Atlanta Half Marathon - Run

I ran a marathon almost one month to the day prior to this race, and between that and this, I spent the majority of the time fighting a virus and a sinus infection. I got in exactly two runs during that time period and very few other workouts. Going into this run, I figured a 2:00 plus time was a worthy goal. Over the first few miles, I evaluated how I was feeling and set my pace accordingly. I set in behind a few buddies of mine and decided to pace with them for a while. About mile 5, I lost sight of them and decided I could make this a fairly decent performance. I was not tailing off as I expected. The last quarter of the course is a series of uphill climbs. Hills with names: Cardiac Hill at Piedmont Hospital, Grade Expectations in Midtown, and Capitol Punishment in front of the Ga Capitol building. I was able to keep up a decent pace throughout the race and came in at 1:49:21 watch / chip time. Gun time was 1:51:02.

Not sure. I ran this well. I like to PR on difficult courses, so perhaps one year I will attempt that here. PR for the half is 1:41.

Grabbed a water, then headed over to Joe's truck. Watched his brother Mike finish as a walker. It was his first 1/2. Headed back up to brookhaven, then home for the Feast.

Running on Thanksgiving seems so right.




Illness over the previous month.


I enjoyed this years run significantly over last years. Yes, the weather was good, but I also went in with lower expectations of the race experience overall. This is a no frills, low key event and my expectations were met. T-shirt was good and the addition of the medal for the half was welcome. I don't see the need to stage this event with a full marathon, but that is a discussion for another day.