Iron Horse 15K
This past Sunday I ran the Iron Horse 15K here in the Atlanta area. This has been my longest race to date, and needless to say I was freaking out the 2 days leading up to it.
Sunday I woke at my usual 4am as I do every day I have a race. I had my usual which is a Protein shake with Banana and then followed it with a bottle of low cal G2. I got my water bottles ready and everything laid out. The race was about an hour drive so I had to head out pretty early so I had a PB english muffin on the drive to the race.
I get to the race only to realize I left my gels at home. My NUT wants me doing a gel every 45 minutes on anything longer than 1 hour, I figured I had had a decent breakfast and a few more carns than usual the day before so I should be ok.
As I am standing around waiting for things to start I see a friend of mine who also is a WLS patient and we talked for a bit, then off to the Porta-a-john lines. Needless to say they had no where near enough of them and when they announce 3 minutes until start I still have a dozen people in front of me so I say screw-it and head to the start line.
I line up towards the back as I have never ran this distance as part of an event so I don't want to hold anyone up. Race starts and I head out at what feels to be a comfortable pace and after a few minutes look down at my garmin to see that I am running a sub 9min pace, knowing I can't maintain this for the whole race and not wanting to runout of gas early I slow my pace down. I have trained my long runs at an 11:00-11:30 pace so I settle in at around a 10:30 pace. The course was described as being flat well it was except for the 3 big hills, there weren't many hills but the ones they had were either steep or long. As the course heads out into the surrounding area I am feeling fairly good, holding my pace and have even passed a number of people which always helps me feel good. About mile 4 my left leg starts to tighten up behind the knee but I learned in one of my long training runs that if I stop to stretch it I probably won't be able to start running again so I grit my teeth and just grunt through it, and eventually the pain just fades away into the back of my mind. Mile 4-6 is an out and back leg and as I am getting close to mile 6 I see my friend heading to the turn around point, we wave smile and yell words of encouragement to eachtoher which I really needed at that point.
As I nit mile 8 I look at my watch and see that my goal of comming in under 1:45 is possible so at about mile 8.5 I pick my pace up and give everything I have.
I crossed the finishline in 1:37:59 butting me between the 1:30 and 1:40 I had hoped for. I get my medal and shirt and then hit the food lines. I still felt pretty good and was just loving the feeling that I had accomplished something that a year ago I never dreamed possible. I hang out for the awards, overall first was some 15 year old kid and like 57 minutes first for my age group was like 1:07, but I was still pretty damn proud of how I did.
Next race 13.1 Atlanta on Oct. 2 (which is a lot sooner than I realized)
Sunday I woke at my usual 4am as I do every day I have a race. I had my usual which is a Protein shake with Banana and then followed it with a bottle of low cal G2. I got my water bottles ready and everything laid out. The race was about an hour drive so I had to head out pretty early so I had a PB english muffin on the drive to the race.
I get to the race only to realize I left my gels at home. My NUT wants me doing a gel every 45 minutes on anything longer than 1 hour, I figured I had had a decent breakfast and a few more carns than usual the day before so I should be ok.
As I am standing around waiting for things to start I see a friend of mine who also is a WLS patient and we talked for a bit, then off to the Porta-a-john lines. Needless to say they had no where near enough of them and when they announce 3 minutes until start I still have a dozen people in front of me so I say screw-it and head to the start line.
I line up towards the back as I have never ran this distance as part of an event so I don't want to hold anyone up. Race starts and I head out at what feels to be a comfortable pace and after a few minutes look down at my garmin to see that I am running a sub 9min pace, knowing I can't maintain this for the whole race and not wanting to runout of gas early I slow my pace down. I have trained my long runs at an 11:00-11:30 pace so I settle in at around a 10:30 pace. The course was described as being flat well it was except for the 3 big hills, there weren't many hills but the ones they had were either steep or long. As the course heads out into the surrounding area I am feeling fairly good, holding my pace and have even passed a number of people which always helps me feel good. About mile 4 my left leg starts to tighten up behind the knee but I learned in one of my long training runs that if I stop to stretch it I probably won't be able to start running again so I grit my teeth and just grunt through it, and eventually the pain just fades away into the back of my mind. Mile 4-6 is an out and back leg and as I am getting close to mile 6 I see my friend heading to the turn around point, we wave smile and yell words of encouragement to eachtoher which I really needed at that point.
As I nit mile 8 I look at my watch and see that my goal of comming in under 1:45 is possible so at about mile 8.5 I pick my pace up and give everything I have.
I crossed the finishline in 1:37:59 butting me between the 1:30 and 1:40 I had hoped for. I get my medal and shirt and then hit the food lines. I still felt pretty good and was just loving the feeling that I had accomplished something that a year ago I never dreamed possible. I hang out for the awards, overall first was some 15 year old kid and like 57 minutes first for my age group was like 1:07, but I was still pretty damn proud of how I did.
Next race 13.1 Atlanta on Oct. 2 (which is a lot sooner than I realized)
Paul C.
First 5K 9/27/20 46:32 - 11 weeks post op (PR 28:55 8/15/11)
First 10K 7/04/2011 1:03 First 15K 9/18/2011 1:37
First Half Marathon 10/02/2011 2:27:44 (PR 2:24:35)
First Half Ironman 9/30/12 7:32:04
First 5K 9/27/20 46:32 - 11 weeks post op (PR 28:55 8/15/11)
First 10K 7/04/2011 1:03 First 15K 9/18/2011 1:37
First Half Marathon 10/02/2011 2:27:44 (PR 2:24:35)
First Half Ironman 9/30/12 7:32:04
Great Job! Like that you didn't freak out when you realized you left your gels... gotta roll with the punches!
Read my blog, BARIATHLETE I run because I can.
First 5K race October 4, 2009 (34.59) PR 5/22/11 (27:26)
First 5 Mile: January 1, 2011 (50:30)
First 10K: July 4, 2010 (1:03.26) New PR 4/10/11 (1:01.14)
First 10 Mile: April 11, 2010 (1:46.15)
First 1/2 marathon: June 13, 2010 (2:22.21) PR: 5/1/11 (2:17.30)
First Marathon: October 16, 2011: 5:47:20
Goofy Challenge: January 7-8, 2012
If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you're right. - Mary Kay Ash
First 5K race October 4, 2009 (34.59) PR 5/22/11 (27:26)
First 5 Mile: January 1, 2011 (50:30)
First 10K: July 4, 2010 (1:03.26) New PR 4/10/11 (1:01.14)
First 10 Mile: April 11, 2010 (1:46.15)
First 1/2 marathon: June 13, 2010 (2:22.21) PR: 5/1/11 (2:17.30)
First Marathon: October 16, 2011: 5:47:20
Goofy Challenge: January 7-8, 2012
If you think you can, you can. If you think you can't, you're right. - Mary Kay Ash
Awesome job!!! You should be really proud of yourself. I love looking at your early numbers with your first 5K to reading this report. You may not set out to be an inspiration, but you are!!!
Good luck Oct 2nd!!!
Kat
Good luck Oct 2nd!!!
Kat
Lots of 5K's, 10K's., 4 1/2 Marathons, 3 Sprint Triathlon done. 2 Olympics and my First IRONMAN 70.3 September 2013 and First Full Marathon Dec 2013 !!!!!
My blog- www.NPRunner.blogspot.com
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