ING Georgia Half Marathon Race Report

Could also be titled, Cold, Hills, and Porta Potties in Atlanta.

I am kind of relieved that it is over. But, I did have a good time.

Wes and I arrived very early to the start because we took MARTA and wanted to allow enough time for crowds and train malfunctions (both of which we encountered last year), except for this year there were no malfunctions and minimal crowds so we ended up downtown way to early and had to stand around - Wes listening to me bitch about how cold I was.

And it was COLD! Low 40's or something and let me tell you - lightweight technical fabrics do nothing to keep you warm! I was so relieved when the gun actually went off because I knew that at last we could get moving and start to warm up a bit. Once I got the feeling back in my extremities, the first three miles passed quickly and easily. We were on pace to run around 2:11 and I was psyched and feeling good. A little like I had to pee, but good.

Mile 4. Stopped to hydrate and realized that I had to pee so bad that I could hardly swallow fluids. The problem was that the porta potty lines were so long that I couldn't stand the thought of wasting time to stop.

Mile 5. Realize that stopping is inevitable. I must pee! I console myself that I can still get an accurate measure of time spent running on my garmin and spend several minutes at the porta potties. (Wes waits with me - I have a pretty cool husband!)

After that we are still on pace with around 10 minute miles but we are starting to feel the hills of Atlanta. For the second year in a row I vow that next time I will do hill specific training! One mile down the road I vow that there will be no next year because these hills and the cold SUCK!

And then, disaster strikes. Around mile 9, just when the hills become more brutal and I should be focusing completely on them, I start experiencing, umm...gastric distress. I tell Wes that I have to make an emergency stop and he kindly stops with me AGAIN to wait in the porta potty line. At this point I was getting really pissed and then I look down and realize that my Garmin has been totally wigging out, beeping at me and feeding me all kinds of weird data. Eventually it froze on some random screen that said "19% accuracy" and after that I couldn't get it to do anything. So there went my back up plan of knowing what my actual time spent running was. Sigh.

The last four miles of the course are hard. That is pretty much all there is to say about that. Tons of long, steep uphills that had my calves screaming for mercy. By that point we had definitely slowed way down and were very excited to round a corner and spot the finish line. I was kind of bummed about all my stupid bathroom breaks but a giant table full of nothing but Oreo cookies helped me through my emotional distress.

So, in the end, our chip time was 2:23, but (and this is a conservative guess, it might have been more) we spent about 5 minutes at the porta potties total. So that really means our time was closer to 2:18. And that is enough to satisfy me. It is 12 minutes better than last year on completely inadequate training, and I probably couldn't ask for anything more than that. Plus, despite the hills and everything it was still really fun. I don't know what it is about running 13 miles in the cold, while my legs are burning that is fun...but it just is! I can't explain it but I can't wait to do it again. And, I am looking forward to running the Cooper River Bridge Run next weekend. After yesterday, 6 miles should seem like a walk in the park!