ING Georgia Marathon - 26.2 mile Marathon.
Date of Race: 03/22/2010
Total Time = 4h 05m 47s
Overall Place = 701/2500 - top 28%
Age Group = Male 30-34
Age Group Place = 106/220 - Top 48%
Pre-race:
I woke up at 5:15am feeling as if I was doing a normal training run, not putting a lot of thought into what I was about to try and achieve with running 26.2 miles. I stayed with my normal pre-run breakfast of apple cinnamon oatmeal with milk & a banana. I checked the weather and NCAA basketball scores online while eating. Then I got dressed and put Vaseline on my chest and inside of my legs to ensure there wasn't friction during the run. I stretched for about 15min on my living room floor putting extra attention on my roller exercises in hopes of the IT Band issues staying away. I am a night before prepare type person so I had my bag packed and my fuel belt with GU's ready to go, so I didn’t have to rush around. At 5:50 with one look back at the apartment I took a deep breath and headed out the door to my carpool. I met Mr. Peter Pate (Tri Team Member) at his home to carpool from Buckhead (turned out to be the best unknown preparation I did. Peter took all the pre-race worries of getting to the right places on time and bag check in out the door for me. I can’t thank Peter enough. THANK YOU PETER!!). Once at Peter's we jumped in his jeep and off to the city/start we headed.
Peter and I parked down the road from the starting gates so we undressed and left our bags in his jeep. The temperatures were perfect, cool enough that I didn’t worry about overheating but warm enough that with just my race clothing on I was warm. We walked to the start about a mile down the road. Once at the start I put my chip on my shoe with Peter’s help and my number. Peter and I happen to run into Julie Maddox (Tri team member) and a friend of hers (sorry don't remember his name). We had a short hello and separated to get ready for the start. One last quick stop at the bathroom and to the starting gate we went. At this point I didn't have any nerves and didn’t think to much of the big picture.
Warm-up:
No real warm-up. I knew that I wasn't going to go out fast and I had stretched already so I felt ready to go. Just tried not to think about the entire event and take each stride one at a time. We only waited about 15min before the wheel chair group was set off and then the start of the race.
Run:
We walked a little ways with the masses of people before getting to the start banner. Then Peter and I started out together and ran together for about the first half mile. Then he went ahead of me and I started watching the people and ran. I checking my watch for my pace quite a bit for the first few miles to make sure I didn't go out to fast. I really felt like going faster and I kept telling myself to stay at the slower pace of 9:10 to conserve energy (very hard for me). My plan was to not kill my energy up the hills and try to make up some time on the down hills and flats. As well start off about on or 10 seconds slower than my race pace (9:07) to conserve energy. After not being able to see Peter in the crowd any longer I turned my headphones on and away I went. I passed mile 2 and looked and noticed that my watch wasn't running. I had been changing the settings around mile 1 to get it to the pace guy that would light up black if I was behind my target time and stay clear if I was on or ahead of the time. In doing so I never found the right setting and apparently somehow stopped my clock. Once I noticed this mistake re-started it and noticed it was about .77miles behind my actual distance (this turned out to be a problem later on in the race). I continued to run along going up and down and up and up hills with a mass of people.
Mile 6.5 - 7 is where the half marathoners and marathoners split. Right after the split I found myself all alone as most of the mass of people I was running with turned for the half marathon. For about 3 minutes I ran pretty much all alone until these two girls in BRIGHT PINK running outfits were singing "Brass Monkey" over and over came up on me and shortly after passed me. They were a short but nice distraction (saw them in Piedmont after mile 22 and they were no longer singing that was for sure). At this point I felt good with my breathing relaxed and heart rate right at 154 steady. I chugged along running up and down hills and tried listening to my music. I forced myself to stop and get Gatorade/water a few times at the hydration stations. It seemed that every two miles there was a mile marker and clock so I could see that I was making pretty steady time and was a little ahead of my pace time so far.
Mile 7 - 13 Up and down, up and down the course went into Decatur where the police greeted us with a “Welcome to Decatur” cheer. At this time I started thinking about my cheering crew made up Cheryl (girlfriend), Jessica (Sister), and Danielle (Cousin) who I knew were going to take the Decatur Marta and try and find me. Coming through a small town type area right at mile 13 I had heard loud cheering and saw my crew yelling and flashing pictures. I stopped for a short stretch of my hamstrings, notified them that my legs were really tight, and then headed on. At this point my legs, especially my quads were very tight but not sore. Everything else felt pretty good considering the effort. They brought a short relief to the event until I took the right turn and headed to North Decatur.
Mile 13- 18 Through North Decatur and Druid Hills proved to be a tough road as my tight legs became sore. I was familiar with the Emory campus and Lullwater Rd. as I had driven and run these parts during training. They looked much different today, I expect due to the pain and overcast day. I remembered I had brought along some Aleve so I popped 3 and I also started to feel a little sugar stomach and indigestion coming on so for the next few hydration stations I just took water. At mil 16 I jumped in a port a potty and went to the bathroom. At this point walking started to come into my mind to potentially loosen up my quads. It felt like every stride someone was stabbing me in the leg with a knife, but the pain wasn’t so severe I needed to stop just constant. I also started noticing how wet I was with water dripping off my cap and my shorts sticking a little to my legs which oddly enough irritated me mentally quite a bit and didn’t help with trying to move my thoughts away from my legs. I just tried to continue running up and down, up and around.
Mile 18 – 24 At this point I was more familiar with my route and the hills were really starting to take a toll on my quads forcing me to try my theory of walking for a minute up the for only a minute to see if my quads would relax a little as they were very sore and tight. I forced myself to stay on the one minute walk and then start running because I knew if I set a time limit I would start up again rather than keep running. I purposely didn't stop and stretch as I didn't want to let the legs get cold and tighten up even more than they were. I had experienced that a few times in my training runs. Every turn there seemed to be a hill to climb and then I could see Piedmont Park. I entered Piedmont Park and that is when I started seeing the masses of people from the half marathon. The loop in the park is by far the WORST race design I could think as it is the only spot you notice you are backtracking and after 22 miles the last thing you want to see is places you have already run past. I looked to see if I could find anyone I knew and I saw Bobby running and gave a quick wave. I made the turn and passed the 22 mile mark in the park and then headed toward the exit of the park to 12th st. As I was exiting the park I saw a Atlanta Triathlon logo on the back of a shirt of which a was Matt Gardner. I said a quick hello and he gave me a few words of encouragement to finish strong. As I exited the park to 12th st there was a large hill. This hill at this point looked to be HUGE! I was a little deflated trying to get up the hill as I knew I was going pretty slow but trying to run the hill. At the hydration station on the hill I started walking and drinking a little water. Once past the station almost to the top of the hill I started running again and turned left onto Spring St. Only 2.7 miles to go I told myself.
Mile 24 - 26.2 FINISH
Once UP Spring St. a right and short left I passed mile 24 and knew that I would need to pick up the pace to ensure I finished under 4hrs. The Georgia Tech water stop seemed to be in a tough place b/c it allowed me to walk a little but was on a really steep hill especially for that part of the race. Making a turn left until I ran past mile marker 25 everyone was screaming 1 MILE LEFT! Only 1.2 miles to go but that distance seemed very long as I was going pretty slowly and I kept thinking of all the runs we had done and how easy a mile is to do so I tried to pick up the pace and trying everything to push my pace but I was not getting any reaction from my legs. Made another turn left and saw a large hill which I knew was the last. Once at the top of the last hill I turned heading home and passed where Peter and I had parked the car so I knew I was close to the finish. I tried picking up the pace again but once again my legs just didn't have the extra push at this point so I stayed at a steady pace looking down praying for the finish to come. Wondering how much farther, but knowing it wasn’t that far as my watch to my calculations had it about .25 miles away. Finally I passed a girl who said the finish was right around the corner. I pressed kept my steady pace and heard my cheering crowd screaming and yelling which was great. I was kind of in a fog and looked over at them but didn’t completely see everything. Once I made the turn to the finish I heard the ATC members cheering but I didn't have the energy to turn and see them as the finish was right up ahead. I stopped my watch on 3:57:29. Cross the finish with the clock at 4:08:59.
Post Race:
Once through the finish I gathered a silver sheet and tried to put it on but with the wind I was fighting it while the young man put on my MEDAL! I walked around to the food and gathered a few bananas and apples. A lady gave me a Go-gurt and said I would like it and it was good for me. I saw Bobby from the Tri Club and gave him congratulations and kept walking. My legs were on fire and my left big toe now started to really ache (later to find out it was all black and blue, soon to be falling off). Walked through the Mizuno area everyone was thanking me for wearing their shoes (as I wore Mizuno's for the marathon). Then across the park saw the ATC club tent which was a beacon of light in a fog at this point.
I went over and sat down on the grass waiting for my support crew. Soaked, tired, legs burning I ate the Go-gurt which went down fast and tasted good. I didn't really realize what I had accomplished, really still don't.
My cheering crowd walked me over to the message tent where I changed into dry cloths and got my legs worked on. I had the girls go over and get my official chip time. While waiting at the tent they came back and informed me of my 4:05:47. My initial response was disappointed because I was so close to breaking 4hrs but I also felt so bad that at that moment I wasn’t sure I could have went any faster or walked less. Just didn’t know.
That tent was an event in its own right. The guy working on my kept giving me a cramp in my left quad and all I wanted to do was stand up and stretch it out and he wouldn’t let me poking and prodding at it. My crew thought he was great humor and entertainment.
Then we headed back to the ATC tent and had a beer and talked to a few people. Saw the "AMAZING" Rosemary sitting resting after her Boston Qualifier, Unreal & MAD PROPS! Then I decided with the cheering crowd freezing and my legs burning it was time to head home, get some food (although I was not hungry at all), and take a nap. So we headed to the MARTA and home.
Bucket List Item: Run a Marathon – CHECK!!!
What would you do differently?
Set my watch and test it ahead of time with different settings. This caused me to miss a sub 4:00:00 time.
Went out faster. At least for this course I don't think you can make up time at the end with the hills so I would have ran faster early on.
More hills at the end of longer runs to help prepare for the beating of the down hills on the quads
Rate your overall experience with this race:
Overall I accomplished my first goal of finishing a marathon so that was AWESOME! My second goal of finishing under 4hrs, I missed but was very close and with the difficulty of the course I still feel that I ran a great time. I did gain a ton of experience which I can use to help me grow stronger for the events I try in the future. I didn’t realize how lonely a marathon is overall though. It is just you, your mind/body, and the road in the end. I am not sure that it has hit me that I ran 26.2 miles and especially what that means but until I do I can still say I DID IT.
I do believe next year you can sign me up for the half but who knows. I just might want to fight the sub 4hr ING Georgia Marathon beast again!
SPECIAL THANKS to:
Coach EK who helped me with a great training program and was there for me everyday. Great race strategy and I truly appreciate your help and guidance.
Cheryl - Keeping me on diet and being patient with my training! Yelling cheering me on! Your the best!!
Jessica & Danielle - There is no better cheering crowd then having your family support you in events, especially as difficult as this one! I know traveling isn't cheap or easy but you made this experience a lot easier and I love you both for it!
Ilana - For setting up my meals to cut 16 pounds and still stay strong. Our road together continues but your guidance was spot on! Thanks for letting me each cupcakes!!
Date of Race: 03/22/2010
Total Time = 4h 05m 47s
Overall Place = 701/2500 - top 28%
Age Group = Male 30-34
Age Group Place = 106/220 - Top 48%
Pre-race:
I woke up at 5:15am feeling as if I was doing a normal training run, not putting a lot of thought into what I was about to try and achieve with running 26.2 miles. I stayed with my normal pre-run breakfast of apple cinnamon oatmeal with milk & a banana. I checked the weather and NCAA basketball scores online while eating. Then I got dressed and put Vaseline on my chest and inside of my legs to ensure there wasn't friction during the run. I stretched for about 15min on my living room floor putting extra attention on my roller exercises in hopes of the IT Band issues staying away. I am a night before prepare type person so I had my bag packed and my fuel belt with GU's ready to go, so I didn’t have to rush around. At 5:50 with one look back at the apartment I took a deep breath and headed out the door to my carpool. I met Mr. Peter Pate (Tri Team Member) at his home to carpool from Buckhead (turned out to be the best unknown preparation I did. Peter took all the pre-race worries of getting to the right places on time and bag check in out the door for me. I can’t thank Peter enough. THANK YOU PETER!!). Once at Peter's we jumped in his jeep and off to the city/start we headed.
Peter and I parked down the road from the starting gates so we undressed and left our bags in his jeep. The temperatures were perfect, cool enough that I didn’t worry about overheating but warm enough that with just my race clothing on I was warm. We walked to the start about a mile down the road. Once at the start I put my chip on my shoe with Peter’s help and my number. Peter and I happen to run into Julie Maddox (Tri team member) and a friend of hers (sorry don't remember his name). We had a short hello and separated to get ready for the start. One last quick stop at the bathroom and to the starting gate we went. At this point I didn't have any nerves and didn’t think to much of the big picture.
Warm-up:
No real warm-up. I knew that I wasn't going to go out fast and I had stretched already so I felt ready to go. Just tried not to think about the entire event and take each stride one at a time. We only waited about 15min before the wheel chair group was set off and then the start of the race.
Run:
We walked a little ways with the masses of people before getting to the start banner. Then Peter and I started out together and ran together for about the first half mile. Then he went ahead of me and I started watching the people and ran. I checking my watch for my pace quite a bit for the first few miles to make sure I didn't go out to fast. I really felt like going faster and I kept telling myself to stay at the slower pace of 9:10 to conserve energy (very hard for me). My plan was to not kill my energy up the hills and try to make up some time on the down hills and flats. As well start off about on or 10 seconds slower than my race pace (9:07) to conserve energy. After not being able to see Peter in the crowd any longer I turned my headphones on and away I went. I passed mile 2 and looked and noticed that my watch wasn't running. I had been changing the settings around mile 1 to get it to the pace guy that would light up black if I was behind my target time and stay clear if I was on or ahead of the time. In doing so I never found the right setting and apparently somehow stopped my clock. Once I noticed this mistake re-started it and noticed it was about .77miles behind my actual distance (this turned out to be a problem later on in the race). I continued to run along going up and down and up and up hills with a mass of people.
Mile 6.5 - 7 is where the half marathoners and marathoners split. Right after the split I found myself all alone as most of the mass of people I was running with turned for the half marathon. For about 3 minutes I ran pretty much all alone until these two girls in BRIGHT PINK running outfits were singing "Brass Monkey" over and over came up on me and shortly after passed me. They were a short but nice distraction (saw them in Piedmont after mile 22 and they were no longer singing that was for sure). At this point I felt good with my breathing relaxed and heart rate right at 154 steady. I chugged along running up and down hills and tried listening to my music. I forced myself to stop and get Gatorade/water a few times at the hydration stations. It seemed that every two miles there was a mile marker and clock so I could see that I was making pretty steady time and was a little ahead of my pace time so far.
Mile 7 - 13 Up and down, up and down the course went into Decatur where the police greeted us with a “Welcome to Decatur” cheer. At this time I started thinking about my cheering crew made up Cheryl (girlfriend), Jessica (Sister), and Danielle (Cousin) who I knew were going to take the Decatur Marta and try and find me. Coming through a small town type area right at mile 13 I had heard loud cheering and saw my crew yelling and flashing pictures. I stopped for a short stretch of my hamstrings, notified them that my legs were really tight, and then headed on. At this point my legs, especially my quads were very tight but not sore. Everything else felt pretty good considering the effort. They brought a short relief to the event until I took the right turn and headed to North Decatur.
Mile 13- 18 Through North Decatur and Druid Hills proved to be a tough road as my tight legs became sore. I was familiar with the Emory campus and Lullwater Rd. as I had driven and run these parts during training. They looked much different today, I expect due to the pain and overcast day. I remembered I had brought along some Aleve so I popped 3 and I also started to feel a little sugar stomach and indigestion coming on so for the next few hydration stations I just took water. At mil 16 I jumped in a port a potty and went to the bathroom. At this point walking started to come into my mind to potentially loosen up my quads. It felt like every stride someone was stabbing me in the leg with a knife, but the pain wasn’t so severe I needed to stop just constant. I also started noticing how wet I was with water dripping off my cap and my shorts sticking a little to my legs which oddly enough irritated me mentally quite a bit and didn’t help with trying to move my thoughts away from my legs. I just tried to continue running up and down, up and around.
Mile 18 – 24 At this point I was more familiar with my route and the hills were really starting to take a toll on my quads forcing me to try my theory of walking for a minute up the for only a minute to see if my quads would relax a little as they were very sore and tight. I forced myself to stay on the one minute walk and then start running because I knew if I set a time limit I would start up again rather than keep running. I purposely didn't stop and stretch as I didn't want to let the legs get cold and tighten up even more than they were. I had experienced that a few times in my training runs. Every turn there seemed to be a hill to climb and then I could see Piedmont Park. I entered Piedmont Park and that is when I started seeing the masses of people from the half marathon. The loop in the park is by far the WORST race design I could think as it is the only spot you notice you are backtracking and after 22 miles the last thing you want to see is places you have already run past. I looked to see if I could find anyone I knew and I saw Bobby running and gave a quick wave. I made the turn and passed the 22 mile mark in the park and then headed toward the exit of the park to 12th st. As I was exiting the park I saw a Atlanta Triathlon logo on the back of a shirt of which a was Matt Gardner. I said a quick hello and he gave me a few words of encouragement to finish strong. As I exited the park to 12th st there was a large hill. This hill at this point looked to be HUGE! I was a little deflated trying to get up the hill as I knew I was going pretty slow but trying to run the hill. At the hydration station on the hill I started walking and drinking a little water. Once past the station almost to the top of the hill I started running again and turned left onto Spring St. Only 2.7 miles to go I told myself.
Mile 24 - 26.2 FINISH
Once UP Spring St. a right and short left I passed mile 24 and knew that I would need to pick up the pace to ensure I finished under 4hrs. The Georgia Tech water stop seemed to be in a tough place b/c it allowed me to walk a little but was on a really steep hill especially for that part of the race. Making a turn left until I ran past mile marker 25 everyone was screaming 1 MILE LEFT! Only 1.2 miles to go but that distance seemed very long as I was going pretty slowly and I kept thinking of all the runs we had done and how easy a mile is to do so I tried to pick up the pace and trying everything to push my pace but I was not getting any reaction from my legs. Made another turn left and saw a large hill which I knew was the last. Once at the top of the last hill I turned heading home and passed where Peter and I had parked the car so I knew I was close to the finish. I tried picking up the pace again but once again my legs just didn't have the extra push at this point so I stayed at a steady pace looking down praying for the finish to come. Wondering how much farther, but knowing it wasn’t that far as my watch to my calculations had it about .25 miles away. Finally I passed a girl who said the finish was right around the corner. I pressed kept my steady pace and heard my cheering crowd screaming and yelling which was great. I was kind of in a fog and looked over at them but didn’t completely see everything. Once I made the turn to the finish I heard the ATC members cheering but I didn't have the energy to turn and see them as the finish was right up ahead. I stopped my watch on 3:57:29. Cross the finish with the clock at 4:08:59.
Post Race:
Once through the finish I gathered a silver sheet and tried to put it on but with the wind I was fighting it while the young man put on my MEDAL! I walked around to the food and gathered a few bananas and apples. A lady gave me a Go-gurt and said I would like it and it was good for me. I saw Bobby from the Tri Club and gave him congratulations and kept walking. My legs were on fire and my left big toe now started to really ache (later to find out it was all black and blue, soon to be falling off). Walked through the Mizuno area everyone was thanking me for wearing their shoes (as I wore Mizuno's for the marathon). Then across the park saw the ATC club tent which was a beacon of light in a fog at this point.
I went over and sat down on the grass waiting for my support crew. Soaked, tired, legs burning I ate the Go-gurt which went down fast and tasted good. I didn't really realize what I had accomplished, really still don't.
My cheering crowd walked me over to the message tent where I changed into dry cloths and got my legs worked on. I had the girls go over and get my official chip time. While waiting at the tent they came back and informed me of my 4:05:47. My initial response was disappointed because I was so close to breaking 4hrs but I also felt so bad that at that moment I wasn’t sure I could have went any faster or walked less. Just didn’t know.
That tent was an event in its own right. The guy working on my kept giving me a cramp in my left quad and all I wanted to do was stand up and stretch it out and he wouldn’t let me poking and prodding at it. My crew thought he was great humor and entertainment.
Then we headed back to the ATC tent and had a beer and talked to a few people. Saw the "AMAZING" Rosemary sitting resting after her Boston Qualifier, Unreal & MAD PROPS! Then I decided with the cheering crowd freezing and my legs burning it was time to head home, get some food (although I was not hungry at all), and take a nap. So we headed to the MARTA and home.
Bucket List Item: Run a Marathon – CHECK!!!
What would you do differently?
Set my watch and test it ahead of time with different settings. This caused me to miss a sub 4:00:00 time.
Went out faster. At least for this course I don't think you can make up time at the end with the hills so I would have ran faster early on.
More hills at the end of longer runs to help prepare for the beating of the down hills on the quads
Rate your overall experience with this race:
Overall I accomplished my first goal of finishing a marathon so that was AWESOME! My second goal of finishing under 4hrs, I missed but was very close and with the difficulty of the course I still feel that I ran a great time. I did gain a ton of experience which I can use to help me grow stronger for the events I try in the future. I didn’t realize how lonely a marathon is overall though. It is just you, your mind/body, and the road in the end. I am not sure that it has hit me that I ran 26.2 miles and especially what that means but until I do I can still say I DID IT.
I do believe next year you can sign me up for the half but who knows. I just might want to fight the sub 4hr ING Georgia Marathon beast again!
SPECIAL THANKS to:
Coach EK who helped me with a great training program and was there for me everyday. Great race strategy and I truly appreciate your help and guidance.
Cheryl - Keeping me on diet and being patient with my training! Yelling cheering me on! Your the best!!
Jessica & Danielle - There is no better cheering crowd then having your family support you in events, especially as difficult as this one! I know traveling isn't cheap or easy but you made this experience a lot easier and I love you both for it!
Ilana - For setting up my meals to cut 16 pounds and still stay strong. Our road together continues but your guidance was spot on! Thanks for letting me each cupcakes!!
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