Ali Shuffle 10K race report

Goal: 40:00

My in-laws are staying in our house for a few weeks now, and late night my wife wanted to practice singing, because she has a performance today, so I had no place to sleep until like 1:00am last night. I tried to catch some sleep on the living room sofa while my mom-in-law was watching TV, but it was terrible quality. No wonder I was quite tired in the morning when I got up at 6:15.

I also had some weird stomach issues in the morning, so after an extended bathroom break, I left home a bit late. I arrived to start area at 7:35, and the race was scheduled to start at 8:00. I jogged a bit more than a mile to warm up. I felt I might need to go the bathroom again, but the lines at the two port-a-potties discouraged me. So I lined up at the front and hoped for the best.

This was an extremely low key event with less than 100 runners. Still, the idea was beautiful: start a race in the working class neighborhoods of Louisville, where Ali grew up, and finish it among the skyscrapers in downtown (at the Muhammad Ali Center). "Connecting communities one step at a time" was the motto of the race. It is also an unusual (and great) thing to see that about half of the runners were black. And the mayor of Louisville started the race!

It was supposed to start at 8:00 sharp, but apparently there was a car wreck on the course, so they delayed the start "by a few minutes". At 8:22 finally we started. The weather was great, low 60s, cloudy, no wind. The first 4 miles were almost completely flat, with a very gradual elevation of ~10 feet.

A couple of young guys shot out at the start, and then they slowed dramatically after like a 1/2 mile. I smiled when I passed them, but at least two of them still maintained a fairly good pace during the race: I saw them close to the end (the last part of the race was out-and-back), so I think they have potential, if they learn how to race. :) After I passed the younguns, there were only two guys in front of me: a 20ish guy in a black T-shirt and a 50ish in the lead, who told me before the race that he aimed for 6:05/mile. I knew I had no chance to ever catch the older guy, because he looked like a very experienced racer, so I knew he wouldn't make any rookie mistakes, but I decided to keep the young one in sight. Even though this meant I had to be a little faster than planned (about 6:15 pace), I realized this was do-or-die moment, because I have never been on the podium in any road race. The pace felt hard, but manageable.

Mile 1: 6:17

After the mile marker I was just fixated on the black T-shirt. He increased the distance, and I let him pull away, because when the adrenaline was mostly gone in mile 2, I knew the pace was too fast. I confirmed at a water stop that I was in 3rd place. I looked back in a long staightaway, and nobody behind me was in sight. So I dialed back to a more manageable pace.

Mile 2: 6:30

Not much I can remember from the next mile. It was completely straight, flat, leading to downtown. I managed my pace (not too fast), but I still saw the black T-shirt maybe like 200 yards ahead. He didn't seem to increase the distance any more.

Mile 3: 6:28

We were still running on this long, straight street, approaching the skyscrapers. The black T-shirt guy glanced back a couple of times. I started to see some subtle change in his stride. "He may be getting tired" I thought. "Maybe I should intimidate him just a bit." I started a push a bit harder. I was also quite tired, so I had to be careful, but a second place is just so much better than a third place, right? It was weird that in all my races so far, I was basically just concerned about my time, and now I found myself in a racing situation.

Mile 4: 6:24

I was closing on the black T-shirt. The next mile was all downhill, and the middle quarter was steep down (we would have to climb back up at the end). We passed the finish line, and the out-and-back portion started. Like a bloodhound in a hunt, I saw nothing but the black shirt. I'm a pretty good downhill runner, so I was closing in fast. By the end of the mile he was maybe 50 yards ahead. He kept looking back, and I think he was a bit demoralized. We chatted after the race, and he told me he didn't have a GPS watch, and he thought (hoped!) that the turnaround point is just around the corner.

Mile 5: 5:51

I remembered Pfitzinger's racing advice here. When you pass another runner for a position, you should surge, and don't slow until the other guy is considerably behind. Don't look back, because that shows weakness. So I did just that. I pulled my last reserves together, and passed him. He uttered "Good job!" when I went by. I only looked back after about 1/4 mile, and he was way behind. Still I expanded so much energy, that I was seriously tempted to stop right there. I also didn't help that we started to climb back up in this mile. But my extra effort is obvious from my split:

Mile 6: 6:17 (net uphill!)

The last portion was the steep uphill to the finish line, but once I see the finish line, it doesn't matter to me any more. No pain, just euphoria. I pushed as fast as I could, and I clinched my second place in the finish. The last portion was measured only 0.13 mile on the Garmin.

Last 0.13: 0:41 or so (waiting for the official results)

In the finish, I almost passed out, and very kind young guy asked me if I was alright. I couldn't answer for a good few seconds, I just nodded. After I caught my breath (by which time the black T-shirt also finished at 3rd place), we all high-fived with the podium finishers. I got some Gatorade, and then I hung around the finish area. It was pretty cool that people came to me congratulating, and a volunteer asked me about running, like I knew this stuff, LOL.

The course was not certified, and it was probably short, so I can't really claim this as a PR, but if I trust my Garmin (which I really shouldn't, because a portion we ran under the interstate, and the readings were hectic), I would have run about 39 minutes. In any case, almost certainly under 40. Looking at the early Garmin paces and the considering the final push, 39 minutes sounds plausible. I haven't decided how I will claim this yet.

The organizers really messed up the awards and the post-race activities. Have you ever been to a race where they forget to recognize the 2nd place runner? Because that's what happened. They went only by age groups, announcing only age group winners (and mentioning they overall place), and apparently I was in the age group 35-64, where I got 2nd place, with the 50ish guy beating me. But they didn't read the age group age limits correctly, so it looked like they skipped my age group, and when I asked them after the ceremony, they just basically gave me a medal and congratulated... weird. I think what really happened is that they were so inexperienced, they simply forgot that women are in different age group (I heard this as a rumor), and when they tried to rectify it, it was chaos.

Then I tried to board the shuttle that took back runners to the start line, but it just filled up in front of me, and I wasn't going to wait for another bus. I just jogged back to the start line (4.5 miles) for my car.