The Around the Crown 10k has become the premier running event in Charlotte. Yet despite the fact that it takes place just 20 miles down the road from where I live, somehow I managed to miss the first 6 runnings of the event. This year I decided I'd just sign up months in advance, so I'd have to run it!
Fast-forward to 6 days ago, when I was just getting back from a massive 6-week road trip. I wasn't feeling great, and I feared I may be picking up some sort of illness. Sure enough, the next morning, I barely managed to get out of bed, let alone join my running buddies for my first group run in nearly two months. I ended up missing three days of running, finally getting going on an easy 5-miler on Thursday. My race was on Sunday. Each day I felt just a little better, and by Saturday I felt like I could at least give the race a go. My watch tells the story with this graph of my HRV over the past week.
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| This graph roughly correlates to how I felt this week |
Even though I felt a lot better as I got up this morning, today's HRV of 44ms was still considerably lower than my healthy average of ~55ms. I had a bite to eat, collected my gear, and headed out the door at 6:15, in plenty of time to make the 30-minute drive to Charlotte and warm up for the 7:30 start. I was driving down I-77, jamming to some Talking Heads, when suddenly I noticed that a critical bit of my race kit was missing: My bib number! I knew there was probably some way to retrieve the number at the race start, but it would involve waiting in a bunch of lines and also some embarrassment. I did a quick calculation and figured I could turn around, get the number, and still make it to the race on time. I made a quick exit and headed home. By the time I was back on the road my ETA at the race start was 7:20. I'd have to park and make it to my corral in less than 10 minutes. Fortunately this was downtown Charlotte and there were parking lots everywhere, so I was pretty sure I could make it. And I did make it, but not in time for any sort of warm-up. Instead I just stood nervously in the start corral with 7,600 of my best friends.
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| The vibe was definitely a little tense at this point |
I wasn't positioned quite at the front of my corral, but I figured that since I hadn't had a chance to warm up, this would probably end up being a good thing. I could run my way into race pace. It's a hilly race, and between that and coming off an illness, I doubted I'd be anywhere close to a PR anyways, so no worries about any of that. On the other hand, I hate doing races when I'm not going all-out, so once I got through the first mile, I planned to go as hard as I could to the finish.
The first mile of the race was basically flat as we made our way through city streets towards I-277, a short section of interstate that circles downtown Charlotte. I tried to keep my pace relatively easy while staying with the runners around me. If I was perfectly healthy I think I could run this race in under 7-minute mile pace, but today I'd be happy if I ended up with something around 7:30/mile. Mile 1: 7:28.
Next we headed down an onramp and then made a 180-degree turn to head east on I-277. Here I could see hundreds of runners stretched out ahead, as well as the runners "behind" me who were now above me on the overpass:
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| It was pretty cool to run on an Interstate that I've driven a lot! |
The next two miles would trend downhill on I-277 as we ran along the south side of downtown Charlotte, then turned north and ran along the east side of the city center. I picked up the pace and began passing folks right and left. Every time we went under an overpass, there would be dozens of fans cheering us on with the usual "Worst Parade Ever" and "Hey Random Stranger -- You Got This" signs. I still chuckle when I see the same signs I've seen dozens of times before, so they do work! Mile 2: 7:09. Mile 3: 7:13.
I was prepared for Mile 4, which featured the biggest climb of the race, about 100 vertical feet in a half-mile. It was just after we started to head back west on the north side of the city. The mile marker to start the mile, everyone around me agreed, was out of place, around 3.2 miles in to the race. The hill didn't care. I told myself it was okay to go as slow as 8:00 per mile on the hill as long as I picked the pace back up at the top. The hill would end about 0.7 miles into Mile 4, and we'd have a third of a mile to recover. I passed quite a few people on the hill, thanks to a lot of hill training this summer in Santa Fe at 7,300 feet elevation. I did pick up the pace as I crested the hill, and had a 7:46 split for Mile 4.
Mile 5 gave us another chance to recover from the big hill, as it was mostly downhill. Here we exited the freeway and headed back onto city streets. 7:11. I knew there was one more hill, but I couldn't remember exactly where it was. That said, we were running out of real estate. It came at Mile 5.2. It wasn't as steep as the hill in Mile 4, but it was just as long, and I was more tired for this one. I reminded myself there was less than a mile to go, and willed myself on. I did manage to run Mile 6 a little faster than Mile 4, at 7:39. Now there was just one last corner, and one last straightaway to the finish. I put everything I had into it, then crossed the line.
My watch had the course a little short, at 6.12 miles. By my watch, my average pace was 7:28 / mile, which was under my revised post-illness goal. I'll take it. Officially my pace was 7:18 and my time was 45:20, 13th out of 130 in my age group. I'll use this as my baseline as I start to train for the Philadelphia Marathon, November 23.
Afterward I met up with several of my running buddies. Everyone had a great time and everyone agreed that that Mile 3 marker was WAY long!
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| Planning to do a lot more running with these great folks in the coming months! |
