Ultimate Runner & Tri-Ballantyne Recap

  After my adrenaline pumping break through in the Championship mile a couple weeks back I knew I was fit to challenge for the "Ultimate Runner" title which has been in the back of my mind for a few years and for the first time I actually trained for this race in particular. I will admit that my mileage has been substantially low but I knew that with the race distances I could still train in a very limited amount of time to get the most bang for the buck so to speak. Luckily I am not doing anything that requires much more than 20minutes of effort, other wise it would be curtains for this guy. In summation the heat fest aka the ultimate runner, I am going to post a brief recap that I sent out to fellow TrySports Ambassador Bill Shires.

"  In 2001 I stumbled upon the Ultimate Runner in Winston-Salem, NC with close friend and high school teammate Jessica Carroll- (Bilbrey now). That year I was able to secure 5th place in this event as Kevin Hill won the race going away and I was amazed at his talent level. After that, every couple years, I tossed caution to the wind and gave it an effort to finally attain my goal of winning this race but it never quite came together. With having just ran a MEGA personal best in the mile with a 4:20 the week of the Ultimate Runner my confidence level was more than sky high. Going into the race I knew it would be blazing hot with temperatures topping 100 degree's with no where to hide from the sun, so I packed a pop up canopy, two coolers filled with ice and Gatorade as well as my fiance Karin whom would occasionally spray me with a misting fan.

   The race was everything I remembered, the sit and kick style that the youngsters would always run away from me on, but not this year. Referencing the change in pacing from the heat our 1st 800m of the mile was in 2:34, 5:08 mile pace, everyone was taking their time for the kick to commence. Being a few years wiser, I waited patiently as all the young guns began making their move matching every surge, then with 85 meters to go I dropped another gear and was able to leave the field to take the mile in 4:49. The 400m was next and my biggest fear, the gun went off and I tried my best to get positioned well, unfortunately this did not happen and I was forced to make up a ton of ground over the last 300m finishing in 4th overall in 54.6. 

   800m was next and as the mile went, everyone packed up for a bit and then at the bell a couple made their bid for glory. Somehow after that 400m race I felt amazing and ended up pulling well ahead of the field and cursing home in 2:09. Pumped full of confidence and energy I slammed home the 100m race winning my heat in what was announced as 12 flat to only be turned into 12.4 seconds :(. 

   Going into the 5k XC race, I was unaware if I was in the lead but was assured if I won the race I would be the "Ultimate Runner". After tucking in with the pack for a mile I jumped out with another runner making a bid for the 5k and we were stride for stride for about 1 mile until I took the lead for good, bringing home the 5k victory. All in all my best performance ever, with times on the slow side due to the hottest race in the 27 year history of the event. I would certainly recommend this event for anyone who really wants a challenge to the greatest extent, the people are great and you can't beat the middle of summer, middle of the day race fest."

- May I mention that I was more than happy to receive the honor of winning such a long standing race in Winston-Salem but I was VERY dis-satisfied with the way the announcer dealt with my concerns to leave early. Karin had been out in the heat all day and unfortunately she took a turn for the worst and started to suffer from what I believe was heat stroke. We just needed to get away and call it a night as opposed to waiting around the for awards, I was more concerned with her well being. I walked up to the announcer who was giving our finisher shirts and awards, then requested that I receive my award so we could leave since we still had a 90minute drive home. He essentially spit in my face(he did not actually spit on me) and commented that I did not have a family therefore I was not in any critical circumstance to leave early. This REALLY pissed me off and honestly will most likely cause me to not return to this event.

   

Lake Toxaway

   The following weekend after I had finally been named the "Ultimate Runner", I told Greg Shore that i would accompany him on a long training weekend in the mountains. I was mentally prepared for some torture especially since Greg has been rounding into such phenomenal form as of late but also because of my lack of training in comparison. Leading up to our MEGA MOUNTAIN ride I had only hopped on my bike twice in the previous 20 days or so, but I wanted to give it a go. Greg and I decided to basically find the hardest way to the top of the Blue ridge parkway and we conquered it!We climbed for 14.5miles continuously to the top, it was a hurt fest of epic proportions, followed by an attempted long run which ended at just shy of 90 minutes for myself due to severe dehydration, I was way beyond fatigued, but thanks for the push Greg!

Tri-Ballantyne: 7/14/2012

   Thankfully TrySports hooked me up with a comp entry into this race and I had no expectations join in, I just wanted to do my best and end with a smile. Unfortunately for me, I also had to work the event with the TrySports  truck, so I had to get there extra early and I did not have the available time to actually warm-up. Aside from my 1/4m jog around the parking lot, mounting my bike on the rack and 100m in the pool that was the extent of my prep. Waking up so early has its disadvantages for me to say the least, I am like a zombie, so inevitably I left behind my cell phone as Karin went out to the Lake Norman Excursion ride for her longest ride ever, I was worried that she could not contact me so I made sure Billy Shue sent her a message in the AM to update her on my lack of phone issue. To add insult to injury, my helmet was left behind at work from the night before, as I drove the events truck and left mine locked up at our warehouse. Naturally I would end up wearing Karin's mountain bike helmet enact with the shield and all in Misty Mountain Green as the color option! 

   Now to the actual race, I was more than afraid of my swim seed time that Rob submitted for me, after all, I had only been in the pool a handful of times to actually stroke a few laps. As the clock wound down and we were getting called to depart in between our 15 second intervals, I relaxed and just said just go hard and stay smooth. The swim ended up going very well as I actually caught Mark Carbone 100m from the finish who was seeded one spot in front of me. I may or may not have mad a mistake by just coasting behind him, I figured I would just save some energy for the bike if possible. We exited the water together and hit T1 in a semi jog I would say, no real rush like the top guys exiting, more like an Ironman transition. (4:45 swim split)

TrySports Ambassadors:
Jason Philbin and Billy Shue

   I left T1 before Mark and took my time with mounting my Felt Z75 without trying any flying hop on because I was a bit rusty with this triathlon stuff. As I was heading towards Rea Rd on my bike quickly catching the swimmers in front of me I couldn't help but think how much quicker, more aggressive and possibly even more comfortable it would be to have a Triathlon/TT bike right now. I just went to my drops and stayed there as long as I could. I never looked at my Garmin 310 while riding, I would just occasionally look down to see what mile I was on but never once looked at my pace, the only goal was to make myself breath hard and hurt during the whole ride. As I was nearly T2 I remembered the fancy dismount I used while in Australia and quickly unbuckled my shoes to hop off and jog right to my running shoes with my bike in hand. It's weird that the course was listed as 12.7miles on the website but the actually bike route that is listed is 13.2 miles on the publication, odd.    (33:55 Bike Split = 23.35mph)

   Leaving T2, I was pretty happy knowing it was just the run to follow and I would be home free. I flew around the corner with crowds cheering as the athletes made their way onto the grassy area around the YMCA. I felt great and was ready to really push the run then I take an odd step on an uneven portion of the grass and my left calf locks up immediately.  Crap, there goes my run, I back the pace off for a second and gain my composure once again. Looking at my GPS I can see I am maintaining about 5:20 pace and that would be great to hold, so I try to just lock that pace down the best that I can while feeling comfortable and taxing my legs too much to avoid any muscles cramps or spams. On the way out I see Donny cruising past with the victory in hand and I confuse myself for a moment trying to put the numbers together on how far ahead he actually is in front of me time wise. Mile one 5:19, then I finally see someone that I can pass! Pushing through the neighborhood and feeling my race shoes cut into my foot with each strike I start altering my stride a bit to keep somewhat comfortable. As I crest the last big hill departing the neighborhood I take a quick glance back and see another guy in red trailing pretty closely.

 

    

    With about 1 mile to go I lift the pace up and hope to drop whomever is behind me with the sudden pace change. At this point I feel like I am flying and must be back down into that 5:20 pace range as my 2nd mile slowed a bit, but I was wrong. My GPS said "5:41" pace, crap, come on man pick it up!!!! After holding off the contender behind me I quickly realize it is Mark Carbone who is a great triathlete/runner in his own right, I was satisfied with the day and that made it even better. (16:56 run split)

    Post race I stand around the truck for 3+ more hours in the sun just imaging the feeling of a nice fresh shower at home, sometimes the little things mean so much! After the race was over, I do remember why I liked this multi-sport stuff, its exciting yet upsetting at the same time. There are so many factors that go into these races unlike running which is pretty straight forward. I may jump into one or two more tri's as the season closes, we will see. No pictures from the race currently, wish I could share the sweet pictures with my super cool helmet on but unfortunately I cannot. 

Fountain of Youth: Need for Speed

 BOOM, BOOM, POW....Now that I got your attention I am going to recap the month of June in terms of training, racing and life's obstacles/choices that I have encountered.  Sometimes I like to think of myself as a creative writer, a person who looks at life slightly differently than others from time to time. My training is no different as of late, I have held my focus away from running more than I ever have over the last 7 years so and fortunately have been able to still have some minor success along my journey.

   As the first week of May hit, I decided that it would be a great time to jump back into my training regimen but under a totally new perspective and approach. After The Cooper River 10k and my unset of pain from my shins, I shifted my focus away from all forms of cardio to solely strength building. I was hitting the weight room 3x a week pretty hard core and noticed some solid gains in a 5-6 week process. No I did not come out looking like I was hopped up on the roids BUT I felt 10x stronger, more powerful and confident than ever. For the first time ever I felt that taking a few steps back and looking ahead into the long term, this change of focus would be hugely beneficial. Building strength with muscles that are weak or very seldom used, it could only increase my chances of staying injury free as well as being able to lift a couch effortlessly if a friend ever needed my assistance.

   Despite being very reluctant I began incorporating lunges, squats and the leg press into my "off season" routine, it brought along some pretty stellar soreness but I enjoyed the change.  This new routine was a massive "HELLO" to my body as it truly put a shock to my system which allowed me to actually trim down while building muscle at the same time. After jumping in the Twilight 5k from 5 straight weeks off from running I decided it was time to start back. I began with 2-3 days of running and would increase to 4 days a week by the beginning of June. I found a training plan online through googling a few key words like "getting fast quick", "a fast mile" and etc then bam, I FOUND IT!

Murderous Mile; UK style

   After reading through and article and looking over this plan, I knew I had a short amount of time to find some turnover in my legs as I had recently signed up for the Ultimate Runner, a race I first completed in 2001 and had always listed as one of the few races I really wanted to win one day. Plus I wanted to see if a sub 4:30 mile was possible again, as the sub 15minute 5000m race has seemingly slipped out of my traps this year. As this plans shows, it is all about intensity and lots of it! As a disclaimer I want to say that I have never been a person who did more than one workout a week at times, adding a 2nd workout as I was building up for a race increasing the anaerobic speed as well as threshold workouts. This could ultimately lead to injury in a very quick way, but I just wanted to try something like this to see what results would follow. Through the 1st week I was falling to pieces and needed someone to scrape me up off of the ground to say the least.

4th Week when Bert wrecked me

  As time progressed my body adapted to these workouts and I began embracing the faith that I could in-fact challenge Mr. Bert Rodriguez in the championship mile at the end of June. Week after week I made the trip out to the track series and made my best effort to do nearly every event possible in order to stress my body, building strength and speed. The most beneficial component of doing so many events is not being able to recover and forcing your body to handle the tightness throughout your body as you gasp for air. In week two I witnessed Bert run away from everyone in an stellar 4:23 mile which blew my mind. "There goes beating Bert, I thought maybe a 4:25-26 could do it but he ran 4:23 in the 2nd week OUCH!". Week after week I kept my trainers or flats on for the most part at the series, hiding away my Nike Matumbo spikes that would lead me to greatness.

   It's D-day, I arrive to the track early in order to get in a solid warm-up and dynamic exercise before the Championship Mile. While doing some drills at the AG track my truck key falls out of my pocket without notice as I am listening to MGK's single "Wild Boy" pumping through my yurbuds. As I reach Myers park I realized I don't have my key which opens my truck which ultimately holds my spikes! I rush back to the track thankfully to have Clint point out my key and rush back to my truck. I feel so light on my feet as I toss on my Nike Matumbo spikes, someone says, "oh sorry man, Bert is here!", I reply back, "Good, it's going to be a fun day". We all line up and I am thinking to myself, "Stick with Bert, if he goes out to slow then just go for it, you better at least break 4:30". Pow!!!! We are off and Bert takes the first lane and I immediately go around him and began pushing the pace. This is not my typical style but this is not going to be a sit and kick, the both of us are going to earn this race.

  Pulling the pack felt great as we passed through the 1st lap with a nice home crowd of CRC folks cheering us on. Bert eventually pulled just ahead of me before 800m and I could hear so many people screaming "Come on Chris, Come on Lamperski, stay with him stay with him!!!". I was PUMPED, this is where I needed to be in the moment and for a change I was, trailing as he began lifting the pace faster and faster as he did the previous week leaving my in the dust over the last 400m. "Surge, Surge, stop being a baby, this is your time" I am telling myself, by the time we hit the bell, I can tell all of my friends are going crazy because they are in disbelief that I am still with Bert. With the last 300m looming we both give it our best efforts heading for home. Fatigue setting in, gasping for air I look up with about 70m to go and see the clock.."4:10, 4:11..."....<pause> "HOLY SH*T" I am close to breaking 4:20 not 4:30! I push through the clock as it turns over 4:20 and scream in joy!
Link to race results for Championship Mile

  Never in my wildest dream would I imagine that I would run a 4:20 mile at 30 years of age, none of my workouts ever indicated that, partially because I never chose to wear a watch after the very 1st workout bomb. This goes to show you that sometimes going in with blind faith can really lead you to the promise land. Now I think I will go down in history as the HAPPIEST 2nd place finisher but I will take that any day. One of the things I take pride in is doing my own training and believing in myself, but most importantly understanding that at the end of the day everyone in the race is in it for the same exact thing; to conquer fears. After all we are a bit scared for having success at times, think about one time you went out too fast and were running with someone who was "faster than you". Maybe you should have not thought about it but just kept racing, did that thought hold you back, did it hamper your entire run?