Race Report: Jingle All the Way 15K, December 10, 2023

I ran the Jingle All the Way 15K this morning, finishing in a time of 1:08:04 - good enough for 6th female overall and top master female.

This race was a tune-up for the Houston Marathon, which is now 5 weeks away.  I personally prefer to use a half-marathon 3 weeks out from the marathon as a tune-up.  However, 3 weeks out from Houston is Christmas weekend, so there aren't many options.  So I went with this race instead.  Just like I did last year before Houston.

When I signed up, I was also hoping I could run significantly faster than last year, since I'm now in a far better place running-wise.  However, two different wrenches fell into that plan.  

The first was that in the past few weeks I've tried and then abandoned a new-to-me medication - Lexapro.  The Lexapro really helped dampen down some hyperactive reflexes (good) but also made me really sluggish, with fast running being particularly challenging (bad).  So I stopped it about 10 days ago (at the neurologist's instruction). I've felt a bit better every day since, but I'm still on the upswing.

The second wrench was the weather.  Last year this race had perfect weather.  This year, it didn't.  The forecast was for a big weather front to roll through during the race.  Heavy rain, wind, etc.  Lovely.  But....also a good chance to test out the shoe I intend to wear for Houston - the Adios Pro 3 - in less-than-ideal conditions.

[side note: yes, I also considered wearing the Adios Pro 3 for Chicago last year, and then decided I hated that shoe.  So why am I giving it another chance?  Because the shoe I wore last year was a women's 7.5 - the smallest size I could get.  I finally managed to get hold of a women's 7 in that shoe, and it fits much better and feels better as a result.]

***

Race morning dawned unseasonably warm and muggy - temperature and dewpoint in the high 50s.  This would be great weather for a summer or early fall race, but not so great after training in the 30s for several weeks.  At least I didn't have to debate tights versus shorts.

The forecast was still for rain, so I wore a hat.  I also tucked a folded plastic poncho in my sportsbra so that I had it for the corral if the rain started pre-race.  And...remembering the advice a friend gave me when I whined about foggy glasses, I wiped my running glasses with an anti-fog wipe. 

Just like last year, I found a great parking spot.  From there, I jogged to the starting area where 17th street was once again closed to traffic (just like last year).  I did my warm-up fartlek there (3:00 at marathon to half-marathon effort, 4x30 seconds at 5K effort, 4x10 seconds at mile effort) and then made my way to the corral, entering with about 10 minutes to spare.  Once in there, I navigated to the correct proportion of supershoes versus hydration packs. 

The first mile of a race is always rough for me in terms of balance and gait - it's just life now.  For a while I was deliberately seeding myself on the far side of the corral in hopes that I could stay out of the way of others once the race started.  However, I've learned that running on the side is actually more chaotic than in the center, since the side is where people who started late or too far back in the corral sprint and swerve to try to get past the masses blocking them.  So now I'm a centrist in my corral placement.

***

The race started.  As I expected, my gait was wonky the first mile, and a downhill plus a stretch of rough pavement didn't help.  But things did feel smoother than last year, so that was a bonus.  After the first mile, my gait did start to level out, and I started to work my way through the runners in front of me.

It was noticeably warm (at least in a relative sense - again, this would have been A+ weather in August), and 7-8 minutes of running was enough to realize that I needed to be conservative here rather than run as if it was a normal winter day.  

That conservatism only lasted a few miles before the wind picked up.  And then we turned at the Kennedy Center, and the wind became a real factor.   But the positive side was that I was no longer worried about overheating, so I picked up the effort.  At this point, I could make a bad pun about "throwing caution to the wind" but the truth is that the headwind actually ripped the caution away. There were a few women ahead of me, and I got to work chasing them down.

The wind was a factor for most the next three miles, as we headed towards the tip of Hains Point.  Luckily, I managed to find a group of three guys to tuck behind (who were running faster than the women I wanted to pass).  Unluckily, one of them was blasting awful pop music from his cell phone.  But luckily (for everyone save said pop-music aficionado) the cell phone eventually froze up and he pulled off to the side to fix it.  I didn't understand his priorities, but I appreciated the reprieve.

***

There are two ways you can circle the bottom tip of Hains Point - either stay on the road or cut through a parking lot.  This course had us cutting through the lot.  However, Hains Point has changed for the worse since last year, including a poorly thought-out attempt to improve pedestrian safety that resulted in flexible posts in awkward places.  The 15K course was not re-measured to account for these, with the result that making the turn into the lot now meant that we had to weave between posts.  Fortunately, I was far enough up in the field that I had plenty of room to maneuver, but I would really hate to try to navigate this part in a crowd.

Once through the lot, I now had the wind at my back - smooth sailing, right?  That didn't last too long, as what was a drizzle shifted into a comical downpour.  It was ridiculous.  But... a) if I slowed I was just going to be out here longer, and b) this weather happens in goal races too, so I needed to take advantage of this opportunity to practice racing in heavy rain.

The last few miles were a slog, both figuratively and literally.  The water was ponding and my shoes were starting to feel sloshy.  Mile 8 of this race overlaps with Mile 1, which mean I had to run over my favorite stretch of rough pavement a second time - this time obscured by large puddles. I've been doing some trail running each week to get more comfortable with uneven footing, and I told myself that it was time to put that work to good use and pushed onwards.

The end of this race is a slight uphill and then a gentle downhill.  I passed a guy on the uphill and he said "nice job."  Then we hit the downhill and he flew past me in that way that I used to love when I did it to others and now hate when it's done to me.  I did not say "nice job" back - but that was honestly just because I was focusing on running the downhill decently well.  (I did find him after and fist-bump him for a good race).

I finished the race and stopped my watch, noting 1:08 for my time.  So significantly slower than last year.  But despite that, I was satisfied.  I had put in a good hard effort and my gait felt solid for much of this race.  Plus, I was pretty sure I had finished fairly high up in both the overall women's results and in the masters field, based on what I had seen of the field ahead of me at turn-around points.

Splits were:

Mile 1: 7:43
Mile 2: 7:10
Mile 3: 7:21
Mile 4-5: 15:45 (long)
Mile 6-7: 13:24 (short)
Mile 8: 7:16
Mile 9: 7:08
last .31: 2:17

So...as I expected, slower than last year.  But despite that, I actually think this was a much better performance.  My gait felt much better and more stable than it did last year, and I felt much more comfortable and confident in my balance when dealing with stuff like chaotic crowds, rough pavement, and wind/rain.  This was a good confidence boost going into Houston.

I did note that I didn't really have any higher gears for this race - there were points where aerobically I could have run harder, but I just didn't have the gear in my legs.  I'm not worried about this for two reasons:
a) I'm still working out of the sluggishness of the Lexapro, and all of my training paces were dramatically slowed while I was on the Lexapro.  I didn't have that gear in part because I was out of practice (and possible in part because the last bits of the Lexapro are still wearing off).
b) I feel like the Adios Pro 3 really has a sweet spot pacewise for me, and that sweet spot is marathon pace.  Which is really good, because I have a marathon coming up.  If this race had been a goal race in itself, I think I would have been better off with either the Hoka Rocket X (if there hadn't been rain) or the Asics Metaspeed Edge+ - both of which feel a bit more nimble and quick.

Other notes:

• Left home at 7:10 for the 8:30 start.  This was enough time that I didn't feel rushed, but I wouldn't have wanted to leave any later.
  
• The Adios Pro 3 has decent to decent+ grip on wet pavement. It's certainly much better than any Hoka or Saucony shoe I've ever run in, but not as good as other Adidas shoes.  Not sure why.
• I hid my plastic rain poncho behind a bench before getting into my corral.  A+ decision - it was great to be able to retrieve that and wear it for my cooldown jog back to my car.
• Wiping my running glasses with that anti-fog stuff was another A+ decision.  Foggy glasses were not an issue at all for this race.
• About 3 weeks ago I ran the Rothman 8K at 7:18 pace.  Today I ran this 15K at 7:19 pace.  I certainly would not object to running the Houston Marathon at 7:18-19 pace if this trend continues.