Chapter 8 - BB10K and Beyond
BB10K Foreshadowing?
The plan was to run 5K at a modest pace on the Friday before the Bolder Boulder and take it easy the next two days. The night before 5K Friday, I was short on time and skipped my evening foam rolling and trigger point massage. My hip was stiff Friday morning, but I had a tight schedule and rushed through my pre-run routine. After finishing a rather slow 5K, I rushed home to get ready to check-in for our Southwest flight, right at the 24 hour mark so I would get a decent boarding number. After that I had other things to do to get ready for travel day. I skipped my usual post-run stretching and moved on with the day.
Sometime later, my right hip was sore and achy. I started having trouble on stairs. The act of stepping up or down was painful. What had I done? The discomfort continued for the rest of the day into the evening. At times I could not imagine running a 10k. I was bummed.
That evening I did my nighttime foam rolling and trigger point massage. In the morning I went through the stretching routine that I skipped the day before. As we left for the airport, my right hip felt better but not as good as it had on Thursday. My fingers were crossed that it would feel good by race time on Monday. At that moment, however, it was time to focus on travel. It was a beautiful day for flying. Half the fun is getting there.
BB10K Race Day
Race day was Monday, Memorial Day. I was on my feet more than I expected to be on Saturday and Sunday. Our host had our time planned out such that just resting before race day was not an option. With high altitude and achy hip, I went to sleep Sunday night feeling like I was not prepared and just going through the motions to get it over with.
Nevertheless, I had done enough the night-before planning to make race morning go smoothly.
My assigned wave start time was 7:10 am. I had a 40-minute walk to the start, so I set 6:30 as the target for leaving the house. I wasn’t concerned about missing my wave. I wanted to fall back a few waves because runners in my assigned wave would be too fast for my current ability.
I took a little longer than planned getting ready. A little after 6:30, I headed out the door with handheld water bottle filled with my preferred electrolyte drink and my GoPro in hand. I also had my phone and a spare GoPro battery in a waste belt. I was wearing a throwaway long sleeve t-shirt because I expected 52° F to feel somewhat cool for the walk to the start.
The early morning walk from the neighborhood just southwest of downtown Boulder to the start line area on 30th St. is one of my favorite parts of doing the Bolder Boulder. I start out alone on Arapahoe St, the streets are very quiet, the morning air just perfect. As I make my way east on Arapahoe a few other runners join the pilgrimage at each intersection. By the time I get to 28th St., we form a steady stream of participants and spectators, it looks like a crowd heading towards a football stadium.
At this point I’m feeling good about just being able to participate. It’s a beautiful morning and the sky is perfectly clear blue. The sun feels so warm that I remove my throw-away long sleeve before I get to 30th St.
As I make the turn onto 30th St. with a thousand of my best running buddies, we join the other thousands of runners walking north toward the starting line in search of our assigned waves. I forget all my early concerns and start recording with my GoPro. Within blocks I am in the fenced-in area for the wave start. I notice other throw-away garments tossed on the top of the fence and proceed to deposit mine there. I look at my watch and see that my start time has passed, my wave is gone. I just keep moving forward through the waves that are staged until I get one wave away from the start. That gives me about 60 seconds to do some quick stretches and make sure my watch is ready to go.
Wow! This is moving quickly. It seems like I was just all alone walking along Arapahoe St.. Now I am 60 seconds away from starting the Bolder Boulder. I’m in a wave about 10 waves behind my assigned wave, it’s a little after 7:20 am. Perfect for the pace I think I can run.
The wave in front of us is sent off and we move into position at the starting line. The GoPro is recording again. The starter says a few words, a trumpet blares, the starter counts down and a gun goes off. We are off and running.
About 400 meters down the road, I feel like I’m sucking wind and my legs feel fatigued. OMG. It’s the altitude, I didn’t sleep enough, I’m dehydrated, carrying the GoPro in my hand is messing with my arm swing and efficiency. It wasn’t until I saw my split at mile 1 that I realized the problem was none of those. I had gone out at a pace 30 seconds faster than I thought I was running.
I relaxed. I was fine. I backed off the pace a bit and started enjoying the race. I turned the GoPro on to record only short segments: when we approached a side show, when we approached a mile marker. The rest of the time it was just resting in my hand while I maintained normal arm swing.
I hit mile 2 at about a 9:30 pace. Great! Just a little faster than target pace and my heart rate was staying in zone. I knew some hills were coming in miles 3 and 4. But my confidence was building. I made it through the first group of hills to a plateau and recovered nicely. I hit mile 3 at 9:30. I had maintained pace through the first set of hills!
I knew the “Summit”, the highest elevation on the course, was just after the 4-mile mark. Just one mile to go before the long slow downhill. Mile 4 was 9:19! I was almost to the highest point on the course and my average pace was under 9:30. I was feeling great, and I had captured a lot of cool video along the way.
I crested the summit, settled into cruise mode down the long gradual downhill. The rest of mile 5 was flat but I was feeling a little twinge in my hamstrings. I knew it was dehydration this time. I drank very little before the start and at high altitude the sport drink I was carrying was not enough. After hitting mile 5 at 9:22, I stopped at a water stop and grabbed a water and a sport drink. That was all I needed. I was fine for the rest of the race.
As we made the turn onto Folsom Ave., with about a mile to go, I realized my GoPro battery was dead. I anticipated that and was carrying a spare battery. But the trick was that I was carrying something in each hand and replacing a GoPro battery takes a little fine motor skill. But I had to get the money shot going into the stadium, even if it cost me time.
I waited until we crossed the 9K mark, allowing myself to keep a steady pace through the flat parts of Folsom Ave. With 1000 meters to go, I could see the stadium and knew it was now or never. I pulled off to the side, juggling the items in my hands while trying to replace the battery. I managed to get it done and get back on the road. I had the GoPro recording the rest of the way.
We made the turn to start the climb up to the stadium. The crowd got louder, and the runners went silent as they focus on the steepest climb of the race. The 6-mile mark is about halfway up that hill. I hit 6 at 10:05, I lost 30 seconds between the battery change and the hill. No problem though, I was still on track to break 60 minutes and I was capturing the video I wanted.
We made the final turn on the hill, a few more steps uphill and then down into the stadium for the final 200 meters. This is one of the best finishes of all the short distance races I have done. Only the major marathons (Boston, New York, Chicago) top it.
I took it easy on that 3/4 lap around the stadium. Soaking it all in and ensuring I had a good shot on the GoPro. I crossed the finish line with an official time of 59:03, average pace 9:31. I had done it! Beat my target of 60:00.
I managed the high altitude, I managed the rolling hills, I managed my wonky hip, and I managed my heart rate. I had a great time on a beautiful day in a beautiful city and I beat my own expectations by almost 10 seconds per mile. On top of that, I captured so great video along the way. Above is the link to the highlight video that I produced from the footage that I captured.
Another Bump in the Dopey Road
In mid-June we embarked on a 2-week road trip to New England. In the two weeks leading up to that road trip, I ran 30+ miles each week, culminating in a slow and steady 10 mile run the day before we left. I was feeling very positive. Although I as experiencing some pain and fatigue, I was managing hip discomfort and muscle tightness fairly well. I was looking forward to an excuse to take two weeks off from running and strength training.
Our road trip was great. Our first stop was near Glens Falls, NY, just north of Albany, to visit Cat’s brother and sister-in-law. Next, we traveled to Kennebunk, Maine, by way of Vermont and New Hampshire. The ride from Glens Falls to Kennebunk was awesome as we traversed the mountains in Vermont and New Hampshire. We visited my brother and his family in Kennebunk for three days, consuming a couple of Maine Lobster Rolls and a few cups of Clam Chowder along the way. From there we headed to the Boston Area for three days. We saw my sister and her family along with a couple of high school friends of mine. Our last three days in New England were visiting friends of ours in Westport, CT. Then it was time to start the two-day journey to get home.
Here is a video I created from a walk along the Maine coast. The Maine coast line has so much natural beauty.
We arrived back in the Midwest to the worst days of the smoke from the Canadian forest fires. The air quality was so poor, we were advised to limit time outside. We had to leave our windows closed with the air conditioning on to keep the air quality inside the house at a healthy level. Needless to say, I was not able to get outside and run upon returning home.
Something happened to me on that road trip. Perhaps it was the hours upon hours of sitting in a car, the lack of running and strength training. Perhaps it was not paying attention to what I was putting in my body. Whatever it was, I was in a new funk when we got back. The first day out I struggled through 5K. The next day I ran 10K but struggled with hip discomfort. The next few days after that I had moments where I could barely walk on my right hip. I was befuddled. I was back to September 2022.
Breaking the Cycle of Pain, and Another Challenge
The next day I got up and out with enthusiasm and optimism. I started out at a little faster pace, feeling good. I hit my first mile 30 seconds faster than the day before and then promptly went into an irregular heart rhythm. I couldn’t keep my heart rate down. I turned around and walked/jogged home. This is the life of an aging runner. I did many things wrong in my first 40 years of running, now I need to be nearly perfect in my training to keep running in the coming years.
After taking it easy for the rest of the day, I was able to get up the next day, Saturday, and run 10K very conservatively. I stayed in HR Zone 2 and took a short walking break once per mile. That was positive. The next day, Sunday, was a strength training day. I supplemented that with a 4-mile hike with Cat later in the day. It was beautiful day. My hip was a little wonky but, oddly, the further we got into the hike, the stronger my hip felt. Another positive sign. I felt I was ready to try to extend my distance and planned to set out for a 10-mile run first thing in the morning.
I woke naturally at 5:30am. Perfect, I would lie there for a few more minutes and get up to get ready to go running. Within minutes, I could feel my heart rate was irregular again. Sh*t! WTF! I jumped out of bed in hopes that I could quickly trigger a rhythm reset. I tried a few things to no avail. After about an hour, there was no change. The morning was a beautiful summer morning when the air is still cool and dry. I had an appointment late morning, and I did not want to pass up the beautiful weather. So, my 10-mile run became a 4-mile walk.
I know that for RunDisney Dopey I am not going to be able to run all 48.6 miles. There will be a lot of walking, and for the half and full marathons, I may be relegated to mostly walking. In which case I better be able to walk at a brisk pace for extended periods of time to stay ahead of the Balloon Ladies. So, I took this circumstance as an opportunity to practice walking. At least I covered 4+ miles on my feet.
On the drive to my appointment, my irregular heart rate disappeared as unexpectedly as it came, and I was fine for the rest of the day. Optimism for Tuesday started building. Tuesday was another beautiful summer morning. I set out early with a conservative pace, keeping my heart rate well within zone 2. I was set in my mind that distance was more important than pace. The goal was to comfortably cover 10 miles regardless of how much I walked. A little over 2 hours later I had covered 11 miles. Probably my slowest run at that distance but given the ups and downs of the last week, I was very pleased with it.
This pattern of episodes of irregular heart rate continued for the next couple of weeks. I have learned to be flexible in my running plans. On days where I wake up in normal sinus rhythm, I feel energized and can enjoy a run. But I am reluctant to let my heart rate get into zone 4, so I do a lot of walking when I get to the high end of zone 3. At this point I’m happy to be moving and still building mileage.
It is the end of July now. In the last few weeks, I have completed long runs (run/walks) of 11, 12 and 13 miles. My total running mileage has been 28+ miles in each week, with 5-10 miles of walking/hiking in each week. My hip discomfort has been much more manageable since the one day I gave in and took ibuprofen. My strength training routine and stretching routine seem to be paying off. Even with the challenges I have faced, I feel like am still in a pretty good position for Dopey Training.
The Cudahy 10 Mile, or NOT!
Through my struggles I had kept my eye on the next “race”, the Cudahy 10 Miler, held each year on the last Sunday in July. … Except this year.
It was the evening of Saturday, July 29. Cat and I had gotten all our running gear ready for the early race on Sunday morning. We would have to get up and out early to make the 35-minute drive to the race to make the early start. One last thing, I wanted to check the start time one more time. I thought it was at 7:30. I scanned the registration confirmation, I could not see a time of day, just a date at the top: Saturday, July 29, 2023. Funny, wonder why they have today’s date on the registration confirmation. I checked the race website. Huh. That has today’s date also. Oh oh. I looked at a few other sites, they all referenced Saturday, July 29, as the race day. But that’s wrong, it’s tomorrow, July 30!
Finally, I went looking to see if there were any race results. Sure enough, the race was held this morning, Saturday, July 29. I was in shock. The registration fee for Cat and I was not negligible, I guess I just made a large donation to the Badgerland Striders.
I texted my friend, Bob, with whom I had run this event several times in the last decade. Did he know? Did he run this morning? Nope. He was shocked too. We suspect several long-time participants were also shocked when they showed up to an empty start line on Sunday.
Bob, Cat and I met at the Milwaukee Lakefront at 7:30 am on Sunday instead. Bob and I ran an easy 10 miles while Cat covered 5 miles. It was a beautiful day by the Lakefront, and the coffee at our favorite coffee shop afterwards tasted great. C’est la vie, we made the best out of our mistake, which was our failure to note the stated date instead of assuming it was on Sunday.
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