Day 4,748: The runstreak is now 13 years!

A short 2-mile run today closed out 13 years of the runstreak! I ended up with 2,130.11 miles for the year, the most I've ever run for that time period (I ran 2,104.33 miles in 2014).

All in all, it was a pretty good year. I focused much of my training on two marathons (Revel Mt. Charleston and the Chicago Marathon) but was happy that my times in shorter distances were good, including an unexpected PR in the Peachtree Road Race.

I'm hoping to work on my half marathon PR (1:39:14) this year and am training specifically for a PR in the April Cherry Blossom Ten Miler (1:14:52). I got into the Chicago Marathon for next year and that will be my 11th marathon.

I hope everyone has a Happy New Year and a great 2020!

Day 4,732: First Watch Kennesaw Locomotive 5K

KENNESAW, Ga. -- After a few 5K races under my running shoes I had my eyes on one last one for the year, the First Watch Kennesaw Locomotive 5K. My wife and I had been to the race sponsor's breakfast/brunch restaurant recently and I wanted to see if I could win a gift card promised to age group winners.

This race is held the same weekend as the Jeff Galloway half marathon and 5K. I decided that after running in the Chicago Marathon in October, I would never be properly trained to run a December half marathon. I could have run in the Barb's 5K scheduled on Dec. 14 but my wife already was signed up to do another 5K. So in order to keep my "streaker" status for the Galloway race series I decided to run a virtual 5K so I could show up to this one.

Nine years ago I ran in the Kennesaw Locomotive Half Marathon, back when the race was held in September. At the time I was gearing up for my first Chicago Marathon. I didn't remember really any of the race route although there is some overlap.

I was happy to know however that the race overlapped a good bit of the Summer Steamer 10K that I ran in June. It was helpful to know exactly where to park and how long it would take for me to trek out to the suburbs for this race.

Instead of starting in the parking lot as in the Steamer, the 5K started directly on Vaughn Road, then turned down Cobb Place Boulevard NW before the hill at Auto Park Drive NW. Because I was following my power data, I let a huge group of people run ahead. Right before the turn I realized that I had not turned on my Garmin watch at all -- it was just showing my live power data. So with about a half mile in the race, my watch was finally on.

Running up Auto Park Drive I passed a man who was probably my age or so. I just kept going steadily up the hill, remembering how hard it was for me to run this section twice in the June 10K at a 7:15/mile pace.

The 5K turns southeast on Roberts Boulevard instead of going the opposite way in the Summer Steamer and I was greeted with another hill leading to Cobb Place Drive. At this point there was a boy ahead of me. I was running steadily but when he sensed I was close he would surge ahead. I didn't try to keep up with him since my experience with this (as recent as the previous weeks' race) is that surges in a 5K only serve to wear down the surger. I fully expected to overtake him at some point.

After Cobb Place we turned back on Cobb Place Boulevard toward Roberts Boulevard again. I ended up passing the boy on the descent and made my way through the Vaughn Road intersection to the turn-around point on Roberts maybe three-tenths of the way down the road. There was a clock at the turnaround and it said something like 17 minutes and change and it made me worry that I was going to run this race slower than 22 minutes.

When I reached the turnaround I saw that I was all alone in the race. The boy was not anywhere behind me -- when I turned on Vaughn Road to the finish I saw that he was only halfway to the turnaround -- and the lead pack was nowhere in sight. Tactically it was an interesting situation since I still had a bunch of running to do but really not the kind of running you would do if someone was close ahead/with or behind you. So I just plugged on. I tried to tell myself that the boy was about to pass me as I neared the finish (I finished almost a minute ahead of him).

I crossed the finish with a gun time of 21:51, on par with my last two other 5Ks. I was pleased with it but very unsure whether I had won my age group. I waited around for the awards and lo and behold I won my age group! There was a man in my age group who ran faster than me but he was the overall winner or the masters winner. I was seventh overall in the race.

During the wait for the awards I took a short stroll down the Noonday Creek Trail for a geocache -- this is part of the Summer Steamer course. I returned to the parking lot staging area and wasn't initially hungry but later decided to eat the very delicious pancake and chicken or turkey sausage First Watch provided for runners.

Because I started my watch late I only had partial data to work with after the race. My Garmin said I ran the first .4 mile at a 7:11/mile pace, then ran a full mile in 6:55 and the next mile in 6:48 before finishing the last .15 mile at a 6:27 equivalent pace. It was nice to win my age group but disconcerting that guys in my age group can run about an entire minute faster than me. Definitely more work for me in the future and this is as nice of a 5K I could hope to find in the area!

Time: 8:03 a.m.
Temp: 39 degrees
Gear: Technical T-shirt, short (Nike), shorts, Nike Vaporfly 4% Flyknit/B.

Running to the finish! (Photo by TrueSpeedPhoto.com)

Day 4,724: Atlanta Running Festival 5K, my third Masters win

I signed up for this race about 10 hours before it started and it turned out to be my third Masters win!

I wasn't sure I was going to run in this race -- I ran a 5K a week the last two weeks and would another race in the park do anything for me? Still, I was buoyed by last week's 21:53 in the Leftover 5Ks event and wondering if my Stryd-paced footpod would come in handy again.

In the end I decided to register for the Atlanta Running Festival 5K the night before and I made sure that I got out to the park a little before sunrise so I could take advantage of street parking. I walked my way over to the registration table and got my bib and shirt (I felt a little guilty getting a shirt because of my very late registration) and returned to the car. It was only about 48 degrees out but it felt cold. Cold enough that when I started my warmup I debated running the race in my Under Armour running jacket that I was wearing.

Luckily after that mile I warmed up and ditched the coat in my car. It was really convenient to be able to change shoes from trainers to racing shoes and even, about an hour before the race, driving home to use the bathroom instead of a porta-potty. When I returned some minutes later, my parking space was still available!

When I got to the starting area, I grimaced, since the one guy who looked like he would win the whole race (and he did), wearing one of those Tracksmith sash tanks, also was wearing the exact same white Nike Vaporfly 4% Flyknit as I was wearing. I'm pretty sure we were the only ones wearing Vaporflys to this event. I debated wearing other shoes but after last week's great run I decided to see how the shoe would run in this race.

When the race started, I made sure that my wattage was under 300 and I pretty much kept it this way.. We made our way around the Active Oval and during this time I caught up with a younger African-American guy. He kept surging to stay in front of me and at times I would drop back, especially up the hill on the Active Oval, to keep my wattage down. I wondered if the entire race would be this way, with this guy pacing me. Eventually after Mile 1 and before the turn into The Meadow, I dropped him.

In past races without the footpod I would run way too fast around the Active Oval and then get dropped by people in the Meadow, only to have my slowest mile be Mile 3. This time I was passing people, but carefully and once I made my way back out of The Meadow, I caught up with a guy in a Georgia shirt. We basically ran step by step the rest of the way back to the Active Oval where we had to loop back around it toward the start.

Here I started to disregard my wattage up and back down the hill around the oval. Once we made the turn along Lake Clara Meer, I started to pick it up a little bit, waiting for the last turn as I did in last December's Jeff Galloway 13.1. When the turn came, I made for the tangent as fast as I could and outkicked this guy -- who was 14 years younger than me -- by two seconds to finish in 21:45. I was 6th place overall and first Masters male (the overall winner was 47 so the Masters win fell to me).

I was elated when I saw the results. I was worried that with only awards for the top runners in each age division I would walk home without an award, as I did the previous week in the Leftovers 5K. It helped that the popular Eastside BeltLine 10K also was held today, just an hour or so after my race started.

The Masters win was unexpected and great -- I got an award and a gift card to Phidippides running store. It also was my third Masters win, after the May the 4th Miler Be With You race in May 2015 and the Stamp Out Poverty 5K in December 2016. It's certainly the first time I've won a gift card for a race.

I felt extremely comfortable running this distance at this pace and this time around I used the footpod data to tell me when to increase my wattage and I included pace to appear on the screen to give me a sense of what the actual pace was during the race. My splits were incredibly even -- 6:57/7:04/7:00 and the last .13 miles I was running at a 5:50/mile pace. It will be nice to use this tool in a ramp up for longer distances -- and new PRs.

Time: 8:30 a.m.
Temp: 48 degrees
Gear: Technical T-shirt, short (Doug Kessler 10K), shorts, Nike Vaporfly 4% Flyknit/B.