Today, I race-walked the Front Street Mile in Hamilton,
Bermuda. This was the first race in a
three day series called the Bermuda Triangle Challenge. The other two races are the Bermuda 10K on
Saturday and the Bermuda Marathon on Sunday.
I’ve wanted to do the Bermuda Marathon for several years,
but there were always scheduling conflicts.
There are several other popular races on the same weekend. In the past, I always assumed I would just do
the marathon. I’m sometimes content to
run a marathon with a goal of simply finishing, but I’ve always felt you should
go all out in shorter races. I couldn’t
imagine doing an all-out mile and an all-out 10K and then being able to run a
marathon without a day off.
All that changed when I took up race-walking. It doesn’t take as long to recover from an
all-out walking effort. That made this
series seem much more feasible. I didn’t
consider, however, that the Front Street mile is an evening race, and the
Bermuda 10K is a morning race. That won’t
give me much recovery time between these two races.
I flew to Bermuda on Thursday, arriving in the afternoon. There isn’t much lodging in Hamilton, so I
stayed at one of the island’s many resorts.
There were three resorts with discounted rates and shuttle service for
the races. My resort was on the opposite
end of the island from the airport, so I had to take a taxi. Renting a car wasn’t an option. Non-Bermuda residents aren’t allowed to own,
rent, or drive four-wheeled vehicles.
After checking in at the resort, I walked down to their
private beach. It was only about 70
degrees, so there weren’t many people at the beaches.
From there, it was a short walk to the Horseshoe Bay beach,
which is one of Bermuda’s most popular public beaches.
I wanted to get in a workout before dinner. I noticed on the ride from the airport that
the roads are narrow and don’t always have sidewalks. I was also running out of daylight, so I went
back to the resort to do some walking on one of their treadmills.
The resort has several restaurants, but some of them were
closed for the season. That didn’t stop
me from finding one with pizza.
I often have trouble sleeping away from home, particularly
the first night. This trip was no
exception. What was different, however,
was that I didn’t have to get up early for a race. The Front Street Mile is an evening race, so
I had the luxury of sleeping in. That
helped.
I spent most of the day relaxing at the resort. I had breakfast in their ocean-view
restaurant, did another easy workout on the treadmill, and had a late lunch at a
sports bar next to the golf course.
At 4:00, I caught a shuttle from the resort to
Hamilton. The race didn’t begin until 7:00,
but packet pickup was from 3:30 to 6:30.
I received my race packet for all three races, and then had to hang
around in Hamilton until it was time for the race to start. This was one thing I didn’t like about this
series. It seemed like I was in Hamilton
way too early.
My race packet included my race bib, plus four T-shirts. We got one for each race, plus an additional
T-shirt for doing the Bermuda Triangle Challenge. They didn’t have a formal bag check, but they
had a tent where you could leave a bag.
I needed to drop off a bag with my T-shirts, plus my warm-up pants.
After packet pickup, I walked about half a mile to where the
race started. Most of the shops were already
closing, so there wasn’t much to do but wait.
I saw a woman sitting in a folding chair on the sidewalk. She had an extra folding chair that she was
already saving for someone. Her name is
Nikki, and she’s a Bermuda resident who came out to watch the race. She let me sit down next to her, and we
talked for about half an hour.
I eventually got up and walked to some public bathrooms that
were a block or two away. After making
my final bathroom stop, I located the tents for the baggage drop and waited at
some nearby benches. The temperature was
about 70 degrees, but there was a strong wind, so I didn’t want to take off my
warn-up pants until it was time to line up.
I regretted not bringing a jacket.
It was nice weather for racing, but I felt cold sitting around with the wind
blowing off the harbor.
In addition to runners who were doing the Bermuda Triangle
Challenge (or Half Challenge), the Front Street mile also includes elite athletes
and local high school and middle school athletes. The race was run in give waves. I was in the first wave, along with everyone
else who was doing the full challenge.
People doing the half challenge were in the second wave, followed by the
local non-elite athletes, the elite women, and the elite men.
When I entered these races, the registration pages for the
10K and marathon asked if you were walking or running. The registration page for the mile didn’t
have that option. It said this race
wasn’t for walkers, and went on to indicate the time limit was 12 minutes. I don’t think they were anticipating
race-walkers who could easily break 12 minutes walking.
This was the first time I’ve race-walked an official one
mile race, but I did two time trials at a track when I was young. I knew I wouldn’t be able to compete with
those times, so this wasn’t a PR attempt.
It was more of a tune-up for tomorrow’s 10K race. I was curious to know how fast I could walk
an all-out mile. I expected to be
somewhere between 10 and 11 minutes, but beyond that, I really didn’t have a
clue. I’ve been training for longer
races. I have good endurance, but I
don’t have the same speed I had in my youth.
Most of my recent workouts have been on a treadmill. I sometimes pick up the pace near the end of
a workout, but I’ve never been able to get any faster than a 10:30 pace, even
briefly. I assumed I would be held back
by my mechanics, but would have the endurance to sustain whatever pace I could
manage.
The course was an out-and-back along Front Street in
Hamilton. We started and finished at the
flag pole. There were two 180 degree
turns. I lined up in the back of the
corral for wave one, knowing I would be slower than most, if not all, of the
runners.
While we were waiting for the start, one of the race
officials came by and told us that even though we were still going to run a 10K
and a marathon, this was a fast race, and we should run as fast as we
could. I still planned to walk the race,
but I was more determined than ever to walk fast enough that I wouldn’t be the
last finisher in my wave.
I waited until I crossed the line before starting my
watch. By then, I was accelerating
furiously, so it was awkward to interrupt my arm swing to start my watch. I didn’t hear the familiar beep. I looked down to see if my watch
started. It was too dark to see it
clearly.
After crossing the line, I launched myself into the fastest
pace I could manage. Within a block or
two, I was getting badly out of breath.
Clearly, I was wrong about my mechanics holding me back more than my
aerobic capacity. For reasons I don’t
fully understand, I can walk much faster outdoors than I can on a
treadmill. I started at a pace that was
unsustainable, even for a mile.
By the time we reached the first of two 180 degree turns, I
realized I was in last place. Shortly
after the turn, I passed the three slowest runners from my wave.
As I got back to where we started, I heard the announcer
say, “This is a run, not a walk.” I don’t
think that comment was aimed specifically at me, but I went back through the
start/finish area just after he said that.
The runners in wave two were still waiting to start. They cheered for me as I went by. I also got cheers from the other waves,
including the elite athletes in waves four and five.
After the first turn, we were going into the wind. I had slowed a little since the start, but it
was still a strain to maintain my pace.
Before I reached the second turnaround, I passed another runner. I passed a fifth runner on the turn.
I was relieved to no longer be walking into the wind. I only had a few blocks to go, but I was severely
short of breath. I could see the lead
runners from the second wave approached from the opposite direction. They started four minutes after me, but they
weren’t that far back. It seemed
inevitable that a few of them would pass me. As I went through a well-lit area, I looked at my
watch. It still read “0:00.” It never started.
I got within a half block of the finish. Nobody from the
second wave had caught me yet. I thought
I would hold them off. Then the first
two runners of the “Half Challenge” passed me.
As I neared the line, I paid close attention to the
clock. The last number I saw on the clock before crossing the line was
9:44. Whoa! Clearly, I can walk much faster in a race
than I can on the treadmill. I wouldn’t
find out my official time until a few hours later. It said my gun time was 9:43.8, and my chip time was 9:38.9.
I wanted to get back to the hotel as quickly as I could, so
I could shower, eat dinner, finish this race report, and get to bed. I have another race tomorrow morning, and I
wanted to get enough sleep.
There’s normally a cab stand on Front Street, but the street
was still blocked off for the race. The
next closest cab stand was four blocks away, in front of City Hall. After retrieving my gear bag, I started
walking toward city hall. One block from
Front Street, I saw a group of people getting out of the cab. I waited for them. The cabbie asked me if I needed a cab. That chance encounter saved me several
minutes, plus a few blocks of walking.
I had dinner at a sports bar at the resort. I almost have time to get a full night’s
sleep. Tomorrow morning is the Bermuda 10K. My goal is to set a race-walking PR for 10K. One race down, two to go.
Race Statistics
Distance: 1 mile
Time: 9:38.9
Average Pace: 9:38.9
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