Pound the Pavement for Peter 5k was my second stroller race with H. Originally, I was going to be solo parenting this weekend, but Angelina changed up some of her plans so she was able to come out with us. Two of our running mom friends were also running pushing their respective little ones (including one with a double).
I had run the race last year and snagged third overall. The course is tough. The first mile is very downhill, but you spend the rest of the race climbing back up. This is hard enough running normally, but even harder pushing a stroller.
We arrived plenty early. picked up bibs, and found the rest of the crew. The kids played together until it was time to line up. I went out for a warm-up jog sans-stroller, which might have been a mistake because I stepped off a curb awkwardly and rolled my ankle a bit. It's still a little tender, but nothing major. I dusted it off, gave the little guy a snack and we took off.
The first quarter mile was, as expected, chaotic. I got as far forward as I could. Despite pushing a stroller, I still expected to be finishing in the top of the field. I managed to avoid a few near collisions with zig-zagging runners and settled in. The first mile was in the low-7 range, but, given the course, that was expected.
Something I forgot to consider was that kids have a tendency to stop wherever they happen to be whenever they feel like it. Middle of the street. Left side. Right side. All without warning. I had to bounce around a few that stopped in front of me when we got to the first hill.
The guy who would go on to win the stroller division flew by me after the first mile. I made a small effort to stick with him, but it wasn't going to happen.
I spent much of the last two miles talking to H to get my mind off the run.
"What color are the trees?" - Green
"What eats the leaves?" - Giraffe
"Are you tall like a giraffe?" - No, I'm small
One of the nearby runners was highly amused.
But around the 2.5 mile mark, disaster struck. Puppy, H's chosen stuffed animal companion, dove off the front of the stroller. Poor Puppy got rolled over by the stroller, but didn't have any lasting damage. I circled back, picked him up, and resumed the worst hill on course.
The final climb on the course actually felt better this year than last. Angelina cheered for me up the hill and we skated in around the 23 minute mark, good enough for second stroller and T-30 overall.
Big take aways:
Stroller running is hard, but isn't as hard as I thought it would be before I started doing it. That said, stroller running on hills is a while new ball game. My quads were on fire after the last hill
H is a little champ. Having little conversations with him at the end of a race is a great distraction.
Other parent support is invaluable at stroller races. I would have been OK without Angelina at the race, if only because the other moms were there. Having her there made everything run very smoothly.
This past weekend, I had the honor of going to the USATF Master's Track and Field Championships to represent Atlanta Track Club. In most running events, the Master's division is for participants 40 and older. For the track events, USATF has set its threshold at 30. When the meets are held close to home, ATC likes to bring as large of a squad as is feasible to maximize points in their team competition. In each event, points are awarded for the top six places (8/6/4/3/2/1 points respectively). Since much of the ATC Master's team is 40+, they try to recruit a handful of people in the 30-39 group to help pick up points that might otherwise go unclaimed.
My wife and I were invited to join the outdoor meet in Baton Rouge last year, but the timing did not work out well. Fortunately, the schedule came together nicely this year, so we spent the weekend in Landover, MD.
Travel
This was our version of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles.
Uber to MARTA
MARTA to ATL
Fly ATL to BWI
Airport shuttle to AMTRAK station
AMTRAK train to Union Station METRO
METRO to Largo Town Center
Hotel shuttle to Hotel
We were very happy to have the team captains for the 30-39 division on the same flight. It made for a lot of good conversation and preparations for the meet as well as some good assurances that we were going the right way.
After putting our things in the hotel room, we went to the event venue to pick our packets up and to check out where we would be spending much of the next three days. We walked around the track a bit and I gave the high jump a try.
The biggest challenge for the first day of competition, for me, was in figuring out how exactly to prepare. I was running the 3000m, which was the last race of the day. Races are also run in the order of Womens => Mens, Oldest => Youngest, which meant I was in the last heat of the last race of the day. It was scheduled for 6:45. The event ended up being about 20-25 minutes behind, so my heat did not start until around 7:15.
One thing that was a little disappointing was much of the team had to take off before my race got going. It was totally understandable, they all were getting ready for their own events the next day and, with the whole thing running late, couldn't afford to stay later. A bunch made a point to stop by and wish me luck, which really meant a lot. The ones that were able to stay behind all spread themselves around the track so I had familiar faces at all the corners. Rockstars.
While I had my cheering section around the track, the hardest part about the race was that I was all alone on it. I had two well behind me and seven or eight well ahead. I knew my first lap was very fast and spent the next couple trying to slow myself down and let the leaders pull away.
Interpolating between 1400 and 1600 gives me a 5:36 1500m split, which is (Spoiler Alert!) only 6 seconds slower than I would actually run the 1500 on Day 2. I totally had arm issues the entire back half of the race. I had complete strangers down the back stretch yelling at me to get them down. I could feel how tired I felt, though, so I'm pretty sure it's a strength/conditioning issue. Needs more push ups.
All said, this was still about a 7 second PR in the 3k. Previously, I had only ever run the "3k Indicators" as a part of our training programs, so conditions were a lot better in this race. However, going sub-6 for the first 1600 is not a small feat relative to what I "normally" run. I was very pleased with my performance here.
Oh, and, I was first in my age group (out of one). So 8 points for the team. Whoop whoop!
Day 2: Washington Sightseeing, 1500m, 4x800m, 4x200m
Neither Angelina nor I had any morning events, so we met up with my sister and her fiance on the National Mall and rented some bikes. When we went ~8 years ago, it was about 20 degrees outside and I was a little under the weather so we had to cut the walk short. The bikes let us visit the Washington Monument, WWII Memorial, Lincoln Memorial, MLK Memorial, FDR Memorial, and the Jefferson Memorial all in a short span. I really like how they've set up the MLK and FDR Memorials as sort of links in a chain to make the Jefferson Memorial more easily accessible.
1500m
Going into the meet, this was the event I wanted to take the most seriously. It had the least point potential (since there were 3 others in my AG for the heat), but the mile is something I kind of want to focus on this year. Based on a 6min mile, I thought 5:30-5:35 was a good target.
Warming up, my legs felt very heavy from the 3000m. I never really felt that confident in any of my strides in warm-ups. Sitting here writing about this race two days later, I don't even really recall many of the details, since the craziness of the relays kind of overshadowed it. I seem to remember it much the same as the 3000: starting a little too fast, settling in at a pace a bit slower, and finishing the back half with fairly consistent splits.
Finished fourth (of four) in my AG, good enough for 3 points.
First of all, I had some real troopers on all of my relay teams. These got completely thrown together the night before when our AG Captains met up with the Men's captain after I had expressed an interest in putting together teams. The hardest part was that I didn't know any of my teammates so I was relying on a lot of descriptions and pointing at people from across the venue. BUT they all worked out. Races got run and fun was had.
A relay team takes on the AG of its youngest competitor. As a member of the 30-34 AG, that allows for an opportunity to pull down some of the members from the larger age groups and potentially collect some more points.
The 4x800m was never going to be competitive. Our first runner got lapped twice by most of the teams. Which, I suspect, led the judges to miscount my laps. I hustled through my first three laps and, when I was coming around, the judge held up 2 fingers (for 2 laps left) which confused me. When I came around to finish my fourth lap, he held up 1 finger (for 1 lap left) and our 3rd runner stayed back (presumably wasn't counting the laps himself).
Angelina (and others) were positioned just past the Start/Finish line and I gave them a "What is Going On?" shrug which they returned in kind. I cranked out a fifth lap for the world's longest 800m and staggered in. Still, we finished fourth (of four) good for more points.
Going into the 4x800m, I actually thought the 4x200m relay wasn't going to happen. When putting together the teams, they were one person different and that person was not there for the 4x200. But he ended up coming back to the venue just in the nick of time so now we got to run another race.
The 4x200m was a lot closer. I ended up taking the lead leg and had us in third. The second leg saw us back in fourth and our third leg managed to take it back, putting a few second gap. But their fourth leg was too strong and ran us down on the home stretch and winning by about a half second.
The last day was a chill day. Final day of the meet. We had two other DC-Area friends coming down to cheer us on. They arrived just in time to catch my High Jumps.
Going in, my High Jump goal had been 4ft. I'm not sure how I arrived at that, but it seemed like a nice round number. Arriving at the actual event, I was informed that 1.3m was the meet minimum for men (something I probably should have known, but, well, didn't). I didn't do the math in my head then, but it works out to around 4ft 3in.
Now, I have never done high jump before. In fact, this was my first field event ever. I managed to clear 1.3m. What's not shown in the video below was that the bar was wobbling all over and I sat on the mat for a heartbeat pleading with it to stay up. And stay it did.
Returning to the competitors, it was absolutely clear to them that I was, at best, a novice. Apparently, they were surprised the jump was allowed at all, as I had jumped off two feet. Rules that I would have done well to look up in advance.
I tried to take in as many pointers as I could, but it was my turn up very shortly. The 1.35m height proved to be a bit much. After my third failure (and, thus, elimination from the competition) one of the other competitors took me aside to tell me he was amazed that someone would have the confidence in themselves to come out and try something completely new like that and I had a marketable improvement each jump I took. I think that was the best I could have ever hoped to hear from the experience.
My last race of the meet was the final relay. Speed-wise, this was the strongest of the three relays. We were able to sub some of the throwers that had, dutifully, run the previous night for some runners. Unfortunately, my legs were dead from the long weekend. For how heavy I felt ahead of the 1500m, it felt even worse.
There were four teams that quickly separated into two groups of two. I had a solid first 200m (around 28 seconds) and was just ahead of the fourth place competitor. I gave out during the second lap, finishing around 1:03 while handing off. Going around, we stayed close but couldn't quite pull back into it and finished fourth.
Clemson Basketball
Our friends visiting the last day took us back to their place for an evening of hanging out and watching basketball. It was great to have an evening of decompression and relaxation before returning to work and parenting. After spending a humbling weekend consistently finishing in the back of the pack, it was nice to vicariously live through my alma mater trouncing their opponent.
Conclusion
After crunching some numbers, we figured out the 30-39s accounted for close to 20% of the team points while making up around 13% of the team's members. Atlanta Track Club ended up third in the team competition.
Overall, the weekend was a blast. It was great having a team to compete with again and I got to know a lot of other athletes
