The Peachtree Road Race 10k

DW and I arrived in Atlanta Sunday night. We have to give a shout-out to the Extended Stay Suites in northern Atlanta. Recommended by a friend who used to live in the area, we couldn't have been more delighted with our homey room at an economical price.

I then sat down with my laptop and my elevation charts, and crafted a very sophisticated pacing strategy for the race, due to my recent difficulties in that regard. This is the first time I have been able to take hills into account in developing my strategy, thanks to the elevation chart of the race course that I had in hand. I used information from "Lore of Running" to estimate how the uphills and downhills would affect my pace, and came up with the following "split goals": 7:38, 7:17, 7:25, 8:04, 8:17, 7:28. All of this in accordance with my goal of a 47:45 PR finish time.

After a fitful sleep, we awoke at 5:30. I am blaming our tardy departure on my wife's endless primping and preening. ;-) It was 6:45 before we made it to the Marta station, about 30 minutes later than I would have liked. In fact, we got in a little warm-up as we had to jog to the starting area in order for me to get to my corral on time! Happily, I felt no pain in my knee, even at the start.

Around 7:32 AM, the runners around me began to surge forward, and we were off. Folks, it was HOT. And HUMID. The sky was overcast; I can't even imagine what it would have been like if the sun had been out. I think the heat was probably the biggest factor (but not the only one) that affected my race performance. Plenty of traffic at the start as well.

The race lived up to its reputation as a huge party, though. Cheering spectators lined the entire course. The music was loud. And there was much merriment on the course as well. One gentleman was skipping instead of running. Someone at the side was handing out Frisbees (?) to the runners, many of whom then started throwing them high in the air. As they came down, other runners would try to knock them aloft again with a finger. I saw someone running backwards, and a barefoot runner. Good Gawd, am I the only one in this race with a TIME GOAL?

First mile was 7:52. A little slow, but still in shooting range, and I feel good. Mile 2 was 7:28. I believe this puts me 25 seconds behind goal pace, but making that up sounds doable, and I'm still feeling good. Hot, but good. Third mile--7:30. Still feel good, but by this point I am soaked, including my shoes and socks. I am dumping water over my head at every stop, plus running through every one of the "spray stations" that I could. Anything to cool down. I was surprised and amused that one of the spray stations was apparently holy water supplied by a local Catholic church. Just past that station, I was doused again by a priest with a bowl of water in his hand, who called out in a spirited Irish accent, "Bless you, my child!"

By now, we have begun the roughly one-mile, 3% grade known as "Cardiac Hill". I found it very appropriate that the music I was hearing at this point was tribal drumming. Frantic, angry, war music. Not surprisingly, this is where the wheels came off of my time goal bus. This race made something very clear that I have long suspected--uphills slow me down much more than they "should". I will definitely be focusing on hill training in the immediate future. With my heart rate spiking into the low 190's, my pace slowed to a crawl. Mile 4, 9:23. Mile 5, 9:31. I am now about three minutes behind goal pace. Still, one of the "emotional" highlights of the race occurred as I finally crested the hill. With perfect timing, like he was doing it just for me, an announcer chose this point to bellow, "Congratulations runners! The hardest part is behind you. YOU HAVE CONQUERED CARDIAC HILL!" The crowd roared, the hair on my arms stood up, and then they started blasting AC-DC's "Thunderstruck". I have never been so pumped in all my life. Arms were in the air, and fists were pumping. :-)

But, maybe I shouldn't have expended that energy. :-\ The combination of the heat and the hills left me wiped, so that in spite of it being mostly downhill, I was 9:10 the final mile. So the last mile was my worst mile of the race. You may say, "Well, so much for your sophisticated strategy," but I disagree. I feel that the strategy was sound. My goal time was just too ambitious for the conditions; yet, what other goal makes sense to have in this situation other than a PR? I was able to have no regrets after the race, and that was a good feeling. Also, as I've said, this highlights for me the fact that I need to work on my hill-climbing ability.

Another thing I was pleased with was that, rather than doing a last-minute all-out "kick", I did a strong, steady "push" the last quarter or so, gently accelerating to a speed that probably was close to what a kick would have been anyway. Final chip time was 54:02.

An "Internet friend" from Virginia came to this race for an "in person" match-up with me, which I am happy to report that I won by 2:45.

The final report is that this is one of the funnest races I have ever run, and DW and I agree that we will try to make this an annual tradition. As to her run, her main goal with this race was to acquire the coveted Peachtree t-shirt by finishing within 75 minutes of the final competitor crossing the start line. She succeeded with 20 minutes to spare! I am a very proud husband. A four-year husband, as the Fourth was our wedding anniversary as well. :-D