Travel race this week at the Gate Run River in Jacksonville, FL. I've been looking at this race for a long time. It's a pretty big one with around 10,000 finishers each year and serves at the USATF Road 15K championship each year, so the competition is very good. With a focus on shorter distances this winter, I thought it would be good to do at least one longer race to check in where I'm at endurance-wise as half marathon and marathon will be more of the focus going forward. With a full taper and training block behind me at Philly Half, I thought it would be unrealistic to expect to run the same pace, even for 4 miles less. I did however think with consistent training and still running an average of 70 miles week that sub-5:30 would be a good goal. Those expectations went down a bit checking the forecast to be mid 60s, very high for this race which is usually low 50s.
Monday: 5 Miles- Westerly, RI
6AM and no longer dark which was nice (although this didn't last long with the daylight savings times). Feeling like spring with the light and birds chirping even though it's still chilly. Ran down to the beach, little bit on the beach but bailed as it wasn't low tide. Nice views though.
Tuesday: 11 Miles
AM 7 Miles- Westerly, RI
Snow run. Thought it might be tough pre-work but roads were mostly clear and the snowfall, while steady was not especially heavy. Not too windy either. Only issue was the busier roads were slushy on the side. Went down towards Watch Hill, ocean view highway was quite nice with a 1 inch layer of now- enough to be soft surface but not too much to make it difficult running. I did twist my ankle fairly hard on some divet I didn't see under the snow but fortunately harmless.
PM 4 Miles- Norwich, CT
Went for my typical Mohegan loop but the first trail portion was rough to run on as I was slipping and stumbling on the snow and things beneath it that I couldn't see. Did the rest on road including some sections outside the park I hadn't gone to before.
Wednesday: 10 Miles- Stonington, CT
Mid-day mystic loop with Dad. Opted for a mini-workout to feel out Gate River pace without fully exerting just 3 days out. Ran 5 miles easy then did 2xmile at goal pace/effort with half mile rest. Was pleased with the first one- 5:15 feeling mostly controlled over some rolling hills but then the second one felt pretty hard- 5:23 on mostly flat although into a headwind. Completely fine, really just wanted to be sub-5:30. Felt pretty good on the easy running.
Thursday: 8 Miles- Westerly, RI
Usual pre-work run but opted for no double two days out from a longer race so ran an extra mile. Didn't feel good on this one. Changed it up and went up east ave and back down beach street (plus some extra add-ons).
Friday: 4 Miles- Westerly, RI
Pre-race, did the same loop as before Philly around Misquamicut and back. Didn't look at the watch much and unintentionally ran a 6:37 average. Felt smooth enough although breathing was a bit uncomfortable today.
Absolute disaster of a travel day down to Jacksonville. Flight out of hartford originally at 7:30AM and I was fine with the initial delay to 1:30PM as it meant I could sleep in later and run in the light. But it ended up departing around 2:50PM which made things really stressful as I (and Andrew) had to get to the expo to pickup our bibs before 6PM. I tried my best to pre-arrange a Lyft but missed it. Ended up getting a very expensive Uber ($80) and made it to the expo with literally no time to spare (they were closing the building entrance as we walked in). After that, I failed to figure out the very confusing bus system and started to walk towards the hotel before giving up and taking another Lyft. Got to the hotel after 7PM then waited an hour and half for domino's (pasta) to be delivered to eat. Just a bad and frustrating day and didn't feel great heading into the race.
Saturday: 14 Miles Run, 6 Miles Walk- Jacksonville, FL
Woke up at 5AM. Breakfast wasn't great as my oatmeal didn't come out well (really watery/poorly mixed) and I had significant stomach distress/gas. The bigger issue was that the initial 64 degree forecast had increased all the way to 74 degrees with an 87% humidity. Basically terrible conditions and it was March. Meaning zero heat/humidity acclimation at this point. Finished the warm-up (or warm-up 1) feeling hot, sweaty and expecting a sufferfest.
On the bright side, I got most of the gas out and pre-race went very well. Many parts of pre-race have been a disaster at bigger races (not all- Detroit and Manchester Road Race were fine) so it was a pleasant surprise to easily make into the race area and zero line to bag check. The bathroom lines weren't nothing like Detroit but took less than 2 minutes. Ended up having plenty of time for everything especially with a 10 minute delay, including using the bathroom 2 more times and some strides and then slipped into the top 300 corral pretty easily. Despite the impending doom that was about to happen from the conditions, I felt decent now and not having a stressful pre-race experience made me more relaxed and confident. I lined up in about the 3rd row, not far behind Hilary Bor the olympian and eventual winner.
Starting and getting out was easy enough due to my good position. I was unusually distracted early on thinking things such as "Why am I breathing like that", "This feels good, but what if I feel bad before the mile mark?", "racing is weird". I felt I went out at a hard yet comfortable/sustainable effort so I was surprised to check my watch a third of a mile in and see 4:35 pace. Guessing that was off but clearly went out too hard so I allowed anyone around me to pass me and I fell back a bit more.
Even with the slow down and letting another few guys go by, I still hit the mile in 5:13 based on GPS (mile 1 clock showed 5:05 which can't be right). Probably a full 10-15 seconds faster than I would have liked but it felt pretty easy so just kept the effort relaxed. We turned away from downtown soon after and went over the first of two major bridges (over the St. John's river, the river referred to in the title). This was the main street bridge at 1.3 miles in. Slight incline but didn't affect the pace/rhythm too much. The surface was rough to run as it was metal grates. Got through Mile 2 now in the south side of Jacksonville in 5:23 still feeling pretty good. It didn't really feel like I was exerting hard, just trying to run consistently and conserve energy but somewhere in this third mile I started to feel a little sluggish and losing some energy. Managed a 5:28 3rd mile and saw 16:40s on the 5K clock but the official split was somehow 17:04.
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| Main Street Bridge |
I was already feeling rough starting the 4th mile which was a long ways to go given even after I made it another 5K, I still had a final 5K to go. I mentally noted that this was likely going to be a sufferfest and I'd probably just be looking to get myself to the finish line in one piece rather than have any final moves or be able to push to the pace. While the first 5K had been on major roads, much of the second 5K was through quiet neighborhoods. We turned towards the water with the river just meters away and tempting to jump in. For this turn, there were cars parked on the side of the road which made for a tight angle. The neighborhood sections were a blur as everything looked at the same and my fatigue/lack of energy was slowly increasing. While there weren't any big crowds, there were consistently groups of people on the edge of the roads cheering. I took water at every stop but it didn't seem to help. We turned on a more major roads and one guy passed me said "Almost at 10K". Kind of helpful but at the same time even when we got to 10K, still another 5K. Shortly after we passed someone with a sign "You're not almost there". Ouch. This probably would have mentally broken me 2 miles later. Everyone ahead of me seemed to have more energy than me as 3-4 people hit the "touch here to power up" sign but I had zero energy to waste. Turned back into neighborhoods for the final time as everything after that would be on major roads.
Got the 10K split here- 34:33 with a 17:29 second 5K. Still fairly respectable especially given how I felt and the trend of slowing down. 5:36, 5:39, 5:50 splits. But I knew the last 5K would be the hardest and I felt like finishing at the 10K. Worth noting that this official 10K split was still 16 seconds faster than Beach to Beacon where I didn't have another 5K to run. Another slog of mile- 5:50 for Mile 7. The clock just ticked over 39:10 at the 7 mile mark, only seconds slower than Falmouth Road Race where I didn't have another two miles to run. But the last two miles were where the real suffering was. Turned out of the neighborhoods. While I was able to mentally break the end of the race in two parts, get to the bridge then get over the bridge, it didn't help that this section of road felt long and endless. Probably the hottest and most exposed section of the course as well (it wasn't particularly sunny but there wasn't any shade either). I was really struggling here and quite happy to turn off this road towards the end of the mile. Now we'd climb 150ft over the next third of a mile or so to the top of the bridge. With no energy at this point, I struggled up the bridge at a pace well over 7 minutes. Hit the 8th mile in 6:09. Really just trying to focus on the fact I'd be done shortly after the bottom of the bridge. I thought the 9th mile would end up being 6:50 or so with how slow I was running up the hill. It was nice to hit the top after a while and I was rewarded with a fantastic view of the Jacksonville skyline and the river below. The downhill seemed steeper and I was running low 5s despite the fatigue. Normally I'd try to lean into the downhill and make up some time, but there was nothing in the tank. There were 2-3 blocks of flat ground coming off the bridge but I opted to wait until I could see finish line to "kick". It wasn't much but it's not a fun feeling to be passed right at the end and I at least prevented that from happening.
Last 5K in 18:45. Not great but dead at that point and the hill kept me from running sub-6 at least. 5:50, 6:09, 6:03 and 5:31 pace for the last .3. 53:18 for 47th overall. Interestingly the conditions helped my place significantly. As much as I was struggling/fading, the time for 47th last year was almost a full 5 minutes faster (about 5:10 pace) which I certainly would not have done in perfect conditions. You could see the effect of the conditions on the results. I got my top 10% hat and the cut off for this was several minutes slower than last year. Emily Sisson won in a minute slower than she did the previous year. The guys race is typically very close/tight and the winner was about 40s clear of 2nd place. The only person the heat didn't seem to affect was Hilary Bor who ran faster than he did last year despite worse conditions, won by 40 seconds, ran even splits, never took water and said the conditions don't matter in his post race interview (Emily Sisson on the other hand said it was a grind).
I was quite fatigued post-race but felt okay after downing a bunch of water. The post race food spread was not great but also not the worst I've seen. My quads felt absolutely destroyed after but okay after stretching and running a bit.
Hard performance to evaluate. Easy to say it was a failure with a massive fade and quite a bit slower than I should be running for this distance, but the conditions definitely should be taken into account. A good comparison is to the Detroit Half. I had a similar goal there (about 5:30 pace) and also faded badly. I ended up averaging 2 seconds faster/mile than Detroit, which I think is worth something given 1) the conditions were terrible here, the conditions were perfect in Detroit and 2) I was training specifically for longer distances for Detroit and I wasn't here. So I think this was a decent performance and I'm confident with how easy the first few miles felt I would have been 10-15 seconds faster per miles in good conditions.
I thought it was a very organized race and offered great value for the $50 price. By now I've done 7 big road races with over 5,000 people and the only one that felt easier to navigate (lines, getting to the start, etc.) was the Detroit Half. I'd say this one was a little easier to get to the start but Detroit had zero lines for the bag check or bathrooms whereas there were small bathroom lines here. Overall though no complaints- so many of the bigger races I've had to skip strides, spend 20 minutes waiting in the bathroom or just pee in public, skipped bag check because the line was too long and have to weave through a massive crowd to get to the start line only to be stuck behind much slower people. Today's was relatively easy and they clearly organized it well to avoid those things. As for the price, $50 is quite cheap to run in a competitive 15K. And the "gear" was more than usual as I got two short sleeve tech shirts (I'm pretty sure this was a mistake), a glass, a nice finisher's medal and a top 10% hat. So definitely a race where you get your money's worth (I would get maybe get one of those things in some of the other races). I did a ranking on several features of the bigger races I've done and saved this for the end.
Showered after, got lunch, tried to figure out the very confusing/terrible bus system (we waited at a stop but the bus blew by us) and went to the Jacksonville Zoo after. Took 3 hours to see all exhibits, very nice zoo. Here's a pictorial highlight:
Zoos are cool. Hadn't been to one in a while and definitely makes me want to see some of the bigger zoos. Southwick's Zoo in MA only a little over an hour away looks quite nice and I'm hoping to get there in the summer.
Uneventful after and flew home late (with the flight getting delayed of course).
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| Virginia Beach from the plane. Love looking out the window. |
Sunday: 10 Miles- Charlestown, RI
Typical VG + burlingame loop. Quads were fairly sore, think 8 probably would have been preferable. But still felt decent.
Weekly Total: 64 Miles
Weekly Highlight: Getting to run in another really cool big road race.
Weekly Lowlight: Being screwed over by bad race weather and plane delays.
Movies Watched: None
Big Race Rankings
Having done 7 bigger races: Beach to Beacon, Falmouth, Detroit Half, Dash to the Finish Line 5K, Philadelphia Half, Manchester Road Race and now Gate River Run, here are some ratings/rankings on those races.
Price (it's worth noting these are not necessarily the lowest prices, but what I paid):
1. Gate River Run- $50, $5.37/mile
2. Manchester Road Race- $32, $6.75/mile
3. Detroit Half- $130, $9.90/mile
3. Philadelphia Half- $130, $9.90/mile
5. Beach to Beacon- $65, $10.48/mile
6. Falmouth Road Race- $110, $15.71/mile
7. Dash to the Finish Line 5K- $65, $20.96/mile
"Gear" (what the race gives you):
1. Gate River Run- tech shirt, running hat, finisher's medal, glass
2. Detroit Half- buff, tech long sleeve, finisher's medal
3. Philadelphia Half- tech long sleeve, finisher's medal
4. Dash to the Finish Line 5K- (very nice) Winter running hat
5. Falmouth Road Race- mug, finisher's medal
6. Beach to Beacon- (ugly) tech shirt
7. Manchester Road Race- nothing
Course: (top 3 are awesome courses, bottom three mediocre)
1. Philadelphia Half
2. Falmouth Road Race
3. Beach to Beacon
4. Gate River Run
5. Manchester Road Race
6. Dash to the Finish Line 5K
7. Detroit Half
Logistics (bathroom lines, gear drop, getting to the start, etc.):
1. Detroit Half
2. Gate River Run
3. Manchester Road Race (figuring out where to park is the only issue)
(rest are terrible)
4. Beach to Beacon (long bathroom lines, hard to get to start)
5. Philadelphia Half (waited 30+ minutes to get into the start area)
6. Dash to the Finish (no gear drop and in a massive city, no bathrooms)
7. Falmouth Road Race (no gear drop, very complicated/confusing shuttle and parking system)
Crowd Support:
1. Falmouth Road Race
2. Manchester Road Race
3. Gate River Run
4. Beach to Beacon
5. Philadelphia half
6. detroit half
don't remember about dash to the finish
Some minor categories:
Best views: Falmouth
Best Start area: Philadelphia half
Best finish: Falmouth
Best setting (municipality): Beach to Beacon
Best post-race refreshments: Beach to Beacon
Best expo- falmouth
How often I'd like to do each:
Beach to Beacon- every 2-3 years, great race but lots of other races at that time
Falmouth- every 2-3 years, same as above
Detroit Half- probably not again but wouldn't rule it out
Dash to the Finish Line- I would do it again but certainly not too often
Philadelphia half- not often given the longer distance but I'd definitely like to do the full in the next few years and wouldn't be opposed to doing the half again
Manchester Road Race- every 2-3 years, very close and competitive but Pie Run is there as well and it was very tough to do coming off Philly
Gate River Run- every 1-2 years, great race and nothing else going on at that time, just hope the weather is better. Hoping to do in 2024 and if not, definitely 2025.
Other notes: Didn't get into Mount Washington road race and one of the track meets I was looking at isn't allowing unattached athletes. So I'm not sure what my upcoming race schedule will look like.
