One hundred thirty-two days ago was the first day of Eastern Standard Time and the last day I ran a healthy race. Six days later, I tested positive for COVID, and 44 days later, my heart went into persistent atrial fibrillation. Today, I finished a race on the same course much slower.
The Grand Slamrock 5km has an interesting finish in the right field of the Fred Nats Stadium.
Why did I run a race when I was in bad health? I have the longest active race finish streak in our local Coldwell Banker Elite Grand Prix series. I have a cardiac ablation scheduled for April 1 and have been walking four miles a day with interspersed run segments since December. So, finishing 5km should not make my condition worse.
To add to my stress, UVA played two nail-biter 9:30 pm games at the ACC Men’s Basketball Tournament on Thursday and Friday, which reduced my sleep to 6 hours for the past few nights.
The race started at 8:45 am, allowing me to sleep until 6 am. I was out of the house by 7:40 to get into the parking lot before the one-mile race started. Since my plan was to run one minute for every five minutes of walking, a warmup was not necessary.
There were over 700 registered runners. Arriving at 7:50 am, the two main lots were already full. I parked near the home plate entrance to the park. I roamed into the stadium and watched the youth’s 1/2 mile run, two laps around the warning track. Then, I headed back to my car to wait a few minutes. I started my 6-minute repeat countdown timer on my Timex. I would use that signal to run for 180 paces, my running cadence per minute.
The weather was excellent: 48 degrees with a 35-degree dew point, sunny skies, and eight mph winds. I wore shorts over compression shorts, my red FARC singlet over a long-sleeved shirt, a neck gaiter, gloves, a ball cap, and my Saucony Triumph 20 shoes. Around 8:30 am, I went into the stadium for a final pit stop and made it to the start line in time to hear the one-minute announcement. Not knowing my health or the wind’s impact, I wrapped another long-sleeved shirt around my waist.
The course starts on the roadway between the stadium and the expo center, heading downhill toward Carl Silver Parkway. I slid to the back of the starting pack with about 100 people behind me.
I didn’t see the gun go up and was not prepared when I heard the pop. I hadn’t set my Timex to Chrono mode, so it took me 5 seconds of fumbling to get my watch started while walking toward the start line. My Garmin was set and had picked up a satellite signal. I started my Garmin as I crossed the line.
Two watches—why? Timex is on my left arm, and Garmin is on my right. I measured the course for USATF certification, so I knew the mile locations were correct. I controlled the Timex to get accurate splits; after all, it’s not how far you run; it’s how well you run the measured course. The Garmin tracks my heart rate. A post-race download will give me where the device thought I was. My goal was to walk the shortest possible route and compare.
After turning onto Carl Silver Parkway, cones were on the second lane line from the curb. Before the race, I did not hear any instructions on which side of the cones to run, nor was there signage or a course marshal giving directions, so I stayed next to the left tangent next to the median curb. My countdown timer went off two minutes after the start, so I ran a minute, sliding back over to the right tangent.
Turning onto Gordon Shelton, the cones were supposed to allow for two running lanes. The first left tangent was a little less than the two-lane width. The shortest route is along the right curb to the turnaround.
Every time I run or measure this roadway, I remind myself that the bushes along the right curb stick out into the roadway. Someday, I’ll bring out the shears, though one of the bushes was in full bloom.
Gordon Shelton has a 50-foot drop to the turnaround, then back uphill.
My Garmin went off before reaching the mile 1 sign, and it recorded a 13:25 first mile. My Timex split was 14:11, with a 36-second lag getting from the gun to the start mats, for a mile split of 13:35.
A truck with a trailer was parked along the right tangent, adding a little distance. Surprisingly, I could maintain straight lines even when running through other walkers.
Reaching the slave museum memorial garden, we turned around the median and returned with that structure to our left. Until Poet’s Walk, the shortest path is against the median, including cutting into the left turn lanes. At the slave memorial gardens, we are close enough to the stadium to hear the finishers being announced, and the turnaround is before halfway.
I stick to the left tangent. My Garmin second mile is 12:45, and my Timex recorded a 12:42.
Past Poet’s Walk, we cut back to the same side of the road as we run outbound. I’m still wondering why there are cones on Carl Silver, so I took the shortest route with the cones to my left. After taking a right at the traffic circle, there is the last little uphill, and we cross over the start line. To this point, I’ve kept consistent run and walk intervals. After each run segment, I breathed a little hard, but my leg never felt fatigued.
After crossing the start line, the course heads on the road behind the stadium, with the first part downhill. Even though I was supposed to be walking, I couldn’t pass up the advantage and ran. My breathing didn’t feel labored, nor did my legs feel tired. Thinking my endorphins had kicked in, I continued to run to the finish.
My Garmin third mile time was 12:15, and my Timex time was 12:23. The last .1 mile Timex time was 54 seconds, my usual time is 50 seconds, and the last .14 mile Garmin time was 70 seconds.
A 5km is 3.10686 miles. My Garmin recorded 3.14. The extra .03 miles (51 yards) can be attributed to the runner’s error, the course layout’s error, and the measuring device’s error (Garmin GPS).
I felt I ran the shortest possible route, similar to when I measured. The course had a few obstacles that added some distance. After downloading my Garmin, it placed me in locations I knew I had not run. This later mapping is the device’s error. I wonder how other’s devices faired.
My finish time was 39:36. I’m happy with my time. Being new to Garmin Connect, it congratulated me with a new 5km PR. I finished 432nd overall, 216th male, and 25th of 30 among the 60 to 69-year-old males. There were 601 finishers. Strangely, I would have been the 217th female.
Per the doctor’s advice, I’ve been wearing a chest strap for its electro-heart rate sensor. With the AFIB, it has difficulty detecting a true beat. The chest strap records my rhythm 20 beats per minute higher than the optical pulse sensor on my wrist. Today, my average heart rate was 135 bpm. My rate rose to 145 during run segments and maxed out at 156 bpm at the finish.
My max heart rate should be 153 bpm based on my age, but I was far from running all out when recording the 156.
Since I didn’t run, I did not have to run a cooldown. I hung around and chatted for a while. The race had post-race beer, bananas, and nut bars. Using Eliquis as a blood thinner, I need to avoid alcohol.
It’s on to ablation in a couple of weeks, and the next race in the series will be two weeks later. I plan to walk that entire 5km, looking to keep my heart rate below 70% of max, whatever that number is. It may be a slow day. I have to keep that streak alive.