Rambling Thoughts on a Snowy Day...

Some rambling thoughts on this cold, snowy day....

1. Bursitis is terrible. It is especially terrible when the cortisone shot stops working and you have to wait a week to get another.

2. Resume, cover letter, reference list, and recommendation letters have been submitted for the KTC Executive Director position. Now, I wait to see if I am selected for an interview and then hopefully for the job. Happy thoughts. Positive vibes.

3. Yesterday was World Prematurity Day. Both boys were slightly early. I can vividly remember the call from the doctor's office telling me to come to the hospital at 33 weeks pregnant because they thought I was in labor with Jackson. Turns out, I was. With meds and steroids, they sent me home and we managed to keep him cooking until 36 weeks. He is still impatient. I had progesterone shots starting at week 17 with Karson. We knew that once we stopped them, I would go into labor. I did. I had an unexpected C-Section (footling breech) and my strong willed second child spent time in the NICU. Still, we are blessed that they were able to come home so quickly.

4. Karson gets tubes in his ears tomorrow. This is our second kid surgery in 4 months. This one isn't as major as Jackson's but I won't breath a sigh of relief until he is back in my arms and sticking his finger up my nose or giving me that mischievous smile.

5. It is going to be a long winter if it is snowing already in Knoxville.

6. There is a 9 ft. Christmas tree in my family room that I need to finish decorating. Every time I try to add ornaments, Karson takes them off.

7. I am on day two of returning to my gluten free diet. I felt better when I was gluten free previously and the hip problem disappeared.

8. My to-do list is two pages so I should get to work. :)

See you on the roads!

Guest Blog Post - Altman's Chickamauga 2014 Race Recap

The 2014 Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon I was originally going to run the Columbus Marathon in Ohio on October 19. Two weeks beforehand, I stepped on the corner of a utility grate which flipped over and I fell into the gaping hole. I hit my left shin on the concrete edge, gashing my leg and bruising the shin. After a trip to the ER, I had nine new stitches and trouble running for several days. I decided to utilize the backup plan which was to extend training three more weeks and run the Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon – one that I had previously won in 2010 and 2012. Flashback to July 6, 2009. Jackson, our oldest son, was born that day. When he was just a few hours old, I whispered in his ear that one day, he would watch his daddy win a marathon. That day came November 13, 2010, at Chickamauga when he was 16 months old. On November 1, 2012, Kristy and I found out that we were pregnant again. With it being so early in the pregnancy, we kept the good news to ourselves. Nine days later, I won the Chickamauga marathon again. The secret that we were keeping helped push me through the final miles to set a personal best that day. Karson was born June 22, 2013. Keeping with tradition, I told him that he’d get to watch his daddy win a marathon someday too. Back to the present. The goal for Columbus was to set a personal best. My fastest time was 2:38:52 at Chickamauga in 2012 and I felt that I was in 2:35-2:37 shape on a flatter, faster, more competitive course like Columbus. But after the injury, I adjusted the race plan for Chickamauga. Not that I was necessarily second guessing my abilities, but as race day approached, I reevaluated my game plan. There were several things to consider. I would be running on a slower course, on which I would most likely be running all alone with no one else to push the pace. While my training had gone well, we have a toddler who does not sleep. Ever. It’s been over a year since my wife and I have slept for more than two consecutive hours. We were up most of the night the night before the race. Those factors, plus the injury, made me a little skeptical about running a PR. Fortunately, Joe Goetz and Bob Adams would be in Fort Oglethorpe race morning and offered to run part of the course with me. Bob picked me up at mile one and ran to the half marathon checkpoint; Joe ran from mile two to mile 14 with me. By the time I reached Bob, I was already all alone. The splits looked like this: 6:01, 6:05, 5:57, 6:04, 5:53, 6:01, 6:00, 6:05, 6:02, 6:06, 5:54, 5:58, 6:09. We crossed the half marathon timing mat at 1:19:08. When I PR’d in 2012, I hit the half at 1:18:36. I was a little behind that year’s pace, and again, skeptical of hitting a PR that morning. As Joe was leaving me, I ran mile 14 in 6:00 and mile 15 in 6:05. Just as I passed 15, one of the bike monitors informed me that I was about four minutes ahead of second place. I was feeling good, but you never know what to expect in a marathon. In 2011, I paid no attention to the competition and pushed the pace. I hit the wall pretty hard at mile 19, and my six minute miles turned to seven minute miles all the way in. I was passed during the 23rd mile by the eventual winner. I still earned second place, but that was a feeling that I didn’t want to have ever again. On this day, I decided to pull back on the throttle. I figured if I slowed 5-10 seconds a mile, I wouldn’t be pushing the limits of my body and would be able to cruise on in for the victory. The following miles (16-21) were 6:04, 6:05, 6:13, 6:11, 6:13, 6:21. There is an out and back section at mile 21. As I was returning, I saw Juan Soto, the second place runner, and I calculated that I was about three minutes up on him. If this guy is running 6 minute or just under 6’s, even if I can maintain 6:30s all the way home, I’ll be able to hold him off. I remember reading a recap from Meb Keflezighi after he won Boston in 2014. He talked about enjoying the last mile; making it a celebration of sorts. The way this course is laid out, I’m passing half marathoners (who are on their way to the finish line) as I click off the last several miles. It’s amazing how inspirational they can be. They are cheering me on, hooting and hollering as I am passing each one. Miles 22-25 were 6:12, 6:20, 6:17, 6:25. My left calf began to cramp at mile 25.4 as I was exiting the Battlefield via a service road. With less than a mile to go, I took Meb’s advice. I started giving thumbs up and fist pumps to the each half marathoner as I passed each one. When I finally crested the last hill to Barnhardt circle (the last quarter mile of the race), I could see the finish line in the distance. Mile 26 clicked at 6:32; my slowest mile, but who really cared at that point? The calf cramp seemingly went away and I started gliding down the hill towards the finish line. As I crossed the line, the cannon let out a thunderous boom; Chickamauga shoots a cannon for the winners of each race, a sound that NEVER gets old! Final time read 2:41:07. Not a personal best, but another victory to add to the record books, and the victory I had promised my 16 month old son. All I wanted was to hug my wife and boys. As Ron Bush with the Chattanooga Times Free Press and John Hunt with the Chattanoogan started talking to me, I dragged them with me to find Kristy, Jackson, and Karson so that we could have a family moment. The Female “Winner”? After I had finished the race and accompanying interviews with the local media, Kristy and I started walking toward the car to change when we heard the cannon go off again around the 2:55 mark. I am always interested to see the first female cross the line. Mutual respect for the fellow winner, plus curiosity for the time she posts. We thought the cannon was for Hugh Enicks, the 55 year old phenom, who has won the marathon three previous times; a sign of respect from CTC for this year’s Grandmasters Winner. Since I didn’t see a female on either out-and-back section of the course (mile 9-10 and mile 21-22), I figured the first female finisher wasn’t to cross the line until at least 30 minutes after I did. When I saw the initial results posted, I saw Tabatha Hamilton’s time of 2:55. I was a little surprised, but figured I had just missed her. Kristy and I surmised that the cannon being shot must have been for her and not Hugh, since his gun time was 2:54:51. When we got back to Knoxville Saturday night, I saw that results had been posted. I clicked the link and noticed my splits (1:19:08 for the first half, 1:21:59 for the second half). Again, out of curiosity, I looked at Tabatha’s split. 2:06 for the first half marathon split? No way. There had to be some kind of error because running 49 minutes for the second half would be a new world record by more than nine minutes – man or woman. As the race director for the Covenant Health Knoxville Marathon, I’ve seen chip read errors before and tried to think this one through. The way this course is laid out, you start north of the Chickamauga Battlefield and run two miles through a service road until you enter the battlefield loop. The loop is eleven miles, including a one mile (half mile out, half mile back) out-and-back section that you run from mile 9 to 10. They have you do the loop twice (so you do the out-and-back section twice, the second time at mile 21). While running the marathon, I crossed the half marathon split mat on the loop at exactly 13.1 miles (with the 1:19:08 split). Finishing up my second loop, I was passing slower marathoners who were doing their first loop, and crossed the mat again at 2:29. The mat is laid out just after mile 24 on the second loop, approximately two miles from the finish line. My first thought was maybe she didn’t cross the mat on her first loop and it only read on her second loop. However, there is no way she was ahead of me by 23 minutes to that point. So the 2:06 must have been her half marathon split time. What happened from 2:06 until she crossed the line at 2:55? Since no one saw her on the course (Hugh said he did not see her anywhere on the course; if she was that close to him, surely they would have passed each other at the mile 21 turnaround section). My guess is that she neglected the second loop and went straight to the finish line. With it being about two miles from that mat, she would have then run 15 miles by the time she hit the line. However, why did it take her 49 minutes to do two miles? Her pace through the half was about a 9:37 per mile. So why would it take her 24 minutes per mile to do the last two miles? More on that later. I read the article the Times Free Press posted late Saturday. She said she set a personal record (PR) by “six or seven minutes”. I don’t know a single runner who cannot rattle off their PR’s like it is their date of birth. She also said in her article that she was from Trenton, GA. She works on Battlefield Parkway. She ran the same marathon (with the exact same course) in 2011. That year, it took her 4:48. I always try to give people the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps she signed up for the full, was tired when she got to the second loop, and just bee-lined to the finish line. Maybe upon reaching it, she got caught up in the moment (and perhaps a bit spacey from running a long distance) and started talking to the reporters and rolled with it. Maybe she was so novice that she thought that just running one loop was a half marathon, and that they said she was the first woman to complete the half. But the more I think about it, I believe that this was premeditated. 1. 49 minutes to cover the last two miles. I believe that she looked at previous race results (Jessica Marlier won in 2013 in 2:52:58. Kaye Starosciak won in 2011, the same year Tabatha ran previously, in 2:58:17.) She knew that something sub-3 would be a realistic winning time, but she couldn’t finish faster than the first men. So she waited until the opportune time to cross the finish line. There are ample areas in the woods along the service road that she could hide until the time was right. Heck, she could have walked it in, blending in with half marathoners, until she reached the visible Barnhardt Circle and then sprinted it in to make it look like she was fast and finishing the full. 2. Familiarity with the course. She has run the marathon there before. She lives minutes from the course. She works minutes from the course. My guess is that she runs part of the course quite often. She knew that the two loop course would give her the opportunity to execute her game plan. 3. Interviews with the media and claiming the overall award. Since her disqualification, she has vehemently denied that she cheated and is steadfast in her story that she ran all 26.2 miles. If it was an honest mistake or if she got caught up in the moment, I believe she would have confessed and apologized by now. At our Knoxville Marathon, we have a somewhat similar course layout. Our full and half marathons start simultaneously, and both finish on the 50 yard line of Neyland Stadium. They run together for 12.5 miles before the half splits off toward the finish line. Every year, we get folks who have signed up for the full and for some reason (bad day, cramps, underestimation of the hills), opt for the half when the split comes. One of two things has always happened. 1. The person seeks out the timing tent. They push their way through volunteers, University Police, sponsors, anyone, to let us know that they registered for the full but ran the half instead. They want the results to be right; they don’t want to mess it up for their fellow runners. 2. We get novices that don’t know better. They finish the half, grab some food and drink, and then they head home. They assume that we’ll know that they only did the half. Do we? Yes. We use METERS (Middle East Tennessee Emergency Radio Service) to spot participants running the half wearing the full bib. They radio in the bib numbers so we can switch them in the results. Our timing crew also checks the top finishers to make sure that they have a 10k split, a half marathon split, and a 20 mile split that correlate to their marathon time. If someone only has a split at 10k and it is for a 10 minute mile, there is no way that they finished the marathon averaging 7 minutes a mile. Never, have I ever, seen one of these folks stick around for the full marathon award ceremony and attempt to claim an overall or age group award. I was shocked to hear that Tabatha stuck around for the awards and retrieved the overall winner’s plaque. The story has made national headlines. Many people have slammed her on social media. Justifiably so, in my opinion. There is no other sport where the effort you put in rewards you with your result. You cannot fake your way through the training, and other runners recognize and appreciate the hard work, determination, and perseverance that their fellow runners put forth. Having someone brazen enough to try and cheat, did not just cheat the Chattanooga Track Club or their marquee event; it cheated every other runner out there that had sacrificed so much before race day. Most importantly, it cheated Lillian Gilmer. She was the first woman to cross the line after running 26.2 miles. She believed (and justifiably so) that she was leading the entire race. She had the joy, the raw emotion, the thrill of hearing the cannon shot, and the recognition that accompanies the media interviews ripped from her. Sure she can always say she won the marathon that day, but she lost the real-time experience of the victory as it unfolded. The adrenaline rush and exuberance that comes with the triumph is what has kept me coming back to Chickamauga time and again.

Timing is Everything and Looking Ahead...

If you didn't see my Facebook post last night or if you missed the KTC email yesterday, I have accepted an offer to serve as the Interim Executive Director for the Knoxville Track Club through March.

It was unexpected but the timing is perfect.

I have been perfectly happy this summer and fall building my consulting business and taking some much needed time to think about the future. I have been blessed to have had great success in the business early and have been working with several steady clients on some awesome projects.

Then life happened. The outgoing KTC Director was offered a position in his original professional field that he just could not refuse. Good for him and for his family. I am thrilled for him. He has done a great job over the last 18 months and leaves on great terms.

So what is next?

I will serve as the Interim ED through March and I will continue to work with my clients through Altman Consulting.

What happens with permanent ED position for KTC????

The KTC Board will open the position to the public (it will be posted ASAP). I will have to apply just like everyone else. I have my resume and reference list ready to roll when the position is posted. If the committee likes my resume and current credentials then I will participate in the interview process. Ultimately a committee of the Board will decide on the next Executive Director.

I want them to choose me. I want the opportunity to come back to a job that I loved and work with the people that mean so much to us.

I appreciate the texts, emails, and Facebook posts in the last 24 hours welcoming me back. It reminds me that saying yes was the right answer and submitting my resume is a good move forward.

For now, I have details to finalize for a little race coming up on Thanksgiving Day. Hope to see you there!