Hotlanta Half Race Report

As advertised and expected, this race was warm, and the 7:30 start did not help matters.  I really wish they had gone with a 7:00 start to give the runners a little more time away from the sun, but you run with the hand you are dealt.

I got up at the early hour of 5:00, packed up all my stuff and headed for downtown Atlanta.  I got there a lot quicker than I thought and was surprised at the number of people who were already in the parking deck over an hour before the start.

I made my way to Underground Atlanta, which is where the race was starting.  About 45 minutes before race time I ate my Clif Bar, drank some Powerade and started to warm up.  It was not as warm as it could be for this time of year, but I knew from training runs that I was facing an uphill battle with the humidity.

The race started right on time, and the first few miles went really well.  I was right under the 10 minute/mile pace I had set for myself.  This probably had something to do with a few good downhill stretches this first few miles.  Then at mile 4, the hills started, and in the humidity, nothing drains you quicker than the hills.

Miles 5-7 brought a brief respite from the hills as they were on the pretty flat Atlanta Beltline Trail.  However, upon exiting this section, the long, slow climb up to Piedmont Park began, and this hill was tough.  I was glad to finally enter Piedmont Park for another flat stretch.  This was short lived as when we exited Piedmont, another long uphill climb awaited for mile 9-10.  At this point, I needed to take short walking breaks, and I was pouring water over my head at every water stop.  Anything I could do to stay cool was being done.

While there were still hills between miles 11 and 13, nothing compared to what had come before it.  Turning left for the final stretch, I could see the finish line, and it was up a final 2/10 of a mile hill.  I powered up this final stretch to finish in 2:25:59.  No where near what I want to do, and a good 13 minutes over my PR time.


I will say that the race was very well organized and went very smoothly.  I do not think I would do it again as all those hills in the heat are just not fun.  After all the training I did, I feel fairly confident I would have pulled off a PR under good racing conditions.  This was far from it.

Time to move onto the next challenge and race, which will probably be the Goofy Challenge in January.  While I would like to get in one more race before the proof of time date Disney has in place, right now, I am not sure if my schedule and the kids schedules will allow for that.

10 K Goal Accomplished

July 4 was the We the Runners 10K on the Big Creek Greenway.  Back when I started this latest training cycle for the Hotlanta Half Marathon next month, I set a goal of finishing this race in under an hour.  I figured if I could do that then I would know that training was where it probably should be.

I will say that the weather on July 4 was nothing like your typical July 4 in Cumming, Georgia.  The temperature at the start was only 61, and the humidity was not bad either.

What this good weather allowed Karen and I to do was come out the gate flying.  I turned a mile 1 pace of 9:03, which is the fastest mile I have ran in any race.  From there I ran every mile at a less than 10 minute pace.  End result was a finish time of 57:43.  This time was 13 minutes faster than my previous official 10K pace.  Nothing to complain about with this time.

However, I am fairly certain that had there been normal July 4 weather, the pace I ran would have been much tougher to accomplish.  I am under no illusions that the August 24 race in downtown Atlanta will be an easy affair.  I have 6 full weeks of training remaining before the taper week, which should give me a chance to train some more in high humidity mornings.

In regards to the race itself.  The We the Runners 10K was very well put together by Zulu Racing.  It was a much more relaxed and laid back alternative to the Peachtree Road Race, and the start/finish was only 10 minutes from my house, which allowed us to sleep in later on July 4.  Not a bad way to spend July 4 morning.

Wet, Muddy and Humid (Georgia Peach Jam Report)

The Georgia Peach Jam Half Marathon was yesterday, and the words for the day were wet, muddy and humid.  What was supposed to be a perfect weather weekend for running went south very quickly as rain moved in overnight on Friday.

The race was held on the Big Creek Greenway, which is a very nice area to run when it has not rained overnight.  There are many spots where it just does not drain well.  While the rain stopped right before the race kicked off, there was still standing water all over the course.  What this meant was that runners needed to navigate around the water, which meant running onto the grass at many points.  This resulted is shoes and legs covered in mud very early on, and wet shoes throughout the race.

I started out the race pretty good. I was under a ten minute mile at the 3 mile mark.  This is where I could really tell that the tempo/pace runs I have been doing for the past six weeks had really helped.  If I could keep up that pace I was easily on my way to a PR.  This was not to be.  As I have found out in a couple of previous races, humidity is just not my friend.  By about the halfway point of the race, I was starting to feel it.  This was also the point where my wife, Karen, blew on by me.  I could see her up ahead for a little while, but soon lost sight of her.  She was gone.

My wet shoes and I trudged on through the last half of the race, and I finished with a time of 2:17:35.  That's about four minutes slower than my PR.  I was also thankful that Dirty Spokes might have measured the course slightly short.  I have a Garmin and Karen uses the Nike IPhone app.  Both showed the distance we ran at 12.9 miles.  I have never had that happen in a race before.  If anything it is usually a little longer than 13.1 due to having to weave around people.

So it's onto the next challenge now.  The local 10K on July 4 followed by the Hotlanta Half in August.