got around all the slower people I let them go so I wouldn't burn myself out. I ended up passing my sister sometime during the 2nd mile, but never passed John. They had people calling out times at the mile markers, but the one for mile 4 was at the wrong place and for a minute I thought I had somehow run a 7:28 mile. Garmin said otherwise.

As I rounded the corner where I could see the finish line I looked down at my watch and almost passed out. I crossed with the clock reading 42:58 and my Garmin (which I started when I crossed the start line) reading 42:50. How on earth did I run that fast and why am I not physically paying for it now!? Regardless I am ecstatic with that time even though I missed 5th place (and a snazzy coffee mug) by less than a minute. I knew I would set a PR since this is my first 5 mile race, but I'm glad it's one that I am happy about and proud of.

Splits (from Garmin time)
1 - 8:26
2 - 8:38
3 - 8:45
4 - 8:55
5 - 8:05 (Holy Crap!)
Overall Pace - 8:34

So in the end John finished ahead of me by about 15 seconds (I let him have this one after I embarrassed him at the 5k last month), I finished next and my sister came in just a hair over 45 minutes so we all had a good day. I didn't have anyone take pictures with my camera so I'll have pictures whenever other people get them to me. And now I will go drink my celebratory beer :)

Last run before the race

Tonight was the last run before my race on Saturday. Another friend joined us tonight so we had 3 people for our 5 mile run to Belmont and back. I didn't realize it until I downloaded the Garmin stats, but there were no positive splits and miles 2, 3 and 4 were all at a 9:24 pace which was also my overall pace. Not too bad considering the number of hills on that route. I even mentioned to one of the guys that the hills that used to seem huge to me a month ago now seem like nothing. I guess the word of the day is consistency!

My knee had the usual twinge for the first .5 mi then it was fine and this time the pain didn't come back around the 4 mile mark like normal which is good. I'm still planning on taking the next 2 days off just to be safe so my next post will be my first 5 mile race report :)

After taking another 2 days off I headed back out to the greenway to "run backwards" again, this time going for a total of 4 miles (with 2 walking breaks). Even though it's the same greenway I've grown bored of, it's a little refreshing to see it in a different way and the hills come sooner which changes the difficulty of the run.

In other news I officially registered me and my sister for the Halloween Hunt 5 Miler less than 2 weeks from now. Ok, now I just need to build up the endurance to run 5 miles again :)

Running Backwards

Ok not literally running backwards. I decided to start today's run at a different trailhead on the same greenway. As it turns out I think it's actually a little closer of a drive from my apartment, but starting where I did means the hills start just past the 1 mile mark. Unfortunately I'm an idiot and got all the way over there before I realized my knee brace was still at home.

So after going back home to get the knee brace I was ready to start my run. The hills may have come sooner, but there were 2 things about the hills that were awesome today. First, as I ran up the first hill I passed somebody which made me feel good (and she was cute which helped too). Second, as I ran down that same hill on my way back I realized I was done with hills for the day. Normally I'm running the other direction and going down it just makes me think about how I have to run right back up it after turning around.

In other news it looks like one of my sisters and my friend that ran the 5k with me are both going to run a 5 mile race with me @ Long Hunter State Park in just over 2 weeks! I'm excited and trying to be optimistic about my knee holding up. Assuming all is fine there I've also signed up for a 5 mile race on Thanksgiving day in Belle Meade to benefit a plethora of local charities.

Soles4Souls 5k

I was trying to wait for the official results to be posted, but they still aren't up. Yesterday's 5k, my first in nearly 7 years, ended up being a lot more difficult than I was hoping because I was just having one of those "off" days. It seemed harder than my 5.5 mile run 2 days earlier and I had to convince myself about 100 times not to quit.

In the end I did not quit, or walk and I finished somewhere around the 27:00 mark. It was about 27:06 when I crossed the finish line and whenever the chip time gets posted that should take 5-10 seconds off it because of where we started. I was hoping for a little better time, but since I wasn't having a great day I'm pretty pleased... and I beat my friend who has run 3 marathons :)


UPDATE: Of course a few minutes after my post the official results went up. I ended up with an official time of 26:51 which put me 5th in my age group, 23rd in my gender and 33rd overall. I was also the oldest in my age group :)