The Pumpkin 5k is put on by Erin Roof and company at the YMCA and goes to benefit their Annual Campaign to make the Y available to everyone through scholarships and financial assistance. I first did it in 2009 and I’ve run it several times since, including a scorching 42 minute 5k with a complainy 10 year old in 2013.

Little Alex did have a point – the course is pretty brutal and a little long (garmin has been 3.18 consistently), but it being a Y event I could count on it being well done and swagtastic.

Since it was Halloween, I saw they were encouraging costumes for this one. I am typically a purist – dont make me run through color clouds or eat a box of donuts halfway. Running Times not Runners World. Yes, I am an insufferable runsnob. But, I got suckered into buying a Hulk costume in a post-beer Target expedition with three overeager preteens, so I might as well get some mileage out of this thing.

The problem is that I am not the chunky beast I once was, so putting on the oversized green muscle shirt looked pretty pathetic. Like Hulk was dying of some horrible illness. Bonus is that masks have evolved since the 1980’s. The ones from my youth were oppressive sweat boxes for your face, forcing you to breathe through two pin holes until you hyperventilated and were about to pass out. Not to mention the plasticky Gi-Joe sauna suit that left you drenched on a typical 70 degree South Carolina Halloween night. This Hulk mask had padding and was pretty easy to breathe through, and the shirt was fairly comfortable.I even test drove it at Strictly Running’s costume Run for Pizza. This was going to be fine.

I was impressed at the turnout when I showed up on race morning. Erin had told me they were shooting for 800, which I thought was a grandiose delusion on par with something I would see at work. This was a week after Ray Tanner, so I figured it would be tough to get people out 2 weeks in a row. Some people think that’s excessive. BAHAHA. Amazingly, there seemed to be at least several hundred on hand, so hats off to the Roof publicity machine.

After doing a couple of warm up miles with Charlie Clements, I realize that this crowd is really slim on the competition factor. I don’t see any elite types, at least not initially. I ran into Angel and figured he might be eligible for the trophy hunter’s holy grail, the overall win. I mean, the Code is a former champion here, so mere mortals have prevailed in the past. That was all shot to hell when Dimery made his typical last second arrival. And when we finally lined up, there were some front row guys that at least looked really fast.  I figured Liz Locke was going to win the women’s race in a cake walk (though disappointed she didnt choose the Stay Puft costume from the SR run). Alex Ponomarev, Pete Poore, John Gasque, Arnold Floyd, Peter Mugglestone, Brigitte Smith, Rocky Soderberg and  Henry Holt made up a crew that have probably already put in 20+ races each this year. Pete O’Boyle, Karen Manning, Missy Caughman, Lisa Smarr, Wayne Shuler, David Pappas, Shelley and Marion Hinson, Pam Griffin, the O’Toole family, The Petruzzis, and Mike and Kat Hudgins (as Fred and Velma from Scooby Doo) were some of the familiar faces. Todd Heinecke, Paul Sadler and of course Erin and Sarah Roof were on hand as race staff.

At the start line I reviewed the course with Angel. You run up and out of the parking lot and then downhill onto Firetower Rd. From there, a mile of hellish, quad destroying hill, then turn around and come all the way back. Seemed simple enough. Luckily this time I wouldn’t have to endure watching my son getting chicked by a bunch of preteen Southern Strutt girls.

I lined up just behind Dimery and the start was a total stampede with so many people (results had 494, Erin said about 600 total registered plus the kids run). I am trying hard not to hit people, though when you’re nearly 200 pounds and wearing a Hulk costume, people tend to give you the right of way.  The mask made it about 200 meters. It might have been fine at 9 minute pace, but the wind suckage at low 6 was not mask-friendly. In hindsight I should have just ditched it there near the parking lot, but I wanted it for the finish photo. We’ll get to that…

Luckily, the demasking helped a lot with the whole oxygen exchange thing, and I was able to settle in. As usual, there are all kinds of people all around me trying to crush the first mile. Did these dudes even look at the course? I guess not. Liz is taking a page from her SR teammate Jen Lybrand and is blasting it out too. Angel is surprisingly not in the picture. We round a turn near the mile mark and we get our first look at the multi-tiered mountain ahead of us. Oh God, this is going to suck. Mile 1 in 6:15, a little overcooked, but not surprising given the amount of downhill and adrenaline rush of the start.  Once Mount Misery begins the pack gets real thin, real quick. Dimery and three other guys are a whole zip code ahead, but suddenly its just me and this familiar looking guy just ahead. He’s a got a few grays so he’s probably masters and threatening to take my trophy. He must be beaten! Despite the extra luggage of beers and pizza I carry around, I’m surprisingly good on hills. I power up the mountain taking down masters guy and Liz in the process. Suddenly it feels like I’m winning the race, if it wasn’t for the four guys with actual talent a quarter mile ahead of me. Speaking of these guys, they suddenly come into view again on their way back down the mountain, so I’m hopeful the turnaround is somewhere up there soon.

I finally motor over the summit of Mt. Firetower only to realize the turnaround cone is about 50 meters down the other side. Approaching the cone, I exhibit all the finesse of a speeding 18 wheeler trying to stop on a dime. There’s just no way to gracefully turn around on a downgrade at 5k pace. I jolt to a complete stop and try to power back up to the summit again the best I can.  Turnarounds are good for scoping out the competition though. Masters guy (later identified as Anthony Hernandez)  and Angel are on my tail a few yards back. Its looking like one 4 man race for the overall and one three man race for masters. Liz is miles ahead on the women’s side.

The mountain climb has given my lungs a gut punch so I do try to maximize my considerable gravitational advantage for awhile. Unfortunately my gorilla physique is not real efficient in turning that potential energy into kinetic power, because I can hear Hernandez riding me like a circus monkey. It is nice to see everyone on the way down – man this race is huge. I then push it for awhile and lose Hernandez, but then hear a slightly different set of lungs sucking wind. I hit the mile 2 marker and before I can check my Garmin (an ugly 6:42) I look up and Angel takes me on the right. I figure he’s gone out easy and is now going to crush it. I tell him to go get it, but damned if my oversized melon headed ego isn’t wincing from the pride injury. Time to man up. We complete the freefall down the mountain basically side by side. An all-out old man war is in progress. Angel surges on the last two long inclines to the Y, and I follow suit. We are both sucking wind like there’s no tomorrow, Angel now a step ahead. I’m sure I’m giving him rapid-bear-chase nightmares for months to come. I keep telling myself, maybe I can get him in the Y parking lot… except every bit of my being is screaming to stop this torture..and damn I wish I wasn’t carrying this ridiculous mask.  Mile 3 (6:00) chirps back before we even hit the Y, so I know this is going to be longish. We plunge into the parking lot and I am just toast – I’m half worried my legs are just going to crumple in front of me. Angel is painfully close but he is sprinting it out like a beast too…and damn it’s going to be close to 20 minutes. But I just can’t do it. We crash through the finish with me a step behind, flashing my mask in my face for the photo op, looking absolutely ridiculous. 19:57.

Man, I hate to lose, but these battles are what I live for.  No way I drop a 6 flat last mile without chasing someone. Angel is a beast too, so no shame in finishing a second behind him. I’ll take it. Nice tervis tumbler 2nd masters award, even without the first masters cash.

In the overall, the four man race was won by Joe Keitt, Justin Carder and Jeff Spraker – never seen any of them race before. Justin is from Pelion so I wonder if he’s a Coach B product. Dimery finished 4th, though he’s over 10 years older than the other three. Angel, myself and Anthony Hernandez finished 5-7th in the masters race. Liz Locke easily claimed the women’s win, with Ashley Culler 2nd and my former Blue Ridge relay teammate Karen Manning 3rd (and 1st female master). CRC’er Shelley Hinson took 2nd female masters.

In the age groups, Mary O’Toole placed 2nd in the 14-16. New CRC member Sarah Merriman took 3rd in the 25-29. David Pappas enjoyed everyone aging up and took the 35-39. April Hutto said she was “out for a jog” but couldn’t help placing 3rd in the 40-44, with Christina McCarty 2nd. Charley Clements, Marion Hinson and Todd Whalon (dressed as a neon fairy) swept the 40-44 men. Wayne Shuler placed 3rd in the 45-49. Pam Griffin crushed the 50-54. Ken Sekley and Tour Director John Gasque went 1-2 among the men. Lisa Smarr was champ of the 55-59 women. Petes O’Boyle and Poore were 1st and 3rd in the 60-64. Jan Hardwick and Alex Ponomarev were beasts in the 65-69, with Brigitte Smith taking the win among the women. Arnold Floyd, Peter Mugglestone and Henry Holt swept a super tough 70+ division.

http://www.strictlyrunning.com/RESULTS/15NEYMCA.TXT

The Fallen Firemen 5k is a first year event in Lexington put on by Eggplant Events to support the Jeffrey Vaden Chavis House  at the Burn Center at Doctors Hospital in Augusta, GA.  Jeff was a Lexington County fireman who lost his life from burns suffered in a house fire in 2001. The House was set up in his name by the Chavis family to help other families have a place to stay while their loved ones are undergoing treatment at the Burn Center.

This race was a late addition to the Tour de Columbia, but I was planning to do it anyway because of the good cause. It was originally scheduled for October 3rd, which ended up being the first day of the 1000 year, Biblical flood of Columbia, so it got canceled. They rescheduled for the 17th, which was the day of the Sumter Tri that I had been training for all summer. Then that got canceled too, and the Race for Life (which I try to do every year) got postponed to January. So by multiple twists of fate, I ended up still doing this race.

Though I was glad to be able to do a race that I had already paid for, this course had me scared. I had to reach way back in the Blue Shoes mental archives, but I distinctly remember the old, now defunct, Lexington Kiwanis 5k.  I did the last year of the event in 2010 , and it stands out as one of the smallest races I’ve ever done. There were maybe 25 people there. I ran out hard from the gun in a misguided attempt at the trophy hunter’s holy grail, the overall win. I died a million deaths in the mountains of that course, and everyone had slow times. I couldn’t catch future Run Hard marathon director Jesse Harmon, though I did pull an epic blue shoe of Amy McDonough (now Kelley) to take second. I think everybody ended up winning an age group medal in the race and I distinctly remember the last place finisher taking female masters.  Google is a wonderful thing :

The Firemen 5k pretty much mirrors that course, and actually is the same one as the Patty Packs 5k in December.  That’s a newer race I’ve yet to do, but the consensus about the course sticks out in my mind from the CRC newsletter: absolute sufferfest. Oh well, at least everybody else has to run those hills too.

Not a huge crowd but a good turnout for a rescheduled first year event.  As some kind of karmic retribution for the rainout, the weather couldn’t have been more perfect. Cloudless and about 50 degrees. The first cold-ish race of the year. The Yerg was already there and we did a couple of miles on the middle of the course, which was taking the wind out of me at 9 minute pace. Awesome, cant wait to do this at my 1000% race effort.  We get back and its looking good for the Yerg’s overall trophy chances. I don’t see any of the big dawgs – no plexes or bishops or ashtons.  Leeds Barroll, Pete Poore, Alex Ponomarev, Kristin Cattieu, Shelley Hinson, Pam Griffin, Brie McGrievy, Maria Huff, Rocky Soderberg, Peter Mugglestone and Brigitte Smith were all on hand. Rob had raced the Hump Day 5k on Wednesday and the Hoka Oktoberfest 3 mile run the night before, but his chances were still looking pretty good. There was one kid that looked pretty fit but that was about it. Then all of that went crashing down when Jason Dimery showed up last second. Dimery has a habit of barely making it to the start line as the gun sounds, and I remember him winning the See Spot 5k a few years back showing up about a minute late. The Yerg would have to wait for another day to get his glory.

I had no time goal with the brutality of the course, save maybe to avoid the blackjack (21 minutes) and having to endure Trophy mocking me for months. Oh, and don’t get Kristinned. She had already crushed me in Tri the Midlands earlier this summer, and I wasn’t too keen to have that get repeated, despite my tri-ineptitude.

The start was super fast since you go out flat then plunge down into a valley on South Lake Dr.  It seems almost every 5k has that couple of kids who go hauling ass out of the blocks only to crump about a quarter mile in, and this race was no different. I had to pull a couple of Leonard Fournette moves to avoid these dudes getting hit by a Blue Shoed Bus. This maneuver then got me forced to squeeze between the two kids running with flags in honor of the fallen firemen. Classy move, Sasquatch.

Dimery had already crushed the field by the time we reached the first monster hill, followed by the high school kid and the Yerg. The first half mile was mostly downhill, but guess what, time to make up all that elevation gain right away. Brutal long slog all the way to Gibson Road and the mile marker. I hit it in 6:36, probably the average of my 6 min pace screaming down into the valley and 7 minute pace trudging back up. While Rob had left me for dead in the distance, 2 fit looking dudes were just in front of me who I’d never seen before. I couldn’t tell but they were looking kind of age groupy. I needed to latch on lest one of these randoms take my precious trophy – there was Dimery, the fast kid and Yerg ahead of these guys, so masters was still up for grabs. Unless one of these dudes was 40… oh hell no. Luckily I was gaining on them without surging, and by the time I reached them near the halfway point, they seemed pretty gassed. One of them jumped on my back for a while after I passed, but I surged on the next hill and left them. These crossfit guys sure hate getting Sasquatched.

Did I mention hills? Sweet baby Jesus mile 2 sucked. My Garmin readout makes it look like a couple of bumps, but rest assured South Church Street is a veritable mountain range. Total roller coaster. The worst is the slog leading up to the mile 2 marker. While I had been feeling pretty good, the last hill on Church had me praying for mercy. In the fog of my oxygen-deprived brain, I noticed the Yerg was getting a wicked case of the bonksies and I was slowly gaining on him. Maybe the three races in four days had left him ripe for the picking? Would there be another Stomp the Swamp epic blue shoeing?

Mile 3 had to be relatively flat, so I started to ramp it up some. Mile 2 split was an identical 6:36. Unfortunately the Yerg glanced back at the turn onto 3rd St and my stealth stalking cover was blown. Damn. I tried to redline it some more but the mountain range had given me a sucker punch to the lungs. Nothing left. I spent the whole last mile completely alone with nothing but the jackhammer beat of my heart and death gasps from my lungs to keep me company. That, and the paralyzing fear of crossfit guys or Kristin blue shoeing me along the way. One last little bump on to Main Street and I managed a weak kick on fumes. Yerg was painfully close but I had run out of real estate. I rounded the last turn and crossed in 20:37.  4th overall, 1st masters.

Definitely not happy with the time, but I figure this course adds 30-45 seconds from a flat course. Not the most brutal, but close. The Lexington Jingle Bell still reigns supreme for 5k sufferfests. I’ll take first masters any day though. Nice plaque for masters and top 3 overall. Beer glasses for the age groups!

Jason Dimery crushed a 17:23 to take the win. That’s sub 17 easy on a flat course. John Kaminski was the “fast kid” who finished 2nd. He may be the guy who won Tunnels to Towersa month ago. Third went to the Yerg – got me by 19 seconds to avoid the shame of getting Sasquatched. Kristin did win the women’s overall in 23:56 followed by Shelley Hinson. A tiny 8 year old, Ashalyne Fietkau, took 3rd in 25:47, which is pretty amazing.

Age group honor roll: RWB’s Maria Huff won the 35-39 with dog in tow. Brie McGrievy took the 40-44 in her first race back from a tough injury suffered at the Silver Fox 5k. Don’t call it a comeback! Pam Griffin was champion of the 50-54. Leeds Barroll, fresh off his blue shoeing of Tracy Tisdale-Williams on Wednesday, took down Pete Poore and claimed the 60-64. Pete took second with Paul Bates 3rd. To Pete’s credit, I hear he’s been a little busy with the Dept of Transportation recently. Alex Ponomarev won the 65-69 by a mere 22 minutes while Brigitte Smith took 2nd. Peter Mugglestone and Rocky Soderberg claimed the top 2 spots in the 70+.

The Race to Read is a 5 mile race in its 11th year, going to benefit early literacy efforts in Kershaw County. It’s put on by Betsy Long, librarian at Doby’s Mill Elementary, who is also a runner herself. It’s always been a good event and a regular stop on the Blue Shoes racing calendar.

Of course if you know me at all, it will take about 5 seconds before I inform you I have won this race. Not the age group. The whole enchilada. The holy grail of the trophy hunter.

This was back in 2010, before it was on the Tour de Columbia or Palmetto Prix. When it was a little known rural race that just screamed come and take my trophy. And so I did. It took an all-out effort, locked in an epic age grouper duel with Greg Howell, complete with a blue shoe kick and dry heave on the final turn. It was not pretty, but man was it sweet.

But as usual, whenever some pasty Sasquatch wins a race, all the real trophy contenders take note. I havent even seen the winner finish since the glory of ’10.  I got Vowlesed badly last year. The Pale Beast laid down a couple of low 6 miles at the finish to completely crush me. The shame was even worse in 2013. Coming off my cliff dive, R2R was my second race back and got me Trophied and Ferlautoed. Oh, the humanity.

But maybe I could redeeem myself this year. Pale Beast is still run-injured, and takes his sadistic impulses out on our Sunday bike ride instead. Who knew the guy was a covert Brandenburg-esque stud on the bike? Ferlauto was MIA but I did hear the Trophy was going to make an appearance. With his double double deuce showing (albeit the 35-39 “champion”) at the Dam Run last week, I wasn’t too worried, but it would be really awful to lose to him this week, which would mark his masters debut. Happy 40th, Trophy.

I show up to Doby’s Mill on race day and wondered where the fall went. Around 70 degrees, and like 90 percent humidity. Sweating right out of the car. Awesome. At least I had avoided the frequent Friday night Blue Shoe perils of concerts, late nights and beer. I felt pretty beat down, though. The last couple of weeks of training have been mostly without any aches or pains, which is pretty much license for me to overtrain and get hurt.  I usually take Friday off but I ended up running anyway, which led to 6.2 miles instead of the easy 4 I had planned. Nice job, hero.

The first person I see is, lo and behold, the Code. With TUS singlet on, ready to race. The dude has been out for the better part of 6 months, and been my assistant…or as I like to call him – “photo bitch”.  Someone has to help me carpet bomb facebook news feeds with running pics, so he was the chosen one. Luckily for me, he says he’s just going to tempo it and see how the leg feels. I’ve heard this crap before, though, so I make a point to keep my eye on him in the race. He is now 40, and back in my age group.

I did a couple of warm-up miles with Trophy, Code and J-Lybrand, whose trophy hunting is even more voracious than mine. She’s doing the FATS 50k next week. And you thought I was racing obsessed. Back at the school I briefly get a twinge of the holy grail being up for grabs, seeing no elites right away. Then Eddie Lopez shows up, so there goes my dream of the overall glory. There’s still masters, though, and it looks like its only me, Code, Trophy and Whitney Keen. I thought this gave me a good chance, provided the Code didn’t get too frisky. Whitney did beat me at Springdale a month earlier, but I figured that was just me coming back from injury.  On the women’s side there was Heather Costello, who would probably trounce the ladies as bad as Eddie would beat down the men.  Garrick Douglas, who so brutally blue shoed me at Springdale, was also there. Mario Alvarez,  Kara Clyburn, Peter Mugglestone, Rocky Soderberg, Brigitte Smith, Andrew Lipps, Natalia Rozchkova, Henry Holt, Jennifer Reeves, Tim Pearson, Alex Robertson and the rest of the Keen clan (Robert, Julia and Caroline) were some of the familiar faces.

I wasn’t sure what my strategy should be for this one. I figured around 6:40 pace with the hot tub humidity and the hills. The course is mostly a rectangle beginning and ending at Doby’s  Mill. You have a short hill coming out of the school, but then 3/4 of a mile of flatness on Kennedy Road. You turn on Kirkland at mile 1 and run mostly downhill on gravel. The turn onto Porter Cross is near the mile 2 mark. Porter Cross is initially downhill but changes to a mountain range at the end. Mile 3 is on top of the worst hill. Mile 4 is mostly downhill on Fort Jackson Rd, Mile 5 is pretty rough with a nasty hill to start and a twisting short “nature trail” on the school grounds before the finish back near the start behind the school.

Not a big crowd for this one, so the start thinned out the field very quickly. Eddie left us all for dead before we got out of the school grounds. I tailed on to Whitney and Heather at first, but then fell back as we turned on to Kennedy rd. I was already sweating like a pig in mile 1, and didn’t feel great. I started having nightmares about getting Coded and Trophied. Spent most of mile 1 trying to get the lead out from my ill-advised 6 miler the day before and making sure Costello and Keen were in striking distance. Mile 1 was surpisingly fast at 6:31. What the hell did Whitney have for breakfast, cocaine? I expected Heather to soundly beat our tails, since she’s probably literally half my weight. Whitney, on the other hand, has a 5k PR just under 20 and hit mile 1 in what had to be around 6:15. Is he a new Jen Lybrand disciple? I settle in  to the long slog down the gravel road all by myself, alone with my thoughts. Why is Whitney kicking my ass? Oh God, is that Trophy I hear behind me??? I have a severe case of race-induced paranoia. The gravel road is only a mile but seems to last forever. I can barely make out Eddie making the turn way up ahead, and then I lose sight of him. Heather and Whitney are also starting to gap me even more. That’s OK, Whitney is going out way too fast, I’ll catch him!…Right? Mile 2 in 6:45, so pretty close to goal. There’s a nice drop initially on Porter Cross to get your wind back a little, opening up to a beautiful country scene with a field of cows. You might enjoy taking in the scenery if you didn’t look up ahead and see a mountain arising out of nowhere. All of a sudden, I’m huffing and puffing and dying a thousand deaths, climbing up this beast of hill. What’s worse, I am making zero ground on the two ahead of me. This was supposed to be where I could make my move. Yeah… not happening. Mile 3 is at the top of this monster and the split is like 6:50 something. Holy slowdown, batman.  I try to duck behind some trees as we approach the turn onto Fort Jackson Rd, employing the patented Blue Shoes stealth technique. This would work well if I was within at least 100 meters of the Costello-Keen combo, which I’m decidedly not. Whitney doesn’t look back anyway. I try to push the pace on the ensuing downhill, but I’m getting nowhere. Whitney is holding steady, right on Heather’s back and not fading one bit. What is fading way is my hopes of getting my precious masters win. Damn that Keen, crushing Sasquatch dreams. Mile 4 in 6:40 . Once my spirit was crushed I needed to make sure my shame wasn’t amplified by losing my age group to the two jokers behind me. The slog up the last hill on Fort Jackson rd about kills me and it feels like I’m barely moving hitting the nature trail. People either love or hate the nature trail, but you will know where you stand once you get there. It loops back around so you can clearly see who is behind you. Whitney and Heather are nearly done by the time I come to an area where I can see them, so I know my masters hopes are dead on arrival. Thankfully I can only see Garrick as I loop around myself towards the finish. I blast out onto the bus loop and see Whitney and Heather cross the line in what looks like a photo finish. I mount a half-hearted kick with no one to chase and cross over a minute later in 33:40.

Not thrilled with this one – my 2010 time was a minute faster.  To be fair, I’m still on the comeback trail and the 2010 race was when it was held in late October, with race temps in the 30’s. Must get faster..again. But hey, I got this email yesterday about a little race in Massachusetts, so better get to it.

In the overall, Eddie Lopez killed it with a 27:34 for the win. It turns out Heather outleaned Whitney at the line to capture 2nd overall and the women’s win. Whitney got the male masters win, with Nikki Campbell taking female masters.

Only one deep in the age groups, but awesome bricks painted as children’s books instead of medals. I experienced a ridiculous amount of anxiety over someone choosing “Go Dog, Go” before me, since this is the book I’ve read a million times to all three of my minions. Luckily it survived until the 40-44 age group. It was a good day for team Keen, as son Robert and daughter Julia each claimed their age group. J-Lybrand ran a strong, and fairly even-paced 35:49. Garrick Douglas won the 30-34. Mario Alvarez captured the 50-54. Tim Pearson said his goal was not to finish last – not only did he achieve that goal but also took home an age group as well, taking the 55-59. Alex Ponomarev (65-69) , Brigitte Smith (65- 69) and Peter Mugglestone (70+) all took home age group glory as well.

http://www.strictlyrunning.com/RESULTS/15RACE2READ.TXT

The Dam Run to Irmo 10k is one of the oldest races in the Columbia area, now in its 29th year. It holds the distinction as being the only true point-to-point race in the area and it has a net downhill, making it a pretty fast race. It also offers sweet prize money to the winners, so it typically brings out all the beasts. Not exactly a trophy hunt.

But Irmo is my childhood home (Irmo High class of ’93 – Go yellow jackets!) so I do feel some sort of allegiance to doing this race. You can’t beat the scenic views on the dam or the net downhill either.

My original plan was to have some sort of impulse control and “just” do this race this weekend. Unfortunately I fell off the wagon again and ended up racing Tunnel to Towers the night before. Doubling up is tough enough, but doing a 10k as the second race is pretty much a recipe for disaster, especially one with a brutally competitive field. But my eternal optimism (aka supreme egomania) said I could do it and still compete for awards. Hey, it was better race prep than late night concerts in Charlotte and/or beerapaloozas.

Or maybe not. Race morning had me waking up with a headful of doubt, cursing my computer indiscretions on Strictly Running’s website. Legs were cinder block-esque  after last night’s all-out summit of Mt. Gervais St. At least the Hawaii toe has been feeling better. I’ve been wearing size 11.5 shoes for the last couple of years, but I got size 12’s when I saw a random cheap pair of my old blues on ebay. Sadly, I think I’ve been a size 12 all this time. It feels amazing to be able to move my toes around again. Common sense has never been my forte.

I showed up late for the race because a 7:30 start and 30 minutes away don’t work out well with the delicate ballet of coffee-making, cereal-pouring, ibuprofen-popping and bathroom destroying involved in my race morning routine. Did a couple of miles with TUS teammate Julia Early, Trophy and Tommy Kahaly. Trophy suggested I go slumming with him and do his pace. I thought about it but realized there’s no way I could resist giving Trophy a beatdown. Plus, who knew where Trophy was on the fitness scale. Dude fluctuates from 20-22 minutes in the 5k depending on who he’s dating or his  weekly buffalo wing consumption. I had been calling him “Blackjack” (21 minutes) again to motivate him to get faster , but now he’s about to earn “Double Deuce” (22).

Stepping up to the start and its flush with SC running celebrities. TUS coach Justin Bishop, Eric Ashton, Ryan Plexico and OJ “Rashad” Striggles are representing Columbia’s finest, along with Matt Shock from Greenville. On the women’s side, Shawanna White is the favorite, along with Erin Miller and the return of Sara Powell. I recognize Caitlin Batten, fresh off her national Beer Mile championship, along with new husband Irv , both running beasts from Charleston.  MC Cox and Jennifer Lybrand are also representing from team Strictly Running. A ton of the usual Columbia scene is on hand for this one: Greta Dobe, Randy “the H is silent” Hrechko, Pete O’ Boyle, Howie Phan, Matt Pollard, Kenny Culbertson, Francisco Mora, Marian Nanney (also doubling up from T2T) , Ramesh Tippabhatla, Lorikay Keinzle (TUS),  David Russell (TUS), Larry Bates, Michael Jensen, Jim Williams (TUS), Barb Brandenburg (SR), Art Lambert, Jennifer Glass, Wade Bauer (TUS), Sheila Bolin (TUS) , Mackenzie Wilson (TUS), Tom Tanner, Mario Tudor, and Rocky Soderberg.

Not a whole lot of planning on this one – I thought run one mile at what felt like 10k effort and see what the Garmin gave me. The first mile and a half is completely pancake flat over the dam (after an initial little downhill) so it would be a good place to see how the legs and lungs are functioning. I knew mile 2 to be the roughest with some nasty hills in a neighborhood loop. Mile 3 and 4 would be rolling, and the last 2 miles mostly flat. Despite the net downhill, this race has never produced great times for me, probably because of it being right after summer. I ran a 45:05 for my first 10k ever, and then a 42:11 and a 42:08 the other two times.  The 10k has always been my worst distance.

The start, as predicted with the beast factor, is super fast. My legs still feel like crap despite the 2 mile warmup. Turns out 10 minute pace without any strides does not prepare you for race pace. Go figure. I am getting my butt passed left and right as I mentally struggle not to get sucked in by all these guys treating it like a 400 meter sprint. About a half mile in, the dam gets real quiet as the pack starts to thin out. Being an expert level race results stalker, I spot Francisco Mora, Jennifer Lybrand, Pete O’Boyle and Randy Hrechko all in front of me. Quick nerd calculations suggest a 42ish minute pace.  When I’m in good shape I should be just ahead of these guys, but who knows with my current conditioning and last night’s abuse.

I hit mile 1 in 6:49 and felt OK, so I tried to hold it. No need to be a hero this early. Off the dam is a nice downhill which helps you catch your breath. At some point I passed J-Lybrand and Francisco and now targeted Pete and Randy. Pete appeared to be picking it up some and passed Randy. Mile 2 in 6:47. After the first water stop is the Nasty Neighborhood Loop. I’m sure the people are nice there – in fact quite a few were spectating and cheering. It’s just their hills suck.  It’s a pretty short loop and as I enter, Ashton, Shock,  Striggles and Justin are already coming out. Ashton is crushing it. Right away we get treated to a sharp uphill, which hurts but always gains me against the field. Thus is the Sasquatchian Paradox: I’ve got 30-50 pounds on my peers but climb hills better. On the flipside, I suck on the downhills, with gravity seemingly on my side. One of the great questions of mankind.

Speaking of downhills, we get a plunge down one only to set us up for climb number 2, which is even longer and steeper. I again use my quads of steel to shame a kid on the way up.  Coming out of the nasty neighborhood loop is a long stretch on Bush River Rd. Slowly but surely I gain on Randy and pull even with him. He claims to be done when I pass him but I know better. Mile 3 in 6:45. I am actually starting to feel better at this point. I think I’ve washed out the soreness and I’m moving more fluidly. The field is now way spread out and its only me and O’Boyle up ahead in our little section. Must win the battle of Irish paleness! I hit mile 4 (6:44) just before the second neighborhood loop, which I know is much flatter. I’ve got some gas in the tank so I decide to kick it up a notch. I pull up alongside Pete and pass him, but he latches on my back and starts breathing down my neck. It seems no one likes to be Sasquatched. We drop down a hill and we hit a nice flat and straight stretch. I start striding out and O’Boyle fades a bit behind. There’s a long stretch where the sun hits you right in the face every year, but of course this is the one race in ages where I’ve forgotten my sunglasses. I run out into the sun pretty much blind and start to ramp it up for the finish, picking off another couple of guys that are unknown to me. Mile 5 comes back in 6:31, and I’m definitely starting to feel the extra effort. One last little incline after the 5 mile water stop and then down the hill to Saluda Shoals park. It’s almost a mile in the park, so I try not to get too caught up in the moment. I died a thousand deaths in the park in 2011 and ended up getting “white shoed” by Tigs and feeling like I could barely finish (this was the year I thought 6:18 was a good pace to start) . I’m starting to feel the pain this year too, with the toll of a couple of 5kish miles in the bank since passing Randy. But there’s a girl up ahead and I slowly start reeling her in. Matt Pollard is ahead of her, but I don’t see another Ray Tanner blue shoe possible with his lead. Suddenly Justin appears, presumably having finished and gone to get breakfast by now. He shouts I have about a quarter mile to go and 90 seconds to break 42 minutes. Damn, that’s 6 minute flat pace. And I’m on fumes. But give me a carrot on a string and I will do just about anything. I start sprinting, or perhaps lumbering like a rabid grizzly, down the entrance road of the park. The girl is pretty far ahead and the finish line always feels like it’s right around the corner. You can hear it from way far out. Finally I catch a glimpse of the red numbers, around  41:40ish, and rip into the hardest kick I can manage. The time is ticking away and its going to be really close. Girl gets passed with about 50 meters to go and she’s probably still wondering what that white blur was. In full sprint I hit the line and slap the Garmin, and do an ugly flop onto the grass. After having an extended make out session with the finish line grass, I see my Garmin at 42 flat. Damn! But wait…lets check the results. BOOM. 41:59. Awesome.

OK, so still way short of the 40:38 PR, and even that is my slowest personal best in relation to distance. But its a step towards the springtime Blue Shoes, so I will take it. I also got 6.31 miles on my distance, so I probably ran the certified course pretty poorly. Either way, I got smoked in the age group. 5th. 21st overall. To rub salt in my wounds, Trophy came in almost 3 minutes behind me and got…FIRST in age group. WTF? He’s 6 months younger and wins the 35-39 since Striggles claimed 3rd overall. Oh well, Trophy turns 40 tomorrow so he’ll have to man up soon enough.

Winning the overall was Eric Ashton, 7 years my senior and still crushing a 33 flat. Wow. Matt Shock claimed second in a strong 33:30. Striggles was third in 34:22. The women’s race was apparently an epic showdown between Shawanna White and Sara Powell. They ran most of the race together before Shana threw down a vicious kick to take the win in 37:11, 2 seconds ahead of Sara. I would liked to have seen that, but I was barely in the park by then. Erin Miller got a PR 37:34 for third.

Age group honor roll: David Russell and Matt Pollard went 1-2 in the 25-29. Jennifer Lybrand won the women’s 25-29 with Rachel Carter 3rd.  The 30-34 was insanely fast with regular overall winners Justin Bishop and Ryan Plexico taking the top 2 spots. Caitlin Batten took 4th overall and 1st in the women’s 30-34 with a 38:22. Tammy Putt was the unfortunate Blue Shoe victim, taking home 2nd in the 30-34 AG.  The ladies 35-39 was also brutal with MC Cox breaking 40 minutes for the win (39:51) and Marian Nanney 2nd after winning T2T last night. Tracy McKinnon claimed 1st in my age group with Toby Selix coming back with a 39:41 for third after taking the summer off from racing. Randy Hrechko mounted a strong kick to overtake Pete in the park and finished 1st in the 45-49. Barb Brandenburg and Julia Early went 2-3 in the 45-49. I don’t know Laura Stepp, but her 1st place with a 44:54 was impressive. In the 50-54, Howie Phan crushed a sub 40 in 39:49 and took 1st by 5 minutes, Francisco Mora and Phil Togneri were 2nd and 3rd. Larry Bates won the tightly contested 55-59, with Tommy Kahaly 3rd, all within 44 minutes. The women’s 55-59 was also brutal, with Lorikay Keinzle, Carol Wallace and Alsena Edwards sweeping the category. Pete took the 60-64 by a landslide, running 43:09 for the win by 7 minutes. John Houser claimed 2nd in the 65-69 just a few weeks after his half marathon in the Blue Ridge.  Brigitte Smith won 3rd among the women. The eternally positive Rocky Soderberg took 2nd in the 70+.

http://www.strictlyrunning.com/RESULTS/15DAM.TXT

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/903764208

The Tunnel to Towers 5k is one of a series of 5ks across the country put on by the Steven Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, which goes to benefit firemen, police, other first responders, and the military. Steven Siller was a firefighter who lost his life on September 11 at the World Trade Center, after he ran through the Battery tunnel back to the towers (hence the foundation’s name).

I got a chance to see this race in its first year in 2013, when I was still beat up from my Hawaii cliff dive and had to spectate. It’s a really cool event – the road race really pales in comparison to the hundreds of military and other first responders who show up to run/march in unison. I made it a point to come back and actually run it when I wasn’t nursing multiple broken bones. I think I was out of town last year for the race, but when we added it to the Tour de Columbia in 2015, I was in.

Or… kind of. This race is held on a Friday night, with the Dam Run to Irmo 10k the next morning. I told everyone I was going to do one or the other for the past few weeks, I just needed time to decide. Then I had a momentary Stella-Artois- induced lapse of judgement in front of the computer and went all in for both of them. I know, I need help.

Fast forward to Friday night and I’m already regretting my decision. The first blast of fall we had earlier in the week gave way to a last hurrah sucker punch from the 400 pound gorilla of a Columbia summer, pushing temps back into the mid 80’s. I was sweating on my way to the car. This was going to be brutal. Got there about 45 minutes early with the Code, pulling photo duty once again. The place was packed – looked to be over 1000 people. Not a whole lot of recognizable runners though, which bade well for my unquenchable thirst for trophies. I didn’t see too many big-name elites, presumably because all the studs were going to be doing the Dam Run (I was proven quite correct the next morning). Sarah and Eric Allers, the Yerg, Brad Marlow and family, Mike Wainscott, Teresa Harrington, Lois Leaburn, Mario and Jennifer Tudor, Peter Mugglestone, Rocky, Henry and Margaret  Holt, Alex Ponomarev, Mike and Pam Griffin, Marian Nanney, Pam Inman, Dawndy Mercer-Plank, Marlena Crovatt-Bagwell, Cheryl and Tommy Outlaw, Kate Ferlauto, Ron Hagell, Sharon Cole and John Zemp were a few of the familiar faces.  I didn’t see any of my usual age group archrivals, though clearly Eric (now 45)  was going to block my masters hopes.

I didnt get a chance to run the course, but it looked to be a simple Connecticut-shaped deformed rectangle, going across the Blossom street bridge and coming back on Gervais, similar to parts of Ray Tanner.

The start felt like a big-city marathon – I lined up first row in front of thousands of people, with all kind of photographers and news cameras on the scene. Perfect for my oversized ego. I was a little afraid of getting trampled though, and there was a construction bottleneck about a quarter mile in that made a fast start imperative.  I’m sweating like a pig, 84 degrees at race time by the Garmin. After a long wait, there was a gunblast from somewhere way back and we all started in full-on stampede mode.  Being slightly less svelte than the high school kids and singlet wearers around me, I had to pull a few third down short yardage fullback up-the-middle moves to get ahead. When they see a giant pale bus coming through, the skinny people get out of the way.  Once we take the first turn onto Blossom, I’m a little confused. Tigs, who had rode my butt at the Dry Run and cursed me for taking her out too fast, was pretty far ahead of me barely a half mile in. Marian Nanney was even in front of her. And I am not going out for a jog either – it feels like I’m taking it pretty hard out of the gates. My ego is bruised but I try to focus on myself – it’s feeling pretty rough in the heat and I know the finish is a  pretty tough climb. Tigs and Marian have put even more distance on me once we clear the Blossom St railroad overpass, which is the first kick to the chest on this course.

I hit mile 1 just as we start the trek across the Blossom St bridge. I swear my garmin spit out a 7 something split but I must have been delirious. Recheck of the data says 6:12, which feels about right. Micah Simonsen, a previous 35-39 age group rival, comes up and briefly passes me, throwing out some trash talk. Damn him for taking me by 2 seconds on the quarry crusher. Between him passing me and Tigs/Marian way ahead, I am at a loss. Oh well, I am going at it pretty hard so I can’t go much faster without completely bonking. A nasty little incline after the bridge lets me re-pass Micah though, and I’m suddenly making up all the ground against Tigs in a hurry. I catch Tigs right at the turn to Alexander drive and we mercifully get a little downhill after the long, slow incline of Knox Abbott (Blossom turns into Knox Abbott in Cayce). I pass one of my coworkers, Naoma, on the next turn, who is cheering like I’m winning the Boston Marathon, so that was a nice boost. Alexander dr is pretty flat the rest of the way to Gervais so I was able to catch my breath a little.  Mile 2 in 6:31. I pass a couple of more young punks who aren’t too happy about getting master Sasquatched. Finally we turn on to Gervais towards home. I knew Gervais was uphill but it looks like a damn mountain from the bridge. The Ray Tanner course lets you off right after the bridge, but this one makes you climb all the way into the Vista. I conveniently forgot about the rise before Huger too. Wow, this was going to be a whole world of suck. And it was. The 80 degree heat started making its presence felt in a major way, and the incline was basically unrelenting. I was able to catch Marian finally near Huger, and I was trying to kick it in with about a half mile to go. Yeah.. not so much. I was all by myself, arms pumping, begging for that finish turn that seemed to never get there.  Even being cheered by hot drunken USC girls wasn’t helping – I was too distracted breathing (and probably looking) like a wounded elephant. Finally, I make the last turn on Lincoln and damned if it hasn’t already has flipped over to 20 minutes. I try to make my form a little less headless chicken for the pics but the heat and wind suckage is like a kick to the face. I flop across in 20:31.

Shockingly, a good finish pic

Garmin gave me  ugly 6:12/6:31/6:46 splits  with a 6:06 0.17 mile kick. Probably a mix of going out too hard and then having to run my semi-bonk up a mountain. Totally shocked when I get to the results tent though – 6th overall and 1st masters. It turns out Eric ran so fast (18:23) he got 3rd overall and bumped me up to the masters “win”.  To add insult to injury, he got a small medal while I got a big ass plaque. Sometimes it pays to be slow.

This race had a really nice post-race set up with a band, food (burgers and dogs) and drinks. Sadly, no beer. A kid I’ve never seen race before (20 year old John Kaminski) took home the win in 18:00, followed by David Adams, a firefighter from Bluffton who ran in full fire gear. Insane. My Google stalking him showed me the reason – he holds the high school state cross country record with like a 14:37 in 1999. Eric’s 18:23 for third is really impressive, especially considering the course and conditions.

In the women’s overall, Marian held on for the win in 20:54 and Tigs got second in 21:11. I would love to see the garmin splits on their first mile – had to be under 6. Darby Graham got 21:39 for third. Amanda Cusaac won female masters – I’ve never seen her race either- her 21:57 was very strong.

Age groupers – Sabine McGrievy had a tough day but brought home some bling, finishing 3rd in the 1-9.  Taylor Marlow is a chip off the old block (Brad’s son) and trounced me in 19:59 to take 1st in the 10-14 (5th overall). Kortni Miller and Natalia Rozhkova finished 2nd and 3rd in the 20-29. The Yerg crushed the 30-39 with a 19:42. My Labor Day 5 miler nemesis John Gibbons won the 40-49. among the women, Sharon Cole and Shelley Hinson took the top two 40-49 spots. Chantal Faure won the 50-59. Jack Kuenzie and Alex Ponomarev went 2-3 in a tough 60-69 category, with Marie Queen winning the 60-69 women. Margaret Holt is newly 70 and won the 70+females, while husband Henry finished 2nd in the 70+ males at age 79. Peter Mugglestone won the division, with Ron Hagell 3rd.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/903764180

http://racesonline.com/events/tunnel-to-towers-5k-south-carolina/results/2015

The Dry Run is a 5k in the Shandon neighborhood put on by Faces and Voices of Recovery, a substance abuse recovery group. It’s been held about 10 years now, and it’s been a regular stop on the Blue Shoes race calendar since my first year of my obsession in 2009.

It’s always been one of my favorites for a number of reasons. One, if you live in Columbia, you learn to suffer through the oven-like months of June, July and August in exchange for pretty awesome weather the rest of the year. The Dry Run is usually on the first cool weekend of the fall and feels amazing – such a relief. Two, they used to have ironic age group awards with pint glasses to the winners. Now , I can see that people in recovery might frown on this (though the one’s I’ve heard from thought it was funny) but there was nothing I liked better than drinking a beer in my new age group award while watching the Gamecocks play later that day.  Alas, they have gone to plastic crystal discs now.  Three, it was the site of my first 5k since almost dying in Hawaii. I ran a 26:05 on a very gimpy toe and was never happier. I missed out on an age group award of course, but Geary gave me his in a symbolic gesture and I still keep it in my car as a reminder. Thanks, dude.

Also, it doesn’t hurt that it’s a flat rectangle in Shandon and very PR friendly. I typically post one of my better times in months with the cooler temps and good competition. Always the trophy hunter. Lastly, Mike Hedgecock is the race director for this one and always does a great job. You can always tell when a race director is a runner themselves.

Unfortunately the weather didn’t quite cooperate this year. The first cold front of fall missed us by a matter of hours, leaving Saturday morning still high 70’s and humid. Definitely less than ideal. Also less than ideal was my “race prep” on Friday night. This time it wasn’t beer, late night concerts or San Jose’s (or all three) but deciding to do the Run for Our Troops 5k on a whim. Temps were 80+ that night and the course involved crazy trail switchbacks and lots of twists and turns on the riverwalk. I told myself the Dry Run was the target and this could just be for fun. Yeah, I got into a total pissing match with some ripped triathlon dude age grouper and outsprinted him in the last half mile. My “easy run” left me gasping for breath on the grass near the amphitheater. Nice job, hero.

So yeah, I got to the Dry Run super early to try and jog out some of the soreness from that little escapade. Mike , along with fellow 621 ninjas Steven Johnson, Luke Godwin and Matt Buffum, were helping at packet pickup. Always good to see them, especially when you know these beasts won’t be trying to steal your coveted trophies. Logged a beautiful 11 minute warm up mile. Right glute still wants to be all tight but it helps some to warm it up. I did a loop back and picked up Joyce, Mike Compton, and the Code, who still isn’t released for racing yet. At least he’s good for taking pics though.

I’m regretting last night’s ego trip by the time the start rolls around. Fairly typical crowd, less than 100 but lots of strong competition. Jonathan Kinsey won the Run for Our Troops Friday night and was also coming back for more, along with Strictly teammate Jennifer Lybrand. Eric and Sarah Allers do a lot of out-of-town racing with Reckless, but they’ve raced this fairly often, especially with the masters cash awards in play. Team Utopia teammates Joyce and Mike Compton were toeing the line along with Tour de Columbia racing regulars Brigitte Smith, Peter Mugglestone, Rocky Soderberg, Henry Holt, Pete Poore, Jennifer Reeves, Leeds Barroll, Sue Porter, Alex Ponomarev, Angel Manuel, Alex Wilcox and Sabine McGrievy (paced by dad Matt). It was good to meet Marion and Shelley Hinson as well.

No real strategy on this one other than shoot for low 20 minutes. A month ago I had run a 20:40 all out at the Springdale 5k after the injury layoff, so just taking some baby steps toward getting back under 19 again would be great. Course is simple – a big rectangle of Duncan-Queen-Heyward-Bonham, then a little half mile small rectangle of Monroe-Ravenel-Duncan-Bonham to the finish. Running the small rectangle sucks because there’s an small incline on Duncan that sucks all the life out of you right before the finish. All in all though, the course is one of the flatter routes in Columbia.

The start was predictably fast with all the regular racers on board. J-Lybrand was doing her 5:30 pace in the early going but settled down quicker than usual. A quarter mile in I notice a new growth on my shoulder. It has about 2 percent body fat, wearing a Reckless outfit and looks a lot like Sarah “Tigs” Allers. Oh no, here we go again. Somehow we’re always going at it, both brutally competitive, one former national level elite masters runner and one former couch surfer of wings and beer. I’ll let you figure that one out. Anyway, Tigs is on my back like white on rice. She’s been training for the mile recently so I have no idea what she might run in the 5k. I am still fearful of the death spiral of my Springdale race so after I throw a few surges in with no luck losing my shadow, I just settle into what I hope is goal pace. We hit mile 1 right before the turn onto Queen at 6:24, which is just about right.  Finally, Tigs relents a little and falls behind me, though I’m used to people drafting behind my considerable wake. Leaving Queen for Heyward there’s a long straightaway – I can even see the lead car in the distance. Angel has me by about 50 meters and I can still make out Eric and some kid up ahead of Angel. There’s a slight downhill so I try to coast a little, though I’m starting to feel the effects of last night’s Blue Shoeing. It doesn’t help that the air is like a wet blanket. By the time mile 2 rolls around, I’m starting to hate life pretty bad, but the Garmin spits back a 6:25.  Having spent a good year and a half of my life in 2009-10 to conquering the sub 20, I know I’m almost right on it. Actually just under it. If I can just hold on…

But man it’s starting to hurt. My mind is telling me to mail it in – Eric is going to take Masters, I’ve got my age group. No reason to push it. But then I see Angel is getting slowly reeled in. And the race monster is again awakened. By the time I reach the end of Heyward, Angel is maybe 20 meters ahead. It’s only ten by the time we hit the start of the small rectangle of pain. Must. track. him. down. He takes a couple of steps off course on Ravenel and I’m sure he can hear the asthmatic yeti behind him. He misses the turn on Duncan too initially – I yell at him with what little air I have left and start throwing down a Blue Shoe kick as hard as I can go. He veers back on course and I fly by in a fury of wind suckage and paleness. One last hill on Duncan is like a kick to the stomach but I can see the finish line turn. I am praying for the release of death by the time I hit that last corner, but I hear Luke or maybe Coach B shouting to “go get that sub 20”. I fly around the corner and see those precious 19’s. It’s going to be close. I sprint towards the line on fumes and do a victory yell that probably sounds like the death of an elephant. 19:54!

So happy to back in the land of the 19’s again. Sucked wind on the curb for about a minute before I could breathe again, like usual. 4th overall, 1st in age group!

Jonathan Kinsey had a walk in the park for his win and still was clear of the field by a minute and a half in 17:17. Eric Allers stole my masters money and finished 2nd overall to boot, showing 3rd place teen Brady Rafanan that we old men can still run. Tigs  ran one of her strongest times in recent months to skip over masters and take the overall win. Jennifer Lybrand finished 2nd while newest Columbia Running Club member Natalia Rozhkova took 3rd. Joyce Welch took the women’s masters win since Tigs won the overall. I’m disappointed you couldn’t do the same, Eric.

Age group honor roll (only did 1st with the small field) : Sabine McGrievy looked super psyched to win the girls 2-14. Alex Wilcox and Jennifer Lybrand were champs of the 25-29. Angel took the 35-39…only three more months before he joins me in the 40’s.  Shelley Hinson won the 45-49, while Sue Porter took the 55-59. Mike Compton and Alex POnamarev claimed the 60-64 and 65-69 men. Brigitte Smith won the women’s 65-69. Peter Mugglestone was champion of the 70+ in 26:05.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/896233820

http://www.strictlyrunning.com/RESULTS/15DRY.TXT

The Labor Day 5 miler is the newest Strictly Running race, first put on a few years ago to complement the longstanding Cold Winter’s Day and Hot Summer’s night events. Strictly’s races are always well done, and always bring out the beasts. They usually put out time bounties for anyone able to break course records or break some ridiculous, super-human time. The Kenyans and studs in Blowing Rock, NC will make a run for it though, and its cool to race against some real elites, even if they’re gone in the first quarter mile.

This race, a relatively flat 5 miler through 5 points and Shandon, had money for sub 24:30 and sub 24 minutes. That’s like 4:45-4:55 pace. The cash was as good as mine.

Well, it might have been if I was 70 pounds lighter and born in Nairobi, but alas,  I am saddled with the physique of the Albino Sasquatch. And a tired one at that. I usually double up on Labor Day weekend with the Saturday Crooked Creek 5k and the relay in this one. This year I decided I would actually run the whole 5 miles. But hey, why don’t I also mix things up and do the Palmetto Cross Country 5k at CIU on Saturday instead of Crooked Creek. Well, only 8 people showed up to that one, but since Yerg and Geary were 2 of them, it turned into a 110 percent effort through incredibly hilly and muddy trails. I about died. I decided to follow this up with a 9 mile “cool down” with Rob at Harbison forest, then biked/weights/swam on Sunday, a few hours with the boys at the pool, then a couple hours of singles tennis. When 5 am rolled around this morning (5 miler started at 7:30) a lot of voices screamed to sit this one out. I hadn’t even registered, so it was still an option…

For a sane person. No way was I going to be able to function knowing a race was going on. Not with some other  40 year old freak stealing my glory. I was in.

I get there over an hour early, in the dark, and sore just about everywhere. Code is the first person I see, and he wasn’t even racing. Our running nerdery knows no bounds. I asked if he wanted to relay it last second, but he is under strict Eric Ashton orders not to race. I could barely see the registration paper in the dark and kept wondering why I do this to myself. Did a couple of miles warmup with the Code, OG, Mario Alvarez, Geary and Joyce. Legs felt like I had been beaten with a stick. Kept praying to the Ibuprofen gods to work their magic.

The start. Some egomaniac posturing in the second row.

As expected, this was anything but a trophy hunt. Beasts everywhere. The 60 year age group alone had Mike Compton, Pete O’Boyle and the OG. Pete Poore would have his work cut out for him today. This was an official Team Utopia South target event, so lots of black and gold. I’ jumped in halfway into their training cycle. Ike Davis and Ivanka Tolan have been making me work for it on the track, and they would be good pacers today. Coach Bishop, Lorikay, David, Carol, Joyce, Compton, Mike Nance, Kelbie, and Wade were also there for TUS. Strictly Running was fielding some beast relay teams with Coach B and Erin Miller in the coed division and Linn Hall and MC Cox for the ladies.  J-Lybrand, Jonathan Kinsey and Matt Buffum were representing the Red Storm in the full race. Other familiar faces included Ron Hagell, Shirley Smith, Greta Dobe, Jennifer Glass, Wayne Shuler, Michael Jensen, Brigitte Smith, Henry Holt, Peter Mugglestone, Jim and Sheri Fadel, Alex Ponomarev, Pam Griffin,  and Jennifer Reeves.

http://www.usatf.org/events/courses/maps/showMap.asp?courseID=SC14061DW

I basically knew the course from last year, when I ran the relay with my 11 year old son (Alex V, Blue Shoes, Jr.). You do a flat loop similar to the start of Strictly Running’s pizza run ,  return to Devine Street  before flying down a cliff for a lap around MLK park. Quick tour through 5 points on Harden, then up the “Get to the Green” hill on Blossom and King. Once you’re at Hand Middle in Shandon (just over 2.5 miles in)  its a big, relatively flat rectangle in Shandon with a long straightaway finish on Devine.

I again had no idea how to pace, since I was coming back from injury and having decided to wreck myself with activity over the weekend. My 5 mile PR is right around 6:20ish pace, so I figured 6:45 would be a reasonable goal for my current fitness, or lack thereof. I usually toe the line at the start but made sure to back off this time with all the beasts. The start predictably felt like crap. Legs thought they were done with racing this weekend and were not enjoying the extra helping of abuse. I was trying to find the goal pace but it felt like I was getting an epic beatdown since this race was so top heavy with fast peeps. At least the pizza run loop was flat. I’m used to J-Lybrand starting like a bat out of hell, but Ivanka and Ike were also leaving me in the dust too. What the hell? I kept screaming to myself to “run your own race” but the oversized ego residing in my melon head was taking a serious shot by getting such a heavy dose of whoop-ass. Despite all this internal turmoil, I was pleased that they had a race clock at mile 1 that gave me about a 6:48 split, so all was still ok. Just past the mile mark is the sharp descent into MLK park. I still don’t trust sharp drops (see July 2013) so despite my gravitational advantage over my peers, I was tiptoeing down the hill and got chicked in the process. Still felt pretty bad with the MLK loop, dreading the Blossom st hill. For some reason we crossed over the median on Harden halfway through, which was probably adding distance. I wasn’t sure if it was the official route or we were just all following the blazing fast Kenyan who was crushing the field. Thanks,  Kimutai . Jeez.

A turn onto Blossom with a similar 6:41 split for mile 2. I finally pass Jen, who probably ran a 6 flat first mile. Blossom street hill is pretty brutal, not for being overly steep, just really long. Paradoxically, I’m pretty good at uphills so I manage to pass a few people of the way up. The relay exchange at 2.5 miles had me just over 17 minutes. The course doesnt really level out until Hand Middle on King St and by then I’m commencing with some pretty bad wind suckage. Mile 3 was an ugly 6:58 or something, but I was too afraid to pick it up, not knowing my race endurance at this point. Long stretch on Heyward, which I’ve run a million times. Finally I start to gain some ground on Ivanka and pass her about 3.5 miles in. She isn’t backing down much though, and I have to throw in a  surge to keep her off my back.  I can now see Ike up ahead and make him my next target. He isn’t giving in much either and I think it was just before the 4 mile mark that I finally overtook him. Mile 4 in 6:46. I start thinking about kicking it in but I hold off at first. With the turn onto Devine I decide it’s time to throw down. There’s a green shirt kid at the corner though, and he is not taking to kindly getting passed by a pasty Clydesdale twice his age. He surges and rides my shoulder for awhile. Oh dude, it’s on like Donkey Kong. The pace goes from luke warm to scalding hot in a hurry. Green shirt surges again just ahead of me but the race monster has been awakened like a green-eyed David Banner. I ramp it up again, plunging into 5 something pace and pulling alongside him again.  The finish line is drawing closer – you can see it the whole time on Devine. My lungs are blasting into overdrive, but no way is this kid breaking me. I’m half aware that I’m passing what appears to be an age grouper pretty close to the finish, and Justin is there calling out its only 400 meters. And then I decide to go all in, pushing the chips on the table and charging like a deranged white Incredible Hulk towards the finish. Green shirt finally gives in and I start pulling closer to another guy as the finish line looms in the next block. I’m giving about 1000 percent effort when I can see some gray flecks in the hair of the guy ahead. AGGH another age grouper! But I’ve run out of real estate, crashing through the finish in 33:38 (6:44 overall pace) and making sweet, sweet love to the Devine street asphalt.

The Headless Chicken

After about 30 seconds of breathing like a jackrabbit on crack, Ike pulls me off the street and Ivanka is right behind, both crushing awesome times. I figure I’m probably out of the age group chances but at the results tent I’m shocked to see I got 2nd. So glad to be out of the 35-39! Of course, the dude in front of me was 44 and got me by 4 seconds. Well played, John Gibbons. The epic finish was necessary though, as 3rd place was indeed the guy I passed on Devine, finishing 9 seconds behind me. You are now in my radar, Andrew Ortaglia.  I suppose I should also give props to 25 year old Wilson “green shirt” Harvey, who paced my 6:18 final mile and got 2nd in AG to boot.

In the overall, the aforementioned Kenyan Kimutai Cheruiyot ran an incredible 23:56, taking home like 2000 dollars. 4:48 pace. Wow. Adam Freudenthal took 2nd in 25:20, a lowly 5:04 pace. Slacker. SR’s Jonathan Kinsey placed 3rd in 26:53.

In the women’s race, another Chapel Hill Kenyan athlete, Susan Jerotich, took the win in 26:58. Caitlin Bullock rocked a 29:12 for second, and Sara Powell clocked a 31:12 for third.

Age group glory: TUS’ David Russell won the 25-29, with SR’s Jennifer Lybrand winning among the women. TUS coach Justin Bishop claimed first in the 30-34, with Ike Davis 2nd. TUS’ Ivanka Tolan claimed 1st in the 35-39 with Marian Nanney 2nd. TUS’ Michael Nance placed 2nd in the brutal 35-39 men. Jennifer Glass ran a 45:36 to claim 2nd in the 40-44. SR’s Matt Buffum claimed the 45-49, with Wayne Shuler 3rd.  Joyce Welch (TUS) took the female 45-49, with Sherry Fadel 2nd.  Greta Dobe (TUS) finished 3rd in the 50-54 women, with Mario Alvarez winning among the men.  Geary McAlister claimed the 55-59, while Lorikay Keinzle (TUS) and Carol Wallace (TUS) went 1-2 among the women. Robbie McLendon, Pete O’ Boyle and Mike COmpton (TUS) swept one of the fastest 60-64 divisions ever (all sub 37 minutes) .  Alex POnamarev and Brigitte Smith were champs of the 65-69. Arnold Floyd, Peter Mugglestone and Ron Hagell swept the 70-74. Henry Holt and Jesse Smarr went 1-2 in the 75+.

In the relays, the Benedict men dominated, taking the top 3 spots. Strictly Running claimed the coed division with Coach B and Erin Miller blazing a 30:04. Strictly also took the women’s relay title, with Linn Hall and MC Cox running a 31:54.

http://www.strictlyrunning.com/RESULTS/15LABOR.TXT

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/891021197

Photo credit: Wendy Hart

Stomp the Swamp is a 5k course run entirely on the River Bluff High School campus and goes to benefit their high school cross country teams. It’s put on by Derek Gomez, their coach, who also has a part-time gig beating the crap out of me in road races and triathlons. Not to mention making everybody else around him feel very unfit. But at least he’s nice while he’s doing it. First year was a success in 2014, so Gomez was hoping for even bigger this time around.

The race is hard to categorize, but would probably be closest to the Crooked 5k in Chapin – a high school cross country style course that is actually mostly paved.  Start and finish are really cool in the River Bluff football stadium, which would make most small colleges proud. I mean it has a swank press box, gigantic video scoreboard and a posh looking area over the endzone, which I can only assume is for elite donors or something. Pretty nice.

The course is pretty tough but definitely unique. I somehow survived joy rides on Corley Mill rd back in high school, when it was a narrow roller coaster of death through the woods. Now I’d have to be running this thing. First mile is flat out of the stadium then a climb out to the entrance road. You then get to hike up a paved mountain (the announcer was calling this the “calf crusher”) only to circle around a cone and plummet back down to the entrance road.  For mile 2, you then go across a parking lot, over a covered bridge and slight incline to a second entrance road. Then there’s a twisting paved trail that hides the fact you are going straight up a hill. Dont worry, your quads will remind you. Once you reach the top of the paved trail hill (about 1.75 miles) the rest is almost all downhill and flat. You careen down the trail hill, out into a parking lot, pass the 2 mile mark, and a long downhill . A very short uptick near the front of the stadium, before cruising downhill again and onto the football field for the finish. In short, lots of climbing in the first 2 miles with a very fast 3rd.

I knew this one would be tough for me, but I’ve been able to start speedwork with Team Utopia South again, albeit a lot slower after all the injury downtime. I ran last year’s race in decent shape and still didnt break 20 minutes, not to mention getting brutally chicked by Bri Hartley and Anna Jenkins. Shame has new meaning when you get smoked by girls born in the 21st century.  So I figured anything south of 21 minutes would be acceptable.

The only problem to my race strategy was the Social Distortion show in Charlotte on Friday night. My friend going with me even asked me months ago – “won’t you be running a race that next morning??” “I’ll be fine” I said. To quoth Social D, “I was wrong”.  There  was dinner at a Charlotte bar, 2 opening acts, a long show, a 1:30 am arrival time back in Columbia, and a very thirsty Sasquatch throughout. I woke up at 5:30 feeling like my head fell off another cliff and my mouth stuffed with cotton balls. Nice work, hero.  I’m forty years old but apparently my 19 year old brain still hasn’t gotten the memo.

Most people would probably bail at this point, but my race obsession knows no bounds. I was shotgunning Gatorade, Tylenol, Ibuprofen and coffee the whole way to Lexington, cursing my poor beer mathematics throughout. Showed up late, looking like death warmed over. Got my packet, finished another round of toilet destruction and did a snail’s pace mile and a half. This was  going to suck.

Which is too bad, because it was an absolutely perfect morning. Unbelievably cool for an August morning, like mid 60’s and low humidity. There was a pretty big crowd on hand. I couldn’t scope out the competition too well , since F3 and FiA had huge groups doing a pre-race workout as part of a double down event associated with the race. A lot of these guys looked pretty fit, but difficult to tell if they could run. I was sure there had to be a few of the stealth superfit soccer dads that trash my trophy  hunts on a regular basis.  No clear elites in this race. Avery Johnson (last year’s winner) and the Dutch Fork team had a meet elsewhere and I didnt see Plex, Ashton or Justin. Team Utopia South fielded Michael Nance, the Yerg, Joyce, Julia, Mike Compton and myself. I decided to not disgrace the black and gold this morning. Robbie “OG” McClendon and Nicole came all the way from Bishopville, which was cool. Ty Thomas was on hand, hoping for another pic showdown like our battle at Lexington Race Against Hunger. I told him there was no chance of that. Arnold Floyd, Peter Mugglestone,  Rocky Soderberg, Henry Holt, Leeds Barroll, Pete Poore, Brigitte Smith, Eric Bopp, Devon Shirley and Jennifer Conrick were some familiar faces. The Code and Wendy Hart showed up to spectate and help take pics.

I was feeling marginally better at the start, as some of my hangover concoction started kicking in. I lined up pretty much on the first row and got passed by a ton of people before we even left the stadium. The first quarter mile gives you some flat before the pain begins. Nance and some other guy already were separating from the field. I saw Rob and Ty up ahead, and damned if Compton wasn’t crushing it out of the gate too. I had no idea how to pace under my current conditioning and decidedly poor “race prep” so I was flying blind. I was definitely not going to push it though – no need to end the no-puke streak. Brief climb to the entrance road then up the “calf crusher”. I heard the stadium announcer talking about the “leaders heading into the parking lot” but it turns out it was just Wendy and the Code trying to haul ass to get a better vantage point for pics. Nice speed work guys.  The calf crusher sucked as expected. Ty was already mocking me for being so slow when he saw me on his way back down. He’s known for his psychological torture tactics. I made the turn and gimpily ran down the mountain, fearful of reinviting the shin splint and plantar fasciitis combo back into my life.  The crusher dumped you back into a parking lot for  mile 1 – 6:58. Through the covered breezeway, then up onto road number 2 and the start of the paved trail. I had briefly pulled ahead of Compton but he passed me again on the road. On the paved trail we were shoulder-to-shoulder, breathing like an industrial machine, total Geary McAlister style. I tried to drop him but he was riding me like a monkey and my grizzly bear agility wasn’t helping me with all the twists and turns. Finally I broke free a little as we reached the summit of the trail hill and started the downhill section. I was basically flopping all over the place on the way down, trying not to slip and fall, which I’m really good at (see July 2013).  The trail dumped out into another parking lot and it was great to have some flat, straight pavement again (Dean Schuster and Rick Stroud shudder in unison). Mile 2 in 6:58 again. I felt pretty good, probably because I had finally cleared out last night’s toxins and probably because some part of me realized I was doing something north of my old half marathon pace. Time to pull an Emeril and kick it up a notch. It helped there was a nice slight downhill by this point. A muscular looking F3 dude was ahead of me and I got close enough to see some slight flecks of gray in his hair. AGE GROUPER! Must take him down. I took a tentative step into the pain cave and started ramping up a kick, though there was at least a half mile to go. We went plunging down a hill and I managed to pass F3 guy with the slight incline in front of the stadium. I looked up ahead and was surprised to see the Yerg. I knew he was up near the leaders at the beginning, so he must be fading. I start spelunking the pain cave even further as I pass another guy and blast into full on blue shoe mode. I’m sucking wind like there’s no tomorrow on the road outside the stadium but I get a jolt of adrenaline once I hit the artificial turf of the football field. One lap in the stadium and my lungs are begging for mercy. But the Yerg is in my sights with blood in the water. I’m starting to draw near on the first turn, and then try to pull a ricky bobby inside pass . The only problem is Rob also hugs the corner and we collide at the shoulder. I’m briefly stunned but given our huge mass differential, I can only think the Yerg got the worse end of the deal.  I then launch into an all-out headless chicken to the finish, crossing in 20:37. 7th overall, 1st in AG.

Ok, so I would not have predicted a few months ago that Rob and I would be racing for a mid 20 minute 5k time. But I’ll take it at this point, especially with the way I was feeling at the start. The last mile had to be close to 6 flat, so that’s a good feeling, even if it was downhill. Still beat my terrible Springdale 5k from 3 weeks ago on a lot harder course.

In the overall, Nance scored his first overall win in recent times, staying with Daryl Hammond at the beginning and crushing the last mile for 18:34. Daryl won male masters at 51 years old in 18:52 – very strong. John Henis took 3rd at 49 years old, so it was apparently an all star masters race.  Devon Shirley had the easy win for the women. Female masters went to Jennifer Conrick. All the overall winners scored awesome gator head trophies, of which I was exceedingly jealous.

Age group honor roll: Yerg captured second in age group after our “epic” showdown to finish 2 minutes slower than our PRs. Anthony Hernandez was the age grouper mentioned above, and sure enough was in the 40-44, taking 2nd place. Ty Thomas broke 20 minutes on this tough course and still finished 2nd in a brutal 45-49. Mike Compton was a monkey on my back and rode it to a grandmasters PR for him in 21:12.  OG, Pete Poore and Leeds Barroll made up the rest of the 60-64 top 4. Alex Ponomarev was back and scored 1st in the 65-69. Arnold Floyd, Peter Mugglestone, Henry Holt and Rocky Soderberg were tops in a super competitive 70+. Henry is back running low 28’s despite being 6 years clear of the other youngsters.

Among the women,  Derek’s daughter Madelyn Gomez scorched the course in 24:43 at age 10. Wow. Team Gomez also scored with wife/mom Jamie , taking 2nd in the 35-39. Heather Mullenax took 1st in the 40-44. Joyce Welch and Julia Early had a battle for the ages, running together the whole race. Joyce took it by a step, though I’m thinking Julia may have let up. Aren’t these ladies competitive? I would give up half a lung to beat the Code (and have, on occasion). Joyce and Julia took the top 2 in the 45-49. Brigitte Smith came up from Aiken once again to claim the 65-69.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/886929815

Click to access swamp-results.pdf

The Silver Fox 5k has been around about 6 years, starting out as a cross country/trail race in Saluda Shoals. This year they switched the venue to Harbison State Forest, with a completely unique course. Proceeds go to benefit Dutch Fork’s cross country teams.

I’ve done most of the Silver Fox races, partly because its fun to do some trail races for a change, and partly because of some sense of loyalty to Dutch Fork – they are CRC supporters and my brother ran on their CC team in the mid 90’s.

I heard about the switch to Harbison and immediately fear overtook my dark, Sasquatchian heart. Ms. Harbison and I have a very difficult relationship. Besides leaving me bloodied on training runs, Harbison’s Xterra half marathon  left me shirtless and delirious on a hot summer day back in 2012. I also flopped across the finish and collapsed on the grass back in 2011 in the Xterra 5k, looking like hooked fish on a dock.

Its also been well documented that I officially suck on trails. I couldn’t really tell you what Harbison forest looks like, since I have to spend all my time staring at where to put my giant flippers so that I don’t bust my ass. That doesn’t always work either. At least I’m not like the Pale Beast. That dude can’t set foot on a trail without courting major trauma. Kenneth followed in the family tradition last year by crashing out and having to go to urgent care. I seem to recall a bloodied Colleen pic somewhere too. These guys were not meant for off-roading.

I had zero confidence going into this race. The Springdale 5k made me realize how much an injury layoff can trash your fitness. So what better than to throw yourself into a trail race that has left you bloodied and hurt before. Sounds legit.

I got there my customary hour early and looks like mostly kids, though we had a decent CRC contingent. Plex was there to try and capture the win for us old folks. Harry Strick, Mike Nance, Tom Beattie, Arnold Floyd, Henry Holt, Rocky Soderberg, Pete Poore, Stephanie Dukes, Mario and Jennifer Tudor, Brigitte Smith, Breck Bowen and Dina Mauldin are some of the tour regulars. I don’t know many of the kids, but Adam Bernthal, Bri Hartley,  and Margaret O’Toole  are some familiar faces. And no Brandenburg! Things were looking up.

Again, I have no idea what the course will be like. Dan Hartley , the new Silver Fox RD, posted the route but I get lost instantly in Harbison. He assured me the course was well marked. I did see it included part of Spider Woman II, so I knew that was no picnic.

The start was the usual for any of the Harbison races – up a steady gravel road to another parking lot, then into the woods. Pretty heavy traffic in the early going. Michael Nance was just ahead and some 30 something dude blasted by me towards the front. Whatever, dude – have at it.  I think the first mile was on the Eagle trail and connector towards the Midlands mountain and Spider woman, but dont hold me to it. I’m no Rick Stroud or Dean Schuster. I was just trying to hold a decent pace and not wipe out. There was a bottleneck at one point where a low wooden barrier guarded the entrance road against the trail. I jumped over it like a boss and got mocked by some teens nearby. Do not taunt the Sasquatch in his natural habitat. They got left for dead. I hit the first mile in 7:30. Not blazing, but given my less than optimal trail agility, I’ll take it. Soon afterward I found myself in the midst of a bunch of teenage girls – I think the Steger twins from Dutch fork and a few others. All I knew is that I was second in this pack and some tiny girl in front of me was going to get flattened if she made one false move. She was motoring but was sucking some serious wind, and eventually started to slow as we hit some major hills. I’m assuming some of this was Spider Woman, but hell if I know. This poor girl was probably being traumatized by having some hairy beast breathing down her neck, but damned if she was going to give up her position. These cross country girls do not play. I finally saw an opening and broke into the woods like a rabid albino bear, high stepping over all kinds of branches and junk and still had to cut this 80 pound maniac off. Between the conga line, hills and bushwhacking my own trail, mile 2 came back in 8:03. Yikes, better pick up the pace. At least some of the course seemed vaguely familiar now as we headed back home. I will say Dan had every turn very well marked, with a bunch of volunteers covering the really tricky sections. Harbison has been notorious for misdirects so I’m glad this was covered. Mile 3 was mostly on my own, but I kept seeing Nance up ahead. I figured this must mean I’m doing great because Mike’s been hitting low 18’s most of the summer with the Team Utopia training. And I was slowly reeling him in. Especially when he hit Schuster hill, site of the epic duel in the woods from Make my Day earlier this year. But this time it was not to be. Somebody blew my stealth cover at the top of the hill and Nance kicked it in once we hit the flat tree-lined trail section afterward. Finally we hit the open field finish, with a short track like lap before hitting the chute. I rolled in at 23:39.

I thought I had placed pretty high, but it turns out all the kids were so far ahead I didn’t see them. Ended up  19th overall, though 5th if you only consider people able to legally drink a beer. And first in age group!  I thought I had masters wrapped up, but damned if Bob Daley didn’t show up and whip my tail. Bob crushed a sub 19 at Sweat it Out and foiled my masters points there too. Oh, and Mike ran the headlamp loop with the Harbison crew at 5:30 am, so he was over 9 miles in at the start. And,  “wasn’t trying that hard”. Damn you, Nance. And one more ego hit – the girl holding me off for a mile was 11 years old, and crying at the finish.

Plex took home the glory for the “old guys”,  beating Alex Chalgren and Zachary Freeman. Bri Hartley took home the glory for the girls, with some girl pretending to be Anna Jenkins winning 2nd. Mia Perry won third – she must have been in the group drafting in my wake in mile 2.

In the age groups, Nance and Mario Tudor went 1-2 in the 35-39. Bob Daley easily won the 45-49. Tom Beattie won the 50-54 by showing up. Pete Poore and Harry Strick claimed the 60-64. Arnold Floyd, Henry Holt and Rocky Soderberg swept the 70+. Brie McGrivevy took the 40-44 but paid for it with a Harbison induced avulsion fracture. Sorry Brie, at least you gave Tom Beattie a scare. Brigitte Smith won the 65-69.

https://connect.garmin.com/modern/activity/868064140

Click to access harbison-overall.pdf

The Springdale 5k is back again in its 7th year, this time held in the streets surrounding the Springdale racetrack in Camden, SC. I’ve missed a few Springdales here and there, since its held in the summer during prime vacation time. This year I was back from Orlando, having spent much of my life savings at Universal Studios and Legoland, so I was free to jump in this race.

I was actually part of the inaugural race back in 2009. Then it was held at sunset, and on the actual horsetrack. You could see the whole race unfold from the stands, and they followed the race with music, food and beer. Why they strayed from this amazing concept is beyond me, but I will say the original race was absolutely brutal. Ninety four degrees, and the entire course was ankle-length grass. The race was notable for one of the most epic blue shoe finishes of all time – a full-on headless chicken, lung-bursting surge to nip an unsuspecting Chad Long at the finish line. All of this to secure a blazing 23:40 something. I don’t even think I got an age group for it. Strictly running captured an 8 photo montage of the incident, each frame capturing a unique and seemingly progessively uglier race face. Sadly, these pics have been lost to history forever, though I was able to pull up the results from milesplit.   http://sc.milesplit.com/meets/55153/results/93778

I think 2009 is my only time doing this race. All the other years I was either on vacation or recovering from major trauma. A blog check shows I did show up in 2011 to watch with a 6 pack of Yeungling  in my trunk. Always keeping it classy.

So this would be my first 5k since the Sweat it Out in early June. I had been training like a beast most of the spring, culminating in the PR 18:39 at the Blythewood 5k in April, and then all the wheels started coming off.  I got a nagging shin splint in my left shin due to my Hawaii toe and then my right foot decided it wanted to get in on the action and get some plantar fasciitis. Awesome. I went several weeks barely running at all. I did hit the pool like a beast and do some cycling and weights, but I only started back run training in the past couple of weeks. Serial vacations to IOP, New York and Orlando in July didnt help the comeback any either. Or my financial stability, but that is another matter.

All of this to say is that this was not going to be pretty. No long runs, no speed work, and minimal mileage basically all summer. I had no idea what to expect and no clue as how to pace. But I had to start back somewhere.

Surprisingly, Camden is only about 30 minutes from my house, so I got to the race in plenty of time. Not a huge crowd but a bunch of the CRC regulars were on hand, since this was a Tour race. Columbia had the 811 5k with $8.11 registration, so I’m sure that cut down on the turnout. Team Utopia teammate Jim Williams was on hand. Strictly brought out their elite squad with Jonathan Kinsey, Plexico, both Brandenburgs and Coach B himself. Jennifer Reeves, Parker Roof, Rocky Soderberg, Arnold Floyd, Tom Beattie, Henry Holt, Sue Porter, Brigitte Smith were some of the Tour veterans. Whitney Keen, Heather Costello, Kara Clyburn, Garrick Douglas, Andrew Lipps, Sharon Cole and Chad and Betsy Long were familiar faces from the Elgin/Lugoff/Camden contingent. Trophy showed up to watch and take over my photo duties, though I had already told him this would be a prime chance to maybe score a rare Blue Shoes victory for him. Past results suggest that I must narrowly cheat death and have major orthopedic trauma for him to have a chance, though. But, it seems he’s been slacker than me this summer.

I’d like to say I scouted out this course and developed a race strategy but I did absolutely nothing of the sort. I did briefly look at the course video and saw that it was all roads this year, though it was impossible to see elevation changes. I lined up second row behind the SR Red Storm in front of me and we were off. It felt weird to run fast again since I basically had been pulling 9-10 minute pace for most of July, just trying to avoid re-injury.  The front pack left me for dead immediately and I settled into a no-man’s land with Whitney up ahead and Garrick just behind me. The first mile, at the time, seemed pretty flat, though in actuality it was a gradual downhill. Since Brandenburg and Bedenbaugh were so far ahead I figured I was going insanely slow, though I was very pleased to get a 6:27 back for mile 1. This pace is ingrained in my brain ever since I tried to break 20 minutes for a year and a half.  And hey, this didn’t feel too bad, right? Let’s pick it up a bit. Garrick had pulled up beside me but I surged forward and ran by myself in mile 2. The first half of mile 2 stayed OK…the second half, not so much. Lungs and legs did not like the surge. I backed it down a bit. The relatively cool morning suddenly didn’t feel so cool anymore. I suddenly saw the 2 mile mark and got back another 6:27 on the Garmin. OK, so 20 minute flat pace. Just hold it here and maybe you can blue shoe a finish to get a 19 something. Um… wrong answer. Suddenly the course turns uphill in mile 3 and everything goes epically to crap in a hurry. I’m sucking wind and the legs turn to cinder blocks. I’m trying to power up the hill but its one of those long gradual ones and it’s just crushing my very soul. A half mile from the finish Garrick blows by me and I’ve got nothing to respond. Tank is pinned on “E”. The last bit is pretty much a blur. Still uphill, hanging on for dear life and begging for the finish line. Finally we hit the last turn and I can’t bear to look at my Garmin (a very ugly 6:55 positive split). I attempt a feeble kick to the finish with the clock already in the 20’s, desperate for the pain to end and almost as desperate not to get a 21. I call trophy “Blackjack” every time he gets slack and fades into the 21’s and it would be too much to bear to get blackjacked myself (especially with him photodocumenting the whole thing). Luckily I spare myself at least some shame and cross in 20:40.

Wow. I haven’t felt that bad in a 5k in a long, long time. There’s definitely a lot of engine work to be done, but hopefully it will come back quickly. Some had the course a little long, but mine was 3.13. I did take solace in winning the 40-44 age group, though its kind of a hollow victory when 49 year old JB, 52 year old Coach B and 45 year old Whitney all whip your tail in masters.

Jonathan Kinsey crushed the competition in this race, blazing a 16:26, with Plex capturing 2nd. Socastee CC runner Nicholas Lefever took 3rd. Among the women, Heather Costello endured a Blue shoe-esque finish by Whitney but still easily won. Sharon Cole took 2nd and Martie Gail McCallum 3rd.

Barbara Brandenburg took home 1st female masters followed by Colleen Reed and Sherry Blizzard. The male masters punks are listed above. In the age groups, Whitney’s son Robert won 2nd in the 11-14, while daughter Julia also won 2nd in the 15-19. Parker Roof got shamed an old man with a resting heart rate of 36 but still got 2nd in the 15-19 guys. Garrick took home the 30-34. Kara Clyburn won the 35-39. Chad Long got blue shoed again by some kid but managed 3rd in the 40-44. Wife Betsy scored 2nd in the women’s 40-44. J-Reeves scored a 3rd in the 45-49. In the 50-54, Tom Beattie claimed 2nd and Andrew Lipps 3rd. Jim Williams easily took the 55-59. Sue Porter was champ of the female 55-59. Brigitte Smith won the 65-69, while Arnold Floyd, Henry Holt and Rocky Soderberg swept the 70+.

http://racesonline.com/events/springdale-5k/results/2015