Yesterday, along with several coworkers, I participated in the Fifth Annual Akron Road Runner Marathon's team relay. This is actually the third time in four years that I've run this event (I missed last years event due to the birth of William), each time running the same 10k (6.2 mile) leg (the one that runs through the University of Akron and finishes up in Sand Run park). I enjoy this route because it gives me the best of both worlds, one being running through downtown with all the crowds and excitement and the other running on the trail in nature and solitude.
So this race kicks off early. 7:00 a.m. start time. Not too bad but considering that we wanted to meet at 6:30 downtown for some group pictures made it an early wake up. Running competitively is something new to me. I have what I need to do to prepare myself for a bike race down to a science, whether it is a criterium or road race. Running I just don't have figured out yet so I figured a safe bet would be to try to utilize the portions of my pre-race preparations that I could for this one which would be my pre-race meal, oatmeal and juice. I knew oatmeal is probably a little heavy but with my start time somewhere around 8:15 I assumed eating it two hours early would be perfect timing for when my body needed that fuel.
After the start, I went with two of my coworkers down another block to watch the runners go through downtown and cheer on my teammates Bob Medziuch and Ben Rantilla (Hasenstab Architects fielded two teams, a 'competitive' team that I was a part of and a 'fun team'.) Once we saw them come though as scheduled, we began the long walk to our start point for our warm up and stretching. At my start point, the place is littered with runners of all shapes and sizes. It's amazing to see how many people come out to partake in this event. It's been fun to be running in the parks and just seeing the mass of runners out doing their training runs as well. After a thorough stretch and last minute run to the bathroom, I waited in the mob for my teammate, Ed Paine to come through. We had loosely calculated times so we knew when to expect them to get there, but with the mass of people, it could get very confusing so we wanted to be safe and make sure we were attentive really early so we didn't loose any time trying to find each other in the transitions. (I noticed several teams have this issue this year). Once I received the bracelet from Ed I was off. Within the first few hundred feet I heard the shouts of support from several coworkers who came out to cheer us on. I'm glad they saw me then because who knows how lousy I will look at the end of this thing. The last time I ran this I completed it in 43 minutes, 20 seconds. This year my only goal was to complete my leg in under 45 minutes as I wasn't real confident in my fitness this year. Straight out of the gate I was running fast, too fast in hindsight but our office was having a competition against another architect in town and I knew those guys had a four minute head start on me....I was hoping to close that down and ideally gain some time in my leg. Running through the University and downtown I felt great. One thing about bike racing is that besides the few supportive spouses that come out, there's nobody to cheer you on. At this event, there are literally thousands of folks out there cheering you on and being supportive. If only cycling could capture some of that fan base....I digress. I'm running through downtown and I finally find my stride, somewhere I thought to be around 7 minute per mile pace. I'm finally feeling good and passing tons of people like they're marching in the Macy's Day parade. As I make the right hand turn onto the towpath trail by the Mustill Store I look at my watch.....just over 13 minutes. OK, this is about two miles in and I'm at 13 minutes....6 minute, 30 second pace...too fast. I might pay big time for this early effort as I know there is no way I can sustain this effort for the next 4.2 miles. It's probably best to slow it down a touch so I don't completely explode out here and leave my teammates in a bind trying to collect the thousands of little pieces that will be me stretched out over the trail. As I'm running on the trail I find myself trying to focus on the task at hand. One part of me is wondering how Nicholas is doing in the kids fun run another part of me is wishing I had my iPod with me and the last part is beginning to realize that I'm beginning to hurt a little bit. Focus Miner, focus. I switch back to the mode of concentrating on nothing else but my breathing and my stride. If I could stay focused on that I wouldn't focus on the pain that was settling in. At the halfway point I took one last look at my watch and saw just under 21 minutes. Perfect. I had slowed down a little bit too much but if I could pick it back up a little I had a legitimate shot of finishing this thing somewhere around 42 minutes. The next two miles became difficult. In cycling I know what it's like to suffer and work through this. I can honestly say that I have never suffered like I did that day running that leg. That oatmeal was settling right with me and I learned that if I didn't throttle things down a little bit, I would be getting sick. So, the trick became run as fast as I can until I feel like I'm going to get sick and then slow up a tad until that feeling goes away. It worked, I didn't get sick but next time I'm going to stay away from the oatmeal and find something a little lighter, at least for a fast 10k event. Knowing I needed to slow down a little bit I was really worried about my goal time of 45 minutes. I figured it was totally lost now because I felt like I was running a 10 minute per mile pace between miles 3.5 and 5. Once I hit that last mile I knew I was virtually in the finishing stretch and I pushed it as hard as I possibly could. Finally emerging from the towpath on Akron-Peninsula road I had several coworkers and teammates there to cheer me on which was huge because at this point I felt like (and probably looked like) the walking dead. One last tough section of my course to finish, the hill up Portage Path to finish in Sand Run parkway. After 6 miles of running, any slight change in elevation seems huge but I felt like I was trying to climb up Mt. Everest at this point. Fortunately I had another coworker further up the road to cheer me which helped carry me through to my transition point. As I made the last turn onto the parkway, I took off that bracelet in anticipation of the exchange but also as a sign of get this thing off of me...I am done. Nevermind I still had a few hundred feet to run, if only I could take off these few additional ounces maybe that would lighten the load on my feet and get me there quickly. Safely making the exchange to Chris Betts I stopped my watch, 43minutes, 33 seconds. Wow, for as badly as I felt in those last few miles, I never would have imagined that I would have finished up with a time like that.
So, there it is, my running performance and finally another blog post for everyone to enjoy. Congratulations to all my teammates and coworkers for putting in an amazing performance. In the end, Hasenstab Architect's competitive team finished with a time of 3 hrs, 10 minutes and 49 seconds. The best ever performance by our group and good enough to put us in seventh place overall in the Men's Team Relay division. I've said it before but for a bunch of non-runners who don't train more than a few months prior to the race, I think that's really an incredible effort. I also begin to question my ability. Given that I trained for this, but not intensely, would I make a better runner than cyclist? Should I consider switching my focus? Who knows. One thing I do know is that at some point in the near future, I would like to complete a marathon. Maybe next year.
brian
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