Publix Georgia Half Marathon Race Report

Like I said in the last post, I'm a glutton for punishment....

As I sit here two days after the race, the soreness has crept up my quads and moved a bit to the outside... say, just below the hips... I'm walking a little more like a Hobbit today than I was yesterday, but I'm actually feeling better than I did after Mercedes... Which, considering the course I ran on Sunday, is nothing short of a miracle...

Out of the three Half Marathon races I've done (Mercedes, Frostbite, Mercedes, Publix), this is by far my favorite (so far) and probably one of my favorite races to date (Heart O' Dixie still takes it)... I'll try to do my best to recap the weekend and race, but as I said several times during the weekend, I felt like Country Mouse in the City and was a bit overwhelmed by Atlanta...

So here we go...

Publix Georgia Half Marathon Race Report

As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Darby Frizzell had invited me last Fall to come to the ATL and run the Half with her *and her friends* (turns out, they all bailed.. booo)... So, even though this wasn't on my actual 2011 race schedule, I figured "Why not, I'm still chasing a sub 2 hr finish in a Half and this might be the last time I can give it a go before triathlon season starts"... So I load up Saturday morning and hit the road...

I would be remiss if I didn't mention one small detail about my "pre race planning" session I had with myself on like, Thursday or Friday... Like I said, I'm still chasing the sub 2 finish and am learning (the somewhat painful way) that hitting that mark will not be as easy as I had envisioned... Frostbite was the test run (no pun intended) and Mercedes was gonna be "the one"... As I'm sure you've read, both of these races were, well, less than great... I can't say they were totally awful, since I PR'd at Frostbite, then again at Mercedes three weeks later, but I still down myself for not holding it together on race day to go sub 2...

So, in preparation for this race, I asked Darby "How is the course, is it hilly?"... Her response, "Umm, nah, not really, I mean, there are a couple of kinda big hills, but I'm sure it's nothing you can't handle, you'll be fine".... Wanting a second opinion, I texted my buddy Derek Marchman, whom I used do Kappa Sigma volunteer work with (and who recently was slated as a National Officer and God willing, will be National President in 4 yrs... but I digress)... Derek lives just outside of Atlanta and is an avid runner... So when I texted him asking about the course and telling him I'm "hoping to PR", he responded, "ATL is one of the toughest places to run... it's hilly.... good luck".... "Great" I thought, "I'm sunk".... So as I leave Ttown Saturday morning, I've got this nagging battle inside my head going-- between the sub 2 hr finish, or a PR, or a finish....

Load up Saturday morning and hit the road to the ATL... Get to Darby's and we hit the streets... Expo first at the GA Dome... the last time I was in this area was 2008 at the SEC Basketball Tournament when the tornado hit... So it was kinda cool.... Expo was pretty legit... K-Swiss' booth had samples of new colors for the K-Ona's and Kwickie Blades (which I'm currently running in) that'll come out in a few months... Needless to say, I was smitten...

We cruised around the expo for a bit, grabbed a late lunch, then hit Piedmont Park to take Darby's dog to the dog park.... It was good to catch up with Darby and really, just to get to know her at all... We both have made our graceful exits from the Greek advising biz, so we talked a lot about that, about where our careers are sort of headed, and really just about who we are as people... Really nice to be able to get to know someone like that... Brief tour'ish type thing of Atlanta with a great dinner at Figo, then it was home to bed...

If you've read any of my race reports, you'll know that I never sleep well the night before a race... I'm wired, worried, and hell I'll admit, somewhat scared of what the next day might hold... take all of that, and throw in sleeping in a new place and you've got a total trainwreck... So I'm up at 4:30am, a clear hour before my alarm :(

Caught a ride to (near) the race from a friend of Darby's... the only thing going through my mind at this point was "holy shit, this is a big race"... "Big" meaning like, 15-17k people just running... Add in another 3-4k for spectators/friends/family, and you've got yourself a race! The start/finish was in Olympic Park, which was pretty cool... Was chanting "USA , USA, USA!!" in my head before the race started... Got into my corral with the other "2 hour" pacers and figured I had nothing to lose by trying to keep up with these people...

Took me 7 minutes to get to the starting line, but alas, we're off...

Most of the race was uneventful... and by uneventful, I mean I wasn't in searing pain from pushing too hard... The course was hilly... like, really hilly, which I wasn't used to, but managed nonetheless... (As I'm just now finishing this entry two weeks after the race, things are a bit hazy... totally my fault for not writing sooner)

What I do remember about the race is this: 1) you're never alone on the course... at Mercedes, with about 5,000 runners or so, there are times where you look around and realize you're ALLLLL by yourself... Which I understand is a part of running- you do it by yourself for whatever reasons... but when the miles start to creep towards the double digit mark, it's nice to have people around you that are suffering just like you... 2) there's tons of stuff to look at during this race... again, unlike at Mercedes where you run through downtown Bham (and some bland warehouse districts), this race was enjoyable because of its landscape... We ran though different neighborhoods in downtown Atlanta (read, old money)... ran through Little 5 Points, which is an artsy area of town (and where I have seen a few shows at the Variety Playhouse before)... we ran through Georgia State's campus (I think) and through GA Tech's campus (I know), which were both pretty cool... ran through Piedmont park too, where just the day before Darby and I had hung out at the dog park.... All in all, the surroundings of the race made it bearable that you're destroying your legs for over 2 hrs...

As I've mentioned before, I'm still chasing that elusive sub 2 hr finish... It became apparent pretty quick that I wasn't going to go sub 2 for this race, so I decided to just run... don't worry about pace (well, keep everything under 10/mi) and floor it went it felt right... fastest mile was about 8:58, which is bookin' it for me... All in all, I felt pretty decent with how I ran...

Crossed the finish line in like, 2:13 and change... not a PR, but not the worst time I've run... Given the "fun" that I had with the course and the race itself, I felt really really good about things...

Managed to find Darby after an hour of waiting (a whole 'nother story in itself)... she finished way ahead of what she thought she would, so I was proud of her... I felt surprisingly good after the race (which of course, I"ve now learned does not bode well for two or more days later)... All in all, I enjoyed myself and am glad I went...

More importantly, something that my sister said has really stuck with me... before I went to ATL, I had posted something on my Facebook status about "going to ATL last minute to run a half marathon"... or something like that... Susan (my sister) and I were chatting a few days later and she mentioned something that I really hadn't thought of before... she said, "Dave, what amazes me is that you're at a level of fitness right now where you can just up and run a half marathon on the spot! You don't need any training really, you can just go and do it..."

I have to admit, after hearing that, I'm amazed at myself...

Here are some pics from the race...

Thanks for reading...

Me and Darby, makin' sure our medals weren't made of chocolate... they weren't...