Race Report: 2014 Rocky Run 10K, Philadelphia

During my running career, there are two races in which I pulled an unexpectedly great performance completely out of my ass.  One was the 2012 Hershey 10K, which I PR'd in 52:33, a 10K time I had never, have never since, and probably will never again, come within 5 minutes of.  

The other was on Saturday, at the inaugural Rocky Run 10K.

I had no business -- no business whatsoever -- trying to run the 10K.  5K is the farthest I'd run since my surgery, and while I've finished that distance a few times without needing walk breaks, I usually needed to take a few, and I'd barely run the previous two weeks prior to this race (due to both some schedule issues and some motivational issues).  I'd needed several walk breaks during the third mile of a 3-mile run on the Wednesday night before the race.  On Saturday, I ran -- other than a stop to drink a cup of water and a short pause to tie a shoe -- 5 miles of this 10K before needing some walk breaks in the last 1.2.

I felt great during the race, and while I am a little sore after the race, it is not nearly as bad as I expected.  But most encouraging to me was that there was not even a hint of compartment syndrome pain, just normal soreness that I'd have after any run that was this challenging.

I couldn't be any more thrilled.  In the span of 1:12:54, my confidence level for the two half marathons I'm signed up for in the spring increased tenfold.  I need to train.  I know I'm not really trained to his level yet (I ran 4 miles on the Wednesday evening after the race, and while my knees hurt, there are again no compartment syndrome symptoms), and that the Celtic Solstice 5-miler in Baltimore's Druild Hill park will be (as "Druid Hill Park" implies) much hillier than this.  But for the first time in well over a year, it feel like longer distances are really possible again. 

But let's back up.

Race Day
Chris and I stayed with friends in south Philly, who kindly picked up our packets in addition to giving us some couch and floor space.  We left for the race, which had a 7:30am start time for the 5K, and an 8:15am start time for the 10K, which we were running, at 6:45, and were over by the starting area around 7:45.

It was freezing!  I like running in the cold, but temperatures were in the 20s and I am not very acclimated or in nearly as good a shape as I was in some of my past running winters, and I -- in my shorts, throwaway knit gloves, long-sleeve t-shirt -- was wishing I had my jacket, more serious gloves, and my cold-weather headband.  

Hilariously, our friends dressed as a chicken (him) and Rocky Balboa (her), hoping to win the race's costume contest by recreating the scene from Rocky II in which Rocky chases a chicken as part of his training.  There were plenty of Rockys, and well, that mostly it.  I did get passed by a few chickens (including my friend), a guy dressed as a giant piece of meat, and even 2 guys in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (representing, though, Rocky's turtles, Cuff and Link).

The race started promptly at 8:15.  I had been debating whether to run with Chris, how follows a modified Galloway plan in which she walks for a minute after every half mile, or use my own plan, a more informal approach of "run as much of the race as I can and then cross my fingers".  My legs felt good, and so I thought I'd run as much as I could without walk breaks.   

The 10K course is an out of back along Martin Luther King Jr. Drive (formerly West River Drive).  It was a pleasant, mostly flat course along the scenic Schuylkill River, with a decline down to MLK Dr. from the art museum, meaning an incline at the end.  

I started out at what I felt was a very cautious, measured pace, because I knew if if I went for my old 9-10 min mile pace, I'd have no shot of running most of a distance this far outside my comfort zone.  My strategy worked.  I felt great for the first 3.1 and had plenty left in the tank.  I felt like the second half of the race was more difficult...which I guess is always true on a flat-ish out and back.  Aside from a pause for a water break and a brief re-lacing of my right sneaker, I ran 5 miles before I needed to take a few walk breaks to finish the race.  But running into the sun was challenging.  I'd be lying if I said it was "hot", but the sun was very bright and I was sweating my butt off.  I took my long-sleeve t-shirt off and was more comfortable in just a sleeveless tech shirt, and very glad I didn't have any of my real cold-weather gear to carry.  Even 4 days later, my forehead still feel sunburned.

This race has a lot of personal baggage.  Even though it's across the river from the second half of the Philly Marathon, which follows Kelly Drive out to Manyunk and back, I still had that "running along the Schuykill and wondering if I had enough left to finish" feeling.  Indeed, in that same race back 2011, I remembered at mile 11 and 12, along the same place on MLK Drive, knowing that I felt decent, but not good enough to have the type of second 13.1 I was hoping for.  On the other hand, this time, there was no sign along MLK telling me that I had another 14 miles to run; I just got to run back up the hill toward the Art Museum and finish -- just like in the two Philly Halfs that I count among my best races.

This one is up there with my favorite finishes, even though I know I didn't really earn it.  It will probably be a few weeks before I'm trained up to run a 10K or even 5 miles, but knowing I ran this far without compartment syndrome pain was joyous, and I lost control of my emotions a bit as I came up toward and crossed the finish line.  I finished the Rocky Run 10K, but now my training for the Shamrock Half must begin in earnest.

Race Review
This was a really nice event.  Fun theme, fast, scenic course, great medal, DJ's playing inspirational hits from the Rocky movies along the course, ample port-o-potties at the start, and free photographs.   I'm not sure if this will be an "every year" race because of the logistical challenges of a Philly race (although I said I'd dress as Adrian next year to enhance my friends' costume contest chances), but I would definitely run this again.

There's a few constructive criticisms, though.

• I'd space out the water stops differently -- there were 2 on the way out, quite close together, and only one on the way back.  I can't complain too much, I certainly could have brought my hydration belt
• I think I'd send the starters off in a few more waves, it was a very crowded field
• There was no food at the finish line, only water, or if there was food there wasn't enough of it or it wasn't well-marked. 

Overall, though, a great first-year event with great friends, and a race that definitely has meaning for me as I attempt to make up for lost time in my now three-year quest for revenge.

Race Report: Sole of the City 10K

There is a time to go for broke, and there is a time to not go for broke. As a runner who is a shadow of what I was last year at this time (not that that was elite or anything), I have to pick my battles.  Not every race can be a PR, and in a busy racing season, it's probably not wise or realistic to even have that as a goal.  (Though try telling that to Chris, who's PR'd in seven straight races going back to November!)  That's what I'm telling myself, anyway.  Maybe I even believe it.


I'd decided several weeks ago that I was going to push hard for a PR at either the Hershey 10K last Sunday or the Sole of the City 10K today, but not both.   I went way too fast out the gate at Hershey, died, somehow had an excellent negative split and finished with a 10K distance time that is a pretty significant outlier from any 10K time (race or not) that I've ever run before.  With that already under my belt, I decided I was going to take today nice and easy and have a good time, especially when I saw that the temperature was going to be quite a bit above my preferences.  I'd continue breaking in the new Brooks Adrenalines and try to run a good race, but not worry about busting my butt for fortune and glory.


So, in one sense:  mission accomplished. 57:17, much more in line with my usual 10K pace.  I felt like I paced myself better; my legs hurt a lot less than they did after both the Hershey 10K and my 6.3 at Cousler Park on Wednesday; and considering what a warm, sunny day it was, I felt good.  I followed my plan perfectly.

On the other hand, I thought I could come in a little under this, especially when I hit the 5K mark at just over 27 minutes, almost the same point I hit it at Hershey.  There was no sweet negative split this time, though.  In my defense, I see that my second-best 10K time this year was a 56:10 that I ran on a chilly night a month ago.  It was warm out there in Baltimore, and the sun was beating down pretty heavily for a good portion of this.  Don't get me wrong -- it was a beautiful morning, but a cold night is much more Brian-friendly running conditions.  But there's no arguing that I'm just not in the same shape yet that I was at Dreaded Druid Hills last year, where I was only 20 seconds slower than this on a much hillier course.  (I'm currently undecided whether I'll give the DDH 10K another try this year or wait till next.)

Race Review
I had a good time and I would run this race again.  There's nothing super distinctive about it that I would really plan my schedule months in advance to make sure that I'm around for it, but I think that's true of the vast majority of races; it's not really meant as a criticism. Other than the Shamrock races in Virginia Beach, I'm not sure that I've found that "Wow!  That was such a fun race I have to run this every year!" race (and since Virginia Beach is 1000 hours away, every year is not going to happen there, either).  I like that we're trying some new ones this year, and I enjoyed this one.

I thought it was well-organized, a challenging course, and the post-race festivities were fun, although we didn't stay very long since our friends were leaving and we felt more like breakfast food than Greene Turtle wraps (I have mine in the fridge, though, so I'll update in a future blog post if it's notable either way.)  Charm City Run did a nice job with it, and yes, we did check out their new McHenry Row store, which was probably their point, anyway.

A couple things stood out about it.  Whoever sung the National Anthem (I'll try get their names) was spectacular.  Great job!  The swag was nice. (The Under Armour quarter-zip pullover premium is nice and the regular race shirt seemed nice, too.)  And lastly but certainly not least, Chris and I both appreciated that we ran the Inner Harbor-Key Highway loop that every downtown Baltimore race seems to have in the opposite direction of the other races we've done (I've done MCVET 10K and the now-defunct Orioles 5K, she's down the Baltimore Women's Classic, and we've both done the St. Patrick's Day Parade 5K).  However, the Key Highway to Inner Harbor and back direction definitely made the second half of the race hillier and tougher than the first half!  


My only criticism (other than to have the race on a cooler day!) was that I didn't think the mile markers were prominent enough.  I missed mile markers 1, 4, and 6 (if there was a 6).  Only of our group of friends saw all of them, and I heard others say that they missed them, too.  On the plus side, at least they were mile markers. (Yes Hershey 10K, I'm looking at you).

Race Report: 2011 Dreaded Druid Hills 10K, Baltimore MD

This was my first time at the Dreaded Druid Hills 10K, and I wasn't really sure what to expect. Internet chatter about this one had led me to believe that this would be hilly well beyond any race I'd run before, but I do normally run a hilly route and had done pretty well on what I thought would be a decent simulation of it.

I wasn't sure what to expect as far as a finishing time, either. My 10K PR was screaming to be broken, since I've run only one 10K in my life, the 2009 MCVET 10K. I'd never run six or more miles, so I paced myself very conservatively and came in at 59:40. I generally come in at six miles at about 55 minutes on my normal runs more recently. Still, based on all the reports I'd been reading, I did not expect to beat my PR at this race.

Pre-race
Races in Baltimore are tough for me. I'm a morning person -- I try to be out running by about 6:15 during the summer, but since I like to get to races early, a 7:30 start time in the middle of Baltimore means I try to leave my house not long after 5:00am, and since I need to do all my IT band exercises before leaving, this means I was up at 4:00 and going on 4 hours of sleep.

I left my house at 5:20 and was at Druid Hill Park at 6:29 -- right before they opened the lake gate
for race day parking. I went in at what I guess is a main gate and easily found parking, but since there was nothing to indicate which way to go from there for packet pickup, I wandered in the general direction of where I thought it would be (near the pool and tennis courts).

Druid Lake Park (home of the Baltimore Zoo), is really very pretty. The first glimpse you get of the park from 83 South is The Moorish Tower, a tower at the corner of the park on one end of Druid Lake. As I got out of my car and wandered, I was rewarded with a gorgeous sunrise over the lake.

(Yeah, I recycle pictures a lot.)

I still didn't see packet pickup, though, so I headed in the general direction of the tower, since I knew that was the finish line. Luckily for me, I turned off the lakeside path and ran right into a pavilion where I saw people walking up and getting their packets. I picked up my race bib and giveaway, a very nice Orioles orange Asics sleeveless technical shirt with the race logo on it, and headed back to my car to drop off the new shirt and grab my Garmin and hydration belt.

(Druid Lake. The tower seen in the distance was the site of the finish line.)

Nothing I saw or overheard before the race made me feel more ready for it.

am not one to run t before the race. I stretch, and I'll walk around to loosen up, but I've always figured that I have a limited number of miles I can run each day and that each mile I run prior the race is one less I'll be able to run during it. I've NEVER seen as high a percentage of racers jogging prior to the race start.

As I was stretching, I overheard one gentleman tell a friend that "whatever your 10K PR is, you should add five to 10 minutes to it." I also heard, while in line for the port-o-potties, a woman tell a friend about the time she was at a Muddy Buddy run dressed as a rhinoceros and neglected to properly lock the port-o-potty door. I, though not dressed as a rhino, made extra sure that mine was properly latched.

I lined up about 3/4 of the way in the back of the pack at about 7:25. A few minutes after 7:30, we heard bagpipes, and a piper, followed by the race organizer, parted the crowd and walked to the front of the pack. I never heard an air horn, gun, or any signal, but shortly thereafter everyone in front of me started running and so I headed for the hills. too.

The Race
The first two miles of the course were rolling hills. If the whole race had been that hilly, I still would have said it was probably the hilliest race I'd run to date, but it was nothing terrible. After mile 2, the route started to get windier and the hills became much steeper and longer. Miles 2 through 3.5 were all uphill, very steeply at times, and then a steep decline, followed by a steeper, not as lengthy a climb and then a gradual downhill toward the finish line starting at a little past 5 miles (sorry for the guesses at mileage, Garmin didn't get a signal for large portions of this race) and flat 1/3 of a mile around the lake to the finish at the Moorish Tower.

I'd heard that the first half the race was easier than the 2nd, which was true, though as above I think the real distinction was that the this was a moderately hilly two-mile race followed by an extremely hilly four-miler.

My strategy was to try to keep an easy pace to save strengths for the hills. Early in the race, my legs just felt like lead. However, within a half mile they'd loosened up and I started to feel very good. The field was still very bunched at that point, and in the quiet park it was really net to hear nothing but the sound of thousands of footfalls. I hit mile 1 at about 9 minutes, a little faster than I wanted that early in the race. The second mile, mostly downhill, was probably the easiest mile of the whole course. At mile 3, the hills began in earnest. I also lost time to remove a stone from my shoe, but I reached the halfway point in great shape at about 28 minutes.

The hills were quite steep, but we had several things going in our favor -- it was an overcast day for most of the race, with a nice breeze, and even after the sun emerged there is a TON of shade on the course. I've never run a race that was mostly in the shade and it was gorgeous! At one point after the sun came out, the course went outside the park and onto the streets of Baltimore for a few blocks, and it was sweltering. Even though a turn back into the park meant a return to hills, the shade was welcome. Just past the fifth mile marker, the course emerges from the woods. "No more hills", the volunteers told us, just a short, not-steep incline followed by a shallow decline and a mostly flat finish. Warming up quickly in the sun, I dumped a cup of water on my head and charged for the Moorish Tower.

(The aforementioned Moorish Tower)

I knew as I reached the last water stop that I had a shot at a PR, and I wanted to pick that admittedly low-hanging fruit! I'd paced myself as well as I had any race, I feel, and I had enough left for a great finishing kick to round the lack and finish in 57:37 (unofficial watch time, no chips in this race), a PR by over two minutes!

Review
I had a lot more fun at this race than I thought I would, and it was also much-better organized than I thought it would be. The race didn't really have a website, and we didn't receive ay e-mail communication at from race officials until this week, and when we did it included a note that Active.com's ordering function had malfunctioned and my size shirt might not be available.

Instead, it ended up being both a nice event and very enjoyable race. I talked a little trash in my last post and on facebook, but I won't lie, it's hilly as hell. I know I only PR'd because of small sample size when it comes to 10Ks. That said, I think if you either pace yourself convservatively, like I did, or walk some of the uphills, that this race isn't as bad as people say. I mean, some of the quotes about this race make it sound like you're going to die if you're not some extreme hill runner. The uphills are bad, but the downhills are just as long and make up for them.

The location made it more enjoyable than an average race in York or even Baltimore (run up Key Highway and turn around!). Like I said before, Druid Park is very pretty. The lake (Druid Lake reservoir) is picturesque, there are some nice old buildings that I believe are admin buildings for the Zoo, and the finish at the Moorish Tower is a great exclamation point to the race.

(Druid Lake as seen from in front of the Moorish Tower)

The post-race spread was great, too. I don't mean to complain about the weather, because I really couldn't have asked for a nicer day at the end of June, but it was a warm day. Finishers were greeted with strawberries, grapes, bananas, apples, and best of all, in my opinion, ice-cold slices of watermelon.

(I will run hills any day for fresh strawberries.)

I should also mention the schwag. For $30, I got a very nice Asics sleeveless technical shirt. The shirt was optional -- you could omit it for a lower price -- but since I'd heard such horror stories about this race I wanted to have one. The excellent thing about this giveaway is that it's something that's actually useful. I have no need for more cotton t-shirts, and even technical t-shirts are of limited use for me, since the range of temperature at which I wear them is very narrow. I'll get a lot of use out of this shirt as a running shirt, and I chose orange over grunge green so that it could double as Orioles gameday wear for super-hot summer day games.

(Every finisher also got a free Moorish Tower.)

The only area for improvement, in my opinion, is communication. A website with more information about the course would be a bonus (I think a new baltimorerunning.com is under construction) and some signs directing people to packet pickup would have made things a bit easier. Overall, though, this race was great. Challenging, unique course; very nice schwag; excellent food after the race; beautiful location.

A tip of the cap to the Falls Road Running Store -- this one might have to be the summer running tradition that I've been looking for.

What Hills?

Dreaded Druid Hills 10K? Don't believe the hype. The course is flat and fast. :-)

Not really, but I scored a new 10K PR. At 57:38, this probably is due more to the fact that it's only my 2nd 10K than me being fast.


I enjoyed this race MUCH more than I thought it would. Full race report coming tomorrow or Monday.

Right now? Can't type...eating