June 12, 2016: The Hotlanta Half Marathon

2015 Course Time: 2:05:49
Half Marathon PR: 1:59:48

Today's Hotlanta Half was my 8th half marathon (7 road, 1 trail).  Last year I had a good time running this race, despite a torrential thunderstorm in the last third of the race.  It's a point of pride for those of us who ran the 2015 Hotlanta Half, as we enjoy sharing our memorable story of that race.  Despite running through 2 inches of rain in a few sections, the temperature was pleasant throughout the 2015 race.  

Saturday night double date,
on the Eastside Beltline after dinner

For 2016, the weather forecast was probably more in line with what the organizers were thinking when they named this race: temperature at the start at 75 degrees F, humidity at 78%, and of course plenty of the famous Atlanta hills.  13.1 miles of heat, hills, and humidity: what could go wrong?!

Of my usual running cohort in the Tucker Running Club, only Brian Minor and Beverly Ford were running Hotlanta today.  Bonnie and I are becoming good friends with Brian and Beverly, and we had a nice dinner date last night, eating sensibly at Bellina in Ponce City Market, and walking together a part of the Eastside Beltline.  

I was able to stretch out pretty well at home this morning, and when we arrived at Pemberton Place in downtown Atlanta, adjacent to Centennial Olympic Park, I had a good warmup jog.  I had resolved to take it easy due to the temperature, and set my Garmin watch to intervals of 4:30 run, 0:30 walk.  I lined up with corral C, and was greeted by Carl Line, an experienced marathon runner who sometimes runs with me on Thursday evening runs out of Big Peach Running Company - Decatur.  Most of the other runners around me were not carrying their own water, relying on the water stations promised at every mile.  I had decided that while this race was likely to be well-organized with the water stations, I would still carry my own water due to the temperature.  That proved to be a very wise decision. 

We started at 7:00 am sharp.  I stuck with the run-walk plan fairly closely, but I was feeling so good when we started that I had no trouble knocking out 9-minute miles 1, 2, and 3, even though I took a walk break and accepted a cup of water or Nuun at each water station.  

Then there was mile 4, uphill running north past Turner Field.  Before we had reached the mile 4 marker, my heart rate monitor had sounded an alert, so I slowed down a bit, staying just under 10 minutes.  Mile 5 was not as strongly uphill through the Georgia State University campus, but again I barely managed to beat 10 minutes.  Then turning onto John Wesley Dobbs Avenue, after crossing under the I-75/I-85 connector, I took a 2-minute walk break uphill onto Irwin Street.  I never got back up to speed after that point, just trying to run between 10 - 11 minute miles.

Already struggling a bit, in mile 5

passing the Georgia State capitol building

Even on the Eastside Beltline, 110 feet gently downhill for miles 7 and 8, I just couldn't accelerate.  I was really glad to have the water bottle, to take a sip or even pour a bit of water on top of my head without having to wait for the next water station.  Brian had started in corral D but he caught up to and passed me on the Beltline, moving strongly.  

Turning onto 10th Street along the southern border of Piedmont Park, I took another 2 minute walk break, thinking wistfully about how nice it would be running in the other direction in the downhill finish of the Peachtree Road Race in a few weeks.  My reverie was interrupted by the 2:10 pace group passing me.  For a brief moment, I thought that I might be able to keep up with them, but no, wasn't gonna happen today.  I barely finished mile 9 under 12 minutes. 

Mile 10 was a loop through Piedmont Park.  The elevation map is not consistent with my recollection that it was steeply uphill.  I ended up taking a 5-minute walk break through the park, taking 13:15 for mile 10.  When the road leveled out on the west side of the Active Oval, I began jogging again.  Exiting the park onto 12th street, I saw Beverly entering the park, and she looked like she was doing well, less than one mile behind me.   

I looked up the mountain that was 12th street and decided to walk up it.  Last year there was a "King of the Hill" challenge on 12th street that I ran in 1:45; today I allowed myself 3 full minutes to reach the summit. 

Near the top, I recognized a familiar face: Cristal Stoutzenberger with a megaphone encouraging us.  She was with the runningnerds group, passing out cooling towels as we turned onto Juniper Street.  Those towels felt so good!  I thoroughly mopped my face and head, neck and arms, and immediately started to feel better.  Juniper Street was also uphill, but I was able to get back to running some reasonable intervals, mostly running with just 30 second walk breaks.  The 2:20 pace group caught up to me on Juniper Street right before we turned onto 5th Street, but I was able to stay fairly close to them.  

The Big Peach Running Company water station was manned with more familiar faces - it's about time to buy another pair of shoes in the coming week - see you soon!  I needed 12:20 for mile 11 (87 feet net uphill) but started to speed up a bit in mile 12 through the Georgia Tech campus, 11:25 (83 feet net downhill).  

Shortly after passing the mile 12 marker outside of the Georgia Tech football stadium, I finished off my water bottle.  I would have had a more difficult time if I had not carried my own water.  Now that I was in the last mile, I resolved to speed up as much as possible to the finish.  On North Avenue, there was a nice surprise - a second cooling towel station, staffed by Run Family.  It was absolutely wonderful to have those cooling towels at both of those stations, in fact they probably helped to prevent some cases of heat stroke and I'm certain enabled more finishers.  Thank you runningnerds nation and Run Family! 

Turning onto Luckie Street, I saw the street rise up ahead.  I remembered from last year that the last mile was over 100 feet uphill.  The 2:20 pace group seemed to fall apart somewhere in that area.  I saw a couple of the uniformed pacers but didn't see the flag, and passed a couple of the pacers.  At that stage, I was wondering if there was any way that I could finish ahead of my first half-marathon time of 2:19:36.  I had to take a 30 second walk break midway up Luckie Street, but that gave me the strength to finish strongly.  Crossing Ivan Allen Boulevard, I passed the back side of the Georgia Aquarium, kept pushing up the last long block of Luckie Street as strongly as I could knowing that the end was near!  Turning the last corner, the finish line banner was further than I had hoped, but I managed to run fairly well into the finish.  As I crossed a timing mat a couple of hundred feet before the finish, the announcer called my name, and I lifted my arms in acknowledgement.  On the left side I spotted Brian cheering me on, and I moved over to give him a hand slap as I ran toward the finish line.  Brian ran an excellent race, finishing in 2:09 and running consistent 9:30- to 10-minute miles.  He and Beverly have been doing a fitness boot camp, which helped prepare them to run strong races today.  

Giving Brian a high-5 in the last 100 feet

I actually didn't notice the clock when I crossed the finish line, but my official time was 2:20:17.  It was my slowest road half-marathon.  Happily it was not my worst half - the worst one was my first one in December 2014 when I walked most of the last two miles due to a sprained ankle.  Today I wasn't injured, and I even managed a bit of a celebratory fist pump, happy to finish under the hot conditions, probably at least 80 degrees at 9:20 am.  The walk breaks in the middle of the race were essential for me to recover enough to run most of the last three miles.  I felt better within a moment of finishing the race, thanks to an ice cold bottle of water and another cooling towel.  

One of my goals for this race was to decide if my physical and mental conditioning was up to the challenge of training for a marathon.  Although I wasn't very fast today, and I made an error in running the first few miles too quickly for the conditions, I learned a lot from today's race that will hopefully serve me well in training for and eventually running my first marathon.  It also confirmed that I really must train carefully and with a dedicated group if I'm going to run a marathon successfully.  Although I have managed to stay in "half marathon shape" with a long run (12 + miles) each month, I haven't kept up with as much cross-training or mid-week training this year.  I will have to make time for training if I'm to have a good experience in the full marathon. 

So within the next 24 hours, I will register for the Atlanta Track Club's fall marathon program, beginning in mid-July.  My goal race is the Chickamauga Marathon on November 12, exactly five months from today.  

Winning time: 1:17:05

My time: 2:20:17, 720th out of 1597 finishers, and 42 / 75 in my age group

Shortly after our finishes! 

Above: our bling along with the Big Peach Running Company motto.
Typically I don't care about the medal, but this one is quite unique! See the video below: