Race #188
10k #16
2021 Race #4
2021 10k #2
Reedy River 10k #7

Going into this race, I went back and forth on whether I would set a time goal or not. I knew that if I did, I would set the pace slightly lower than back at Peachtree. Due to a variety of factors like school starting and a broken treadmill for a few weeks, I have pulled back on speedwork and overall mileage. Also, I know the roads downtown fairly well. None of them come free from hills.

I ended up deciding to run strong, make a solid effort of the race, but not push myself to reach any certain time goals. I did not look at my watch once during the race.

As the race start approached, we stood in our corral, the B corral, with a few sprinkles on us. Thankfully, the rain did not last long.

I expected the start to get a little more crowded than it did. When checking results afterwards and seeing that only 502 participants out of the 1000 registered runners showed up, the space we got at the start made a lot more sense.

The first mile did not lend itself to speed since we quickly headed uphill before turning and getting a little bit of downhill and then heading back up again. That sentence describes the course, full of rollers. Not flat. At. All. Mom kept telling me to go on ahead, that she did not want to hold me back. I kept telling her that she wasn’t holding me back. Running that pace felt good, comfortably hard.

Mile 1: 8:24

A little after the first mile, as indicated by my watch since the race had no mile markers on the course, we turned onto the Swamp Rabbit Trail. I like running on the trail but it’s not the widest trail so lots of runners make for packed running, not my favorite.

Thankfully, we ran only a short distance on the trail on that side and by the time we got on it again on the downtown side, the runners had spread out quite a bit.

Mile 2: 8:34

The third mile held the easiest portion of the course, so easy that I remember fairly little from it.

Mile 3: 8:20

In the fourth mile, we got back onto the Swamp Rabbit Trail and the road near it on the Falls Park side. Just after halfway through this mile, Mom told me to go on ahead. She needed to walk and didn’t want to hold me back. Since I knew she was still in a good headspace, I kept going, determined to hold the same pace or at least the same effort since we still had all the lovely rollers.

Mile 4: 8:39

During this portion, I noticed that as I kept my pace/effort around the same, I started to slowly reel in runners around me, especially on the hills. I did not look down at my Garmin but I could tell that I held my effort steady.

I could see a runner ahead of me that held a slightly slower pace than me and figured that I would pass him eventually. However, as I drew nearer, on his left side, he must have caught a glimpse of me in his peripheral vision. I could tell from his body language that he did not want me to pass him. I kept laughing in my head since I knew that eventually I would pass him. I could tell that he started to put out more effort to stay just ahead of me. His body tensed and his cadence increased. I wanted to tell him that it was okay if I passed him. He needed to run his own race. By trying, futilely, to stay ahead, he spent energy he would need in the last two miles.

Finally I put him out of his misery by increasing my pace just a tad on a slight uphill, passing him easily. I did not see him again for the rest of the race.

Mile 5: 8:31

As we approached downtown again, I tried to figure out the route we would take to get back to Main Street. I did not figure correctly; this course was completely new. At first, I thought we would have to continue up the hill passing University Ridge before turning right but instead, we stayed on the Trail through Falls Park before turning at River Street. I did not think that this direction would have more hills than what I predicted but it did, including a hill just as we finished the 6th mile. So cruel.

Mile 6: 8:49

I had planned to sprint at least a little at the end of the race but wondered if I could after that cruel little uphill. When I saw 3 or 4 guys fairly close ahead of me, I decided to go for it. The sprint would end soon enough. Somehow I had enough left that I passed all of them! Race announcers still can’t manage to say my name right but I definitely finished strong.

.2 nubbin: 5:38 pace (don’t think I could hold that long)
Overall: 52:07

Mom finished less than a minute after I did, looking strong as usual.

We grabbed some water and took a post race picture before I headed out on 3 more miles to finish out my run for the day.