ING Georgia Marathon - RunMarathon


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Atlanta, Georgia
United States
The ING Georgia Marathon & Half Marathon
70'sF / 0C
Sunny
 		Total Time = 4h 02m 51s
Overall Rank = 937/4340
Age Group = 40-49
Age Group Rank = 243/748
Pre-race routine:

Woke up at 4:45, ate a bannana and a pb sandwich, had some coffee and met Steve, Paige and Annemarie at the corner and we walked to the start together.
Event warmup:

I counted the walk to the start as the warmup, got right into the corral with no problem, found the 3:50 pace group and waited for the start. It was not that crowded and I did not have to wait that long.
Run
  • 4h 02m 52s
  • 26.2 miles
  • 09m 16s  min/mile
Comments:

I have read some of the other race reports and I must disagree with some of them. To me it was absolutely insane that they could not get the water stops right. There was a water stop at the very beginning, and then not another one for miles. Coca-Cola was a co-sponsor, (they make powerade) How in the world could you only have 4 Powerade stops for an entire marathon!. Some of the water stops were just missing, at the start the announcer made a big deal about the Powerade sponsorship, reminding everyone to drink plenty of Powerade at EVERY mile starting at mile 16? The problem was was that there was no powerade for at least the last 6 miles.
Considering that Atlanta hosts the Peachtree road race, one of the largest in the county, you would think that they could have done a better job.
What would you do differently?:

I would have stopped at a store along the course and bought some Gatorade.
Post race
Warm down:

I just about passed out after I bent down to get my chip off, some nice volunteer got me some pretzles and some coke.

What limited your ability to perform faster:

I think I was very dehydrated, the hills did not help but I think that properly hydrated I could have come closer to my goal. I did manage to beat my NYC time so all was not lost.

Event comments:

Not a race that I care to repeat, I'm happy with the result based on the conditions, but overall very dissapointed in the way it was run.




Last updated: 2007-03-27 12:00 AM
Running
04:02:52 | 26.2 miles | 09m 16s  min/mile
Age Group: 0/748
Overall: 937/4340
Performance: Average
My plan was to stay with the 3:50 pace group, which meant we should have been running 8:50's. 9:05 9:04 8:25 8:18 8:22 I was getting very nervous, what happened to 8:50's ? 8:07 At this point I let the pace group go ahead. 8:41 8:50 8:26 8:54 hurting but still thinking that its still within reach 8:36 8:50 some powerade sure would be nice right about now 8:55 1:52 was the 1/2 split, I was pretty happy. 8:50 9:08 8:43 10:04 I walked a little here, this was the beginning of the end. 9:23 9:27 9:32 I decided that 4:00 was a great goal at this point. 9:35 I really pissed at the lack of powerade stops at this point. 9:58 9:45 10:06 I've stopped sweating, I really don't care at this point. 10:13 my new goal is to run across the finish line. 11:12 who the hell puts the last few miles uphill?
Course: I don't remember ANY flat spots on the course, you were either running up a hill or down a hill. I knew that there were going to be hills but this was ridiculous. Relatively good fan support, I must admit that you ran through some beautifull neighborhoods.
Keeping cool Below average Drinking Not enough
Post race
Weight change: %
Overall: Average
Mental exertion [1-5] 3
Physical exertion [1-5] 4
Good race? Ok
Evaluation
Course challenge Too hard
Organized? No
Events on-time? Yes
Lots of volunteers? No
Plenty of drinks? No
Post race activities: Below average
Race evaluation [1-5] 1