Year of Races

Peachtree Shirt

There are certain races I have mentally marked on my calendar as “premiere” events.  The Peachtree Road Race is definitely one of them.  I moved to Atlanta in 1979 when I was 5 years old.  I’ve lived here (with some years in Athens) for 31 years and I’ve never ran the world’s largest 10k.  Quite a shame really.  It was fantastic and I wish I could have been a part of it sooner.

My biggest concern going into the race wasn’t the course or the distance; it was getting to the starting line.  With 50,000+ runners, it’s no small task getting downtown Atlanta.  I woke up at 5 AM, had my coffee and was out the door by 5:40.  My plan was to take MARTA from North Springs down to Buckhead.  Initially, Alysia was going to go with me and hold my stuff, but I talked her out of it the night before.  I just didn’t want her walking from the Midtown MARTA station to Piedmont Park on her own at 6:30 in the morning.

I crowded onto the train along with a crowd of other eager runners and we started the ride into downtown.  We picked up more runners at each stop and all of us exited at Lenox Mall.  Emerging from the train tunnel, I couldn’t believe the spectacle that was the Peachtree Road Race.  The Lenox Mall parking lot was just full of people milling about.  One section of the lot was roped off and runners were actually running warm-up laps in a continuous loop.  There were probably 50+ just running around and around.  Hundreds of port-a-potties were available, so I hit one early on to get it out of the way.

I was in wave B because I didn’t get my sub-50 time in until after registration closed.  I was pretty bummed about this because I knew that it meant I’d have to pass a lot more folks than I should have to.  I decided to head over to the corral and wait until the start.  I immediately ran into Nate and we hung out in the back of the wave B group until it was time to start.  We had the national anthem and a cool flyover.  Helicopters hovered in the air above us and there was this sense of excitement that could be felt as we waited for the gun.

Wave B started about 5 minutes after the elites took off.  The first mile was TOUGH.  I side-stepped onto uneven sidewalks, lunged through tiny cracks in the moving human wall, jumped off curbs, sprinted, slowed and dodged my way to an 8:06 mile.  Nate and I were trying to stay together, but it was pretty tough.  We found that hugging the left side seemed to give us the best path, so that’s where we lived for the first mile.

Somewhere during the second mile we started to free up a bit.  With so many runners, you’re never really completely clear of people, but we did have some more breathing room and could get into a rhythm a bit.  Mile 2 is downhill, so it’s one of the easier miles and I was able to significantly speed up to the tune of 7:04.  I think this is where Nate and I got separated.  He ran fantastic though and set a new PR.

By the third mile, I was feeling great.  The temps that morning were in the high 60s to low 70s and it just felt fantastic out.  Mile 3 is downhill as well, and I knew I needed to make up more time from the first mile’s problems, so I jetted to a 6:58.

Miles 4, 5 & 6 are where the majority of folks struggle.  After a few downhill miles, the second half of the race is uphill.  The famed Cardiac Hill is here.  For whatever reason, I cruised up the hills.  I passed hundreds of runners going up the hills.  They didn’t bother me in the least and I gained more and more confidence as I climbed.  My splits were 7:33, 7:26 & 7:10.

As I rounded the turn to head to the finish, I knew I was on pace for a near-PR.  As I came into view of the race clock, I checked my watch and decided to finish as strong as possible.  I came in officially at 46:09 and subsequently set a new 10k PR!  I felt great and I’m really looking forward to running it again next year.  Next time I’ll be in Wave A and won’t suffer so much on that first mile.

I walked over to Piedmont Park to get the famous Peachtree Road Race shirt and was in awe at the number of people already standing around.  Lots of them were family and friends, but I can only imagine what that park would look like in another hour.  I finished in 1,808th place and the park already seemed crowded.  I didn’t stick around for long.  I started to walk back to the Midtown MARTA station.  I was surprised at how long the walk was.  I was thankful that Alysia hadn’t come with me because I would have worried about her making that walk alone.  She’ll be there next year though…running.

The experience of running the Peachtree was incredible.  I’ve never run a more relaxing, easy-going 10k.  Time just seemed to fly by.  There was so much to look at.  From costumed runners to sidewalk bands, the entertainment for the entire 10k is great.  I only wish I would have paid more attention to some of the more historic landmarks.  I have a tendency to not really notice my surroundings and just focus on the run.  Maybe next year I’ll pick up on more of the scenery and tradition.

• Official Results
• Garmin Stats
• Photos of me (You can see in the first photo that I’ve caught up to a lot of the wave A runners.  Next year…)

Tomorrow (July 8th) is my 10-year wedding anniversary.  Alysia and I will be heading to St. Simon’s Island for a weekend getaway, but, don’t worry, we’ve found a little 5k to run while we’re there…

Possum Trot 10k shirt

Last Saturday, I had a very busy day in front of me, starting with the 32nd Annual Possum Trot 10k in Roswell, GA.  I had circled this 10k on the calendar as a possible opportunity to better my 10k PR.  This was the same course used for the Chattahoochee Challenge 10k back in February.  That was my second 10k ever and I ran a 50:09.  It’s a flat course along the Chattahoochee River, so, with my improvements, I figured I could maybe get in a sub-46.

It’s weird how things turn out sometimes.  I ended up running a 48:48 which is a far cry from my 10k PR.  I’m not sure what was wrong that morning.  It was very humid, but it’s been humid out for weeks now, so my body should be used to it.  I started out the race slow on purpose so I wouldn’t kill myself early and not have enough to push with at the end.  I just couldn’t seem to ever get out of “slow” gear though. Each time I thought I was moving quicker and picking up speed, I’d take a look at my Garmin to find that I was still only running 7:45/mile.  Definitely not where I wanted to be for the race.

A couple of things could have led to the poor time.  The night before I went over to high school track to do some speedwork with a friend of mine.  I normally wouldn’t do this the night before a race, but it was the only time we could fit it in.  I think the track work left me a bit sore and stiff in the morning.

The other thing was that I had a tennis match immediately after the race.  It may have been just in the back of my mind the whole time enough to stress me out.  I had to leave as soon as the race was over to hustle back home to change for tennis.  Immediately following tennis, we left for the beach and a 6 hour drive.  So, 10k + tennis + 6 hr drive = a triathlon of sorts I guess.

• Official Results
• Some photos of me: 1, 2, 3 (I think I sweat more in this race than ever before)
• Reviews of the race
• Garmin Stats
• The race had timing chips with start & finish mats.  That’s always a bonus in my book.

My next 10k is the Peachtree which, for those not familiar, is the largest 10k in America.  I’ve lived in Atlanta for 31 years and never run it.  I’m looking forward to the event, but the logistics of getting to the starting line kind of stress me out.  Stay tuned for more on that.

Celebrate America 10k Shirt

I wish I had more pictures of this race.  Alysia and I braved the elements and ran a 10k in Alpharetta on Memorial Day.  With the threat of rain looming, we sucked it up and headed out the door.

The course for the Celebrate America 10k was the same course as the Jog for a Cause 10k back in March.  If you recall, the course was long, coming in at 6.45 kilometers.  This prevented me from getting a P.R. that day and also caused me to whine about it a couple days later.  So, I wanted some revenge.

Overall, the race left a lot to be desired.  The shirt is pretty cheap looking – gray cotton.  No goodie bag, not even a box of rice.  This was kind of surprising because the race has a lot of participants.  I would think they would offer a technical shirt and some decent goodie bags.  We got our numbers and Alysia noticed they had incorrectly marked her down for the 5k.  We got that straightened out and we were ready to go.

I think the race directors learned a little about the course from the Jog for a Cause run because this time they started us down the street a bit.  What was strange was that they started the 10k runners further down the street than the 5k runners.  This must have been really annoying for the fast 5k guys.  They had to pass ALL the 10k folks during their race.  Not really great planning in my opinion.

We took off and not even a mile into the run the heavens opened up and it rained HARD for about 15-20 minutes.  My dri-fit shirt wasn’t very dry and, in fact, weighed about 5 lbs.  My shoes and socks were soaked.  It was crazy.  It was raining so hard that I had old sweat that had built up in my hat running into my eyes.  With my glasses fogging up and sweat going in my eyes, it’s  a wonder I didn’t run over someone.  As miserable as this all sounds, it was actually really fun.  I had never run in the rain before and it just turned out to be a great experience.  It wasn’t a thunderstorm, so I wasn’t worried about lightning or hail or anything crazy like that.  Just good old hard rain.  At least we aren’t this guy:

ouch

I ended up running really well despite having to splash through some puddles and carry around some extra water weight in my clothes.  I rounded the corner for the last stretch of road and knew I had a pretty decent time going.  I picked up the pace and passed through the chute at 46:12.  That’s a new 10k P.R. by about 6 seconds.  I don’t have the official time yet, but it should be a P.R. either way.

Alysia also ended up running a new P.R.  It leaves me to think what we could have done that morning without the rain…

There was a photographer there snapping some pics.  Here is one of Alysia and I:

New PR's! I love you. I love you too.

• OFFICIAL RESULTS – They have me at 46:17.  Not happy about that.  The race clock and my watch both said 46:12 at the finish.  Anyway, I finished 5th (out of 22) in my age group and Alysia finished 7th (out of 12) in her age group.
• Garmin stats
• Alysia’s iTouch cut out during the hard rain, but thankfully came back on after she stuck it in her pants.  That would have been an expensive 10k if we had lost her iTouch.
• Neither of us won an award.  They looked pretty nice.
• If you ran the 10k, you were out of luck for post-race refreshments.  No water or food left after the run.  Really poor.
• The course was a double loop.  With the hard rain, it was SUPER tempting to veer off and finish as a 5k.  I know Alysia said she was contemplating it.  I was too.  Neither of us did of course and I felt immediately empowered passing the 5k finish.  It’s like we were warriors.  We didn’t care about the rain.  :)

Next week is Alysia’s triathlon.  I’ll be cheering her (and Nate, Christy & Dave) on Saturday morning.  So, it will be  another Sunday run for me:  the Harris Jacobs Dream Run 4 miler.  Anyone else doing that one?

In an effort to make up for the race that got canceled back in February, I doubled up this weekend.  Saturday I was in Alpharetta at the 14th Annual Mayor’s Challenge 10k and Sunday I was back at Boling Park in Canton for the Alvin Price 5k for Cancer Research.  Neither race went really great, but I ran solid times for me in both.

Mayor's Challenge shirt

14th Annual Mayor’s Challenge 10k

This was an early start time of 7:15 AM.  I had set my alarm for 5:15 Friday night and had gotten to bed pretty early.  Turns out I set the wrong alarm and so I woke up at 6:17 wondering why it was so light out.  After a brief second of panic, I jumped out of bed, gathered my gear, got some coffee and hit the road.  I made it over to Will’s Park in plenty of time, but my morning routine was shot.  I really hate being behind schedule.

There appeared to be a few hundred folks running the 5k & 10k, which both started at the same time.  The course was a double loop around Will’s Park and downtown Alpharetta.  The hills weren’t too bad, but the humidity was thick.  I ran the first 5 miles really well, but ended up getting passed by a ton of people at the end.  Here’s a photo of one of the people that flew by me in that last mile.

Eat my dust, sonny.

I ended up running a 47:23, which is about a minute off my PR.  I didn’t stick around for the awards.  I’m pretty sure I didn’t place.  I’ll keep an eye open though for the official results.

The shirt was advertised as a technical shirt.  It wasn’t.  100% cotton and actually pretty ugly.  I don’t really understand how you can say a race is giving away technical shirts and then not have them.  Oh well.  They did have a pancake breakfast though for all finishers.  That’s pretty cool.

My Garmin crapped out on me when trying to upload the run, so I’ve got no stats.

Alvin Price 5k Shirt

Alvin Price 5k for Cancer Research

An 8 AM start and a location 10 minutes from my house and I was loving life.  The race was held at Boling Park.  It was 2.5 flat loops around the park.  It was mostly crushed gravel path and some dirt/grass trail, so you couldn’t quite go as fast as on road, but it was a prime 5k course for a new P.R.  Unfortunately, the course was measured short at 2.89 miles.  I ran a 20:52, which would be a P.R. on a regulation 5k course, but, with the distance at 2.89, it was actually only a 7:13/mile pace.  This is 12 seconds per mile slower than my Big Peach 5k run.  Here are my Garmin stats.

yay me

I did come in second in my age group though and got a nice trophy.  The winner of my age group was in at 17-something, so no hope in catching that guy.  Here’s a picture of him.

Fast

I feel like I’ve kind of hit a plateau.  I think in order to get my times down more I’m going to need to do some more focused training — hills, intervals, tempo, fartlek, whatever.  I’m still pretty new at this running thing so I need to figure out how to do some of these types of training runs.  It’s easy to read about them, but another thing entirely to get out there and do them right.

Next week is the Full House 5k.  Should be fun.  Who’s with me?

Run the River 10K shirt

We were in Roswell Saturday morning running the Choate Construction Run the River 10K.  It was a beautiful morning with perfect running weather.  The course was advertised as fast and flat, so I was hoping to finally get that sub-50 monkey off my back.  My PR for the 10K was 50:09 set way back in February.  If you remember, I had a near miss at the Jog for a Cause 10K, but the course measured in at 6.45 miles and I missed my mark.  So, I really wanted to get it done Saturday.  Also, Alysia & Nate were running the 10K as well.  It’s much more fun to have some company with me.  This was Alysia’s FIRST 10K!

We got lined up for the race.  I stayed back near the middle of the pack with Alysia.  When the gun went off, I spent the first half mile or so weaving in and out of folks.  Once we got some spacing, I settled into a low 7 minute mile pace.  After last week’s hilly Operation Yellow Ribbon 5K, I had some confidence on being able to maintain that kind of pace.  I figured if I could run a hilly 5K at 7:21/mile then I could do a flat 10K at about the same.

Really the run was pretty uneventful.  I passed a bunch of folks at the beginning having started in the middle of the pack, but I did eventually end up with a group of runners that were at about my pace.  At around 2 miles we veered off onto a dirt road.  This was a bit more challenging with the loose rocks, but nothing to really slow me down.  I hit the 3 mile mark at 23-something.  I was feeling great and knew I could keep it going.  The only challenging hill came just after 3 miles.  It was short but fairly steep.  The good thing was that it marked the turnaround point for the course, so we got to then cruise back down the hill.

I was feeling really strong, so I kept up my low 7 minute mile pace and started passing some more runners the last 1.5 miles.  It was nice to finish strong.  I ended up coming in at 46:09 on my watch.  The official time will be a little off probably.  As I mentioned, I started in the middle of the pack, and they weren’t using timing chips.  Either way, I crushed my previous PR by about 4 minutes.

• Alysia did fantastic in her first 10K.  She only walked 3 times for a minute or so each time.  She crossed the line in 1:04:30.  Really good time for her first and I’m so proud of her.
• Nate also set a PR by coming in at 50:18.  Great Job!
• The shirt is a nice technical material.
• There appeared to be a decent crowd for this race.  I’d say around 400-500.
• There was an 80-yr old guy there trying to set the Georgia record in the 10K for his age.  I saw him cross the finish line as I was waiting for Alysia, but I’m not sure if he broke the record or not.  I hope so.
• Official results (Don’t have them yet).  Not sure where I finished in my age group.  Probably top 10 I’m guessing. (UPDATED:  Here are the results.  46:18.  Turns out it was a weak 35-39 group and I finished 3rd out of 32 and 38th out of 377 overall.  Guess I should have stuck around for the awards…)
• Pictures (UPDATED: Photos are at the Collages.net site.  Username is “Run the River” and password is “19065″.)

With March in the books, I thought I’d take some time reflecting on the first quarter of 2010. I’ve put together a list of some of the highlights & lowlights from Q1:

Proudest Accomplishment: Finishing my first half marathon. I’m proud to have finished in under 2 hours and I’m looking forward to attempting to better my time in the Fall.

Biggest Improvement: Cutting 4 1/2 minutes off of my 5k time.  I went from a 27:35 on 1/1/2010 to a 22:59 on 3/20/2010.

Best Shirt: ATC Resolution Run 5k. It’s a black, lightweight, long-sleeve technical shirt.  It’s also the first shirt I got in this crazy adventure and I think it means just a little bit more to me.

Worst Race: Etowah Soccer 5k. I enjoyed Reid’s company for sure, but the race didn’t even have bibs, the course was insanely hilly, they didn’t publish the results anywhere, and the age groups were dumb.

Best Course: Chattahoochee Challenge 10k. Flat and fast!  It’s still my 10k PR and I could have easily pushed myself harder if I hadn’t been blindly following the pace group leader.

Worst Course: Jog for a Cause 10k. Advertised as a Peachtree Road Race Qualifier, the course measured in at 6.45 miles. How can a course be a PRRQ and not even be an accurate distance?

Best post-race food: Run for the Children 5k. Great spread. Could have easily eaten 5x as many calories as I burned during the run.

Best post-race schwag: Chattahoochee Challenge 10k. Very cool freebies that included free energy bar samples, a tree to plant, earth-friendly bags and more.

Biggest disappointment: Mardi Gras 5k. Because of the snow and ice in the Atlanta area, the race was canceled. This crippled my plan to run a race every weekend in 2010. I’ll still be doing 52 this year, but now I’ll have to double up one weekend.

Firsts: 10k & Half Marathon

Race Miles: 59.2 (7 5k, 4 10k, 1 HM)

Race Time: 8 hrs 14 min 52 sec

New gear:  Garmin Forerunner 305 & Asics Gel-Trail Attack 5 WR

Friends/family I’ve had the pleasure of running with:  Alysia, Christina, Nick, Reid, Nate, Tim

I’m still loving this challenge and I’m grateful I’ve been able to stay healthy so far.  I hope I can hold it together and make it through Q2.  Maybe even set some new PRs.  I’ve got at least 2 new distances that I’ll be running this quarter:  a 4.5 mile trail run and a 6k.  Here’s my schedule.  I’ve got quite a few “TBDs” on the board, so, if you know of a cool race coming up, let me know.

I get asked all the time “why are you running a race every weekend?  Why not just go out and run on your own?”  Well, the short and pathetic answer is that I’m too lazy to get out and run on my own.  I’ve tried that and it doesn’t work.  By registering (paying) for a race, I’m locked into running it.  I can’t make an excuse not to run, I’ve already signed up.

Hope to see everyone out there!  Tomorrow is the Dirty Spokes Running the River’s Ridge 4.5mi trail run.  Wish me luck!

Ok, so for those that don’t know me, I’m kind of competitive and intense.  It’s been eating at me that I wasn’t able to get my sub-50 like I had intended at this weekend’s Jog for a Cause 10k.  As more and more reviews trickle in, I realize that I’m not the only one who thought the course was a bit long.  It turns out that almost everyone who was measuring with a GPS device had it at 6.4+ miles.  That got me thinking…  Was I really feeling bad that morning or was it just an excuse after the race to justify missing my goal?  Without the added distance could I have made my sub-50 goal?   I decided to dig a bit deeper.  Why?  Because I’m annoying like that.

10 kilometers = 6.2137 miles

Here are my splits:

• Mile 1 – 7:41
• Mile 2 – 8:02
• Mile 3 – 8:03
• Mile 4 – 8:05
• Mile 5 – 8:14
• Mile 6 – 8:07
• Remaining .45 – 3:26 (206 seconds)

Total time of 51:38

Adding up the first 6 miles, I’m at 48:12.  I’ve got 1:47 to spare to get under 50…

So, if a regulation 10k is 6.2137 miles, then let’s take a percentage of the remaining distance to figure out what kind of time I could have had.  .2137/.45 = 47.49%

47.49% of 206 seconds is 98 seconds or 1:38.

48:12 + 1:38 = 49:50.  I want my dang PR.  :)

Jog for a Cause

UPDATE: 10k Official Results

I was in Alpharetta, GA this morning running the 7th Annual Jog for a Cause 10k.  The weather was kind of chilly in the 40s and fairly windy.  The streets were still wet from the rain the past 3 days.  Overall, not really ideal running conditions for me.  I’m not sure if I’m still sore from the Half Marathon last week or what, but I just didn’t have it this morning.  The race was advertised as fast and flat, so I was really hoping for a sub-50 time, but, honestly, I wasn’t even close.  51:42 on my watch.

Alysia and I

Both Alysia and Christina came out to run the 5k, so that was cool.  This was Alysia’s first 5k EVER, and she rocked it coming in at about 32:53.  Christina was aiming for a sub-32, but came up a hair short at 32:20.  Outstanding effort out of both of them.  I love having friends/family out there running with me.  I also got to meet Nate, a co-worker of Alysia’s, who has been running quite a bit lately.  Nice guy and I look forward to seeing him at some future events.

So, the course was a loop around the North Point area.  10k’ers did the loop twice.  I guess it was flat, but there was a long hill on the back stretch that took a lot out of me.  The weird thing is that this was a Peachtree Qualifier event, yet my Garmin Forerunner 305 measured the distance at 6.45.  I thought that maybe it was just a malfunction on my end, but then a fellow DailyMiler said that her Garmin measured in at 6.46?  So, was this a “long” 10k or were both of our devices going wacky?  Not sure.

I’m not sure what’s up with me this past week.  I’m assuming my body’s not fully recovered from the Half Marathon, but I just don’t feel right.  My hamstrings and calves have been tight all week, and, during the race this morning, they felt really tight again.  I think I need to incorporate some better stretching routines into both my pre-race and post-race activities.  I’m getting too old to just go out and run 6 miles without ample warmup.

Jog for a Cause Shirt

The shirt is great.  A short-sleeve light-weight technical shirt.  Just the kind I like.  Unfortunately, Alysia didn’t get hers today due to the large amount of race-day registrants (including Alysia), but the race volunteers assured her they would drop it in the mail.

• Official results
• Garmin stats.
• Reviews of the race.
• Photos from TrueSpeedPhoto (UPDATE: Pic of Alysia and I)
• They had really nice post-race food:  cookies, muffins, bagels, smoothies
• File this in the TMI file if you want, but I had to pee the whole race.  Problem was that the line for the port-o-potties was like 50 people long.  That’s ridiculous.
• No timing chip, which meant for us middle-of-the-pack runners, we had no idea where the actual starting line was and the official times won’t be as accurate.

I have no idea yet which race I’ll be doing next week.  Any suggestions?  There are 2 5ks in Powder Springs that are possibilities.  There is the ING Half Marathon in Atlanta on Sunday.  I’ve been torn on which one to do, but now I’m thinking my body’s just not ready for another long event.  Maybe a 5k is in order…  Stay tuned.  I’ll pick one eventually. 

Resolution Rush Shirt

It was a beautiful morning here in Atlanta for the Resolution Rush 10k.  With all the miserable weekends we’ve had so far, this was definitely a needed change of pace.  I was excited about this event because it is literally 3 minutes from my front door in good old Hickory Flat, GA.  I was able to sleep in a little later than usual and still get over to the starting line in plenty of time.

The 5k runners took off at 8am while us 10k folks had to sit around until 8:30.  This was kind of a bummer, but ended up being pretty cool seeing the 5k winners come through.  I don’t usually get to see that since I’m normally in the middle of the pack somewhere.

The course was an out-and-back type that we did twice for the 10k.  Some rolling hills but nothing too steep.  I haven’t been running as much the past couple of weeks, so I knew this race would be tough for me.  I’ve had a bit of a cold and some nagging injuries that have kept me off the pavement.  I NEED to get back into the swing of things or I might actually die during the Berry Half Marathon on March 6th.

Garmin Forerunner 305

This past week I took the plunge and dropped some cash on a Garmin Forerunner 305.  This was my first run using it.  I’m soooo glad I bought this little gadget.  It was really nice knowing my pace, distance, and heart rate as I was progressing through the race.

Here are my splits courtesy of the Forerunner 305:

Resolution Rush Splits

As you can see I kept a pretty even pace throughout – about 8:15/mile.  I need to get that down to 8:00 even or just below if I want to get a sub-50 10k.  Today I finished in 50:14.  Not too bad considering my lack of miles recently.  I had to work a lot harder on this one though than I did during the Chattahoochee Challenge.  My heart rate was definitely up there in the 180s quite a bit.  I never stopped though and felt fairly decent afterwards.

Also, as a bonus, I took advantage of the smaller crowds and finished 3rd in my age group.  This was a pleasant surprise and I received a nice little medal for my effort.  I’m proud of this guy:

Resolution Rush Medal

Other interesting tidbits:

• the shirt is short-sleeve moisture wicking.  Kind of plain.  I still like the technical long-sleeve shirts best.
• plenty of post-race food – chocolate chip cookies, bananas, smoothie samples, bagles
• no chip timing this time, so the award ceremony was delayed a bit, but I’m glad I stuck around
• traffic situation was kind of sketchy as they had to let cars come down the middle of E Cherokee Dr with runners going both directions on the sides.  Wasn’t too bad, but a tad annoying.  The police officers did a great job stopping traffic at intersections for runners.
• I’ll link to the official results if they post them online. UPDATED: Here are the results.
• TrueSpeedPhoto was there again.  I’ll link to any photos they took of me.  UPDATED: Pics 1, 2, 3, 4
• Here are some reviews on active.com.

Chattahoochee Challenge Shirt

The Chattahoochee Challenge 10k was advertised as a flat, fast course.  I would agree with that.  I set a new PR this morning, running the race in 50:09.  I had a lot of fun as usual and hope to get a chance to run this event again next year.

I arrived at the Chattahoochee Nature Center around 6:30am.  I wanted to get there early to secure a parking spot near the Nature Center so I wouldn’t have to park a mile away.  Waking up at 5:30 this morning to make my parking dreams happen was no treat, but it worked.  I went inside, registered, and got my race bib and timing strip.  Now, I had about an hour and a half to kill until the start of the race and it was 44° and damp.  I came prepared however.  I went back to my car and read some more of the latest Dan Brown novel.

Around 7:45 I ventured out and made my way down to the starting line on Willeo Rd.  It was a well organized start with a mat to trigger my timing strip.  We all took off a bit after 8 and I noticed that they had a few pace groups running.  I’ve never run a race with pace groups, but I wanted to give it a shot.  One of the groups was running a 49:00 race.  This was ideal as I really wanted to break 50 minutes.  I spent about the first 2 miles catching up to the guy carrying the orange flag.

For most of the remainder of the race I stayed right with the pace group.  Never really laboring and actually enjoying the company.  We chit-chatted back and forth and eventually some folks dropped back.  Around mile 5 it was really just me, another woman, and the pacer.  I didn’t pay much attention to my splits, although the mile markers were clear and the digital times were presented at each marker.  I was with the pacer, so as long as I kept up with him, I was in under 50.

At mile 6, I realized that whatever device the guy was using was wrong.  We weren’t on pace for 49:00.  I decided to finish hard the last .2 miles to salvage whatever I could from what I thought was going to be a successful run.  Like I said, I finished at 50:09 and I think the pacer came in at 50:18 or so.  I’m kind of disappointed because I know I could have broken 50, but I REALLY enjoyed running with that little group.  I’m considering investing in my own GPS device so that I’ll be able to keep my own pace as well.  We’ll see.

All in all, a great, well organized event.  Probably the best one so far in 2010.

Other items of note:

• Official times were online super fast.  Huge plus in my book.
• The shirt is a short-sleeve cotton deal.  I actually prefer the technical shirts, but if they saved money on the shirts to give more to the Nature Center, then I’m definitely cool with that.
• One of the women running in our pace group beat me at the Polar Bear 5k.  Not this time, friend.
• I finished 27th out of 100 in my age group.  Not too bad.  Still wish I could have seen 49 on my time instead of 50.
• Lots of goodies handed out after the race.  I love the swag you get at these things.
• The course was really flat.  Here’s the course on mapmyrun.com.
• Didn’t see anyone puking at the race, but did see the usual number of snot rockets which are just as disgusting.
• Although it was a cold, dreary morning again, I enjoyed running by the river.  Very peaceful other than the 1000 runners, volunteers, photographers, cops, etc. 
• True Speed Photo was at the event.  I’ll update the post with any links to pictures of me that I find.  UPDATE: pic of me being a goofball
• I always enjoy reading what others thought of the race.  Here are some mixed reviews.

Next week, I’ll be in the heart of Marietta for the Mardi Gras 5k.  Anyone else running this one?