Felt really good first 5 miles. Knew that I would probably drop off once the hillage picked up, but I was pleasantly surprised to see that the drop-off only took me down to my marathon mile pace (perfect). Nutrition was good until about mile 10 when I think the Energy substance I had taken kicked in and wanted to wipe out my system. Not a terrible problem. I tried to take as much water as possible and was able to run the entire time. It was fun to run through every part of Atlanta.

Not much. A Thanksgiving Day run should be done all in fun. And this one was.

Walked around the parking lot looking for my friend's tailgate. Finally found guy who's car contained my warm, dry clothing and he knew where the others were. Went to tailgate and waited for other half-marathoners and one full one to finish.


I didn't really want to take this as a race race. I was using it more as a training run to pace myself for next week's marathon. So I held back a little. Was also a little concerned about burning out my legs on the hills. I did exactly what I wanted to do.


This race is just hard to have on Thanksgiving. There is virtually no crowd support and you are really only out there for yourself. Well, you and 8000 other half-marathoners. Having it in late November can warrant pretty nasty days in some years. Today, I was lucky to experience my virginal ATL halfer in almost perfect weather. Maybe that's why I don't mind it so much. I just don't know if I would want to crawl out of bed on a holiday if it were cold and rainy. I will definitely do it again - just so that I can have extra helpings at dinner without feeling guilty.