Charlottesville Men's Four Miler

Today is June 16th and I ran my second race of the year today, the Charlottesville Men's Four Miler. Ridiculous! Usually I've run close to a dozen races at this point in the year with the FARC Coldwell Banker Elite Grand Prix Series, the Marine Corps Historic Half, the Colonial Half-Marathon or various other races. But 2013 has been a slow year from me, mostly due to injuries. I started out the year injured, and started to recover in time to run the Civitan's 10K, but hurt myself again right before that race. Since then, I've been holding back a lot in training. Looking back, between Memorial Day and last Friday, I did zero workouts, took two days off, and ran no faster than 7:26 pace on any runs. I did one twelve-mile run last weekend that was very painful, but otherwise I was sticking to 4-6 mile runs for the most part. Not exactly the peak training that I would like to have under my belt heading into the celebration of our Nation's independence.

I mentioned earlier this week that I was going to run this race because of the team competition. I really enjoy being a part of the Ragged Mountain Racing Team, and didn't want to miss the opportunity to participate in the team competition. A couple of the team members are out of town and some other guys were running on a team for the UVA Hospital. We needed four guys to score, and I was counting on being the fifth guy and not scoring behind Seth, Thomas, Lee and Alec. But again, I was just happy to be participating.

I didn't want to run too terribly slow, but at the same time I didn't have any confidence in my hamstring to survive. I'd said out-loud to people that I'd shoot for 6-minute pace; 24 minutes. Slowville. Could I do that? I didn't know, so yesterday, I went down to Riverview park to run, and decided I should test out my legs. A half mile in, I knew I didn't want to do any strides, so I decided to pick up the pace on the way back. (It is a two mile bike path, so four miles out and back.) I ended up running almost 5 miles, at 7:53, 6:43, 5:56, 6:34, 6:16. The last two miles were faster than I planned, but I was trying to get back to KC before she finisher her walk/jog. BUT I FELT GREAT! So I modified the plan a little bit: 6 minute pace for the first two miles, then pick it up and see what I can do without hurting myself. Really though, without hurting myself. No real kicking. It is not worth it.

Fast forward to this morning. The weather was pretty good-- far better than I think Mark had expected as of Friday. I thought it was pleasant. I drove to Scott Stadium to register (I never, ever wait until race-day registration) and meet up with the guys to warm up. On my way there I saw RMR members Nicole, Amy and Melissa out for their long run before volunteering at the race. Seth, Thomas, Lee and I went for a warm up with Sallie and Danae, Lee's girlfriend. Things felt fine. My hamstring was tight, but not painful. I told my teammates about my successful run the day before, but they seemed more worried that I'd left it all out there and less hopeful of the promise I thought it indicated. Afterwards, I hit up the bathrooms in the Stadium, stretched, and changed.

As a team we were wearing blue RMR singlets. According to Mark, we're supposed to wear black or white, which are the two that I have. But the group decided that we would wear blue, so I borrowed Joel's. He was running for the hospital team, so I didn't expect him to have on RMR at all. Wrong. He wore another one I hadn't seen before, and Bob Thiele had on the black singlet. So two of the hospital team was wearing RMR, and one of the RMR team was wearing RMRS. Alec apparently doesn't have his RMR stuff anymore. Details.

Heading over to the starting line, I saw Chuck Love and Brian Kayser. I figured they were both going to beat me today. KC was at the starting line and asked how I was feeling. I told her I felt fine and was ready to run really slowly! Mike London, the UVA football coach, was the official starter. I'd forgotten he was going to be there and was standing right next to him while Mark gave his pre-race instructions. Then I looked over, and the man is HUGE! Not like, fat huge, but just a big man! I tried to get KC to look over and see us and maybe take a picture (Sue would have loved it!) but it was no use.

The starting line was at a 90 degree angle to the direction we were going to run. We were literally facing the stadium and had to start. Very strange. But Mike London said go and we were off! I got pushed by whoever was behind me and passed very quickly. That's fine though. Let them go. I needed to run a 6-minute mile. Joel and I were running together and I said to him that I didn't want to lose to someone that I pointed at, and he did the same. Then Joel took off too! We left the stadium parking lot and took a right onto Alderman Road.

After we crossed McCormack Road, there was a sign marking the 1/2 mile. I could count and had myself at 17th place. Seth and Bob were out in front alone, then there was a chase pack of 9 guys, which included Alec, Thomas, Lee, and recent UWM grad and 2013 Battleground Relays 5k winner Scott Plunkett. Then there were 5 guys between them and me, which had Joel, Chuck Love, Brian, and a little boy that couldn't have been more than 10 years old. I thought "Hey, top-15 won't be bad." Normally I wouldn't look at my watch at a random place on the course, but this was marked so I looked and it was 2:49. So a little fast, but that's ok. We were about to start on the rolling hills and I'd slow down for sure. I felt very relaxed and my hamstring felt fine. I was in control.

Apparently not too in control. I passed a few people in the next half mile, including Brian, and hit the first mile in 5:29. That was surprising, but it isn't like I was going to hit the breaks all of the sudden and just stop running. I felt great, so I just went with it. I crossed Ivy and headed towards the track. I saw Thomas take some water, so thought it would be OK to do so myself and went for it. I heard some female voices cheering for me on the right side of the road, but have no idea who it was. I made a mental note to remember to look on the way back to see who it was. Heading down towards the law school, I started closing in on Joel. I passed him right before the cone to turn around and said to him that I was going to take it wide, so we wouldn't run into each other. Coming off the cone, I moved up quickly to Chuck Love before getting to the two mile in 5:21. That was a pleasant surprise, as I still felt really good. I didn't really foresee myself going much faster, and said to Chuck that he'd better not out-kick me in the end. I didn't expect myself to be kicking against anyone.

As we got back towards the track and Alderman Road, I started to move past Chuck too. There were runners coming back towards us, but I really only realize that now as I sit here typing this. I guess I was so focused on the people ahead of me that I didn't even notice. Chuck and I passed someone else before the water stop and were told that we were in 8th, 9th, and 10th. I looked on the side of the road and only saw Dave Hryvniak and some ladies I didn't recognize, so the cheer-ers remain a mystery. I didn't think it was RMR people because I'd already seen them back at the mile marker...

I passed another runner, I believe he was a high schooler (only because he and his mom parked near my car and I heard them talking before the race started) right before Ivy Road and looked up to see Thomas, Lee and Alec. Thomas had passed the two of them, and it looked like Lee and Alec were coming back to me. I didn't put together the places at the time-- the only thing going through my head was "score for the team." I knew I still had almost half of the race left, and just set out to catch Alec. The course was rolling at this point again, and I went through 3-miles in 5:17 before catching him. Someone told us that the guy in front of us (Lee) looked tired and to work together to catch him. I just kept going. My hamstring was getting tight, but I still felt in control and wasn't working that hard yet. But Alec was the last person I would pass. I think I got to within 10 meters behind Lee, but the finish took us down past the AFC and behind the stadium, which was mostly downhill, and I started to get a little more cautious than I'd been. Lee is basically a miler, and I've been out-kicked by him in many workouts and two races. I guess I gave up a little bit...

I entered the parking garage behind the stadium and took some turns in the dark (I was wearing sunglasses) before emerging onto the football field! The jumbo-tron was on and I could see Lee finishing on the screen. He crossed the line and the camera turned towards me! I thought to myself "LOOK SMOOTH!" but it didn't translate very well. I don't think I looked too good. I hit the line in 21:17, closing with a 5:08! Pretty awesome negative splits for the day-- 5:29, 5:21, 5:17, 5:08. I got 5th place. Our RMR team went 1-3-4-5-6, with RMR members running for the hospital getting 2nd (Bob) and 11th (Joel). I picked up my second "1st place Men 30-34" age-group prize, a free hooded sweatshirt from Ragged Mountain Running Shop, and a $20 gift certificate to South Street Brewery for being on the winning team.

Me on the Jumbo-tron!

Cooling down, there were a whole bunch of us, and I talked to Chuck Love most of the way. We went back onto the course and cheered for the other runners who were finishing. I felt good still, but was sore. I made sure to stretch a lot before the awards, and today I tried to rehydrate adequately while also foam-rolling for a long time once I got home. Tomorrow will be interesting, to find out how much these two days of running "faster" kicked my butt. I'll probably take it easy this week still, and I'm going to take Friday off to fly to Atlanta.

If the length of this post wasn't any indication, I'm really pleased with this race. Did I completely abandon my pre-race plan? Yes, although to be fair I thought that I was running 6-minute pace the first mile. It is almost as though I tapered really heavily for this race, doing nothing challenging in almost three weeks, so I certainly had the freshest legs of anyone on the roads today. And the weather was ideal. I don't think it will be nearly this nice on July 4th. But it was a good day. It was fun to have people in front of me to pick off. That isn't something I usually get to do. The guys who finished ahead of me ran well (especially Seth!) and did a great job! I ran smart and came out ahead of where I thought I would.

Team RMR in Blue + Alec & Bob in black and Joel in white.

Cass Girvan, the legend behind 434Photo in Charlottesville, will hopefully provide me with some more awesome photos from this race which I will share and tell tales of his greatness.

Note: As of this moment, results from this race refer to me as "Bert Johnson." As I registered this morning at 6:30am, the woman writing on my bib said she needed to get her glasses, but failed to do so prior to reading my entry form and writing down my last name. Luckily, after calling me "Brett" she got my first name right. We may never have figured out that "Brett Johnson" was really "Bert Jacoby." Fortunately Mark caught this during the awards.

Recovery

So as I mentioned, I pulled my hamstring the last Friday of May, doing strides before the Civitans 10K. During the race, 4 miles in I started to suffer. Since then, I've really been holding back. I've taken a day or two off, run very short most days, and spent even more time on the foam roller than usual. I got a massage the day after the race, and then got another massage yesterday. Both of them were agonizingly painful experiences. I went back yesterday because I felt like things were starting to improve, but that I could use an adjustment. I could tell that the tightness was starting to impact my hip, and Ernie was able to help me out. I was very sore leaving, but today was able to run almost eight miles with less pain than any day prior. So hopefully I'm moving in the right direction.

Sunday is the Mens 4-Miler in Charlottesville. I would have loved to run this race as another gauge before July 4th. As it is now, I'll be participating in the race so that the RMR team has 4 participants and can get a team score. I'm not racing, but I am going to try to run faster than what I've been doing on a daily basis. Maybe I can run six-minute pace? I know that I've been fit enough to run under 5:30 pace for a 10k as recently as two weeks ago, but will my legs let me do that now? I don't know -- I haven't tried at all. I've been in rehab mode now for most of 2013... not performance mode.

Things are looking up though. Today was promising. Tomorrow will hopefully be more of the same. I'm staying positive.

Track & Field

Unlike a lot of the people I know who run, I'm a huge fan of track & field! My favorite websites are running related sites, but not things like Runner's World, which is more tailored to the road running/fun run scene. It is surprising since I don't get to really run track. I haven't run a track season since high school ended in the spring of 2001. Twelve years later and I think I love track & field even more.

That's probably because of the Internet and how it has made the information readily available at my fingertips. My high school coaches introduced me to Dyestat.com in high school. Charlie Hurt introduced me to Letsrun.com, MensRacing.com and Track and Field News in college.

This past month, I attended what was probably my first high school track meet in a decade since my brother stopped running, the Dogwood Track Classic. Charlie was the meet director so I came to volunteer. I was there at 5:30AM to set up and only got to stay for a few hours, but had a great time! So when I found out that the Northwest Regional Championship was at UVA (just like it had been when I was in high school), I jumped at the chance to come out. The 4x8 was on Thursday night (so the kids could still run the 3200m and another race on Friday), and that was very exciting! I volunteered the next day, giving splits at the start/finish line, lining up the kids for each heat, and getting relays organized in the exchange zone. Again, so much fun!

Then that weekend I watched the adidas Grand Prix Diamond League meet from New York City on TV. The coverage was terrible on NBC, but I love watching it and talking about it afterwards. We were in Fredericksburg for Kim's birthday, so I recorded it at KC's mom's house. When the party wound down, I watched the meet with her family and love letting them know all the interesting details that makes the sport so interesting.

This past Friday night I went over to Harrisonburg High School to watch Jonathan Mersiowsky run in the 4x8. They finished 6th in their heat, behind another team in the slower heat, to earn 7th place and All-State. I stuck around to watch the girls' and boys' 3200s because Charlie had two kids from Western Albemarle in the race. I'd met these kids once or twice before in the fall, and wanted them to do well because of Charlie. They ran awesome! The sister and brother placed 3rd (seeded 13th) and 2nd (seeded 4th) to earn their first of two All-State certificates that weekend (both placed in the mile too). Jonathan's team came back in the 4x400 and got 8th place as well!

Friday night and Saturday was the Prefontaine Classic (after the legendary drunk driver & Olympic 4th place finisher Steve Prefontaine). I got home Friday night in time to watch all of the race on Runnerspace.com, but the website crashed until about 10:46, so I got to watch the 10K live. Again, terrible race coverage. We had to listen to Mo Farah and Galen Rupp talk about their new shoes that we can buy online now. Farah was supposed to be in the race but dodged the competition instead.

Saturday I was watching the coverage live again. It was on NBC Sports Network from 3:30-4:30 (a channel I only have in standard definition) and then from 4:30-6:00 on NBC. I elected to watch the coverage online from someone's international feed that they're broadcasting online. About 50 minutes in, they changed the channel to some show about the London Tower or something, I don't know, and I had to watch the NBC feed instead. It might seem strange to watch the coverage online instead of on TV. Online the picture quality is lower, it lags sometimes, and is largely unreliable. But that is still better than watching it on NBC. NBC breaks away from coverage at the worst times and has terrible announcers. Even though LetsRun is all over Ato Boldon, saying he's the best commentator (and he is knowledgeable about the sprints), I'd still rather watch it in silence than have to hear any of them talk. The international feeds have Steve Cram and Tim Hutchinson, who do a marvelous job. They pronounce the names correctly and show excitement during the races.

Track & field continues this week. The NCAA D1 championships are in Eugene this week. They're streaming live on the Pac-12 network, ESPN3, and ESPNU. Last night I enjoyed watching the 800 heats, the men's steeple heats, and the women's 10k through the Pac-12 network online. It's so low budget but it is perfect, in my opinion. We've just got the live feed of the races, and the only announcing is the announcer in the stadium.  Before the race, they scroll through ALL the entrants names in each race, and after the race, they scroll through the entire results. They don't cut away when the leader crosses the line to show them bent over, we actually see the other finishers too.

Today I'm watching the Rome Diamond League meet online through the international feeds. At first, I was getting it in Italian. That was cool, I didn't understand any of it, but it was vastly superior to the NBC announcers like Lewis Johnson and Tom Hammond. That feed froze, so I refreshed it, and somehow I'm back to the UK announcers with no commercials. Tonight I'll watch more NCAAs.

I started writing this over the weekend. I sort of lost track of what I was trying to say. Probably why I'm not a writer. But the point is, watch track & field on TV! You might like it!

New Age Group

Yesterday was Memorial Day and I ran in the YMCA Civitans 10K for the first time since 2010.  I decided that I needed to run a race sometime before July 4th, and my last race was the Blue & Gray Half-Marathon. Charlie was thinking about racing this weekend too, so we both signed up. I essentially tapered for this race because of life, running very little on Wednesday, Thursday, and Saturday of last week.  Friday I did a pre-race workout with Charlie that went a little bit too fast for me, and may have been the root of my race problems (see below).

I was feeling pretty conservative about the race, nonetheless. I just wanted a rust buster. The 10k isn't really my thing, and the workouts we've been doing haven't really been giving me any sense of what kind of shape I'm in, so I thought if I tried to run around 17 minutes for the first 5k and then come back faster, I'd be happy to run under 34 minutes. Very conservative. I knew Charlie would plan to run a lot faster than that, and that he'd likely be out on his own doing so, so I resigned to running for 2nd alone. Kind of like running with Tim in the race...

The weather was perfect. There have been plenty of Memorial Days with high temperatures and thick humidity, so we were very lucky. There was no breeze. I was cold warming up. It was good to see some friends. I had a student come up to before the race, and that was great.

There was a 5k and a 10k going on, with the 5k starting behind the 10k. I thought they might move up on us at the beginning, but it never really happened. The gun went off and Charlie and I got out to the front. I had to tell myself to let him go, sort of like we do in workouts, and then just tried to settle in. Gene took a video of the start, which you can watch here.

I got to the first mile in 5:29. I was happy with that, but it felt a lot harder than I would have liked. Charlie was way ahead already. The second mile was a little less comfortable. Again I wondered if any 5k runners were going to come up on me before the turn, but no. Nate Lasker was leading that race, and was likely way ahead of the next 10k runner, but no where close to us. I could still see Charlie the whole time as I got to the 2 mile mark on the Canal path with 5:32. Still surprised, because it didn't feel very easy. I could tell that I hadn't raced in a while, as I had a little tightness in my lower back. I haven't felt that in a while.

I got off the Canal path and onto Little Page and tried to relax again. I could see Charlie in the distance, and he didn't look as smooth as usual. I thought to myself, "Maybe he's having a bad day and I'll close this gap some. Stick with it, you're doing fine." Gene ran up to the corner of the street after Charlie went by and took some pictures. He missed Charlie and I figured he'd probably miss both of us at the finish.

I got to the third mile in 5:25. Right on. I don't know where the 5k mark was, but I was running just under 5:30 pace so I was feeling good. I got onto Kenmore and the Canal Path feeling really good. I called out for water when I passed the stop on the Canal and started working my way through the oncoming traffic. Just after the Rt. 1underpass, I passed the 4th mile in 5:16. Alright!

Then I got onto the bridge into Normandy Village. It was pretty slippery and I almost fell. I felt a little pull in my right hamstring. Back into the Village, I was still doing alright, feeling good. Crossing Fall Hill Avenue, there was a little bit of downhill. I felt another pull. Getting closer to KFC, there was a bigger downhill and a big pull in my right hamstring. Opening up my stride was really painful. My lower back started to hurt a lot too. I slowed down, and felt like I was walking down the hill under the Rt. 1 bridge on River Road/Caroline Street. Mile 5 was 5:37. Not only was I hurting, but that number didn't do much good for my mental state. The total time was in the mid-27s and I thought, geez I have to get a lot faster by July 4th. I could still see Charlie (mostly the lead bike wearing a bright yellow jacket in front of him), but he was just getting farther and farther ahead, and my pain was getting worse and worse. I resigned to settle in for the next mile. It's not worth it.

As I passed 5k runners & walkers, I did start to wonder what was going on behind me. I never looked though. I tried to stay smooth and in control, reducing any extraneous motion. The pain was in my butt too, right where the hamstring meets the muscle I guess. Rounding the corner by my dream home on Pitt Street, the road to the finish looked as long as ever. I saw my 6th mile split, 5:41, and thought I'd be ok. Then out of habit, I looked at the total time when I got to the 3 mile mark for the turkey trot 5k. 33:27. I'd never make it under 34 minutes, and it didn't matter. I didn't want to get out-kicked at the end though, so I tried to pull in smoothly. 34:09, without hobbling into the shoot. The next runner was almost 3 minutes back. Charlie had finished in 32:53.

I got through the finish, talked to some friends and family, and then went out to get cooled down. The two mile cool down was like a death march, because I was so tight. I was running well over 8-minute pace and might as well have been walking. The pain was pretty bad. Now, on Friday during the part of our pre-race workout, I did feel a little pull in my right hamstring. I didn't pay any attention to it though, and spent the whole day Friday on my feet volunteering at the Northwest Regional Track meet at UVA. I should have done something though, because that was definitely when this started.

At the post-race celebration, I sat on the ground with my stick, trying to work things out. I saw a cackle of women mocking me as I tried to get into that challenging area right underneath the butt check. Charlie, Pat, Jack, KC, Scott and I stood around eating junk food and drinking beer while they called out the awards. I shouldn't say "called out," I should say "spoke quietly into a muted megaphone," because that is what happened. I didn't hear them call my name, and a bunch of people around me but closer to the front told me it was my turn to go up and get my prize; 1st place, Men 30-34 years old. My first age group prize out of my 20s. I didn't realize (because I didn't read it) that the race was only going one-deep overall (but it was on the form.) So today was the day I earned that new age group. Thank goodness Charlie won, or else we would have been in the same age group now that he's 30 too.

Charlie's race went fairly well for a time-trail alone on streets he's unfamiliar with.  The last race of his spring racing cycle ended with a win. His splits were pretty even, 5:17, 5:19, 5:16, 5:11, 5:28, 5:15, 65. He asked me if I thought the miles were marked correctly, and I do think so. They've been pretty consistent over the years. While his 5th mile was a lot slower than the rest and so was mine, I know that mine was from slowing down a whole lot. And that 5 has been written on the pavement for a long time anyway.

So I haven't run yet today. The team had a workout on Ridge Road which I wasn't going to participate in, but I decided this morning upon waking up in pain that I shouldn't go run on those rolling hills anyway. I'm getting a massage in the afternoon to try to work this problem out, and then I'll go run somewhere flat, probably Riverview. I'll take it easier this week to get through this. Probably no workout Friday. I'll still run long this weekend with Graham though.

Wrapping up the race, I know that my fitness is getting there. A few weeks ago Lee and I did a tempo run that was no where near as successful as the first 4 miles of that race. Heck, even the last two miles of the race were probably more successful than the tempo run. So I'm in better shape than I was a month ago (duh), but I've still got a ways to go before I climb back into that ship to go whale hunting on July 4th. I might run the Charlottesville Men's 4-miler in a few weeks to get another one under my belt, but we'll see.