We had the second Coldwell Banker Elite Grand Prix race of the year to finish inside the FredNats Stadium. The stadium was built in 2020 for the Washington Nationals Single-A farm team, who moved from Prince William County.
I ran the first race on March 19, the Grand Slamrock 5km, with a finish time of 28:42.
Today’s goals were not to pull any muscles, stay in front of the Grand Prix 65 to 69-year-old runners that I should, and see how well my breathing and heart condition issues were healing.
In February, with the help of Arsenal Events, I measured a 5km course for USATF certification. Today’s race director asked me to validate theirs in the stadium course setup. Because the route is on an open field, intersecting vectors from easily defined locations is the only way to describe reference points.
I had run an 18-mile workout two days before my spring race. In a slight taper before my next marathon, this week’s longest run was 11 miles four days ago.
The race had a 10 am start time, and this was the first day of standard time. I wanted to sleep until 6 am. but awoke at 5:15 am, which was in line with my daylight savings time.
I left my house at 8 am and arrived at the stadium around 8:10 am. A front came through overnight, and a light rain was forecasted to stop before 9 am. Packet pickup started at 8:30 am, so I looked at the in-stadium course setup. Except for one missing cone, the organizers did a great job. I set the one cone.
I picked up my shirt and bib number around 8:30 am and hung out in my car until my warmup.
I started my 32-minute warmup at 9:12 am, four repeats of 2-minute walks and 6-minute runs on the course’s roads. I ran about 2.5 miles to get a feel of the hills and the wind.
With plenty of time to spare, I hit the bathroom in the stadium and roamed out to my car to change shoes and into a singlet. While at my car, I hear the 7 minutes to start warning.
The weather was warm for November, 69 degrees, 63-degree dewpoint with clouds, and five mph southerly winds. I wore shorts over compression shorts, my white FARC singlet, a ball cap, and my Saucony Triumph 19 shoes.
About 2 minutes before the gun, I mixed into the crowd about 50 feet behind the start line.
The race director fired the starter’s pistol on time, and we were off. After the initial downhill, we turned uphill into the wind on Carl Silver Parkway. I was feeling well.
After turning onto Gordon Shelton Boulevard, we were out of the breeze and heading downhill. I went through the first mile in 8:47. Though not stressed, I felt I went out too fast, 22 seconds faster than last week’s 5km.
Reaching the slave museum memorial garden, we turned around and headed uphill. I slowed some and kept tight to the tangents. My second mile was 9:10, which was not too bad.
In the second mile, the water stop table was blocking the shortest possible route in a left bend in the road. I did not take any water.
At the table, I almost annihilated a teenage runner. He took water and started to move to his right. I didn’t take water, and coming up behind him, I said, “on your left” he moved slightly to his left into the median curb. Again I said, “on your left.” He kept drifting to his left. Then I gave him a loud “on your left.” He kept going left. I had to put my hands on his shoulders as I went to his right. When he caught back up, I noticed he was wearing earbuds. Either he didn’t hear me or didn’t know left from right.
The final mile started flatter, and we had a slight tailwind as we returned to the stadium. After rounding the traffic circle, there was a tricky little uphill as we crossed the start line.
I was able to push downhill and on the road behind the stadium. We went through the external access gate onto the field by the left foul pole. Mile 3 was right after the entrance, and my time was 8:45.
The field has two different textured turfs. I don’t know how they do it, but you can feel the difference between the brown warning track and the green playing field. We headed toward home and made a turn down the first baseline.
The final stretch went out into right field. New turf technology is tremendous, and my final kick was an easy push on the surface.
My finish time of 27:36 was 1:06 faster than my spring 5 km. I finished 88th overall, 63rd male, and 10th in the 60 to 69-year-old males. Strangely in the spring race, I finished 126th overall, 77th male, and 10th in the 60 to 69-year-old males.
My time was 30 seconds faster than last Saturday’s 5km. Maybe the two extra rest days after a long run helped.
I ran a 5km on the first November weekend in 2021. Today, I was only 9 seconds slower, which is only a .5% decline.
After finishing, I cooled down for 15 minutes and made it to the stage by 10:45 am to emcee the awards ceremony. The asthma medication I’ve been taking has been affecting my voice. However, once I warm it up, the hoarse sound goes away. The stadium mic cut off intermittently. I finally figured out a workaround.
On to my next race.