The Georgia marathon was my 21st marathon! It was my third marathon of 2018, just two
weeks after the New Orleans marathon! It was my hilliest road marathon with 1534
feet of gain (hilliest trail marathon is still the Breakneck Point marathon
with 10000 feet of gain). The course was
scenic and the crowds were awesome! I
felt a lot of love throughout the course and I’ll remember it as one my
favorite races.
Recovery
Important to this race was to recover from the New Orleans
marathon two weeks before. I took two
days off and then ended up running almost 12 miles which was too much. So I took another two days off. I hiked the Saturday and did one strength
training session with a few boulder sessions.
Kept myself active but didn’t run too much. I only did 17 miles that recovery week. The week of the race the focus were on a
medium slow run (7 miles) to regain some aerobic fitness on Tuesday and a track
workout to practice running fast under some stress (2x2 miles after running 4
200s and then 2x400) on Thursday. Special
thanks to Kelvin for leading that workout and the rest of the queens distance
runners for the company!
Shakeout! – Day before race
I wanted to start my weekend in Georgia off with a sunrise
from a mountain. Found out that many
state park s open at 7 am so had to go to a national forest. In my search I found that Springer Mountain,
the southern terminus of the AT trail was only two hours away. Despite it being cloudy and zero chance of
sunrise I decided to drive up and do a morning trail run up and down the
mountain. Springer Mountain doesn’t have
the best view either but it was more of a symbolic trip. Shortest route is 2 miles and longest is
about 10 miles and I found one that was 4 miles. Perfect for a shakeout run!
After shakeout, it was a 2 hour drive back to eat lunch at
Udipi Café in Duluth (NE of Atlanta) for some south Indian food. Then to the expo center at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta. It was a tiny expo which made packet
pickup quick. Then the aquarium, 50% off
with a promo code from the virtual goodie bag of the race. The aquarium was similar to the NASA museum
in Houston where they are focusing more on experiences rather than simply
showing items. I wanted to do dinner at
Herban Fix but there was a 40 minute wait so dinner at mellow mushrooms. I ended up eating a 14” pizza slice which was
a fairly heavy dinner; something I don’t normally do (underestimated how big
the pizza was). Afterwards I did a scout
of the starting/finishing area.
Race morning!
Six hours of sleep,
a cliff bar mint chocolate bar that had some caffeine in it and a banana to get
me to the starting line. It took longer
than I thought to get ready and I got in a 3 minute warmup jog instead of 5
minutes before heading to my corral. I
moved myself a little behind 3:45 pace group.
I planned to run with them for as long as I could.
The entire race is
pretty much either uphill or downhill. I
know people always seek flat courses but I find hills to be mentally
easier. For the uphill I breathe in my
nose and out my mouth and then was the downhill I breathe in and out my nose
and focus on relaxing my breathing a bit.
You could always see the top of the hill on roads so while uphills are
slowing you down you know you only have to stick at it for 2-3 minutes and then
you got a nice downhill to enjoy. The
course is fairly scenic, a lot of beautiful green even in March! The temperature started at 55 and climbed to
66 but it was fairly cloudy so I felt like it was near perfect. I was afraid of getting hot so I sipped half
a cup of water and threw the rest on my head at every water station. There is also a half marathon and the course
felt pretty crowded for the first 7 miles where the half marathoners split off. They did do a good job separating the two
races in the end though (otherwise I would have bumped into the walkers of the half
near the end). The course is also not
completely closed to traffic and I saw one or two instances where a runner had
to stop because a car was going through.
There was also food on the course!
I ate three half oranges and a half of a banana. Fruit always feels better than gels. They also had pretzels at one station and the
volunteers were singing a rhyme for them (which I found cute) but I didn’t take
any. I used my usual gel strategy of one
gel pre-race and then one at mile 4, afterwards one every 3 miles till mile 19.
I found parking
within a 5 minute walk to the finish and about 10 minutes to the start line
fairly easy (even with my truck). A 7 am
start in March after daylight savings starts means that you start the marathon in
the dark but you get a glimpse of sunrise!
I was in corral B which went off 3-4 minutes after corral A. I immediately lost the 3:45 group getting to
the start line; I should have positioned myself right behind them. I tried to go in with the same mentality as
New Orleans where I wouldn’t look at my watch but I found myself looking at my
pace most miles. I didn’t do any
calculations about end time or total pace; I guess I was just curious if I was
keeping up.
1-7
The start of the
race felt pretty crowded. That’s usually
normal but I found myself weaving through more often than I’m use to. The course starts of at a slight downhill with
a few bumps for 3ish miles and then a short hill. Mile 4 goes through historic MLK site.
7 – 16
After mile 7 the
course really cleared up with the half marathoners gone. I could now see the 3:45 pace group ahead of
me, maybe .2 miles ahead. I would have
loved to do a surge to catch up but too risky.
There were a lot of people here cheering. A volunteer or member of the Atlanta track
club rode by several times and gave tips multiple times. It really helped out. Mile 15 I particularly remember feeling a lot
of love from the crowds. Going through
Decatur there were signs giving messages in sequence order. Like a poem and “keep going” which kept me
pretty entertained.
Miles 16 to 22
Hit the druid hills
and there was a lot of uphills with the steepest uphills being around mile
20. I originally planned to try
something I haven’t tried since my second marathon, listen to music! I was going to put headphones at mile 12 but
I felt so good that I finally decided to put them on at mile 16. I hated it and by mile 20 I took them off. I was still feeling great at this point but I
was slowing down (and I knew it). I saw
the 3:45 pace group at mile 24 at a short out and back, about 3 minutes ahead
of me.
Miles 22 to 26.2
Now back closer to
downtown. As my feet started hurting I
started to struggle on the uphills around mile 23. At mile 25 a marathon manic started talking
to me. It was her 31st
marathon and she was trying to do under 4 hours for all 50 states. We talked a bit about 50 states and then she
told me I had a bit more of a go. With
that I sped up a bit to the finish. I
kind of needed someone to tell me I still have a bit more go left.
There was much
afterwards after the finish line besides your standard banana, pretzels and
granola bars but I enjoyed the journey!
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