Question:Still a good job Ed, good for you.What's the story edging out this
runner finishing 0.03 behind you?Can't very well get much closer to
that. Do you chase him down,did he nearly snatch you?....or were you
to striding and you edged him by a hair?
This above is why very often elites wear chips on both feet in money
road racing.What's this back end story behind these times?
Answer:
I wasn't sure I would be able to run this race until the day before.
(Yes I have been talking about it, but I had an alternative 5K I could
have done Sunday morning instead). Well, I called my neighbor since e
was asking me to run this one. Well, he decided to bail. I was on my
own.
Now unlike the previous race, this one has been going for few years now
and is fairly popular. Top runner's prizes include frozen turkeys. It
gets about 100 runners.
Saturday morning arrives and I get dressed. Weather has been very mild
so I have shorts and short sleeve tee. I take the dogs out and think:
this is nice. I still have time before the race, so I do some quiet
chores about the house. About an hour later I head out to the garage.
Man, It turned cold already?! and it's starting to rain. There's a
heavy mist in the air.I make a quick decision to add my UnderArmor
tee to my outfit.
I get there early to do race day registration. Now the rain is still
light, but steady. I dont want to get chilled before the race, so I
grab a jacket for for the walk to the building and a towel from the
trunk. Registration is quick, but I have nearly an hour before
scheduled race time. Thankfully we are all waiting inside. A few laps
around the track, some stretching to calm the prerace jitters. I don't
have my watch, so that contributes to the nerves.Jacket, towel and new
race shirt in a pile. Glasses in jacket pocket.
I don a baseball hat and head to the start. They don't keep us waiting
long. We're off and running. The crowd is not so big that the start is
a problem. I try not to start too fast, so I specifically let a few
people pass me. This course is out and back (same as the Bogsucker in
the spring), not the loop from the previous race. So at the downhill
going out, I pass about 4 runners. I like the downhills. At the bottom
I'm breathing hard, but I push a little to make sure I don't get passed
back. I get to the mile marker and they call out the time "...way to go
gentlemen 9:15, 9:16, 9:17, ...".
So I keep pushing, breathing hard, feeling terrible. To get my mind
into the race I set a target of the runners just ahead of me. first a
pair of ladies are passed, then another guy. I've passed seven people
before the turnaround. Can I hold them off? and the rain is slowly
increasing. I cannot tell if the temp is still dropping, I'm warm
enough.
Well I target a guy in front of me. I saw him near the turnaround so I
know he has a grey beard and headphones. I start to reel him in. We
pass the two mile marker, but the guys at the water table don't have
the race time. So I'm running blind to time! Soon after Greybeard walks
for a bit. That narrows the gap, and I finally get close to him near
the bottom of the hill. He must have heard my steps in some puddles
'cause he picks up the pace. I hang there, about 5 feet behind him, as
we go up the hill. there's another guy about 20yards ahead of us.
just before the top of the hill there is a slight dip before the final
peak. I make my move there and pass greybeard. Now he is tailing me,
but I set a new target of that runner about 20yards ahead. The hill
seems to have taken a lot out of me. We are in the parking lot area and
there is car traffic, including one lady that doesn seem to know where
she is going. She stops right in front of us and greybeard passes me.
We turn for the final straightaway and I put on a finishing kick. I
pass greybeard and try to close the gap on the next runner. But then I
get a slight addrenaline rush. I really have to push! the clock reads
29:50! I'm stepping it up, but watching the seconds tick by as if this
is a slow motion scene in a movie - 29:57 :58 :59 ...
In a perfect world, I would have clocked 29:59. I didn't. I don't know
my official time yet but it was over 30:00. How much over I do not
know.
Official results: when I see them posted, I'll copy the revelant stuff
here.
The negatives: failed to achieve time goal. Did not place in age group
(like I expected to with this crowd 8^).
The positives: passed several runners without getting passed back. Ran
as close as I can tell to my current limit. Still ran better than
previously.
While doing some post race stretching, I saw my old running partner,
Don, doing some laps on the track. I joined him for a few laps and
conversation. He's doing well, "just a lot slower". He says he is done
with racing. I stop to hear the awards, and he just kept on running.
Another friend, Scott, got an age group award. Once my age group was
called, I took off. Had other things to do today.
I basically like this course. It's more interesting than the loop. If
you are in the area, come try it.
Enjoy the run. I know I did.
The sprinter in you just cannot resist being thrilled by close finishes
at any level.
But are there really money races where there isn't a frame-by-frame
video or some other photofinish system in use?
Wouldn't the extra weight of the chip be out-"weighed" by the extra burden
of having to propel an extra chip for the duration of the event?
And .03 minutes roughly corresponds to 2 seconds. Is that "close"? (18
feet [5.5 m] based on average speed, by my calculations.)
for sure, in fact i've heard some runners who wear contact lenses often
find the extra weight of the lens & burden of having to propel 2
contact lenses for the duration of the event is not worth it. hence
they choose to have somewhat blurry races.
hum? based on my calculations we're talking about 3/100ths of a
second. is that close? not sure...but it can perhaps be debated.
I'm truly amazed, because I thought (1) that USATF competition rules
stipulate that there must be a imaging device of some kind and if not,
there must be the old-fashioned system of judges at the finish line,
and (2) that in a race that wasn't sanctioned by the USATF, only the
chip sending out the code registered by the race arranger would be
noted, so it wouldn't matter if a competitor wore one or more of his
own besides.
I cannot deny the existence of these pieces of evidence, but could it
be the other chip is one they use in races where runners can use their
own chips and that they simply didn't bother to remove it for these
races where they were were issued chips by the arranger?
I try to have a strong kick at the end. That's how I finish most
training runs. (I use post run stretching to cool down).
This guy was the greybeard I described in my report. So he had just
passed me before the final turn. As we came off the turn to the final
straightaway, I turned up the speed as much as I could and passed him.
He must of turned up his speed in response. But instead of worrying
about him, I tried to focus on the next runner in front of me. So I did
not know then how close he was. And my body was trying to tell me to
stop, but I told myself: you've done a marathon before, you can go flat
out for 100yards or so. And finally seeing I was so close to my goal
time helped. Some of that interval training I've done seemed to help
too.
I like to say that no matter where you place in the race, you are
competing. Even the last runner is competing against the clock and
trying to catch the next to last runner. And you never know until race
day exactly who your competition is. This was a nice finish for me.
Though I went out faster than I hoped in the first mile, the fact that
I was passing runners throughout the race suggests I may have paced
myself okay.
Other than a quick "good race" after the shoot, I didn't talk to this
guy. I'll have to try to next time I see him. So there's no specific
rivalry. If it isn't him in the next race, it will be someone else.
That's why I say there's competition even in the back of the pack!
I'm impressed my close finish inspired such a technical
discussion.
I do wonder if that confused driver hadn't stopped in
front of you and graybeard if that mightn't have slowed you just
enough to miss the 30? (What a weird sentence that was!) But just
knowing that you *had* been running at about the limit for current
fitness feels good! And still better than previously. thanks for
the great report!
So far as I am aware, overall awards are not supposed to be determined
based on either the gun times or net times that the chips record. And
photo finish prizing seems to be reserved for IAAF World Championships
and the like. A local 5k should be awarding its prize money based on
the old-fashioned system, minus the popsicle sticks.
