As hard as this may be to believe, I have never competed in a race outside of the Sunshine State. The Georgia Marathon & Half Marathon has always been on my radar, especially since I have friends who live in Atlanta. When Betsy and Mark invited me to their daughter’s wedding on March 20th, who knew the race would be the same day? With the future of my knee “hanging” in the balance, I decided to go for the half marathon. As my knee pain totally disappeared, I actually contemplated super-sizing to the full marathon; with no training for the additional distance, I decided to play it safe. Glenda was not able to fly up with me, as we were in New York the previous week for my cousin Aidan’s Bar Mitzvah. She is over-the-top busy this time of year, so I took Rachel as my plus-one.
We flew out at 5:40am, and the highlight of the flight was a girl who puked her brains out as soon as we touched down. After 15 minutes of very loud spewing, she comes out of the restroom and says to the flight attendant “I’m sorry, I threw up in there.” Ya think? The whole plane started laughing when she said that. It was quite the symphony. I booked a room at the Omni Atlanta At CNN Center, since it was literally a stone’s-throw away from the start of the race. Our room was not ready when we arrived, so we grabbed a quick bite to eat in the CNN food court. The race expo was right next door at the Georgia World Congress Center, which was a gigantic building. We took a walk over, and I picked up my race packet. Mizuno was the official sponsor, which was a first for me. I picked up a race jacket to add to my collection, as well as an Atlanta Track Club jacket and shirt. We had plans to meet up with my friend Susan to visit the College Football Hall of Fame, which was also conveniently located outside our hotel. This exhibit actually exceeded my expectations, and I would highly recommend it to anyone who loves college football. After we said our goodbyes to Susan, I dropped Rachel off at a friend’s house, and met up with Betsy and Mark for dinner.
We slept in on Saturday, and took a quick walking tour of some of the more historical buildings in downtown Atlanta. Rachel made plans to see more of her friends for lunch. After I dropped her off, I went to see Betsy and Mark at the Hyatt Regency Atlanta Perimeter at Villa Christina (where the wedding would be taking place). I hung out in the hospitality suite with them until I got the call from Rachel to pick her up, and we then took a quick stroll through Centennial Olympic Park.
Race time on Sunday morning was 7am, but of course I woke up at 5am. It was 43 degrees, but absolutely no wind at all…Perfect running weather! There were 7,324 participants for this event (1,381 for the full and 5,943 for the half), and I was totally impressed how organized the start of the race was. There was no pushing and shoving, as each corral started three minutes apart.
I was very lethargic for the first four miles of the race. The knee felt great, considering it was not the usual flat running I’m used to in South Florida. That being said, the race was not as hilly as I was led to believe. There were lots of ups-and downs, but no killer hills like Gainesville. The original forecast for the weekend was rain, but there was not a cloud in the sky!
After the four-mile mark, I was really starting to hit my stride. The course was very scenic, and we ran past both Georgia Tech and Georgia State University towards the end of the race. Of course, I had to stop and pee several times, but what else is new?
KEEP TRACK OF MY RUNNING ON
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