Form Follows Fitness 5K

 

This past Saturday I ran my first 5K after completely recovering from my grade 2 calf sprain in my right leg.

The 5K race I ran was the second annual Form Follows Fitness 5K, held in Downtown Dallas.  What made this race really fun was that I was given the opportunity to organize a team from my work to run with and with only three days notice, I was able to put together a team of 11 people to run with.  Now, once the race started, it was every person for themselves, so we didn't all finish together, but we all finished, including four who had not competed in a 5K before!

Part of our 11 member team.  I am on the far left.

It was 34 degrees at race time, and there were about 1200 people or so who raced, so it was a nice event to run.  I think it could have been a larger event had the Ft. Worth's Cowtown Marathon not been happening at the same time.

The course itself was relatively easy, with a nice downhill start that allowed everyone to build up steam.  It was the last 800 or so feet that was the biggest pain.  All uphill with what I am guessing was a 15 to 20 degree incline!  It was at that point that I started slowing down.

I wasn't sure what I would run as far as time goes in this race, but I had set a goal of 24 minutes right before the start.  After the runs I had the week leading up to this race, I knew I'd be able to run close to the pace I'd need to set, but I wasn't sure if I would be able to sustain that pace.

But I did maintain close to that pace the entire race!

Now the only thing wrong with this picture is that it shows me going 3.17 miles, because I started the tracking app on my phone when the horn sounded for the race.  I was way behind the starting gate, so I am going by the time the gps tracking app shows me at 3.10 miles, and not the official results.

Here is what I believe I ran:

 Yes, that is a 5K distance in 24 minutes and 26 seconds, which is 4 minutes and 58 seconds better than my previous PR of  29:24. set at the Turkey Trot held in Dallas on Thanksgiving Day, 2012.  That is a new PR!

Here are the official results for me from the race:

So, overall a great race for me.  I am now 100 percent fully healed and I appear to be faster than ever.  I am really looking forward to pushing myself even more.

Thanks for reading.  Have a great rest of the day!

The Hotcake Hustle 5K -- Running for Pride

This past Saturday I ran the Hotcake Hustle 5K in Addison, TX.  Normally this wouldn't be such a big deal to me, since this would be my fifth 5K race in the past 4 months, but this was one race I absolutely had to run.  You see, I was running hurt in this race. 

The Wednesday before was rainy and I decided to do a run on the treadmill at the gym I use.  about 20 minutes into my run I felt a sharp pain in my right calf and I tried to run through it for about 30 seconds but had to stop my run.  I think what I had was either a grade I or grade II calf sprain.  Over the next two days I used the RICE method on my leg.  Resting it with no runs or exercising, Icing it every hour on the hour I was awake for 20 minutes at a time, Compressing the leg by wearing a compression bandage on it, and keeping it Elevated as much as I could.  Trust me in that I was getting strange looks at work, wearing an ice pack on my leg outside my pants, but oh, it was so worth, not feeling pain!

 When race day dawned, I dressed and headed over to the race site.  My leg felt pretty good, with no pain or twinges at all.  I did however bring a few things with me, just in case.  Ice packs, another compression bandage, and a pain patch was in a bag waiting for me after the race.  I hope I didn't need it, but I had it there, again, just in case.  The weather was interesting, to say the least.  100 percent humidity and 65 degrees!  I was so glad I didn't wear cold weather gear for this run!  There was rain in the forecast and a cold front was on its way towards us, but fortunately for us, the rain and cold held off until after the race.

Before the race started, I did test my leg.  I did more stretching than I normally do for a race, making sure I targeted the calves.  After I stretched and warmed up, I decided to run about a half mile at various paces to see how my leg would react.  Everything felt good, so I was ready to race.


The crowd in front of me.




Ready to race the Hotcake Hustle!

The crowd behind me -- 2400 strong!



The race got off to a good start and I went into this race with only one goal in mind: to finish it.  Even though this is my fifth race, I have not, and do not want to have a DNF on my record.  I have quit too many things in life and I don't want to start doing so in racing.  So I figured that I would be good with about a 10:30 to 10:45 pace and leave it at that.  I knew in my heart that I would have a slow time.  So how did I start?  I started off with an 8:20 pace, then started slowing down after that.

The course itself was easy enough, pure roadway, though crossing I think 4 railroad tracks, even inset into the road was not fun.  One good slip and there goes an ankle!  There was one bridge we crossed; I don't know the incline but it felt steep to me at the time.  I held up pretty well during the race.  I would start to push myself to go faster and then have to slow down as my right calf reminded me that I was running hurt.  It never really hobbled me, but I was reminded of it, believe me.  About 400 feet from the finish line or so, I was running side by side by this younger, fitter man and we were matching each other step for step.  That's when the competitive side of me took over and I glanced over at him and then back at the finish line and sprinted the remaining 400 or so feet, coming in ahead of him by several feet.  I know he probably didn't care, but for me it was a matter of pride.

My calf let me know about it too. 

Long story short, I am taking the next couple of weeks off from running, to let my calf hopefully heal up fully.  I finished the race with a respectable time, at least for me anyway, and I have the coffee mug given out to the ones that finished out the race.

Here is my unofficial time, as provided by my Nike iPhone app:



Here is the official results:

I'm not sure why there is such a discrepancy between the Nike app average mile pace and the official pace, but hey, with a bum leg, I'll take it.

I'll definitely run this next year, but next year, it'll be the 10K, not the 5K.

Thanks for reading and have a great rest of the day!

Review of The 45th Annual Capital One Bank Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot

I ran the Dallas Turkey Trot for the first time this past Thanksgiving and it was quite the experience.  This was my fourth race to run ever and I knew it would be a large race in terms of how many people would participate, but I am not sure I was prepared for over 30,000 people running with me. 

The scene in front of me approximately 35 minutes before the race started.

Humanity begins massing behind me to start the race.  By the time the race started, over 30,000 people had lined up.

The atmosphere of the race felt very carnival like to me with face painting, bounce houses, live music, radio stations reporting live from the race site and other family oriented activities on site.

The weather for the race was absolutely gorgeous with lots of sunshine and high clouds.  The temperatures were in the upper 50s and the wind, when blowing was very light.  A perfect day for running. 

The event had starting lines for the timed runners and depending on what you thought your average per mile time would be is where you lined up.  For me I took a chance and lined up at the 8:45 - 9:15 line and waited 35 minutes for the start to happen.  During the wait, people were loosening up by stretching, jumping in place, and hitting the occasional oversized beach ball that was floating among the crowd.  Some people even started dancing to the Village People's "YMCA" as it played during this time.

At 8:59 participants in wheelchairs were started, so that they could have a head start on those of us running behind them.  At 9:00 the horn sounded and we started filing towards the starting line.  Notice I said "filing" towards the starting line.  I estimate that between me and the official starting line, there were probably 300 people with blue racing bibs on, meaning they had paid to be timed during this race.  So when the horn sounded, you had 300 people moving to get started.  I was towards the back of the 300, so I needed to shuffle and walk to the starting gate.

When I arrived at the starting gate and started my run on Nike+ on my iPhone, I saw why it had taken me almost a minute and a half to simply move 400 feet.  The crowd had surged from the initial 300 or so to literally thousands of people ahead of me!  Everyone the announcers had asked to move to the back of the line, people with strollers, people with dogs on leashes, people with yellow race bibs on who had not paid to be timed, were in front of me!

It wasn't until I watched the race on TV Saturday that I saw why this had happened.  People who were participating in the race, regardless of how they were participating, had lined up on both sides of the street ahead of the start gate and when the timed runners started, they jumped in the front of the runners!  It took me over 2 1/2 minutes to weave my way past strollers, dogs on leashes, walkers and very slow runners, just to get to the point that I could open up my racing pace and get moving.  This is the one takeaway from this race that I was sorely disappointed in.  I firmly believe that if people like me are going to pay extra to be timed in a race event, then the organizers of the event should make a way for those paying extra to be able to start the race without interference from those who chose not to be timed.  I wonder what my time for this race would have been if I had not had to dodge and weave those first few minutes of the race.

My first mile pace?

Once I was past the slower throngs of people and animals and strollers, I caught up with the other runners and matched pace with quite a few.  I have to admit that running through Dallas' Deep Ellum District was really cool and viewing the downtown skyscrapers really made this run memorable.  

My second mile pace?

Once I hit mile two, I started getting my second wind and I hit a really good pace.  I had set the Nike+ running app to provide me with an update as to my distance and pace every minutes, so I knew about where I was distance wise, as well as how much further I had to go, and what my pace was.  With that I could calculate about when I would finish this race.  Between mile two and three, I decided to really go all out and see if I could break that 30 minute barrier I had been trying to reach.

My third mile pace?

After I hit the third mile marker, I was beginning to tire, but I made the decision to not stop, nor slow down.  I felt I could make it in under 30 minutes and I was not going to quit.  At the end I crossed the finish line strong, then slowed down and stopped to catch my breath.  I have to admit the last two tenths of a mile where the hardest.

But I did it.  I crossed the finish line officially at 29:25 for my fourth Personal Record in a row. 

I'll be honest here; I really think that I could have crossed the finish around 27 minutes or so, but for having to dodge the crowd at the beginning.  Nonetheless, I'm happy with the results.  Next year I'll know where to place myself to start the race.  Next year I'll be faster.  Next year I'll be running the eight mile race.

My race results from the Turkey Trot

Overall this is a fun race with lots of activities for the entire family.  It is a race that I will bring the family to next year, and one that I highly encourage all of you to attend in one way or another.

Today's Spirit Run! 5K Results and Thoughts

Today I ran the Spirit Run! 5K in Richardson, TX and what a great time and a great race it was!  The course was laid out so that we ran on city streets and on concrete paths in a local park at at four different spots, local high school students were set up to cheer on the runners.  One high school had their drum line, cheerleaders and I believe members of their dance team cheering us on, while the other high schools represented had their varsity and junior varsity cheerleaders cheering.  It really was a cool experience to run the gauntlet of the cheering sections that had been set up.

The day itself was very windy, with temperatures in the mid 60's.  In the shade it was actually quite chilly.  I had thought to wear my colder weather gear (long compression pants and long sleeve compression shirt), but had decided against it.  I'm glad I did.  Once we started the race and found our way to the sunshine, it warmed up quickly.  For a while it was partly cloudy, but by the race's end most of the clouds had dispersed.

I decided that I wanted to try and push my pace this race and see about accomplishing a goal I had set, which was to run this 5K in under 30 minutes.  I set the coaching part of my iPhone app I use, MapMyFitness, to track my pace and it would announce the pace I was running every minutes.  The pace I set was a 10:15 mile pace; I realize that I would not really make the goal I set with that pace, but my thoughts centered on running faster than that pace.

I ran this race with a friend of mine and we sort of fed off of each other during the race.  We kept up with each other until the last quarter mile or so.  I started sprinting the very last part as I really wanted that goal.  We both did really well this race and both of us set new personal records!  I was very proud of him as this was the fastest pace he had run yet.

So how did I do?  See for yourself.

Not too bad for my third 5K race!

I finished this race in 30:14 and finished 5th out of 12 racers in my age bracket and 95th out of 317 overall.  I came close to my goal, but despite running a 9:44 mile pace, at 6.15 mph, I didn't hit it.  

Blame it on running faster than I ever have, but I forgot to pause and save right after crossing the finish line, hence the longer than normal 5K distance!

Then after looking at the split times of this race I figured out why.

The race split times.  Notice the time for mile three.

My mile three split was above a 10 minute mile pace.  That one time is what cost me my goal.  Between mile marker two and mile marker three was a circular ramp we had to run up and move from the lower level of the park to the higher level of the street.  This was a difficult time for a lot of runners and for my friend and I, this part of the race course slowed us down and it was this small section that cost me my goal.

Like I stated earlier, I didn't make my goal, but I did set a new personal record (PR).  The last 5K race I ran back in October, the Lost Dog 5K, I ran it in 33:04.  Well, today I ran the Spirit Run! 5K in 30:14.  I shaved 2:50 off my last personal record!  Not too shabby.

So what's next for me?  Looks like it will be the Turkey Trot in Dallas on Thanksgiving Day.  It's the largest and oldest Turkey Trot 5K in the nation and they are expecting something like 45,000 runners!  Now that will be an experience I am looking forward to!  My goals for that race?  Run it in under 30 minutes.  That's my biggest goal right now.  When I get that one down it will be time to really turn on the afterburners and move faster.

Thank you for reading.  Have a great rest of the day!