The Peachtree Road Race 10k

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shorts
844 CHUCK 37 ATLANTA GA 48:28 46:59 open men's division
1736 over all

306 ALYSON 23 DENVER CO 52:46 51:16 open women's division
2993 overall

LONG
Ok a comedy of errors here. Let me list the things that went wrong for/during the race.
1. The pre-arranged cab can't find me. After 3 calls I make that morning they are 15 minutes late. The guy on the other end of the phone has a very strong accent. they have 3 out of 4 numbers wrong, have be on BLVD instead of Dr. Mad

The cab was the back-up means since Alyson and I were going to skate as a warm up but none of the skaters committed to anything. Mad

2. I can't find the chest-strap to my HRM. Mad

3. I forgot my Gel. Not bad for a 10k for most folks, but not very good for a hypoglycemic
4. Initially they won't let Alyson and me in the same corral, I am 1A, and she is 1B. They won't let me drop back a gate?
5. My GPS was set wrong, NO information except stopwatch.
6. 3.5 hours of sleep the night prior to racing.
7. I broke my necklace and lost my skate pendant.
I think that covers it all.

So Alyson and I wake up at 4:00 am. I eat my customary dry bagel and get my sports dink mix I had in the fridge waiting for me. I call the cab at 4:30 to make sure the pre-arranged 5:00 am cab is still en-route. I am assured it is. 5:00 rolls around and no cab. I call them back to see what and why. Why? Because they have the wrong numbers and street type listed. How did they come up with what they had I have no clue but I am told they are enroute now to the correct location. 5:10. no cab, they call me with an English as a first language phone operator. I tell him in no uncertain term, I want a cab here NOW!!! 5:15 no cab. We decide we can walk the 2 miles to the MARTA and use that as the warm up. Getting to the MARTA was really no problem, getting in the station was easy, so easy I was impressed on how they had the set up. They had staff there to make change, sell tokens, had the gates really open all you did was throw a token into the catch bin. Very easy, efficient and smart.

On the train a few people see the Forerunner and start asking questions about it. I turn it on in the subway which turns off the GPS part of the unit. ( I should have turned it off and back on. I was not thinking that early. We get to the general staging area and start to look for our corral and immediately we get out photo taken by one of the event photographers. I would love to see that picture. Hit the port-a-potty and then go to out corrals. I go to follow her to the one behind me and they won’t let me in. This woman drunk on her “power” is adamant that I am not allowed stand in the corral for time until the race starts, over an hour away. Anyway thankfully I know one of the volunteers holding the partition between out groups and allows me to take the step backwards. (Waiting for world chaos to follow now.) I run into a few other runners I know, introduce Alyson and we talk, tell stories, I get to hear about Peachtree pasts. Finally the Wheelchair division heads out.

20 minutes later we start moving. I never heard a gun for the “run” to start but hey the wave of humanity is moving and it’s either move or be trampled. We cross the mats and start the run. We crest the first rise and I can see down and up the next incline. OMG the amount of people in front of me is huge. Then I realize that there are 8 time groups behind me and that sight must be overwhelming. No time to be daunted. Alyson and I start off and we decide where to meet in case we get separated, in case? OH yeah, we will, just by the sheer number of people it’s hard to see each other already at times. I see a break to the right step through it, Alyson didn’t make this cut. This is the last I see her until she arrives at the WXYZ balloon. At this time I look at the Garmin and notice the display is not giving all the numbers it should be. WTF? As I run I am cycling through the screens and notice, no pacing, no distance, only time. It’s now I realize I never turned the unit off from the subway and the GPS is off. I have a stopwatch for the blind display but that’s it. So, no HRM, no pace, no distance. I think of jrjo and think, “UUGG run like caveman” no fancy stuff to use.
I come to the first water station and grab a cup hoping for any-“ADE” but to no avail, only water I grab a cup, gulp a mouthful and toss the cup. Continue on. A few steps later I see a guy holding out a tray of Krispy Kreme glazed doughnuts. I reach and grab one and just shove it my mouth. (Trivia. I can fit a whole doughnut in, have plenty of room to chew and breath through my mouth while racing Embarassed

) my normal racing mode of picking out a distant runner and homing in on them is not possible so I run, I listen to the cheers, the side music, the shouts out to individuals running.

After a few miles I start up the infamous “Cardiac Hill”, conveniently located in front of Piedmont Hospital. Personally I was not too intimidated by it but I knew it would affect the pace since this is a mile uphill with a plateau in the middle. I made it up the hill with minimal extra difficulty.

With no technical data I was relying on my experience on how I felt at certain levels of exertion and would exert or pull back accordingly. This seem to work well and once again thought of jrjo “UUGG, Me run, Me run uphill, UUGG pass people, people pass UUGG” I caught my first split at mile 4, 29?? Ok, doing pretty good then, trying to do math for a finishing time. I caught my 5 mile split, 39?? Wow seems slow but it was up hill. I thought of beating my last 10k of 48:56 was not going to happen.

I came into familiar territory, I must pass here at least once a week, maybe even more. I pick up the pace and feel the elation of nearly finishing my first Peachtree. I make the last turn and can see the finish line. I change lanes off to the right where it is less trafficked and give all I have, ok not much left in the tank but a slight kick still. I FINISHED!!!!!! Clock time 48:28, my time was 46:58.92 , they rounded up to 46:59. Either way I still broke 47 minutes then it occurs to me. A NEW PR (as an adult)
I make it over to the balloons and barely there when Alyson comes in. More pictures, the search for food, and then a post race walk home interrupted by a coffee stop and a post race party. The party given by one of my running friends even has one of the Kenyans there. WOW. He finished 27th, and 30:?? Bad day for him

Gone Fishin

Woohooo, a caveman runner is born. And you got a PR out of it. thumbs up

Great report as usual Hype! So is this the inaugural? Next year again?

Member

Member

What a race! I'm still Shocked

about you two racing on only 3.5 hours of sleep...that's a great finish with so many obstacles! A big congrats to both of you! You both ran so well!!!!! thumbs up

The Pinball

congrats on the PR hyper. Mr. Green

caveman works for you!!

Frightened Inmate #2

Nice report. Nice finish and you did it without skates. Razz

Member

Congrats!! thumbs up

Especially on the PR without the gadgets!

Member

http://www.marathonfoto.com/order_assigned_photos.cfm?BFI=w8lh2pd17e&OID=16902004S1&CustomerNumber=P22805&Language=en&Action=Remove&NegsNumber=5086757

Pics Myself and Alyson and I. Mr. Green

She's the cute one.

Member

Nice times, both of you.

Can't believe you could run that fast. My co-worker that I gave my number to finished in about 55 minutes. Even though she had my 1B seeded number, she said she dodged people for the first 2 - 3 miles and couldn't maintain a regular (faster) pace.

Member

POTFH

Congratulations on surviving your race without any electronics. As long as my stopwatch is running I am happy!

Member

Well done. Those huge mass starts are pain in the rear. By the time you get a pace, the race is over.

Congrats on a PR, but now you need to work on your math Wink

Sheldon

Excelent

Nice job Hyper and Alyson.

Nice pix too

Kermitologist

cool! you make me wish i had run it after all... oh well, theres always next year.

and NO RAIN!! woo hoo!

as a side note, i got an application for the US 10K classic today...hmmmm...i wonder if i could pull that off....

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The Peachtree Road Race 10k

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