The weather for the race was quite reasonable, which was fortunate. New Jersey can be brutally hot and humid at the beginning of September. It was still pretty warm, but no warmer than what I'd trained well in this summer. It was 63F with 93% humidity at the start, and by the finish it was 73F with 61% humidity. I was warm during the race, but not overly hot, and the weather was pretty much a non-factor in how my race turned out.
It was exciting to arrive at the starting line and meet some racewalkers I'd only known on Facebook/blogs/racewalking Yahoo group - notably, Ray Sharp. I also met Rod Craig, Alexis Davidson, Dorit Attias, Bill Vayo, Solomiya Login, Dan Serianni, and of course, race director and 50K Olympian (Melbourne 1956) Elliott Denman. I was happy to see a bunch of walkers I already have met in person as well: Rebecca Garson, Cathy Mayfield, Darlene and John Backlund, Chris Schmid, Dave McGovern, and Peter Bayer. Hopefully I haven't left anyone out...my apologies if I have, as I'm a bit tired. Oh, and of course my fellow Jim Leppik athletes Erin Taylor-Talcott and Dave Talcott! I'd seen them the day before the race at my amazing hostess (and 1999 40K winner) Sherry Brosnahan's home and we enjoyed relaxing together pre-race and having dinner together.
It was a special pleasure to run into Sally Bayer, Peter's wife. I met them in 2008 in Spokane, WA at Outdoor Masters, which was my first judged race. They are truly delightful people. Sally agreed to videotape the race for me and I've put a few clips in this post.
Happy to see Sally:
Ready or not, here I come!:
I got my water, zipfizz (electrolytes), and gels situated on the personal aid table, and after a brief (5 min) warm-up (40K is its own warm-up, really!), I was ready to go. Well, as ready as I was going to be. Elliott made some announcements, including commenting on the large puddle (7m by his estimate; it took me about 5-6 strides to go through it each time so I think his estimate was a bit large?) at the end of the 2km loop. Basically, he said that we just had to be tough and suck it up. There is some truth in that; racewalkers are at the mercy of the weather and we need to adapt. However, wet feet for 40km when it's not raining wasn't ideal (I got much worse blisters than usual on my right foot) and it would have been nice if they could have used a broom to sweep the water or perhaps fill in some of the puddle with gravel or put a piece of plywood over the worst of it? In addition, one of the judges actually sat near the puddle and at one point during the race he watched me (closely) as I walked through it. Really???? I didn't get a red card, but that seemed excessive. On the other hand, that same judge was very kind to me, telling me to relax on my first lap (he was right) and after that each lap telling me I looked great and that my form was good.
Other than the puddle, the course was pretty nice - mostly shaded paved loop in a pretty park. Mostly flat (1 very small rise) and the pavement was in pretty good condition except in a few spots (notably, bumpy and scary near the aid station by the starting line - you had to watch your footing!). There was another aid station near the 1km split and a sponge station as well.
This is a bit disorganized! Ah well. Now for the race itself. I started off quite well, but it quickly went downhill. Before the race, Erin introduced me to a soft-spoken teenaged racewalker named Melissa from Shore AC (the host club) who was going to try to do sub-60 for 10K. She thought Melissa could walk with me for a lap to make sure she didn't go out too fast. I thought that would be great to have some company. I really did feel good and easy on the first lap. I could not figure out the splits at all (they were marked with cones, but not labeled and I didn't know if they were pointing out potholes on the course or if they were the splits) and so had to go by my Garmin for pace. I was a little fast for the first lap because of that, but it was close enough, and perfect for Melissa. I wanted to do 12:15-12:24 per lap to get my 4:05-4:08 time and hopefully the W40-44 age group records for 25K (2:37:xx) and 35K (3:41:xx). I got there in 11:57...yes, too fast, but given what I was doing in training that should not have hurt me too much. The telling thing is that my average heart rate was 154. Adrenalin or not, that was too high. Way too high for that pace.
Around this time, Jeff Salvage from Philadelphia snapped my picture for his photo story of the race for www.racewalk.com - please visit his fine site and have a look around if you have never been there. He's got a ton of info on racewalking technique, photo stories of various races, and information on racewalking clinics.
Video at 2K - start of lap 2:
I relaxed a little and told myself to just hold to what I felt was a comfortable pace. I did that, and the next lap was too slow, at 12:25.6. Uh-oh. I tried to pick it up just a little, but I was afraid of going too hard. I needed to stay comfortable!
Video at 4K - start of lap 3:
I went with being mostly comfortable and did a 12:29.3 for the 3rd lap. I was mentally a bit distressed about the slow speed, but knew I had to stay relatively easy or I'd pay.
Video at 6K - start of lap 4:
Lap 4 was an even slower 12:34.1, and my heart rate was averaging mid-150s. I knew this was NOT good at all. It was nothing like my training had been. What was happening? I was starting to worry quite a lot. The 5th loop made 10K, and it was 12:43.4 for 1:02:10; about this time Erin lapped me and we exchanged a few words. I told her it wasn't my day but that I was still going to finish. I knew what was coming. I was about 2 min slower for 10K than I would have been in training with that same heart rate.
At this point I knew that I had to change my goal. I was clearly not going to walk 4:08. I thought maybe I could do 4:10, and also thought I could still break the 25K record, but I decided that the only way to feel good about my goal would be to let go of a time goal and walk for place. If I could just finish the race, avoid getting DQ'd, and get second place, that was the best I could do. My friend Sherry, who hosted me as I said above, was a volunteer on the course and was gamely cheering me on and encouraging me at every turn. It meant a lot to have her there and be able to talk to her (in snatches!) about how I was doing. I think I saw her around 10K and told her it wasn't going to be my day, but that I was going to finish. That was all I could keep in my mind: I HAD to finish, regardless.
Continuing on to 20K, I still felt decent physically. I was slower than I wanted, but I felt all right. It was getting warmer outside, and I started dumping water over my head and using the sponges at the sponge station. One bad side effect of this was that I got so wet that my pre-race lube didn't stay on my right thigh very well, and my shorts chafed pretty painfully in one spot. I had more lube but didn't want to stop to put it on. I already had to keep coming to a stop each lap to grab my zipfizz/water bottles and gel, because if you didn't have a personal aid station attendant, then you were out of luck (I know, I'm spoiled by the fact that Karen and Conrad helped me so much in the 50K in January!). The race DID provide a very kind volunteer to place the bottles back on the aid tables. She was wonderful, and after the race I met her and found out that her name was Solomiya Login. Of course I instantly recognized the name - she was in the World Cup this year in Russia and also in the women's 20K Olympic Trials. It was really kind of her to come out and volunteer for us; she's injured and couldn't race.
My splits to 20K were slow but not deathly slow yet. 12:36.4, 12:46.5, 12:41.4, 12:42.1, and then 12:59 (OK, that one was bad!). That 10K was 1:03:45 for a total of 2:05:55 by my watch, but the clock was 2:06:00 even. Oh boy. That was slower than almost any 20K split I'd had in any workout this whole summer. I was so disappointed by this point, and was getting dispirited as well. I told myself I just had to finish and that that was all that mattered. I tried as hard as I could to stay positive, but it was very difficult. I was pretty sure that I was solidly in second place, as I had lapped all of the women by this time except for Erin. Still...it was hard to face the grim death-march to the finish.
Video at 16K (start of lap 9):
Video at 18K (start of lap 10):
The next 10K started to hurt a lot. Up to 20K it wasn't too painful, just slow. After that, the pain intensified. I finally did more or less figure out the 500m splits. Elliot pointed out the 1km split to me as he was taking record times for some of the other walkers. He had 3 stopwatches to get the record for me at 25K, but I missed it by 1 minute. Sad, because I was sure I could get that one before the race. However, total meltdown does tend to preclude records, doesn't it? My splits to 30K show the pain: 13:12.7, 13:09.8, 13:16.5, 13:27.3, 13:48.9 for 1:06:55 for that 10K and a total of 3:12:50 for 30K, incredibly slower than any of my workouts this summer. Somewhere during that 10K, Erin walked with me for a lap. She'd gotten her 25K Open record, but knew she wasn't going to get the 40K record of 3:32:07 that day, so she very graciously decided to walk with me and help me for a lap. I couldn't even maintain 6:30/km pace by that point. I tried hard and I'm not sure I went much faster for her pacing, but the company was invaluable because I walked alone for pretty much the whole race besides that lap. She also walked a lap with her husband Dave, and still finished in 3:44. I truly appreciated her help.
Video at 22K (start of lap 12):
Video at 28K (start of lap 14; sideways, mirroring how I felt at that point):
The last 10K: agonizing. Harder than just about any race I've done lately. It's a terrible fact that finishing a race slowly and drained is much harder than finishing a race fast and strong. I don't recall suffering so much during a race since 2010, when I had a terrible 10K in Liberty Park when I was iron-depleted. I counted down the laps, counted down the km, and just suffered. I wasn't strong at all physically, and just focused on putting one foot in front of the other and finishing at any cost. The sun started to beat down on us more as the day grew warmer, and in the non-shaded part of the course just before the puddle I baked and felt that this must be a small version of hell. I'm not trying to complain here; honestly, I just want to record what it was like.
On the bell lap, I was just glad it would be over soon. I didn't push much harder because there wasn't any more left. My splits for the last 10K? Well, let's just say this was the slowest 10K I've done since the winter of 2010-2011 when I was sick with a mystery virus for 2 months. I didn't even hold 7:00/km pace. 13:51.5, 14:05.8, 14:11.3, 14:08.5, 13:57.2 for 1:10:14 for the last 10km by my watch. My official time was 4:23:10.
After the race, I talked to Jim for a while and debriefed, and then I sat in the grass for a while and had a good cry. It helped. The award ceremony, where I got really nice plaques for 2nd place and for Master's (over 40) champion, helped a lot. I felt much better afterward (I really did feel quite happy and enjoyed hanging out with everyone), and I know I did the best I could. I offer no excuses, but the only explanation that makes any sense is that the cold I've been struggling with did me in (in fact, 3 days after the race I still have sniffles and a cough). It was a bad day, and this usually doesn't happen to me, so now I just have to do the best I can to move on. It was put in perspective for me talking with Solomiya after the race. She quit her job as a math teacher to prepare for the Olympic Trials this summer, got injured stepping in a ditch while warming up at the World Cup, and then because of her injury had a disappointing Olympic Trials. She is still unemployed. Wow, to give up all of that and have a disappointing race? That put my disappointment in perspective.
With the awards - and feeling MUCH better/happier:
Garmin data here.
3 comments:
You were there and I wasn't, but I think that the humidity was brutal, and that can be tough when you are racing such a long distance.
It was quite humid at the start, and it was a warm day, but it didn't feel brutally hot. Honestly, my best guess is that I was done in by the upper respiratory infection. I'm STILL coughing and have a runny nose. In fact, please excuse me while I go blow my nose :).
Oh, Tammy! This race did me in every year I have walked it. I know your pain. This was my redemption year, and I still know I could have done better. That is what keeps us going!
Post a Comment