Started in the first Corral, but the corrals were pretty narrow, and I got into the corral when it was full. There was no making my way forward, so I started in the very back of corral 1. That made the first mile a bit more difficult in that I had to work harder to acheive 'my' position in the pack. I wore my Garmin, and have splits through mile 9, when it shut off on me. I had a few miles below 7:00, and would say the first 8 or so probably averaged right at, or just above 7 min miles. After that, the uphills began, and my pace slowed. Not too much, but enough to drop my overall average pace to a 7:19 per mile for the race. Not much to note on the course. I took 2 gels with me, and tried something new. I knew I didn't really need 2 complete gels for 13.1 miles, especially considering the Ensure I drank pre-race, so what I did, is instead of fighting to get a whole gel in, I opened it, took in what I could in full stride, then threw the rest away. That way, I didn't struggle with getting 'all' the gel in a down. As it is, I would say I ended up taking 1.5 gels total.

I put my target for this race at 1:35. That's a PR on this course for me, but not an overly aggressive goal. I hit it dead on, and was happy with that. I am getting better at assessing where I am fitness wise, at any given point.

Get to corral slightly earlier, and start about halfway toward the front.

Walked around, saw a bunch of people, drank a beer or 3, then watched the Marathoners come in.


Nothing.


A much improved experience with the addition of a race sponsor. The Weather Channel was a nice addition. There was somewhere between 8 and 9 thousand finishers in the half. I think next year it will sell out and definitely have over 10k finishers. Running on Thanksgiving has become a nationwide tradition, and Atlanta now can claim one of the best races out there in regards to the half marathon. Definitely something to be thankfull for.