Every
year in mid September, the Davidson Lands Conservancy hosts a local 5k, 10k,
and Half Marathon that over the years has grown into a quite popular small town
race. This year, there were around 1,000
runners, with 400+ of them doing the Half Marathon. Like last year, I chose to run the 10K
because it presented enough of a challenge while not being a
90-minutes-of-race-effort commitment.
Also, I figured I could be very competitive in the 10k field.
I
was hoping for a little bit more runner-friendly weather on race day. While the temperature was in the high 60s,
the humidity was 100%, and most of us never really felt that cool crispness in
the air that keeps you charged for a race.
Dozens of running friends were spread among the three race distances:
Fam Famiglietti and Stacy Hensley were running the 5K; Smiley Joe Rao, Ron
Walters (whom I had only run with once or twice), Gabi Craig, Judy McCarter, Val
Wrenholt, Lauren Taylor, Jyl Deering, Dan Keller (along with a bunch of other
Omega Nation runners), and I were running the 10K; Chris Lamperski, Claire
Naisby, Jessica Delgehaussen, Martin Harrison, Mike Vance, Hope Childress,
Dexter Cherry, and a whole bunch of other familiar faces were running the Half.
The
Half’ers started 10 minutes before the combined 5K/10K start, so I toed the
line right up front next to Smiley Joe, Fam, Ron, and a couple of unknowns who
looked pretty fast. We’ll just refer to
them as Mr. Green and Mr. Orange, in reference to their singlets. With less than two minutes before the start,
I darted into the nearest bushes to relieve my bladder, and so I was a little
more amped up than usual when I made it back to the start. I struggled to slow my heart rate, but the
adrenaline was kicking in. Uh oh…
At
the start, Fam, Smiley, Mr. Green, and Mr. Orange shot out ahead of me. Fam opened up a quick lead of Olympic
proportions, and Mr. Orange (also running the 5K) settled in for a spaciously
comfortable 2nd position.
Ahead of Mr. Orange were Smiley Joe and Mr. Green, respectively, both of
whom were racing the 10K. Not even a
quarter mile into the race, I was seeding myself at a distant 3rd in
the 10K at best. The first mile to all
the Run For Green races is insanely fast.
There’s a fine line between milking the long downhill on South Street for
some banked time, and squeezing a little too hard, leading to an eventually
blow-up on the back-loaded course. My
goal for the first mile was 6 minutes flat, and I clocked a 5:58. So far, so good, but the humidity already had
me saturated and breathing more heavily than was desired.
The
second mile contained a significant hill on Avinger. Before this, Ron had caught up to me with
long, confident strides. He continued to
open up space between us on the hill, so I made no efforts to retaliate. After a right turn on Pine, I saw Fam
charging back our way, inbound from the 5K turnaround. He had a lead of minutes over Mr. Orange, but
I could tell by his red-faced complexion that he was feeling the humidity as
much as all of us. My goal for mile two
was 6:40, and I hit the mile marker with a 6:33 split. So far, so good. Now, if only I could get into a comfortable
groove…
After
turning left on Patrick Johnson, I scampered my way down the steep hill that
would make a later appearance, and I slung myself around the pair of sharp
turns guiding me onto the greenway. My
running buddies Sam and Stephanie Mishler were there to cheer me on with
noisemakers. Checking my watch on the
greenway, I saw a sub-6 pace, which must have come from the momentum left over
from the downhill (thank you Patrick Johnson).
As soon as I felt like I was finding a groove, footfalls loomed behind
me. Great. Sure enough, the first place female—Meg Chieffe,
as I later found out her name was—steadily overtook me and settled in a few
strides ahead of me. I wasn’t too
worried about being beaten by a girl, but as soon as she suspended her lead
within proverbial arm’s reach, I decided I would make a race out of this with
her. Mile three was a 6:21, nearly spot
on my goal of 6:20.
By
this point, we had passed most of the back-of-the-pack Half’ers, and the last
section of greenway out-and-back would be populated solely by 10K’ers. I kept Meg within reach, and I expected to
see Smiley Joe on his inbound leg any moment.
To my surprise, Mr. Green emerged in 1st position with a
sizeable lead on Joe. Joe still cheered
me on and proffered a low-5 as we passed by one another. I hit the turnaround digging into the 180
degree turn so as not to lose any more of an already dropping speed. Val came towards the turnaround soon after
with about a minute of space between her and 1st place Meg. I figured we likely were out of Val’s reach,
but she’s an extremely strong runner who tackles hills like a mountain goat, so
I had some incentive to keep charging in order to keep space between us. It was several moments before I saw the next
male runner, so I knew I at least had fourth place locked up. Now, I just had to contend with this
Meg. I ran mile four in 6:31, falling
behind my 6:20 goal for that split.
Mile
five is the toughest mile of this course.
While I love running on the South Prong Rocky River Greenway, it starts
to get old when you do the entire out-and-back at 10K pace. Also, the last quarter mile of the greenway
trends slightly uphill, which is just an appetizer for what’s to come. I looked for Sam and Steph at the mouth of
the greenway, but they had moved on. I
slung around the two turns shoulder-to-shoulder with Meg until we got to the
bottom of Patrick Johnson, the Great Equalizer.
Meg charged ahead up the infamous, short-but-steep hill. I settled into a trot and let her go, trying
to set up a potential rope-a-dope for the back end of the race. Sure enough, Sam and Steph had moved to the
hill in order to watch me suffer up it.
“Embrace the suck,” Sam said, which is my personal mantra for this
hill. I crested the damn thing and tried
to make turns for race pace once I turned on Pine for another, longer, more
gradual climb. Mile five clocked in at
an abysmal 7:01; my goal was 6:40.
Each
of my mile goals were based on an overall goal time of 40 minutes. I was behind now, and feeling awfully zapped,
but Meg was right there and fading (Thank you Patrick Johnson), and I was still
close enough to give sub-40 a shot. I
gritted my teeth up Pine Street, eventually finding my mid-6’s pace. I caught up to Meg and passed her with some
trepidation just before turning left on Lorimer for the last stretch. Now, I just had to maintain. I dare not look behind me for fear of seeing
Meg close in. My sixth mile was an
undesirable 6:39 (in place of a goal 6:20), but I didn’t even see the split at
the time. Smiley Joe was on the side of
the road 200 meters from the finish, shouting and cheering. I poured on everything I had left, watching
40 minutes come and go before I could make it up the last little hill to the
finish. Final time: 40:18. I had run the last 0.22 miles in 1:25 for a
5:47 pace in the final kick.
I
nearly lost my meager breakfast, and I fell just short of my two goals of sub-40
minutes and a top 3 finish, but I finished strong and held off Meg, running a
very similar time to last year’s race.
I’ll call that a positive since I had been having doubts about my
fitness and speed endurance as of late.
 |
| Here I am on the Town Green, moments after the race. |
Mr.
Green finished in a smoking fast 34:02, and Joe took second place with just
over 36 minutes. Ron finished in 39:24,
which means he lost some of the quarter-mile lead he had on me before Patrick
Johnson. Val claimed second overall
female, but I later learned that she arrived late to the start line. Her actual running time was closer to
40-and-a-half minutes. Had she toed the
line with us, things might have looked very different for her, Meg, and
me.
In
other DART news, Fam won the 5k with a 14:40, Lamperski won the Half with a
1:18 and change, Martin gained second in the Half with 1:21:xx, and Claire took
second female in the Half with 1:30:40.
All of these were impressive times given the perpetually rolling course
and the 100% humidity, but perhaps the most inspiring finish was Margaret
Hagerty, who ran 4:07 for the Half, setting a record for 90-year-old finishers
in the process. Way to go Margaret! That’s just beautiful!
 |
| Margaret Hagerty, the fastest 90-year-old woman I know. |
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