 posted Dec-03-2007 11:30 AM
  
Raleigh NC, Jingle Bell 5k 2007Well this was it! The final race in the 2007 Second Empire series races. I was sitting square in the middle of my age group awards. I was 70 points ahead of 3rd and 70 points behind 1st. I had won my age group in half of the races but I had stumbled a bit recently. I was ready to go and I really wanted to show that I still had it in me. I met everyone before the race and we were all pumped up and ready to go. Several of the age groups were within 6 points and promised to have a great finish. As we lined up someone said “Take a left at the start instead of a right”. I said “What, you can’t just change the course like that!”. They replied, well the Raleigh PD says do it or “No Race”. So that was it! They totally decided to run the course backwards with 2 minutes till start time. Normally, it wouldn’t matter because it still was the same course just reversed. However, this meant that I would have to run a 1.5 mile stretch all uphill as opposed to two .75 mile stretches uphill with a really nice long 1.5 mile downhill in between. With the stroller that makes all the difference. I scrapped my plans for a PR because I knew I would fade on the long uphill with the 100+ Lb stroller. I just decided to take advantage of the downhills and try and hang on for the uphill. We finally started and I realized that the first place guy in my age group for our series races had not shown up. We were all worried that something had happened because we knew he wouldn’t just skip out on it. Thankfully, everything was ok he just could not make it. I knew that he had a substantial lead on me but missing a race means that he would loose a significant amount of points. As we made the first left turn I was still trying to avoid all of the others runners who had started way to fast. There were several little boys in the 10-12 range that were running just in front of me. They lasted about ¼ of a mile at the blistering pace they had started at. Then they all slowed to crawl as they came to their senses. I was running a little fast but it was all downhill with a strong wind at my back. However, I didn’t realize how fast I was going until I passed the kids in front of me. I looked up and there were the leaders, not 30 feet in front of me. Believe it or not I was actually catching them. This was actually about ¾ of a mile into the race and I was still going strong. We hit the turn around point just before the 1st mile marker and I actually had to slow up to avoid running into the 3rd place overall guy. Making that u-turn with the double stroller is difficult though. You have to come to an almost dead stop and then put the pedal to the metal again. Now I could tell everyone was thinking what in the world is he doing. He shouldn’t be right there with the leaders. Actually, the 5:40 first mile didn’t feel that fast to me at all because I knew what was coming. Until you run with a heavy stroller like that you will never know what a huge affect it has on the down hills. It will drag you down them! Conversely on the up hills it will bring you to your knees. So at the 1.25 mile mark the first hill started. I dug in and started to shorten my stride. It didn’t matter. No matter how hard I pushed I just could not maintain any kind of speed against the hill and the strong head wind that had picked up. A photographer was snapping pictures up ahead so I tried to run hard passed him but it was no use. The hill was getting the better of me. Now it wasn’t that I was getting winded or anything like that. With the stroller it is like lifting weights. It is not so much an aerobic activity as a strength workout. Your calves and quads just start to burn after any more than 3 minutes of a hill. I had completed 3 minutes already and I had almost 4 minutes to go! People were passing me constantly now. I didn’t get too many “yells of encouragement” at first because I don’t think the top 6 people thought to highly of having to chase down the double stroller. However, my friends from our running club were all in the top 10 and they definitely gave me a boost as they went by. I finally got close to the top of that hill and I saw the third person in my age group go by. I was thinking “Man he is running strong today”. I couldn’t stay with him up the hill but I thought I had a chance to catch him with a good kick back down the hill. As we rounded the NC State bell tower I could feel the stroller start the descent. It is kind of cool when you crest a hill with the stroller. It is almost like a roller coaster ride. All of a sudden the front part crests the hill and starts dragging the back part faster and faster even before the back part has made it to the top. As I came down the hill, I was feeling pretty strong. I was passing everyone back and I had built up a decent head of steam. I slowed a bit on the little hill right before the finish but I was still going strong. I couldn’t sprint the last quarter of a mile because it had a very sharp left hand turn with 1/8 of a mile to go. I knew I couldn’t get the stroller around that corner at speed. Once I rounded the corner I kicked it in. I had a pretty strong finish over the last ~1/8 of a mile(31 seconds) and I ended up with a 19:10. It was no where near what I had hoped to do but I still felt pretty good about it. Once the race was over we were all dying to find out who had won in the series races. We got the winners time and started to do the calculations right there. The 40-44 age group was as close as it can get. The top two guys were within a fraction of a point of each other. After 7 races they were less than 1 second apart. We still do not know who won because it all depends on how they round the fractions of a point from each race. In my age group(30-34) I ended up coming 2nd by only 6 points(Less than 10 seconds). If I had been able to do a ¼ of a mile sprint instead of only the 1/8 of a mile I would have had it. However, if I had not run with the stroller I would have had it by a whole lot more. The point of the season was not really to win. I wanted be competitive and still run with my kids. They are getting too big to run with now so I might just sell the strollers off. Or perhaps I will save them for one last race next year. Anyway, it was a fabulous season and I met so many new friends I can’t even count them. I am really looking forward to my attempt to BQ at the Charlotte Marathon on Saturday. That is my life long ultimate goal. I have been dreaming of it since I started running at age six. I know I have the ability to accomplish it. I just have to hope that the weather and other factors are all on my side. Wish me luck! My split times and running reports from the weekend are below. Notice how much the stroller really affects my times when it is going uphill. I was still able to drop down in the low 6s on the third mile. In fact I was able to drop down in the lower 6s the next day on the last two miles of my training run. Those were all downhill miles of course. I noticed something interesting also. My garmin reported that I burned 118, 123, and 121 calories on the first three miles of the course. Now I know that that measurement is not accurate but it still is a good indication of how steep the downhills are. I think I could hold 118 calories per mile all day(122-123) is where I start to hurt. The effort I was putting out on that first mile was not anything like what the 5:40 time would indicate. Jingle Bell 5k Splits 19:10 total
mile 1 5:39
mile 1 6:50
mile 3 6:10
last .12 miles 31 seconds 1 mile 5:39
2 miles 12:29
3 miles 18:39
3.1 miles 19:10 Jingle Bell 5K with both Kids http://tinyurl.com/2pexby 12 miles in Umstead on Reeedy Creek Trail. Very hilly http://tinyurl.com/2umftj ------------------
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