I survived the Peachtree Road Race!

At one point, I wasn't sure we would even make it to the start, much less the finish! My friend Cara picked me up at 7:30 am yesterday, which should have allowed us plenty of time to get to the starting line by 8:56 am. Then our MARTA train got stuck behind a broken train...in a tunnel. I watched the minutes tick by on my watch: 8:00, 8:05, 8:10. We got back up and running, but a few stops later we all (and by this I mean hundreds of runners trying to get to the start) realized that we needed to transfer trains because the one we were on was going north, not northeast like we needed. We finally got to our stop at about 8:40 am and hauled our butts up the hill to the start line. We made it with just five minutes to spare. I had never been so annoyed at MARTA, but we made it!

I started off the race a little teary-eyed as the announcer recognized the participants who had served in the military. A few minutes into the race, a DJ was blasting "I Want You Back" by the Jackson 5. There was lots more music along the way, both live bands and DJs. There were also plenty of interesting costumes to keep me amused (see below)! I also chatted with a group of WVU alumni from Martinsburg for a few minutes.

The weather was surprisingly nice for July 4th in Atlanta. It was a little warmer than optimal for running (around 75 by the time I got out there), but the humidity was pretty low. I never felt like I was going to have heatstroke, and I was hydrated enough that I didn't need to stop at the water stations during the race.

After a first mile split of 11:23, I realized that I wasn't getting anywhere particularly fast. The crowd was amazingly thick, especially in the back where I was running. So I figured that if I could average 11-minute miles for the race (about 1:08), I would be satisfied. The hills were a little tough, but I finished in 1:08:04. It was a few minutes slower than last year's time, but a decent showing overall. Every runner got a timing chip this year, so you can look up my time on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution website! I got 21,366th place...hey, that's in the top half! (EDIT: Turns out I got 21,365th place because the 4th place finisher was disqualified!)


So, I survived the Peachtree Road Race and added a third Peachtree t-shirt to my collection. See you next summer, Peachtree!

And hey...five months until the Memphis Half Marathon! Yipee!

Photos are courtesy of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (www.ajc.com).