When I woke up Sunday morning the soreness seemed too fade a bit, maybe because I was excited to run the race, the temperature and humidity was perfect, so I decided to go all out. Last year, I did this race in 1:03:32 minutes and set a goal to run this race in under 56 minutes or <9:00 per mile pace – my fastest Peachtree course training time was at a 9:09 pace back in mid May. The morning of the race I met Mike, my Peachtree Road Race training partner, at the gym at 6 AM (the gym is about 1 mile from the finish line) and we took MARTA to the Lenox station. We arrived early enough to get a good stretch in, and waited near the front of my wave group “F” for the start of the race. This year with over 58,000 runners (500,44 finishers with time chips), they staggered start each wave in 5 minute intervals, which worked perfectly.
Follow this link for a good video and course elevation, http://www.ajc.com/sports/peachtree-road-race/ajc-peachtree-road-race-562121.html
The challenging part about the AJC Peachtree 10K Road Race are the hills and the large number of walkers. The first mile is pretty flat and fast, but there are three significant hills which will affect your pace, one long downhill and two uphill’s. My goal was to run the first mile at a low 9:00 pace, run strong on the long downhill, easy up on the 2 long uphill’s from mile 3 through mile 5, and then finish as strongly as I could on the final 1,000 yards of slight downhill with whatever I had left. As it turned out I started out too fast and did not have as strong as a finish as I would have liked.
First mile recap – 8:35. I took off faster then I should have and never eased into my comfortable 10K pace of about 9:15, when I hit the start of the downhill about ½ mile into the race I was already winded and was questioning myself for going out too fast. I told myself that I could just slow up as much as needed on the long uphill’s in mile 3 through mile 5, and save my legs for later in the race. Knowing the course well helped, I’ve trained on it for over two months, and I knew that once I topped the last hill around the 5.4 mark, the downhill and the excitement of the crowd would carry me to the finish line.
Second mile recap – 9:10. This should have been my fastest mile, planned ~8:00 pace, because it is mostly downhill, but my over aggressive start will taking its toll on me.
Third mile recap – 9:25. This should have been my second fastest mile, planned ~8:15 pace, mostly downhill. This is also probably the most exciting mile with bands playing all along the course and some bars/restraints throwing out t-shirts and other goodies.
Fourth mile recap – 10:35. This is the most difficult mile because of a 0.7 mile hill commonly known as Cardiac Hill. I actually ran this mile close to my planned pace of 10:00, but with way too much effort, With hindsight I should have slowed down to around a 11:00 pace. I took my first water and speed walk break of about 1 minute.
Fifth mile recap – 11:45. A difficult mile because of an 0.8 mile slight uphill. The first mile, Cardiac Hill, and this long gradual hill was taking its toll on me and I took my first real walk break of about two minutes. Throughout this mile I noticed more and more runners passing me, very depressing!
Sixth mile recap – 10:09. Once I passed the 5th mile marker my office building was only about 1,000 feet away. The company I work for has a band come in town to play and I knew a few coworkers would be in along the street to cheer people on so I was motivated and decided to let it go and see what happens. I was happy to find that my legs were feeling a little better, and more importantly NO pain in my ankle. I managed to drop my pace more and more as the mile went on the slight downhill started towards the finish line. After the turn at mile 5.4 is a blast for the runners, the crowd of people cheering along the street is huge and loud. I love this part of the race!
Last 2/10 of the race – 1:56. All downhill! Crowd is incredible, You MUST EXPERENCE THIS! I cannot explain how much fun this part of the race is with what I would guess is more than 5,000 people along the street cheering you on. During this part of the race I was passing much more runners than were passing me.
< strong>Results - 1:01:40
2010 Peachtree time: Chip time 1:01:40, Clock time 1:27:14
Finial thoughts, although this was not the smartest race I have ever run, started too fast, the result was still thrilling to me, especially when you think what my body has gone through over the years with bilateral hip replacement, rebuilt ankle and a knee that should have been replaced in 2008. It shows that we all can overcome preconceived physical limitations if you put our faith into Christ! As Philippians 4:13 says, “I have the strength through him who empowers me.” Now I can relax a bit this week, then start training for the Space Coast Marathon in November!
By the way Mike told me this morning that I have an opportunity to run for the cycle this year by doing a 5K, 10K, half marathon and a full marathon. All I have left is the Space Coast Marathon.
I want to give credit to the Atlanta Track Club for putting on the most organized race I’ve ever participated in. They had plenty of water stations, port-o-potties, food and water at the end, and volunteers throughout the race it was incredible experience and event that everyone in the Atlanta area so try at least once.
