Race Recap: 2016 FootChase 5K

Well knock on wood but 2016 is off to a much better start than 2015!  Today is almost to the day the one year anniversary of the beginning of the worst stretch of running in the history of Jason.  That, of course, excludes the first 19 years of my sedentary life.  But here I am, version 42.6 and back at it.

Tobacco Road was a great experience and I was fairly happy with the results but when it was over it was over and I was left that 'what's next' void.  I guess I have the Bear to look forward to which I have to assume is similar to looking forward to a vasectomy.  I mean I've never had a vasectomy but that can't be much worse.  I'm also going to be checking the AJC Peachtree 10K off the bucket list on July 4th but I'm not all that interested in running in circles time and time and time again to get faster at the moment.  Although I did just run hill repeats and I think that was even worse.

I started perusing for local races and there was certainly no shortage this time of year.  I had heard great things about the FootChase race but I was a little nervous about racing two weeks after the half.  I know several guys that race week after week but I'm still skittish after my rash of overuse injuries last year.  About a week ago there was a brief sighting of my legs one afternoon so I decided to see if there were any spots available.  The race wasn't full but it did happen to land on my wife's birthday.  Plus I still didn't have a car since Bambi's mammoth sized mama decided dance on my hood.  So do I steal her car, slip out of the house early, and leave her stranded on what's supposed to be her day?  Yup. 

I checked the participant list and it was full of people I knew.  I had also really been looking forward to running a RunTimeRaces event but the scheduling just hasn't worked out.  Since I was completely out of excuses I formally decided that I would be one of those last minute entrants that misses every discount along the way and gets the no shirt guarantee.  I guess when you sign up that late you get what you deserve.  Signing up was quick and easy and I really like the run sign up design.  The race menu gives you a quick look at the event information and the find a participant lookup gives you a chance to see who's signed up.  That's sort of a blessing and a curse but it's nice to know who's running and roughly how many people to expect.

My last two races were the kind where you wake up at 4:00 or 5:00 am to catch a shuttle to somewhere with no parking then sit around and wait forever to run.  And that's just as much fun as it sounds.  Running locally is great because I'm actually able to sleep in later than I do when I have a long run planned.  Taking full advantage of this I was up just before 7:00 and out the door 15 minutes later -- and I was still early!  I was a little worried about parking because there were 400 or so people signed up to participate but just as advertised there was plenty of parking.

The weather was perfect but it was a little windy at times especially to be so early.  Within minutes of arriving I was met by a trio of RTR's finest -- Kelly Stewart, Chris Fulbright, and William Adair.  These guys along with the rest of their ambassadors are genuinely appreciative of everyone that attends their events and it shows.  There was pre-race music, packet pickup was quick and easy, and the Conover Park really makes for a great pre and post race setup.  

I knew the inevitable pre-race bathroom visit was fast approaching so I decided to be slick and enjoy the comforts of the CVS bathroom down the street.  For future reference, it's not located on a runner friendly street and most importantly, CVS doesn't open until 8:00 am on Saturday.  Having my heart set on something other than a porta-potty I decided I had time to make it to the YMCA (farther down the street) and back with a few minutes to spare.  Just to clarify, the number of porta-pots was more than adequate - I'm just an idiot with a one track mind sometimes. 

I haven't run this particular course before but I've run parts of it in different races.  I knew it was fairly flat but I wasn't sure how my legs would respond to a spur of the moment 5K after a couple weeks of moderate running.  My goal was to run as close to a 6:00 pace as possible and not hate myself for doing it.  I found Donald Keller up front and figured if I could stay in his general vicinity I would be fine.

The gun went off and about 18 of us started out at a 5:02 pace.  True story, because I just checked my Garmin and I watched the video.  That pace lasted about 0.2 of a mile although the two kids that placed 1st and 2nd (Chatham Ellwanger and Ethan Deffke) might have that in their future while I, most certainly do not.  For me every 5K starts the same with my body giving me a reaction as if to say WTF?!  and I never have a good answer.  That could be my body telling me I'm an idiot for even momentarily running a 5 pace or it could be that my warm up runs are spent looking for offsite restrooms as opposed to actually warming up.  Eventually I settled in and knew, or at least hoped it would be over soon.

The first mile was smooth and comfortable at 5:57 with Donald and I running step for step.  I knew the leaders were both younger and faster plus they looked very comfortable so I just wanted to keep them in sight to avoid missing a turn.  In a lot of these local races it's not uncommon to see a lot of separation up front which can get tricky on a course that's not well marked.  Losing the leader is no big deal.  Losing the pace car can be a problem if there's nobody to follow.  That wasn't an issue here as there were cones practically lining the entire 5K route so you'd really have to give your best effort to mess this up.

I found a pretty good rhythm and managed 5:53 for the second mile and felt good about hitting that 6:00 race pace.  Of course that's about the time I made the turn that put us running directly into the wind.  It wasn't a gale force wind or anything but it was enough to make the subtle incline of the last mile feel a little less subtle.  Once we made it across the tracks through main street the course flatted out and turned away from the wind.  The final turn towards the finish starts with a short speed bump of a hill before the longer stretch of a downhill finish.  I managed 6:07 for the 3rd mile and a time of 18:50 with a 5:58 pace good for 3rd place.  Donald finished a few seconds behind but it's worth noting that he was in the middle of a 70 mile week and would bang out 20 miles at a 7:11 clip the next day.  William Adair was never far behind finishing 6th and was the 1st overall master's winner.

After the race there was plenty of fruit, bottled water, and PDQ was there with apple slices and their caramel / chocolate chunk dip.  All participants also received a ticket for free chicken tender meal from PDQ.  Real-time results were available electronically with laptops setup that allowed you to enter your bib and print your time and placement.  In the following days 700+ pictures were posted online and available for free.  There is also a finish line video available just in case the still shots aren't unflattering enough.  The overall and age group medals are a great look and resemble an officer's badge.  The top 3 overall and overall master's winners also received a nice Nathan water bottle and a bag full of stuff from GNC.     

Overall it was a great day.  It was nice to catch up with a lot of friends that I haven't seen much of lately and it feels good to be running with familiar faces again.  Plus GNC awarded me with a supplement for stress and anxiety, a weight loss supplement, and a supplement that I expect to increase my strength by 147% in addition to some other good stuff.  So don't be surprised if the next time you see me I'm laid back and stress free because I've lost weight and gained muscle.  Seriously.  Just wait...(but don't hold your breath on the muscle part)
 

2016 Tobacco Road Half Marathon Race Recap

I had every intention of posting a preview before the recap but obviously that didn't happen.  I started one but the preview quickly became one long, rambling run-on sentence in the form of a therapeutic gripe session about my disastrous pre-race week.  Of course that resembles practically every other blog I've posted to date so I'm not sure what stopped me from posting it.

In short, I spent the Monday-Wednesday before the race in the DC area for work.  I missed my last quality workout on Tuesday which was 8 miles with 6x800 in the middle.  I made that up on Wednesday, a gorgeous but windy lunch run around a cobblestone block on streets I wasn't familiar with.  Twenty-three laps around kids in strollers, fire hydrants, and hordes of people walking to lunch or just out enjoying the day.  Not really conducive to running 800s but an hour later and it was done.  Wednesday at midnight I had the misfortune of hitting a deer on my way home, at midnight, going 75 mph, in the middle of nowhere VA.  Or maybe it was more the deer's misfortune?  Soon I would be checking into a hotel in Durham and would spend more time than I wanted the next day with the insurance adjuster, the repair shop, and Enterprise. And none of that went very smoothly.

By Friday things were back to normal with the exception of me in a rental car for the unforeseeable future.  For the first Saturday in months there was no long run on the calendar so I slept in until all of 8:30, then ate breakfast, took Landon to baseball evaluations and circled back to catch Sam's first Lacrosse game.  At 1:00 I was finally on the road to the expo to pick up my bib and get checked in.

The Allscripts Tobacco Road Marathon and GNC Half Marathon is in Cary, NC and is predominately run on the American Tobacco Trail (ATT) with roughly 2 miles on paved roads leading to the trail head with those same 2 miles leading back to the finish.  The ATT surface is a crushed granite / packed dirt type surface that's mostly flat with a few subtle rolling hills that are more felt that seen but overall it is a fast course.  Both the marathon and the half run these paved sections with the full marathon going right on the trail and the half taking a left.  The half is a simple down and back while the full is a down and back the other direction that circles back eventually picks up the half marathon course. 

This is really a fairly small event with 4,000 runners combined in the full and half but it has the amenities of some much larger marathons.  The race is very reasonable if you register early, starting at $50 in April and gradually increases to $100 in November when procrastinators like me register.  The half marathon always sells out early so you can't count on last minute or race day entry for 13.1.  And I highly recommend purchasing the parking pass to the USA Baseball Complex where the race begins and ends.  The alternative is having someone drop you off or taking the race sponsored shuttles which are free of charge.  More on that later.

The race expo is usually at the Sheraton and run by Inside Out Sports so there's plenty of gear for purchase and gels / fuels to sample.  I typically go to the expo to pick up my bib and then I'm on my merry way so I'm probably not the one to critique an expo but if I would have forgotten something I could have gotten it here.

The race really promotes itself as a Boston Qualifier and since this is where I earned my first BQ I can certainly attest to that.  They also add a very nice touch by awarding Boston Qualifier tech shirts once your time is verified with official results.  I'm not sure if this is something they started in the last few years or if I just completely overlooked these a few years ago as I was walking around in a daze.  These are really cool shirts though and a very neat incentive to choosing Tobacco Road as your qualifier.

The website suggests that 10% of their runners qualify for Boston and I feel certain that's accurate.  I do believe the high qualifying rate is largely a product of the $17K in prize money combined with the relatively small field size.  Cash prizes are awarded for Top 3 male, female, active military, and masters for both the full and half.  That kind of money in a race this size is always going to draw some talent.  But again, it is a fast course and one to consider for a BQ especially if you're looking for a spring race.

Since I didn't run the full marathon and try to avoid all thoughts of the physical misery I was in when I ran it a few years ago I'll stick to reviewing the half from here on.  I checked in about 5:00 on Saturday, got a quick shake-out run in, then hit up a Jersey Mike's for dinner, and made a grocery store run for some water and a pre-race bagel.  After my running around I was in bed by 8:30 and excited about the prospect of actually getting a decent sleep in but little did I know...

I started watching the Carolina / Virginia game and it was just close enough to keep me interested.  Then I started to stress a little about the time change and getting my alarm to go off at the right time.  I knew my iPhone would automatically adjust for daylight savings but it was just enough to wonder what if...  By 11:00 I was still up and decided I might as well give it until midnight to verify the change and that I was good to go.  Yes, like an idiot I was thinking the change would show up at midnight even though I knew the change didn't actually happen until 2:00 am.  Eventually I decided to work from the antiquated digital alarm clock as my back up but I still couldn't sleep.

I started reading up on the shuttles and their suggestion to be there as close to 5:00 am as possible with shuttles running until 6:15 for runners.  The race didn't start until 8:00 this year rather than 7:00 as in prior years presumably to avoid being on the ATT before sunrise.  I did the math and realized I was going to be on site 2 hours before the race started and wasn't terribly excited about it but whatever.  By this time it was almost 1:00 am which was really 2:00 am and I needed to be up at 4:30 am.  Eventually I would see my phone go from 1:59 am to 3:00 am so for anybody that doesn't believe take my word for it and don't wait up for proof.  So I got a solid 1.5 hours sleep, ate my bagel and peanut butter, and headed to the shuttle.

The shuttles were actually chartered buses, completely free, and run back and forth all day for runners and spectators.  Parking was at an industrial center type lot with ample parking so that wasn't an issue either.  I boarded the first bus and was among the first runners on site.  On one hand I had officially arrived to the start on time and I hadn't forgotten anything which is often half the battle.  On the other hand I was going on 1.5 hours sleep and had more than 2 hours before the race started to do absolutely nothing.  I spent the next hour laid out like a buffet on the concrete sidewalk using my soon-to-be checked bag as a pillow which wasn't exactly full of fluffy comfort.  If I had a parking pass my car would have been on site in the parking lot (there is limited parking hence the required pass) and I could have gotten at least another hour of sleep plus I could have sat in the comfort of my rental car where there just happened to be a blanket.

From the time I started rehabbing after running Boston last year my goal was to get healthy, build my base back up, follow that with the speed, and try to better my half marathon time which was (spoiler alert) and still is 1:25:37.  I ran that at Thunder Road at the end of 2013 so while that was close to my peak fitness, I've never heard Thunder Road (and it will always be TR to me) referred to as a fast course.  A target time of 1:25 sounded reasonable and just so happened to be the standard half marathon time that could guarantee my entry into the NY Marathon so that became my number.  Training has gone very well and I've hit all of my targets on the track and intervals plus I haven't missed a workout in months.  The Hot Chocolate 15K in January was to gauge my fitness or temper my expectations so when I ran that difficult course with a million turns and a wind chill in teens at under a 6:30 pace I felt pretty good about my chances of a personal best at Tobacco Road.

Two weeks before the race I knocked out 15 miles at an average 7:00 pace finishing with 6 miles at a sub 6:30 pace so I was cautiously optimistic but was also well aware that more than just training goes into that perfect race.  Since the first couple miles to the trail are primarily uphill the plan was to start smart and not too fast, hit the trail and lock in on 6:30's.  Doing just that I went 6:38 and 6:41 to the trail with the next three mile splits at 6:22 / 6:14 / 6:24.  At mile 6 it was noticeably warmer and more humid than I was used to.  I still felt comfortable but my splits slowed a bit to 6:34, 6:35 at the turn around and 6:35 through mile 8.  Going into the race I felt like I could make up some time in the last 2 miles since it's a downhill finish but I was really starting to labor.  Mile 9 was at 6:47 which was a little demoralizing because I knew I needed to be at 1:05 through 10 miles and that put me 30 seconds off of my 1:05 target.

Even though this is mostly a flat and fast course there are some slight elevation changes and mile 10 includes a subtle climb and I dropped a 7:06.  I don't remember seeing that as I was running because I was focused on the 10 mile split so I'm kinda glad I missed that.  It's really not that bad of a climb, I just sucked ass for that particular seven minutes and six seconds.  That put me at 1:06 through 10 miles so I knew it wasn't my day to PR.  I managed to regroup and hang on finishing the last 3 miles at 6:48 / 6:42 / 6.36 for a time of 1:27:07 and a 6:37 pace.  That was good for 28th overall and a 2nd age group award which was a nice Under Armor backpack with the Tobacco Road logo stitched in it.  I was really happy with my placing because there were a lot of quality runners there but after putting in the work it still stings a little not to see it reflected in my time.  All in all it was a good day and a great event and there's really nothing I could have, or would have done differently.  Except maybe register early enough to buy a parking pass and maybe get more sleep Saturday night.


A few weeks ago, before the LA Marathon, I read an open message from a runner in California (Jimmy Freeman) to the folks running that weekend.  It read, "appreciate the moment where you aim to be better than you've ever been before.  Pushing for a personal best distance or time is a courageous thing.  It's a special day and moment when that is possible, even if it doesn't happen, you'll learn something about yourself.  No matter what happens by the time you cross the finish line, let go of the bad moments but learn from them and celebrate the day.  One never knows which race or day will be our last so appreciate this one like it could be.  There are many people on the sideline that would trade your worst running day for whatever they are dealing with."  I saved the post and refer to it often for perspective and today it was very fitting.

This is definitely a race worth running and it's only about a 2.5 hour drive from the Hickory area.  There's a strong Charlotte / Cornelius presence as well and you can generally count on Bobby Aswell being there.  Running his second marathon in as many weeks he ran a 3:23 on a really warm day which just hurts me to think about.  Chas Willimon, another Reckless Runner from that area was there running the half and really pulled me through most of the race.  Chas was also an age group winner so thanks for dragging me along today and congrats to you both.

There's quite a spread after the race as well in addition to live music througout the day. Admittedly I'm not the most social butterfly in the world so I didn't stick around long but there was beer, pizza, orange slices, water, chocolate milk, and samples of various breads and recovery stuff.  Again if you're looking for big race bells and whistles and a smaller venue this is it.

So while it wasn't the day I wanted it was the day I got and I'm certainly not going to sulk over missing my target on a hot day.  Alright so maybe I've sulked a little and maybe I have compared the times to prior years.  Maybe I took some comfort in other guys commenting on their race plan and how it went awry but really, I promise I'm not going to complain or mentally justify it -- for at least another hour...

Happy running and good luck to all of you Palmetto 200 guys next weekend!