October 22, 2023: The PNC Atlanta 10 Miler

After John Dougherty suddenly passed away on September 23, Bonnie flew that afternoon to New Jersey to be with her sister, for emotional support and to assist with funeral arrangements. I flew to New Jersey the following Friday with Bonnie's brother, Brutus, for the funeral on September 30, then we all returned to Atlanta together late on Sunday October 1. I had been working on a grant application due on September 30, and with John's passing it was difficult for me to keep up with anything more than what absolutely had to be done to finish the grant proposal and keep up with my Emory course. Getting back to work on Monday October 2, I was going to bear down and catch up on everything, including a research paper from a recent Ph.D. graduate's thesis that was due on Monday October 16. 

Then on Thursday evening October 5, Bonnie was leaving her office, walking to her car in the parking deck, when she apparently missed a step and fell, severely hyperextending her knee, and as we discovered in the following days, completely tearing the tendon holding the lower leg to the patella. Since then, Bonnie's independence has been sharply limited, other than going from home to doctor's offices, and more recently, to surgery on Thursday October 19. Fortunately the surgeon was pleased with the surgical outcome, but Bonnie faces 6 weeks of immobility to allow the surgical repair to heal, and then faces months of physical therapy. If there is any good news, the surgeon assured Bonnie that after physical therapy, she should be able to resume activities that she was doing before the injury. So we're hopeful. 

Getting back to me, I'm in the middle of a running "rebuild", in the Atlanta Track Club half-marathon training program, trying to see if I can run a half-marathon in less than 2 hours on Thanksgiving Day. I've done this several times, but my most recent "Breaking Two" accomplishment was nearly 4 years ago. There are probably a few reasons for the long gap, including not having run that many half marathons since that time (thanks pandemic) and having gained about 20 pounds in the past 4 - 5 years. In August I resumed tracking everything I ate with the Weight Watchers app. It works, I'm down 5 pounds after two months, and I'm confident that I will gradually lose more weight if I just maintain awareness of what I'm eating. With the loss of the pounds, and the onset of cooler weather, I can tell that my fitness is improving. I've had some good workouts on the track. In the 10-miler, my goal was to practice goal half-marathon pace. I'll need to run 13.11 miles averaging 9:09 minutes to run a sub 2-hour half-marathon (without rounding off for significant figures, 1:59:57!) 

My specific goal for this race was to run that pace for 10 miles. 

1. Could I do it? 
2. If successful, how would it feel? 

With Caroline Dunn before the start

And with Stephanie Batson a moment later. 
I like this year's in-training shirt, very comfortable, 
and also very visible. 

A couple of photos of wave C at the starting line,
less than a minute before our wave began the race.

Lining up in wave C before dawn, I saw Colleen Curran, Caroline Dunn, and Stephanie Batson - it was nice to catch up with all three of them. The extraordinary master of ceremonies Ronnel Blackmon sent off the wave A runners at 7:15 am, wave B 3 minutes later, and then wave C at 7:21 am. As we moved toward the starting mat, Stephanie darted out ahead of us. Crossing the start line, I easily found a 9:30 min / mile pace for the first couple of blocks, then turning left onto 17th Street. On occasion other runners were dashing past. I saw another runner wearing the Thanksgiving Half Marathon in-training shirt, joked with him "I wonder how many of these runners we will be passing later in the race!" I just running steadily across the I-75/85 overpass, across Spring Street and West Peachtree, then a left turn onto Peachtree. Around this point I had caught up with Stephanie, and we ended up running the rest of the first three miles together. Mile 1 marker at 9:27 (+67 ft, -11 ft). That was a little slow, but I knew that I would need to rein myself in on downhill miles 2 and 3. 

Crossing the overpass over the I-75/85 connector.
Atlantic Station is now immediately behind us. 

Stephanie and I chatted most of the way down Peachtree Street. I remember one older man on the sidelines looking straight at me as I passed, saying "Great job, sir!" I took a walk break near the mile 2 marker accepting a cup of water. It was funny (to me) to hear a volunteer say "Oh my gosh, I just gave that runner an empty cup" which must have happened to someone just ahead of me. Mile 2 in 9:11 (+15 ft, -42 ft) and then mile 3 down Cardiac Hill, in 9:05 (+66 ft, -144 ft). 27:43 elapsed, 9:14 min / mile average pace. 

As soon as I made the turn in the Peachtree Hills neighborhood, I lost track of Stephanie. For awhile, I hoped that she was drafting behind me, but I gather that she fell behind quickly in the hills. In some years this has been the first tough part of the race, but this year I felt that I was able to take on the rolling hills under control. It was nice to begin passing a few people in this section. Emerging onto Lindbergh Drive, we approached the main MARTA station at mile 4, 8:57 (+86 ft, -60 ft); 36:40 elapsed. This translated to a 9:10 min / mile average pace - I was thrilled to have worked down almost to my overall goal pace. I was feeling strong, definitely had 6 more miles left in me. 

Turning right onto Piedmont Road, I took a walk break at the second water stop. After briefly going downhill over Peachtree Creek, then through the I-85 underpass, we ran a rather steep uphill getting into Midtown Atlanta. I had struggled with this hill in our training run a week ago, taking a long walk break, but today I had the mental strength to keep running uphill. I crossed the Mile 5 timing mat at 46 minutes flat (+86 ft, -78 ft; officially 45:58 chip time), which was a 9:12 min / mile average pace. If it looked like I was beginning to slip from my goal pace, actually I knew that I was doing OK - much stronger than last year. I felt that I had banked a decent amount of energy for the second half. We still kept climbing uphill - once again I was glad that I had recently run this section in training, so I was able to stay calm, shorten my stride, and passed a few dozen people. As I crested the hill, a couple of blocks before Monroe Drive, I knew that a water stop would be around the mile 6 marker, and as I crossed Monroe Drive, I took a citrus gel (Atlanta Track Club was giving away boxes of these to trainees a week ago). I actually had to run a couple of minutes after taking the gel before reaching the water station, which wasn't ideal. Mile 6 in 8:57 (+56 ft, -64 ft), 55 minutes flat, back on the 9:10 min / mile average pace. A couple of minutes later, I finally reached the water station. It's a good thing that I brought my own gel: a volunteer was handing out gels, but he was standing much too close to the volunteers handing out water. It takes me a full minute to tear open a gel and roll up the package to squeeze the contents into my mouth. It's only after that minute that I want the water to rinse down the sugar. 

This year the route had changed a bit: instead of briefly turning into Ansley Park, we kept running uphill on Piedmont Road. It was a relief to turn into the Botanical Gardens, and after a minute running down the nice hill behind the Piedmont Driving Club to enter Piedmont Park. The outer road of the Active Oval was rolling hills, but I absorbed some positive energy from a large cheer group, several dozen people from the Atlanta Running Club. As we ran past the 14th Street exit, the mile 7 alert sounded: 9:11 (+121 ft, -59 ft), 1:04:10 elapsed. Still on pace as long as I could speed up a bit in the last couple of miles, which I was pretty sure would be the case. 

Thanks Alice Pate for cheering for us on the toughest mile of this course!

We exited the park at 12th Street, and began climbing immediately after crossing Piedmont Road. It didn't look that steep at first, but the hill was gradually and continuously uphill, all the way up to Juniper Street. Last year I gave in to a nice long walk break on 12th Street. This year I fought off the temptation, just shortened my stride, and maintained a running motion. This was another sector where I passed a few dozen people. As I turned left onto Juniper Street, I could see that the first block or two of Juniper Street was downhill. But my legs had turned to jelly on the 12th Street hill. I wondered if that had been a wise decision to run all the way up 12th Street, since I couldn't get back up to speed right away, and then we started going uphill, again! The one positive thing about Juniper Street was Alice Pate standing on the right side of the road, cheering on the runners that she knew and capturing our photos - thanks Alice! In previous years on this course, we turned left at 8th Street, but with the change in mile 6, we were now routed to 6th Street. Those extra blocks on Juniper Street were straight uphill. Mile 8 in this race is always my slowest, no matter the route, and this year was no exception. I was pleasantly surprised to see not only a sub 10-minute mile, but 9:36 (+111 ft, -30 ft)! I walked through the water station around the mile 8 marker. Mile 8 was still my slowest mile today, but not terrible. Elapsed time of 1:13:45 dropped my overall average pace to 9:13 min / mile. But I knew from experience that miles 9 and 10 would be net downhill. 

As I was getting back up to speed, a car turned sharply in front of me and another runner, to get into a parking garage. The driver waved as they turned, but I had to quickly stop my acceleration and yelled "Hey! Hey!" I didn't care for that close call. I tried to shake off that memory as we turned right onto West Peachtree Street. 10th Street is the top of the hill in mile 9, but the other disadvantage of running down to 6th Street is that we had to work our way uphill for four blocks, not the two short blocks from 8th Street in the previous route. The Garmin data shows that I really slowed down in this part of the course. Fortunately I was able to get back to a good speed shortly after crossing 10th Street, and at least I didn't have jelly legs this time. A few runners passed me in this section, which prompted me to increase my own pace, and thankfully my body responded as I had hoped. Before I knew it, my pace in the 9th mile had dropped from >10 minutes per mile around 10th Street to <9 minutes per mile before we had even reached the mile 9 marker. 8:40 (+32 ft, -104 ft), 1:22:25 elapsed. Average pace per mile to this point: 9:09!!

And I knew that I had banked enough energy to run a strong final mile. My goal time today was 1:31:30, which would correspond exactly to the same pace needed for a 2:00:00 half marathon. As soon as I had passed the mile 9 marker, I definitely sped up, with a nice downhill assist to the 17th Street intersection. I could see the I-75/85 overpass up ahead, but I ran up that final hill of the race fairly strongly, passing quite a few people who were clearly exhausted. Not that I wasn't a little tired myself, but the mantra "You can do anything for one mile" gave me wings to fly! I had not remembered how many blocks it was to the final turn into Atlantic Station (the answer is 5 blocks, 2 blocks to Market Street and then three more blocks) but I just turned off my brain and ran-ran-ran. A 9 minute final mile would get me to my goal with a little cushion, and whenever I glanced at my watch, I saw 8:something for my pace. 

The final turn: I was running strongly, saw Allison Troxell (one of Coach Carl's long-time trainees) walking from the finish. I had enough energy to smile and wave. Then Atlanta Track Club Executive Director Rich Kenah was along the cones in the middle of the road, cheering us into the finish. I felt well enough to smile and say "Thanks!" as I passed. I wasn't sure how far the finish line was from my location, just counting on the confidence that I was running fast enough and had gotten far enough by mile 9 to achieve my goal, so now it was to see how strongly I could finish. We made a sharp right turn - a ha! there is the finish line, the road took a little jog to the left and straightened out. I saw two women running ahead of me; I threw in a final kick, closed some distance on them, pushed a little harder to get a few steps ahead of them, and over the finish line! Stopping my watch, 1:30:47 elapsed, mile 10 in 8:21, -43 ft (so no wonder I ran so quickly!) 

Just steps from the finish line.
Individual photos from Marathon Foto are free this year! 

I achieved all goals today: with an official time of 1:30:41, I outran my goal time by more than 45 seconds, achieving an average pace for the entire race of 9:04 minutes per mile. I also ran a nice 1:15 negative split today, 45:58 for the first 5 miles, then 44:43 for the last 5 miles. I was tired but I wasn't wiped out (although Bonnie might disagree after seeing me nap off and on for the rest of the day...). I was proud to survive the beast of uphill miles 7 and 8, and had banked enough energy to take advantage of the downhill miles 9 and 10. 

Look at those hills! Craaaazzzyyyyyyy!

Today I could not have added on another 5K to complete a half marathon at that pace - but with a full month of training remaining before Thanksgiving, I now think that I have a realistic chance of breaking 2 hours if conditions are good. Today's race was a nice comeback, completing a quality effort this year, erasing the disappointment of a 3-minute positive split last year. 

Actual temperature was 61 deg F at the start, and
the same temperature during my cooldown mile after the race.
The statistic that I'm most proud of is passing 130 people
on the second half of this tough course.