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.

Magnolia Run shirt

Well, I’m a bit behind on my posting.  I usually try and get my race recaps up the weekend of the race, but here it is Thursday and I still hadn’t written it.  Better late than never I suppose.

Last Saturday, I was down at Perimeter Mall in Atlanta running the Magnolia Run.  It was a 4 mile event and gave me a chance to better my 4 mile PR set last week at the Harris Jacobs Dream Run.  Temperatures were in the 80s and humidity was about 90%.  Luckily the course wasn’t too hilly.

I was surprised by the number of runners that showed up for the event.  In fact, I was happy to see they offered timing chips as well.  Bonus!  I love the races that use the timing chips because it usually leads to quicker results and awards ceremonies.

Once again, I took off too fast and ended up slowing down as the race went on.  First mile was pretty good at around a 6:50 or so.  Eventually the heat and humidity took its toll on me though.  I slowed down and my splits got progressively worse.  I ended up getting passed by a number of folks near the end, but still managed to improve on my 4 mile PR by 10 seconds.  I finished at 29:22 which was good for 6th in my age group and 39th overall.  (official results)

TrueSpeedPhoto was there taking pictures.  I’m here, here and here.  Clearly sucking wind.

This weekend I’m back at another 10k — the 32nd Annual Possum Trot.  It should be fast and flat.  Immediately after the race I’ve got an ALTA Mixed Doubles tennis match.  Immediately following tennis, we’re driving down to Seagrove, FL for the week.  I guess this is my version of a triathlon.  Hope my transition times are solid.

I still haven’t figured out what I’m doing on the weekend of 6/26. We’ll be travelling back from Florida on Saturday, so I may have to do a Sunday race.

The premier race in Atlanta this past Saturday was probably the Big Peach 5k.  I originally had plans to run the Derby Dash 5k near my home in Canton, but after a stretch of races that were slack about putting up race results, I decided to make the drive down to Atlanta and run a bigger, and probably better organized, event.  I’m certainly glad I made the trip.

Runners met in the Brookhaven MARTA station parking lot.  There was plenty of parking and plenty of room to do some warming up.  I checked in, pinned my bib on and attached my timing chip.  I was good to go so I decided to run some laps around the parking lot to warm up.  It was  a warm morning with really high humidity and an ever-present chance of rain.  I regretted wearing the long-sleeve shirt I had on, but at least it was light weight.

The race ended up having about 1600 runners.  Not everyone elected to pay the extra $5 to be timed, so they don’t all show up in the official results.  We lined up.  Here’s a good picture of the start.  I’m somewhere on the left, about 4-5 rows deep.  I lined up in a pretty good spot.  I didn’t have to dodge too many slower runners and I didn’t get trampled by 5-minute milers.  Here’s another good picture better showing the size of the race.

I had looked at the route on mapmyrun.com the day before, so I had a strategy going in. The first half was mostly downhill and the second half was mostly uphill.  I wanted to go out as fast as I could on the first mile so that I’d have built up a time buffer to use on the hills in the second and third miles.  My strategy worked pretty well.  Here were my splits:

Mile 1: 6:31

Mile 2: 7:01

Mile 3: 7:35

remainder: 6:01

As you can see, my pace definitely slowed on the hills.  I ended up setting a new 5k PR though on a fairly challenging course: 21:54.  Here are the official results.  Obviously, I didn’t win any awards. I finished 19th out of 76 in my age group.  In fact, to have taken 3rd in my age group, I would have had to run an 18:19.  I’m a long way from being able to do that.  The overall winner ran a crazy 15:06.  That’s ridiculous.  I was really excited to have gotten in under 22 minutes for the first time.  Maybe if I actually do some more focused training, I can get it down even lower.  Here’s a picture of me sucking wind as I approach the finish line.  I could see the clock and new I needed to pick up the pace to get under 22 minutes.

Big Peach 5k Shirt

• The shirt is very nice.  A Nike-branded short-sleeve technical shirt.  This was another perk of choosing a more popular 5k.
• The race results were up by Saturday afternoon.  That’s the kind of turnaround I like to see.  I know the timing chip helped in this, but it really is nice to see those results posted immediately
• Garmin Stats:

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?

I participated in the Atlanta Track Club Resolution Run 5k in Kennesaw, GA this morning.  It was my first race for 2010 and it was great to get started.  According to my watch, I ran a 27:30.  Not my best, but the good thing is I have lots of room for improvement.  It was only my 3rd 5k ever, so I’m still a newbie.

About the race:

• The temperature was in the mid-40s and windy.  I decided to ditch the sweat pants and run in shorts, UA pullover, gloves and beanie.
• We had a few hundred participants in the 5k.  (There was also a 10k being run.  Maybe one day I’ll get there.)
• Very well organized and run.
• DAG timing chip
• T-shirts handed out AFTER the race which is always better IMO
• Water station at the halfway point
• Timely award presentation.  We didn’t have to wait around too long.  As I said, I’m still a newb at this running stuff, but I’m assuming this is because of the DAG timing chip.
• Long-sleeve technical shirt.  Very nice actually.
• Route had some rolling hills, but nothing too steep
• The port-a-potties had a bit of a line, but I’ve seen worse

All in all, I felt like it was a great race to start the year with.  I’d grade it an A.

The results are already posted at www.atlantatrackclub.org.  I guess the time they’re posting is the clock time.  They say I finished in 28:40, but it took me about a minute to cross the starting line.  I finished 7th in my age group (35-39).  Hopefully as the year progresses, I’ll start seeing some improvement.

The AJC also has some photos up from the event.  Alas, none of me.

UPDATED:  More pics here.