Ellicott City Labor Day Running Classic

Somehow, I manage to keep running. This year I began running in the early months of the year and then cut my running down to once a week during the 7-week semester. When that was over, I slowly added runs back into my week, running about 1.5 miles with a generous walk/run ratio. Then I built up to 2 miles at a time for weekday runs with 3 miles on the weekend.

At this point in life, I had no desire to increase my base miles or increase the number of times a week I run. My whole goal has been to maintain a very small base. Instead, I've experimented with longer ratios to increase my endurance and added speedwork to the mix. I was trilled that I was able to keep running throughout the buildup to our summer conference and after.

Running add so much to my quality of life, and I believe that I feel better, think better and function better on the days that I run. This is no longer simply a personal belief or a fuzzy notion that I've encapsulated in my personal philosophy of "yin and yang" in which I seek to counterbalance the mental activity and stress of work and school with the opposing physical activity of running (and swimming and biking). It is now backed by scientific evidence in the book "Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain" by John Ratey and Eric Hagerman that suggests that exercise affects the brain cells in specific ways that boost our mood and improve our focus.

I've put aside racing because my mileage is so low...but of course, I couldn't resist a 5K and scheduled the "race of the year" for the end of summer, when I had time to prepare and establish a small, but consist base.

Ellicott City Labor Day Running Classic

I'd known about this race for a long time, but somehow never ran it because I was in the midst of preparing for other races and it didn't fit into my mileage or schedule. This year, they offered a new 5K route in effort to attract runners interested in a shorter distance.

The fluorescent yellow race shirt left something to be desired. Although wearing the race shirt on race day is supposed to be bad juju and one shouldn't wear a shirt unless it is earned by running the race, I decided to eschew these traditions and wear the shirt that I probably wouldn't wear anywhere else.

The race is held at the Shrine of St. Anthony, which is located on the IronGirl bike route. I'd ridden past this many times in training and racing and even driving along the route always brings back IronGirl memories.

The entire race was well run, from the volunteers that guided our parking on the grass surrounding the monastery, to the abundant and helpful announcements, to the well-positioned course marshals and the post-race food.

The event organizers made clear in the race materials and at packet pickup that half of the route was on paved roads and half was on paths. However, it was much more of a trail run than originally described and was very different than the wide, smooth paths through the woods that I'm accustomed to running on. The trail that winds through the woods on the property is narrow and the ground ranges from spongy material to a solid dirt path with tree roots emerging. The volunteers had done a wonderful job of spray painting the roots so that people like me would not trip over their own feet and there was plastic tape so that people would not wander off the path.

The trail run provided interesting mental and physical challenges that kept me focused as I navigated the uneven and changing terrain and avoided the spraypainted roots. It a nice diversion that kept me externally focused and prevented me from thinking about myself and my fatigue during the race.

I did an 2/8 ratio throughout the race and from the beginning, I found myself in competition with another middle-aged portly man who seemed older than me. I would run forward and then he would catch up and pass me. He also was using a walk/run strategy, although his walks were shorter and did not seem to fall according to any pattern. During the middle of the race on the trail he charged ahead and was a good distance in front of me as I focused on navigating the trail.

Normally, I follow the ratio strictly, with a rule that I must run when the walk interval ends, even if that is a hill...but the hills on the trail and the grassy portions were unexpectedly steep and I found myself walking up a few. I was glad to be out of the woods, but knew I would encounter one last hill as we climbed toward the finish. It was there that I passed the older man who was my personal competitor. I still had energy in my tank as I charged toward the finish and conquered the final hill. Due to the terrain and the hills, my time was much slower than it ordinarily would have been, but I was satisfied all the same.

Running into the Future

Will I be able to keep running into the fall? I don't know. I'm headed into a very busy fall with work and school. I'm strategizing ways that I can keep my momentum, rather than continue the cycle of stopping and starting as I've done over the past several years. I am anxious to complete the grad school marathon, and to move on to other things in life...but I worry that my running ambitions could be eclipsed by age and injury. We'll see what the future holds.