Age Grading is a system that calculates a percentage of the absolute time for a race relative to the
world record for your specific age. If you race a distance in one hour and the world record
happens to be 30 minutes, you have a 50% age grade. The beauty of this system
is that it allows you to compare performances across gender, a wide age range and even by sport. While it's not a perfect system, it's a good way to see if you're actually getting slower as you age or if you're keeping up with your age graded performance. The Boston Marathon qualifying times use a similar logic. Qualifying times for older runners are typically longer.
The
American River Parkway Half Marathon features a walk-only division. Unlike Fresno, the walkers have a completely separate course, so the folks who finish in the top 20
are very visible and they can be monitored so that they don't actually run. The
race is not JUDGED, meaning that the straight-leg requirement isn't enforced, but 'lifting' off the ground, the other racewalking rule, is quickly
self-enforced by the field.
Last year, Ron placed third overall, winning his age group (which sounds good until
you hear that the closest male competitor finished 38 minutes behind him). Susan
placed 8th overall last year, first in her age group by 11 minutes. We were looking to improve on last year's finishes one way or
another.
The
course was an out and back on pavement with only 230 feet of total ascent and
descent. It was about as walker friendly as you can get and unlike last year,
there was no loop at the end where you couldn't see the people ahead of you. It was also a lot cooler than the 85 degrees in 2013! This
race was all business. Pictures just didn't happen.
Our friend Al knows the Sacramento area well and warned us of ongoing road construction that could easily turn our 30 min morning commute into over an hour increasing our chances of possibly missing the race start. Against his better judgement, this non-morning person kindly got up before the crack of dawn to pick us up at our hotel promptly at 5 am and escort us in pea soup fog. With some quick thinking and backroads navigating, we got there within 20 min and then had about 1.5 hours to wait for the race to start. We got a great parking space at least!
Al pulls out his bike from the back of the SUV and assembles it so he can provide us with mobile course support that day. He's even color coordinated his outfit with ours so that we looked like a most patriotic red, white, and blue team! Susan should have known she could trust veteran Al to do the right thing but she couldn't help but worry that the other walkers were going to exile them next year for bringing a biker along who could have easily disrupted the race on the narrow parkway path. Before the start of the race, the course monitor pulls Al aside and asks for his help since none of the other volunteers showed up that day. Al quickly changes his game plan and simultaneously becomes real-time race support for the front of the pack ensuring that no one got lost while also calling out the mile splits for the top ten participants.
Our friend Al knows the Sacramento area well and warned us of ongoing road construction that could easily turn our 30 min morning commute into over an hour increasing our chances of possibly missing the race start. Against his better judgement, this non-morning person kindly got up before the crack of dawn to pick us up at our hotel promptly at 5 am and escort us in pea soup fog. With some quick thinking and backroads navigating, we got there within 20 min and then had about 1.5 hours to wait for the race to start. We got a great parking space at least!
Al pulls out his bike from the back of the SUV and assembles it so he can provide us with mobile course support that day. He's even color coordinated his outfit with ours so that we looked like a most patriotic red, white, and blue team! Susan should have known she could trust veteran Al to do the right thing but she couldn't help but worry that the other walkers were going to exile them next year for bringing a biker along who could have easily disrupted the race on the narrow parkway path. Before the start of the race, the course monitor pulls Al aside and asks for his help since none of the other volunteers showed up that day. Al quickly changes his game plan and simultaneously becomes real-time race support for the front of the pack ensuring that no one got lost while also calling out the mile splits for the top ten participants.
Ron's race:
Just after the starting gun,
a dozen of us made a pretty decisive move to separate from the pack. In the
first 100 yards, Nikki and Joe (1st and 2nd last year) took the lead with Greg,
Karen, a guy in a white shirt, Linda, Terri, Paula, and Susan close behind. Before mile 1, people
were telling Linda she was lifting so she slowed considerable to hold form. I passed the guy in white by mile 2 and never saw him again. Greg and
Karen pulled away by mile 3 at just over an 11:05 pace with Joe and Nikki not
far behind. I didn't see Susan again until the turn.
Last
year, Joe and Nikki were less than 30 seconds ahead of me the entire race so I
was determined to keep them in my sights. At the turn at 6.5, it was Greg in the lead,
followed by Karen maybe 50 yards back, with Nikki and Joe 100 yards behind. Joe
admitted he wasn't having a good season. I was able to pass
him just after the 7 mile mark on the way back. The 11:15 pace was actually
surprisingly easy to hold, but I had trouble going any faster.
Time to
get more tempo training in. I know, Al. I'm trying.
I kept
expecting Joe to push it in the last half like he did last year, but I didn't see
him. The second half of the race was more me talking to Al who was our mobile cheer squad on his bike before he was recruited into helping the official
race monitors kick recreational bikers off the course. Al mentioned that I
didn't sound like I was even working hard for the first six miles. I'll take
that as a point to improve for San Diego and San Jose. But for me, the race was
over by then. I came in 4th behind Nikki, Greg and Karen. Second male overall,
first in my age group (out of 8) by over an hour. The real drama was happening in front of me for the first place finish and behind me with Susan.
Susan's Race
My goal for this race was to place better than last year and to set a new walking PR. Thanks to Al's heart rate training plan, both goals were accomplished this day. He and I debated how fast I should go out. Al thought I should start out at a 12:15 and drop the pace from there. I knew that if I could sustain a sub 12:00 that I would have a good race. When I saw Al at the first mile, he called out my split time of 12:01 - I smiled, I guess this stubborn Taurus is going to work her plan for this race. However, dropping the pace in subsequent miles proved to be more difficult than I expected. For some reason, I was having difficulties breathing. Perhaps it was the high level of humidity in the air from the rain the day before. It also could be an indicator that I probably need to do more tempo training as well.
One of my buddies from last year was there again this year. Paula who is an awesome Sierra Racewalker and someone who I met at Tim Seaman's racewalk clinic a few years ago. She was feeling under the weather but managed to stay ahead of me for the first half of the race. She didn't have a race plan and I was determined to stick to my race plan even if it meant being the last person in the group of lead walkers for the first 6.5 miles.
I made my move around mile 6. First, I had to pass Paula who kindly cheered me on. I love it when other racers can support each other on the race course! Then I caught up to Terri. Terri and I had walked together for the first half of last year's race so I remembered her well. This year, however, Terri was walking much faster than last year. I told her how well she was doing as compared to last year. Terri can be a tough competitor and she doesn't make it easy to pass her so I had to make my move quickly. With all due respect, she was having a great race. What she didn't know was that I had also trained hard over the past year and I was also faster than last year. I look forward to meeting up with her again next year at American River Parkway and motivating each other to yet another great race finish.
At this point, there is no one in front of me and I'm pulling ahead of everyone behind me. The same thing happened last year where I was pretty much alone for most of the second half of the race. But this year we had Al! And he was there for us at every mile marker. It was becoming more and more difficult for him to catch up with Ron and then wait for me because the spread in our times was increasing but no challenge is too great for Al. Mentally, I was prepared for Al to be by my side through the end of the race. However, the race organizer had other plans in mind. The race director jogged up to Al and asked him to kick some people off the course who were blocking the path for the race participants. Al turned back to clear the way for the others and I was left on my own to finish the race. Before he left, however, I asked him if I was on pace to PR. (My half marathon brain had kicked in and I no longer could do math in my head.) He said, "Are you kidding? You could slow down significantly and still PR!" That gave me the confidence to finish strong but not panic. Al did make it back in time to see me finish and report out my final race time more accurately than my Garmin. Thanks Al!
My goal for this race was to place better than last year and to set a new walking PR. Thanks to Al's heart rate training plan, both goals were accomplished this day. He and I debated how fast I should go out. Al thought I should start out at a 12:15 and drop the pace from there. I knew that if I could sustain a sub 12:00 that I would have a good race. When I saw Al at the first mile, he called out my split time of 12:01 - I smiled, I guess this stubborn Taurus is going to work her plan for this race. However, dropping the pace in subsequent miles proved to be more difficult than I expected. For some reason, I was having difficulties breathing. Perhaps it was the high level of humidity in the air from the rain the day before. It also could be an indicator that I probably need to do more tempo training as well.
One of my buddies from last year was there again this year. Paula who is an awesome Sierra Racewalker and someone who I met at Tim Seaman's racewalk clinic a few years ago. She was feeling under the weather but managed to stay ahead of me for the first half of the race. She didn't have a race plan and I was determined to stick to my race plan even if it meant being the last person in the group of lead walkers for the first 6.5 miles.
I made my move around mile 6. First, I had to pass Paula who kindly cheered me on. I love it when other racers can support each other on the race course! Then I caught up to Terri. Terri and I had walked together for the first half of last year's race so I remembered her well. This year, however, Terri was walking much faster than last year. I told her how well she was doing as compared to last year. Terri can be a tough competitor and she doesn't make it easy to pass her so I had to make my move quickly. With all due respect, she was having a great race. What she didn't know was that I had also trained hard over the past year and I was also faster than last year. I look forward to meeting up with her again next year at American River Parkway and motivating each other to yet another great race finish.
At this point, there is no one in front of me and I'm pulling ahead of everyone behind me. The same thing happened last year where I was pretty much alone for most of the second half of the race. But this year we had Al! And he was there for us at every mile marker. It was becoming more and more difficult for him to catch up with Ron and then wait for me because the spread in our times was increasing but no challenge is too great for Al. Mentally, I was prepared for Al to be by my side through the end of the race. However, the race organizer had other plans in mind. The race director jogged up to Al and asked him to kick some people off the course who were blocking the path for the race participants. Al turned back to clear the way for the others and I was left on my own to finish the race. Before he left, however, I asked him if I was on pace to PR. (My half marathon brain had kicked in and I no longer could do math in my head.) He said, "Are you kidding? You could slow down significantly and still PR!" That gave me the confidence to finish strong but not panic. Al did make it back in time to see me finish and report out my final race time more accurately than my Garmin. Thanks Al!
Meanwhile, up ahead, the race
for the top three was one of pride. After the 6.5 mile turn, Nikki saw that Karen had
stopped to tie her shoe and decided to close the 50 yard lead. Nikki then saw Greg in front of her
and decided to kick it into another gear. Greg, Nikki, Joe and Karen are all
members of the Sierra Race Walker club and in the 8 year history of the race an
SRW member has always won. Susan reminded me that
Nikki
closed the gap on Greg by cranking out close to 10 minute miles for the back
half of the race. This is a little snippet from the May Sierra Race Walkers newsletter describing the pass:
"Soon I realized that Greg kept looking back over his shoulder. Aha! I thought, I’ve got him on the run (figuratively) now! I kept up the pressure, and before long I was just a few feet behind him. I said something to him, and he said something that sounded like he was accusing me of running. I pulled next to him and said, “Say again?” and he said, “You’re in the wrong race. You’re running. This is a race for walkers only and you’re running.” I said, “I’m race walking. I’m just fast. I haven’t been disqualified from a race in years.” Then he looked at me and said, “Oh, I recognize you. You were at the beginning.”
Heh.
Al saw her pass and said that Greg tried to keep up for a
few hundred yards but was clearly out of his league. Nikki finished in 2:18:49. The top 10 finishers are shown below courtesy of Chronotrack.
This was the Top 10 from the Sierra Race Walkers team. You'll see the Age Grade rank in the far right. Even though I finished ahead of Susan, I have a lot of work to do to be as good as her (that's fine with me!). If you compare the age graded performance to a runner for the same age for the half marathon, Susan's time would equate to a 1:52:35 half marathon. Ron's would be 1:48:15.
 |
| Sierra Race Walkers 'and friends'. |
When we all reconvened at the end for photos, the Sierra Racewalker exclaimed, "There's OUR biker! He provided us with amazing support out on the course today. Thank you!" Susan sighed in relief. She should have known. Of course, Al knew what he was doing out there and endeared everyone to him - racewalkers and race directors alike. You have an open invitation to come back next year Al if you're available!
The American River Parkway Half Marathon and 5K
has been held for the last 8 years. The entry fees pay for park maintenance and
the removal of non-native vegetation from this pretty stretch of river near
William Pond Park. In 2014 there were 366 participants in the Walk Division
(median finish time of 3:41) and 1381 in the open/Run Division (median finish
time of 2:17:01). Unlike 2013 when
temperature started at 75 and climbed to 80 by race end, 2014 was a near
perfect high 40's to start warming to the mid 60's with minimal cloud
cover. This year's course turned left to
cross the a bridge which I think was a big improvement for those of us
keeping tabs on the competition. The course had well-placed aid stations very
few miles and on course entertainment by local bluegrass groups. I'd highly
recommend the Walk course for anyone interested and I hear the Run side is just
as nice. Post-race sandwiches, chocolate chip cookies, oranges, bananas and
Gatorade were great for a small local race.
For more information and how to calculate Age Graded results for race walking, eracewalk.com has some good resources.
For more information and how to calculate Age Graded results for race walking, eracewalk.com has some good resources.
Pre-Race dinner was at our usual place
downtown, Pizza Rock. Get there early for the Pizza Margarita (limited to 73
per night!). The meatballs are Ron's favorite.
We're going to keep coming back as long as
there's not another race conflicting with this weekend. Other than the Country
Music Marathon (RNR Nashville) which we've already crossed off our list, we haven't had
a problem being tempted away yet.
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