March 22, 2015: The Publix Georgia Half Marathon

Goal C: To finish my second half-marathon feeling better than I did at the end of my first one;

Goal B: To cross the finish line of the half-marathon in time to watch the winner of the marathon;

Goal A: To run the last mile of a half-marathon faster than I ran the first mile.

One year ago, I was watching the Publix Georgia marathon and half-marathon runners line up for their race, as I was waiting for the 5K race to follow.  I was so impressed with the energy and excitement of the long-distance runners, and at that moment I resolved that I would be in the half-marathon group in March 2015. 

The big day arrived!  I had run the course twice in the past two months, starting and ending at mile 9 in Piedmont Park, so I had a good idea of the route and the challenges, as well as the confidence that I could run the race.  In fact in my second running of the 13.1 route, I finished in 2:29, without running hard at any stage, and sticking with a run : walk ratio of 4 : 1.  My main concern for today was some IT band pain that had cropped up beginning in mid-February, although it was manageable especially with taking walk breaks.  

Before the Atlanta 10-Miler in October, my mother-in-law had treated me to a special chicken ginseng soup, to give me strength and energy.  And I had a great race from start-to-finish!  But I didn't have the soup before the Galloway 13.1 in December, and struggled in the last few miles, finishing in 2:19:36.  So weeks ago, I asked for the chicken ginseng soup, and last night enjoyed a home-made meal at my parents-in-law's home.  It was both delicious and nutritious! 

Pre-race meal, with Bonnie, Hwajin,
and Homoon Chung Youn
(photo by Sunny Youn, not in picture)

Delicious and full of good nutrition!

To start out slowly, I resolved to set an initial pace of no faster than a 10 minute mile, with a run : walk ratio of 4 : 1.  I was also going to walk through each water station.  My tracker was set to give me alerts every half-mile, i.e. no more often than every 5 minutes if I was running slowly enough at the beginning.  I brought three gels with me, planning to take the first one around mile 5, the second after mile 8, and the last after mile 11, to fuel a strong finish.  I didn't really set a time goal, but it would be nice to finish faster than 2:19, which would be an improvement over my first half-marathon time.  Today's main goal would be achieved if I could finish without injury or significant pain, and I would be thrilled if I could reach the mile 12 marker with enough energy to sprint to the finish line. 

The forecast consistently showed a good chance of rain for Sunday morning, and this time the forecasters were correct.  It was drizzling when we left home for the MARTA train at Doraville, which was about 15 minutes late, but we still arrived in plenty of time to take care of business at the porta-potties and gear check.  Fortunately the temperature was about 55 deg F so I wouldn't get chilled, and I decided to run without a rain jacket, remembering how uncomfortably hot I was in the second half of in last weekend's 5K.  I didn't really warm up for the race, other than walking several blocks from Peachtree Center to the start of the race in Centennial Olympic Park.  I figured that I would warm up in the first mile or two as long as I didn't run too fast.  

Fool in the rain

A couple of minutes before the start!

The official photo of runners just after crossing the starting line.
I think that this is a 2015 photo given the number of umbrellas held by spectators.  

We began the race exactly at 7:00 am.  I was in corral F (out of 13 corrals) and crossed the starting line about 2-1/2 minutes after the official start.  I was very careful not to run too quickly, and when I reached the 0.5 mile mark near the Georgia State University campus in 4:45, I moved to the sidewalk and took a short walk break, stretching my arms high above my head, stretching everything from the knees up, hopefully including the IT band.  Even though I was feeling really good at the start, and emotionally I didn't want to take walk breaks at the beginning, I knew that I was risking great difficulty later in the race if I didn't run : walk with some discipline in the early miles.  There were pockets of spectators and small cheering groups along Piedmont Avenue.  The best organized group in the entire race was the first group, organized by 65 Roses (organizers of the Big Peach Sizzler, for cystic fibrosis research), near the mile 2 marker.  There was a small live band playing Cheap Trick's hit "Surrender", which brought me back to high school days in the late 1970's.  I covered the first two miles in 9:56 and 9:59 respectively, exactly as I had hoped.  Slowing down with walk breaks undoubtably helped me execute the plan for the first part of the race. 

Big Peach Sizzler, Labor Day 2014

As I ran, taking walk breaks every 0.5 miles, approximately every 4-1/2 minutes, I kept waiting for the IT band issue to act up.  But it didn't!  We passed the Martin Luther King Center in the fourth mile, turned into Inman Park in the fifth mile.  I had sped up a little bit, covering miles 3, 4, and 5 in 9:23, 9:33, and 9:26 respectively.  Shortly after the mile 5 marker, I took my first gel and washed it down with water from my bottle, and then with powerade at the next water station.  At almost every water station, there were also a few porta-potties, and a few of the runners that had been ahead of me lost their lead waiting for their turn to go.  I thought of a line from the recent movie The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel: "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail."  And let's hope that I didn't need to go later in the race!  

In Little Five Points, I heard my name called - it was Susan from our Weight Watchers group.  She had run with us in the Tour deCatur 5K last weekend, and was there to cheer on her wife.  We passed the Carter Center after the mile 6 marker (9:43 for mile 6) and crossed the 10K timing strip at 1:00:13, which later I learned was a 9:41 minute / mile average pace.  So far so good, nothing was really hurting.  My shirt was soaked by the drizzle, but it would have been soaked by sweat if the weather had been dry, so really it didn't make a difference.  I was wearing my green running cap and that kept the drizzle out of my eyes.  

We were offered cups of red jelly beans right before we turned onto North Avenue.  It was a strong burst of sugar - but fortunately, as soon as we were on North Avenue, there was a water station and I could wash it down.  The carbohydrate jolt helped me run up the steep hills on North Avenue.  I covered mile 7 in 9:51, and the hills didn't bother me too much.  I just shortened my stride and focused on posture, and before I knew it, I had crested the top of the hill.  On North Avenue, the course split, with half-marathon runners directed to the left, and those running the full-marathon to the right.  At the intersection with Highland Avenue, we bid farewell to the marathon runners, which was about 20% of the total runner group that I could see.  Several of us loudly wished them good luck, as they continued eastward to eventually reach downtown Decatur at the midpoint of their race, while we turned north onto Highland Avenue.  They were only one-quarter done, whereas we were more than halfway to the finish line.   

A race in Atlanta means a race with hills.  Look at the uphill finish from mile marker 11! 

The next two miles, on Highland Avenue and then west on Virginia Avenue, were gently downhill.  There were some enthusiastic spectators along Highland Avenue and a small cluster at the corner with Virginia Avenue.  I was able to pick up the pace slightly and without much effort.  I noticed that some of the other runners were slowing down and a few were limping, but I was doing fine.  Although I would lose a little ground every time I took a walk break, I made it up and more when I began running again, re-energized by the change of pace.  I covered miles 8 and 9 in 9:30 and 9:27 respectively, and crossed the 8-mile timing strip at 1:17:21.  At that moment I knew that Bonnie would soon finish the 5K, as that race began well after our half-marathon and marathon starts.  The rain picked up a bit more as we ran down Virginia Avenue, then diminished again to a light drizzle around the time we made the right turn onto Park Avenue.  Quite a few of the residents in that neighborhood were cheering us on.  One fellow was trying to offer runners a couple of cans of beer to slake their thirst!  Crossing Monroe Avenue was a bit of a challenge due to some standing water, and my shoes were thoroughly soaked as I skipped around one small puddle only to land right in the middle of a bigger, deeper puddle.  Before reaching Piedmont Park, the marathon lane joined us on the right (although no marathon runners yet!) and so we were a bit crowded in a single lane.  I skipped a walk break as I felt it wouldn't be safe to slow down that much, although I felt the beginnings of a cramp in my right thigh.  As we crossed the classic Park Avenue Bridge into the Park, a group held a sign reading "We've had 9 mimosas, you've run 9 miles!"  

Shortly after entering the park I took the deferred walk break, ate another gel washing it down with water from my bottle, and the minor cramp disappeared from my thigh as I returned to speed.  We ran through the middle of the park, approaching the main entrance at Charles Allen Blvd and 10th Street.  The water station included an enthusiastic DJ who was encouraging people to smile, telling us how good the powerade tasted, and generally cheering us up.  But I was already feeling great and gave him a big two thumbs-up which was acknowledged by the DJ.  Heading west onto 10th Street, we were going uphill - indeed it was going to be net uphill the rest of the way - but it didn't really bother me.  I just kept plugging away.  I could feel a blister starting to form on the ball of my left foot, no doubt exacerbated by running in wet socks, but it was nothing that I couldn't stand and it didn't slow me down or cause me to limp.  I was definitely running better than many of the others around me.  We passed a cheering group at the Flying Biscuit restaurant before turning left onto Juniper Street, going uphill again.  Nonetheless I covered the 10th mile in 9:39.  The clock was reading 1:39:00 at the mile-10 marker, and subtracting 2:30 for my delayed start, I realized that I was considerably slower than my time in the Atlanta 10-miler in October, which I had finished in 1:31:13.  But I was definitely feeling strong and started thinking, now it's just a 5K to the end.  I managed to speed up a bit, not as fast as I would run in a real 5K, but was definitely moving more quickly.  

The race route, with mile markers

After turning right onto Fifth Street, we soon reached the outskirts of the Georgia Tech campus.  Crossing the I-75/I-85 connector, and turning left on Techwood Drive past the Georgia Tech football stadium, I finished mile 11 in 9:18, which was my fastest mile so far in the race.  Susan from WW showed up again at the turn onto North Avenue.  I was starting to feel some tightness in my knees, probably muscle fatigue, but it wasn't too bad, and the tightness eased up with a short walk break.  Overall I was thrilled that my race plan had brought me to this stage in such great shape.  In the Galloway 13.1 in December, I suffered greatly after mile 11, with a sprained ankle giving me considerable pain, and I walked most of the last two miles.  Today, I was doing much better and was still running 4 : 1 intervals.  I thought about taking another gel, but the water station on the Georgia Tech campus offered half oranges to runners,  That was exactly what I needed, and no doubt was healthier than eating a gel.  The knee tightness had completely disappeared, or at least I didn't notice it anymore.  Through the buildings to my left, I could see the runners ahead of us heading the other way for the final dash down Marietta Street.  With a left turn onto Means Street and another left turn I was on Marietta Street, heading downtown.  I finished mile 12 in 9:45.  

At the beginning of Marietta Street, I took a final walk break as I approached the mile-12 marker, to ready myself for a strong sprint to the end.  The clock was reading 1:58:00, so I knew that I would finish faster than 2:10 clock time.  When I started running again, I decided to speed up my turnover rate, taking shorter steps, and I could feel myself gradually beginning to accelerate.  I began to pass quite a few of the other runners.  As the road was gently uphill, and I was pushing pretty hard, I started breathing fairly heavily, and my pulse rate was in the 170s, but I just focused on breathing every 7 steps (instead of every 5 steps), and kept racing forward.  Then I could see the top of the Westin Hotel, my first sight of downtown Atlanta.  But I knew from running this section in training runs that the mile would feel much longer than it looked on the map.  Moving forward as strongly as I could, I began looking for additional familiar landmarks.  Not much further!  I had been able to hear the announcer in Centennial Olympic Park for the past few minutes.  As I neared Der Biergarten restaurant up ahead on the right, I could make out what the announcer was saying.  With some excitement I spotted the Embassy Suites Hotel ahead, where I had lined up with corral F some two hours earlier.  

Quite a few spectators were lining the left side of the road, where I was running.  When I watched the finish of the half-marathon last year, many of the 2+ hour runners were limping at the end - but this year, in this race, I wasn't!  Then we made the last turn onto Andrew Young International Boulevard, into the park.  The finish line was further ahead than I had remembered, and the road was fairly crowded as we all eagerly pushed forward to the finish line.  A hundred feet before the finish line, I ran up on a group of "Angels" pushing a wheelchair racer, and had to slow down a bit, as I couldn't get around them without getting in the way of the other racers.  But the clock was reading 2:07, which meant that I was going to finish around 2:05 chip time!  I threw my arms over my head as I crossed the finish line, even made a victory pose just beyond the line, although I dared not stop with other runners coming through behind me.  My official time was 2:05:36, a 14-minute improvement over my time in the Galloway 13.1, and quite a bit better than the 2:11 time that I would have run with a steady 10:00 minute per mile pace.  

When I first saw this photo, I thought it looked like I had been shot! 

Even though I was in the middle of the pack, it was a significant personal victory.

What a great race!  I was totally exhilarated, as the endorphins surged through my veins!  I managed to achieve every single goal that I had set for myself, and I had a great time doing it!  

Goal C: To finish my second half-marathon feeling better than I did at the end of my first one; Achieved!

Goal B: To cross the finish line of the half-marathon in time to watch the winner of the marathon; Achieved (and it turns out that the marathon winner is an Emory student!)

Goal A: To run the last mile of a half-marathon faster than I ran the first mile. Achieved!!  Here are my mile splits:

9:56, 9:59, 9:23, 9:33, 9:26, 9:43, 9:51, 9:30, 9:27, 9:39, 9:18, 9:45, and the last 1.1 mile in 10:06, which was a 9:10 minute per mile pace, so the last mile was my fastest!  I'm also really pleased with how consistently I ran the race, with little deviation in speed even with the hills.  I first saw the official readout below, which showed that I had sped up slightly after the 10K mark, and even a bit more after the 8 mile mark.  

2015 Publix Georgia Half Marathon