I wasn't certain if I would even make it to the starting line for this race, due to the persistent leg cramp that has bothered me for the past six weeks. The past week was spring break, so I had some time for additional medical treatments:
Monday March 11:
1) Physical therapy in the morning, including dry needling, to induce spasms in both calves to loosen up the muscles
2) previously scheduled annual eye exam in the afternoon: the young ophthalmologist pronounced my eyes "awesome" - so at least I knew that I could see where I would run!
Tuesday March 12:
3) previously scheduled weekly therapy: we spent most of the session talking through a strategy for stopping if the pain grew too severe, taking the sting, actually the stigma, out of the word "quit". We discussed what pain level I should endure before I stopped. I couldn't argue that I shouldn't stop if the pain was 6 out of 10. After all, I couldn't run at all for five weeks after the marathon last spring. I didn't come to a decision at that moment, but the next day I told Bonnie:
"When I see you in the fourth mile, if I can't smile and give two thumbs up, I'll stop."
Thursday March 14:
4) sports chiropractor session: he pronounced that my hip alignment was improving, but I think the doctor was also relieved to hear my plan for stopping if the pain was too severe. He made a very good point: if you have to stop on Sunday, you're doing it so that you can run your next race sooner.
Friday March 15:
5) physical therapy: more dry needling, but this time it seemed to have more of an effect.
The running that I did this week:
Tuesday evening March 12: four miles, easy pace, not limping too much
Thursday evening March 14: three miles, easy pace, pretty difficult
Saturday morning March 16: two miles walking, but I tried running for short distances, and my legs felt much better than Thursday. I was concerned about my conditioning, however.
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| In the car before 5 am, "ass o'clock" |
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| Lining up near the mile 13 sign |
On the big day: Sunday March 17, 4:00 am alarm: got dressed, ate breakfast, lots of stretching at home. We left the house before 5 am, and arrived at Centennial Olympic Park by 5:30 am. All of the race tents and security fences were up, but other than the volunteers and security, there weren't many people around. But the plan was to arrive early enough to walk around a lot to thoroughly warm up. Starting around 6:30 am, I jogged a bit around the corrals. I felt the soreness in the right calf, but I could run without limping. As the crowds filled the corrals, I took a position near the front of corral C, where the 2:00 pace group was supposed to start. But they were nowhere in sight! The 2:15 pace group was behind me, more-or-less in the middle of the corral, the 4:00 marathon pace group was in front of me in corral B, but the 2:00 hour pace group was missing. Oh well, I wasn't really going for a time goal today, as I wasn't even 100% certain that I could finish. In the corral I saw Carl Line, with whom I typically run on Thursday evenings once we're in Daylight Savings Time - but I hadn't seen him in a few months, as I stopped running in the darkness after Daylight Savings Time ended last fall. He was running the full marathon. Carol Gsell also said hello - she was standing where she thought the 2:00 pace group should have been, and confirmed that they were missing, or were badly out of position.
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| The Olympic Rings, recently installed at Centennial Olympic Park. Before .... |
Wave C began at 7:07 am, with the sky still pitch-black. The air was cool but not uncomfortably cold, and the chance of rain was practically 0%, so it was a perfect day for running! The announcer did a great job of getting everyone excited, and with the first steps over the timing mat, my legs felt OK. I didn't quite keep up with most of the people around me in the first mile, but by starting near the front of the corral, it wasn't too crowded. I just kept a close eye on the road in front of me to ensure that I didn't twist an ankle in one of Marietta Street's many potholes. After turning onto Piedmont Road, I reached mile 1 in 9:15, and mile 2 in 9:45 for 19:00 elapsed. My plan was to run between water stops, then walk through each water stop. I took both water and Powerade at each stop, so ended walking a full minute through most of the stops, but had no difficulty getting back into a running rhythm.
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| The half-marathon route was identical to past years. However the marathon route turned right (to the southwest) after mile 13, for 13.2 more miles on a new route. |
By the end of mile 3, it was nearly sunrise, and the street lights were beginning to shut off. I was still running fairly well, not all that fast, but maintained decent form without limping, as far as I could tell. Mile 3 in 9:45, 28:45 elapsed. I crossed the 5K timing mat at 29:48. Decision time was coming. Was I ready to continue? As we turned onto Jackson Street, heading toward the Martin Luther King National Historic Site, I knew that I would see Bonnie in just a moment. I tried out the signal: two thumbs up and a smile, not difficult! And making the turn onto Auburn Street, I was happy to see Bonnie's smile. I called out my pain scale: "2 out of 10", and flashed the signal:
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| Decision time: TWO THUMBS UP AND A BIG SMILE! |
Mile 4 in 10:30, 39:00 elapsed. I calculated that I was on pace for a 2:08 overall finish. I had taken a long walk through a water stop right before the mile 4 marker. Around that time, Colleen Curran with whom I had trained for the 2018 marathon caught up with me. Liz Mann passed on the left wearing her 2017 Boston Marathon shirt - she ran the full marathon today. Colleen and I ran together for the better part of a mile. As we approached Little Five Points, I saw Coach Carl standing in front of the Variety Playhouse, and worked my way to the right side of the road. I called out "I'm doing OK so far!" He asked "Two thumbs up and a smile?" and I responded with TWO THUMBS UP AND A SMILE. Mile 5 in 10:00, 49:00 elapsed. At the next water stop, I walked and Colleen kept running. There was a lot of crowd support through Little Five Points, and before I knew it, the mile 6 marker appeared in 10:00, 59:00 elapsed, followed by the 10K timing mat on John Lewis Freedom Parkway, which I crossed at 1:01:07. And at this point, the 2:00 pacers caught up with and passed me, two women carrying flags followed by a dozen or more runners, moving at a good clip. They must have started far behind me! I thought about trying to keep up with them, especially since we were running downhill, but I gave up on that pretty quickly. After another water stop on North Avenue, I reached the mile 7 marker in 10:00, 1:09 elapsed.
Turning onto Highland Avenue, the road turned noticeably downhill north of Ponce De Leon Boulevard. I knew that this was the last stretch where we would enjoy sustained downhill running, but simply couldn't move any faster. I heard my name and looked up - there was Kristin Wagner, who is often assigned the same workouts with me on Tuesday evening track workouts, cheering us on. I picked up a full bottle of water at the Clif Gel table, but passed on the gel, as I was taking Shot Bloks as my preferred fuel. I started to think that taking a full bottle of water was a mistake because I would have to carry it for awhile, but the cold water tasted good, and I decided that staying hydrated was important while nursing muscle tightness. With a left turn onto Virginia Avenue, past another large cheering group, I cleared the mile 8 marker in 10:00, 1:19 elapsed. More easy downhill running on Virginia Avenue, where typically I could fly at a sub-9 minute per mile pace, but another 10-minute mile was all that I could manage. For the most part, people continued to pass me, but I was just grateful to move forward without giving in to walking. The pain wasn't too bad, maybe a 3 on a 10 point scale. Then we turned onto Park Avenue, and I definitely slowed down heading uphill. Nonetheless the blocks passed quickly, and before I knew it, Piedmont Park came into view. I passed the mile 9 marker, another 10:00 mile, 1:29 elapsed. There were dozens of enthusiastic spectators on the bridge leading into the park. By this time I had finished the 16 ounces of water, and dropped the empty bottle into the first recycling barrel in the park.
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| Elevation (green) vs. pace (grey). The spike at the beginning is not real, probably signal bouncing off of a building downtown. But I definitely slowed down heading uphill after mile 9. |
In past years I remembered a large tent and a DJ in the park, but didn't see them. Then I heard the sounds of a drum corps on the left of Charles Allen Parkway near the front entrance to the park on 10th Street. Right turn onto 10th Street, uphill - oh my, that was tougher than I remembered. But I just kept moving, albeit slowly, successfully fighting off the temptation to walk. Shortly after turning onto Juniper Street, I passed the mile 10 timing detectors, at 1:39:15, finishing mile 10 in 10:15. With 5K to go, this is where I typically begin thinking about what I need to run to finish in less than 2 hours. But a sub-21-minute 5K will never ever happen for me. And heading uphill on Juniper Street, it was ridiculous to consider trying to speed up. Turning onto 5th Street, crossing Peachtree Road, the road finally levelled out as we approached the Georgia Tech campus. We made a left turn onto Techwood Drive, where a volunteer warned us about potholes. Ha ha, we've been dodging potholes for 11 miles! I needed 10:45 for mile 11, 1:50 elapsed.
As we ran by Bobby Dodd Stadium, Brian Minor caught up to me. What a surprise to see him behind me! He told me a few days ago that he was aiming for a 1:55 finish. He found the 2:00 pace group in corral D, and then had to stop in the early miles for a bathroom break, which took 7 minutes due to a long line. He ran with me for a few minutes and asked how I was doing. Once he was assured that I was doing OK, he sped up, I wished him a "Strong Finish, Brian!" and kept moving at my more modest pace. This was where I was really glad that I knew the race route very well. My legs were really bothering me now: in addition to right calf tightness, I felt left quadriceps tightness whenever we ran downhill. "Fortunately" there weren't many downhill sections for the remainder of the route. Heading along Ferst Drive, I decided to pass the orange station and took one more Shot Blok, finishing the package, washing it down with a cup of water and a cup of Powerade, then resumed running, looking ahead for the street sign for Means Street, which would mark 12 miles elapsed and just 1.1 miles to the finish. Mile 12 in 11 minutes, 2:01 elapsed.
Once we were on Marietta Street, I resolved to speed up as best as I could. Enough people had passed me in the first 12 miles of the race, so I passed some of them as I picked up a modest amount of speed. For the first time in awhile, my watch recorded a pace just under 10 minutes per mile. Then the road went slightly uphill. After a moment, I regained my concentration and started pushing again. I remembered Coach Carl's words, "Be ready to push hard at the end!" and maintained a decent pace, although probably no faster than I ran this section at mile 26 of the marathon in 2017. Crowd support picked up as we drew nearer to the finish line. Crossing Ivan Allen Boulevard, I gave one more surge, and the mile 13 marker came into sight, at about 2:11 elapsed. The last 0.1 mile shouldn't have seemed as far as it was: we made a left turn into Centennial Olympic Park, and I could see the finish line banner in the distance. People around me sped up, I tried to keep up, and made a beeline for the finish, crossing with 2:19 and change on the clock, 2:12:08 chip time.
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| Bonnie photographed me in the last 0.1 mile |
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| I will finish before the gun clock reaches 2:20:00 |
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| And nine minutes before the winner of the full marathon! |
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| Official finish line photos |
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| Olympic rings, After ... |
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| It looks like I won the race! |
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| Celebratory lunch at Brezza at Ponce City Market |
I have a lot of people to thank: Bonnie for her support and assuring me that it was OK if I needed to stop, Coach Carl Leivers for recommending a sports chiropractor when my leg cramp seriously interfered with running, Dr. Josh Glass for beginning chiropractic treatment and writing a prescription for physical therapy, and Chip Hewgley for two physical therapy sessions in the past week that got me to the stage where I could run 13.1 miles. My legs are really sore this evening - I almost feel like I ran the 26.2 mile marathon - but at least I don't think that I made anything worse.
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