13.1

Thanksgiving day I ran the Weather Channel Thanksgiving Day Half Marathon. It interesting how when you push yourself you learn things. Some of the things that I learned were more of a confirmation of things already knew but were not ready to consciously admit and put into practice.

Race Report:

Start time was 7:00 am. The race started in Chamblee and ended at Turner Field so the course was not out and back. Got up at 4:00am has some coffee, I had picked up my Breeze Card the night before so I was out the door 5:00am walking to the East Lake Marta Station. Got on the train at about 5:22 had to make one transfer and exited the Chamblee Marta Station around 6:05. I followed the crowd to the area where the trucks were collecting bags from people that wanted to keep their warm up clothes and pick them up at the finish line. I had decided to leave my clothes near the aid stations when I got warm on the run. The clothes are picked up and donated.

Got to my stall based on my number about 6:40 and waited. My friend Dan said he would meet me near the front but I never saw him at the start. 7:00 race started. The first few hundred meters we just walked then we had the whole road and were able to start running. After about two miles I settled into my Half Pace. A pace I thought I could finish the race without too many problems. My longest run to date was 9.5 miles.

Dan ran past me at about mile 3 and I ran his pace for about a half mile but decided to slow it down to my pace and let him go ahead. With three marathons under his belt I figured he knew what he was doing. To make a long story short here is what happened:

• Mile: 1-8:29, 2-9:56, 3-8:46, 4-8:44, 5-9:14, 6-9:04, 7-9:09, 8-10:38, 9-10:44, 10-11:27, 11-11:43, 12-12:21, 13-13:13.

As you can see things started to go wrong somewhere into mile 10 and got worse until the end of the race. I felt as if I has sustained an injury but I ran 2 miles on Saturday without the same pain. Things I learned:

• If you are going to run a long distance you have to train a long distance. The thought of running for over an hour does not appeal to me.


• I am much better at pushing myself hard for a short distance that just pushing myself to run long distances.


• I'm a better runner that a cyclists but I can work on the cycling part.

So when I talked to Dan about the race and he was describing the course after 10 miles I had no recollection of it. I was so focused on finishing I didn't even notice where I was.