I entered 2023 with three primary goals for running and racing: run five USATF Grand Prix races and win my age group for the series, attempt and set an American record for the 25K road race, and run sub 3 at Chicago. Two down one to go.
The Grand Prix
The Grand Prix circuit began about 12 or 15 years ago, and it involves eight races across the country ranging from the road mile to half marathon, with five road races and three in cross country.
Points for races go 100 for 1st, 95 or 2nd, 90 for 3rd and on down to 20th place. To win you have to run at least five races because even if you won four and scored 400 points, someone else could place 4th or 5th five times and come out ahead. By the end of the season, scores can be surprisingly tight for the overall title.
I went five for five in in the series in 2018 and won the title with a perfect score. In 2019 I was 2nd at Club XC and US Nationals XC, and had two road wins. I also medaled at WMAs but those points did not count for the Grand Prix back then. I skipped a couple races in the late summer in favor of focusing on the 15K in Tulsa, and I just needed a top 5 or 6 or so to win the title. However, my hip gave out a couple of days ahead of the event and even though ran anyway, I had to walk the last 5K and did not place high enough to win. That stuck with me, and has been an extra motivation for 2023.
It is not easy to win the series. You have to show up and just making it to five races is a big commitment. The East Coast athletes do have an advantage as often five of the races are in the Eastern Time Zone. West Coast has it the toughest because of the travel, while Rockies and Midwest it’s somewhat in-between. USATF really needs to find a way to make this more equitable.
For 2023 I have had two 1sts (10 mile and half marathon, scheduled a scant two weeks apart last spring) and two 2nds (5K in February and road mile in June), and had a good lead, with 390 points. However, I did not take anything for granted, I wanted to be prepared.
Summer Training Block
After the road mile in June I set my sights on marathon training and the 12K. I did two races in July, a 5K on July 4th, and Bix on the final weekend of the month. In July I got in a couple weeks into the mid-60s, but had a bit of a hitch with some knee tendinitis from hill running and ancillary strength exercises. So in the two weeks before Bix I did a fair amount of cross training (3 hours a week) and dropped my mileage to 50 and 40. Bix went well and I won my age group by several minutes and (unofficially in my mind) set an age group record with a 45:15 on the hilly course in Davenport, IA.
Then we had two weeks in Europe, where I didn’t miss a day of running but did cut back on volume, so there I was 40-55 miles. A full month of 40-55 miles wasn’t ideal with an October marathon in mind, but I kept it rolling and managed a couple of solid long runs.
Back home in mid-August I had one of my better blocks that I can remember, with weeks of 70, 72, 77, and 73 with no hitches. In addition I did a weekly track session, doing reps of 800 to 2400 m, and of course with weekly long runs and some mid-week long runs.
For the week of the 12K I did cut back to 45 miles in the 6 days leading up to the race. A hard core coach would probably not want me to do that, but I wanted to go for a good time in New Jersey for the 12K, in particular for age grading where you can win some money if you place in the top 5, but that’s a high bar. Seconds matter and you usually don’t know where your competitors are because they maybe minutes ahead or behind you. With another 65 or 70 mile week, I felt I might not be fresh enough to compete for a top 5.
Racing
One of my teammates fell ill just before the race, and so I traveled alone and we did not have a team. I put that aside and focused on the race.
Race day dawned cooler than the previous two years, and due to several athletes being taken to the hospital last year, they moved the start back by 30 minutes. That’s still not enough, a 9:00 start in mid-September, it’s still going to be get warm most of the time. It was 65 at 9, cloudless, and we had a slight NW breeze (maybe 5-6 mph). Best conditions in three years.
In the past two years I went out at about 6:00 or just over for the first two miles and then spent the rest of the way just hanging on. I think my fitness is fairly even to those two seasons, but at 65 two years older is two years older. I decided to run my first mile in 6:10-6:12. I was somewhere back in the mid 60s at the mile (about 280 runners in the race).
photo credit: Jason Timochko
After we made the first turn at 2K (pictured above), I turned it up a bit, and was just a bit over 6:00 pace in miles 2 and 3. The 4th mile has a lot of sharp turns, but you can see where others are. I had been passing runners one by one, but mostly running in no-man’s land. At about 3.5 one of the runners whom I had passed came back and encouraged, cajoled, and harassed me to run faster. Those splits were at about 6:10. The 6th mile (mostly straight, with a slight tail wind) was my fastest of the day, at 6:00. The last 1.4 miles of this course are always a grind, and I was just hanging on, as temperatures were climbing slightly. At this point there was hardly anyone left to catch and no one behind, although one runner did come up with about a mile to go, on the very long straight stretch to the finish.
I kept to within 5 or 6 seconds, and then threw down the biggest final kick I could, to finish in 45:36. More than a minute faster than last year and 6 seconds better than in 2021.
So I was pleased. Won the age group by several minutes, and was over 90% for age grading. I thought that was enough for top 5, but it was 6th, I needed a 91%, and was about 15 seconds shy of of that. However, with age grading it often feels like rolling the dice because you have no control over how others are doing and you don’t see them on the course.
photo credit: Jason Timochko
On to Chicago in two weeks!
rrunnin234 