Indian Lake Loop

I read somewhere that more people race on Thanksgiving than any other day.  I guess they feel guilty about all of the calories they are about to consume but running a few miles only burns a couple pieces of pumpkin pie.  Most Nashvillians head to the Boulevard Bolt for their annual Thanksgiving race.  I debated running it last year, but battling it out with 9,000 other people to find limited parking doesn't float my boat. This year, I decided to stay in town and run the Indian Lake Loop for the third time.

My first year racing it, I was a few months back into running, after taking a few years off.  I got beat by an out-of-town ringer, Brad Mason.  We hung together for a couple of miles before he dropped me like a bad habit and I came finished 2nd place in 27:14.  Since then, I've been waiting for my revenge but I haven't had the chance to race him yet.  However, I was hoping I would have the chance for redemption this year.

Last Saturday, I started coming down with some virus or something.  It's sapped all of my energy and has left me feeling really rundown and congested.  Part of me (and my wife) thought I shouldn't run but I already paid the $25 entry fee and if I won, I would get a few restaurant gift cards, that I could use for date nights.  Before the sickness, I felt like I could run 25:00 for the five mile course and keep it under control.  With this sickness, I felt like it was going to be tough to run 26:00 and I was scared that Brad would show up this year and I would get dropped again.

The weather was pretty cool (low 40s) and luckily, it was really foggy.  The fog seemed to act like my own personalized humidifier and made breathing a little bit easier.  I slogged through a little over a three mile warmup, changed my shoes, did some half-hearted leg swings and strides and headed to the line.  I didn't see Brad, which was somewhat of a relief.  I wanted revenge but didn't want to finally have my oppurtunity to race him and lose because I was sick.

When the race started, a couple of high school kids took off.  Normally I don't use my GPS when I race but since this course isn't certified, I decided to use it.  I was about to pass the overeager teenagers, but I saw we were going around 4:45 mile pace, so I waited a bit longer.  I passed one a little before a half mile in, and he sounded like he was about to go in labor. Guess he was about to find out that five miles could feel like a marathon.  I ended up passing the other one shortly afterward and while he didn't sound too bad, I knew he'd pay the price later.

My watch said I was around 4:50 pace, so I backed off some.  I was feeling much better than expected and went through the mile in 4:54.  The second mile has some climbing with a 180 degree turn, so I knew I'd lose a little time. During this mile, you also run against traffic, so I was able to cheer on my Monday Night running buddies, Max and Justin, as well as some other people I knew.  I ended up with a 4:57 that mile, and still felt pretty decent.  At this point, I was realizing that I had a shot at sub 25, so I tried to stay on rhythm, without overdoing it.

In the third mile, I began to get a little bit tired, but I didn't force things because I knew I had a lot of running left.  I came through in 5:03, which was still under 25 minute pace.  In the fourth mile, you run up a hill that you hardly ever notice while running easily.  However, it felt much bigger than usual and I struggled up (as I usually do on uphills).  I lost a good bit of time on the hill and my GPS said I was running over 5:15 pace for that mile.  I thought that was the nail in the sub 25 coffin because I didn't want to have to hammer hard. After another 180 degree turn, I was able to make up some time because the tough uphill was now a generous downhill.  The mile marker was a little bit short as I came through in 4:52.  At this point, I knew sub 25 was back in the cards.  I then switched over my GPS screen so I could see the overall time to let me know what I needed to do.

I noticed that there was a 1/2 mile to go marker spray-painted in the road, so I mentally focused on trying to hit that at 22:30. When I hit that in about 23 minutes, I knew something was wrong.  I tried to keep going and once my watch hit 24 minutes, I knew my shot at sub 25 was over. I crossed the line in 25:30 and was able to get a little over a five minute win.

I was a little bit bummed that my time was so slow but my GPS said I ran 5.24 miles.  Most of the other people I talked to had between 5.11-5.14 miles (which would be about right for a true five mile course), so maybe I bobbed and weaved too much or something. At one of the turnarounds, they didn't have the cones ready yet, so maybe I ran down too far...who knows? One of my Monday night running partners had 5.14 miles, and our watches always beep at the same time when we run together, so I figure I added on somewhere.

Overall, it was a pretty good day.  I had a lot left at the end and it felt like a good tempo run. I was happy to get the win but it's not the reason I run. I can tell some people that I had a good race but they will poke and prod to see if I won or not, like it's a failure if I didn't.  I've won several races that I considered bad performances and this past year, I finished 15th in a race, but was really pleased with the placing. You can't control who shows up, only your individual performance.  I felt like this race shows I'm getting my fitness back and will be rolling once this sickness passes.

Mile splits with GPS measurements:4:54 (1.02), 4:57 (1.02), 5:03 (11.04), 4:52 (.95), 5:44 (1.22)

Indian Lake Loop

I'm not much of a Thanksgiving guy. I really only eat turkey if it's fried and I don't like most of the other traditional dishes, except for macaroni and cheese, rolls and a couple slices of pumpkin pie. Rather than sitting around a table eating, I'd rather be up stairs watching TV or playing Xbox and eating some Halloween candy. However, I'm trying to make it a Thanksgiving tradition to run in a race on Thanksgiving.

Last year, I spent Thanksgiving in South Carolina and was going to run an 8k in Greenville, but woke up sick. Two years ago, I ran the Indian Lake Loop and really enjoyed it. I was thinking about running the Boulevard Bolt this year but since Ryan Snellen wasn't racing it and it was more expensive than the Indian Lake Loop, I decided to give my hometown race another go.

I had a really hard workout on Monday and wasn't planning on racing this all-out. I was shooting for somewhere around 5:00 pace, so I was looking to run just under 25:00. Two years ago, I got beat by an out of town guy, so I was really hoping he showed up again this year.

I did my normal warm-up routine and since the Porta-John line was insanely long, I decided to visit a bush before heading to the line. It was hard to camoulflage myself in my neon orange singlet but I did my best.

The race seemed like it was pretty big compared to when I ran it two years ago. There was at least 300 people but I didn't see the guy who beat me a couple years back, which was a little disappointing. When the race started, I let some little kid lead for a little bit before crushing his ego and stealing his soul. After about a quarter of a mile, I was moving pretty quickly and was anxious to see what my first mile split would be.

I figured I was going sub 4:50 mile pace so after the watch went past five minutes, I figured the first mile was long. Unfortunately it turned out there were no mile markers during the entire race. It was frustrating because every race I've ever run has had mile markers and the split data is what gets me from mile-to-mile and lets me assess my performance on the run.

When we were running down Indian Lake Blvd., it turned out the biker had us on the wrong side of the road and instead of reversing it and going back on the other side, he just had me do a 180 degree turn and run back down the road.

After heading back down Indian Lake, we turned onto Saundersville for quite a while. Even though there were no splits, I was pretty sure I was under 15 at what would be 5k and shortly after 15 minutes, I started to struggle a little bit. I did my best to stay relaxed while not taking my foot off the gas too much. It felt like we were running down Saundersville Rd. for way too long and once I hit 22 minutes, I knew the course had to be way long. That made me back off the pace a tad because instead of getting a legit time, I would run something that wouldn't really mean anything.

I crossed the line in 26:25 and it turned out we took a couple of wrong turns and the course was closer to 5.4 miles, which would have resulted in a five mile time of around 24:25. Based off my Team Nashville race, this was a harder effort, which was a little frustrating but I was a little tired from a marathon workout three days beforehand. However, since this was my last race before the marathon, I wanted to get the wheels moving and hurt a little bit and that's what happened.

With just 2.5 weeks to go, it's now time to get a feel for and lock into marathon pace so I can make my assault on 2:19.

Indian Lake Loop 5-Miler

With a really good race about six weeks ago, I was feeling optimistic about the race. I had some really good recent workouts and was beating Miles in some of them, who is a 16:30ish type guy. I've also started doing my long runs with the Hendersonville Running Club, which I've enjoyed. It's a group of 100+ runners on all ability levels, so there is always someone to run with. People think they have to spend tons of money on a personal trainer or gym membership to become more fit but the Hendersonville Running Club is free and the roads are always open.

The weather was perfect for racing....about 40 degrees without any wind. When the race was about to start, I took my spot behind the starting line and tried to scope out the competition. The only person I saw was Charlie Jordan, who is a really good high school runner at Station Camp High School. I frequently coach my runners against him and he's Miles biggest rival, so I was looking forward to racing against him.

When the gun went off, Charlie shot out into the lead and I followed just behind. After a few hundred meters, I took the lead and noticed there was a guy right beside me. I tried to do some random surges to see how he responded and he hung just off my shoulder. We hit the mile in 5:10, which was way too fast for my ability.

When I know I'm not in great shape or am doubting my ability to beat someone, I like to sometimes throw on my best poker face and do sporadic pick-ups or surges to either appear stronger than I am or to mentally break the person. Unfortunately, I couldn't drop the guy and I noticed it was someone I've sporadically seen at Moss Wright Park and every time I see him, he's flying. We hit three miles at 16:40, which was fast in itself but with a 5:10 first mile, it meant I was fading fast.

I fell behind in the fourth mile and continued to fall back with every minute. I would hope I could stay close enough to make a last rally but I was just flat out running out of gas.

I hit the line in 27:41 to finish 2nd. While I would have like to win because it was a low-key local race and I got beat by an out of town guy, I'm pretty happy with the result because it shows I've consistently gained fitness over the last two months. The course also had a lot of gradual climbs, so it most likely isn't a PR type course. Since cross country season is over, I'll have more time to run some more and continue to increase my fitness. I've been running about 40 miles a week or so but I'd like to progress that to 70 or more a week and add in some tempo runs to help my gas tank. I'm going to do a 5k in a couple of weeks, so hopefully that will be another break-out run for me.