The Peachtree (warm up race)

The race was a whole lot of fun, and I felt great with my new compression sleeves. I think it may have been the placebo affect, but I didn't care. Before the race I met a guy in my starting wave who had run the race in under an hour before.

My strategy was to keep up with him come hell or high water. Hopefully I could hang on the whole way and he could bring to the finish for a time under an hour. The only problem was I didn't tell the guy my plan until 1.5 miles into the race, I was hounding him so close, he probably thought I was going to rob him.

This strategy worked perfect until 2.5 miles in. We had paced about 9:30 for the first two miles (completely downhill, but way ahead of our goal). Bad news: My buddy said he couldn't keep the pace any longer and he promised to catch up to me after the finish. I think that I may have just bothered him to the point he faked tired, but who cares. We never did meet at the finish, and I didn't really look for him.

With no partner I ventured on, but struggled to find a good rhythm. This is the part of the course called cardiac hill. It isn't a steep hill, but it goes for 3/4 of a mile. I was really counting on my buddy for this part of the race. Jerk.

It wasn't until mile 4 that I tried to repeat my strategy with a woman who looked like she was serious about getting through this thing. I latched on to her, but unlike last time I didn't say a word. We ran side by side for about a mile and a half. At 5.5 miles the Peachtree turns on 10th street and heads toward Piedmont Park. I assume most people are like me and consider this the finishing straight. I no longer needed a buddy, I just focused on the finish line.

If you have never run the Peachtree before, it is very misleading. They create a fake finish line about .3 or .4 before the actual finish so they can photograph you crossing the fake finish line. I have run the Peachtree and other races before, the problem is that I always look like death warmed over in the race photos. My new #1 focus was to look like I was actually enjoying the race. I will let you determine if I achieved that goal.

After I crossed the second finish line I was pretty sure I beat the 1 hour mark. My wave went off 20 minutes after the race officially started, and I finished 1:21:07. Since I started at the back of the wave, I was pretty sure I crossed the start line around 21:10. However, my chip time cam in at 1:00:44. Total bummer, but I was pleased with how I felt after the race. I consider this goal unfinished business for next year, but for now it is on to bigger and hopefully better things.