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| Panaroma photo in Piedmont Park after we finished the race, waiting for awards |
Last year I had a great experience in the Peachtree Mile, finishing in 6:47 (chip time) for a personal best, albeit boosted by a 77-foot elevation drop. After I finished the Thanksgiving half marathon unscathed, I decided to register again this year. $35 for a 7-minute run, $5 per minute, although I got a nice T-shirt and a pair of branded mittens on top of today's race experience.
This morning I woke up sore from yesterday's 5K effort. I tried some physical therapy exercises last night before going to bed, but had some left glute stiffness that was unresolved this morning. While I woke up at 5:30 am for an 8 am race, it took me awhile to get ready, mostly needing to make a deposit in the porcelain bank. (Today's race would have been a disaster if I had skipped that pre-race preparation step.) It had rained on and off all night, and was still lightly raining when I finally got in the car at 6:45 am for the drive to Piedmont Park.
Arriving around 7:15 am, and making another bathroom stop in the park, I briskly walked from the parking garage to bib pickup at 14th Street and Piedmont Road. I hoped that would be enough to work out some kinks. I saw a few familiar faces: Matthew Grzeck and his son Santiago, Allison Troxell and Jacque Hartley, all of whom were also at yesterday's Singleton 20K relay. Instead of socializing, I tried to warm up a bit more by jogging in the park for a few minutes, but soon it was 7:45 am, and it was time to walk up 14th Street to the starting point at Colony Square. Allison and I talked during the walk: she has a goal of running 52 races this year, with today's race #48 for 2023.
Before long we were lined up in one lane of Peachtree Street, facing south. We were a smaller group than last year. Matthew reminded Santiago to watch out for slick leaves on the path, which I also remembered from last year's race. I looked around and joked to Allison "There are a lot of 60-year-old men here today!" The race started at 8:00 am sharp. Allison, Matthew, Jacque and I started together, but within a block they were all ahead of me. For me, I knew within 30 seconds that I had not warmed up properly and I wasn't going to have a great race, somewhat hobbled by the left glute. I decided to just run and see how things worked out, after all it was only a mile.
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| My pace wasn't very even for the first part of the race, although that might have been the Garmin signal affected by buildings on Peachtree Street. For the second half of the race, my pace inversely correlated with elevation, as expected. |
At the corner of Peachtree Street with 10th Street, I took a quick peek at my watch: 2:42. That was a pleasant surprise: last year I reached the corner at 2:35, so despite the non-ideal conditions, I was doing better than expected to this stage. However, I couldn't get into a higher gear. A younger man passed me, tried to encourage me to keep up with him, but after 15 seconds of effort I had to fall back and let him go. Another peak at my watch as we reached the edge of Piedmont Park showed 5:40. Definitely not breaking 7 minutes today. Unlike yesterday's race, when no one passed me in the second half of the race, people were regularly passing me. Clearing the last tiny hill on 10th Street, seeing the finish line in the distance, I heard the steps of another runner gaining on me. I tried to speed up, but the other runner pulled alongside me to my right, then passed me a few steps before I crossed the finish line. I saw 7:31 on the clock, so that was better than the 8-minute finish that I was anticipating.
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| I earned a finisher's medal! |
Official time: 7:27. I'm not particularly perturbed by the time. The experience confirmed that I just can't push hard running on two consecutive days. To my surprise, I placed 4th out of 6 men in the 60 - 69 age group. I was 43nd overall out of 74 finishers, although I had the feeling as I crossed the finish line that there was absolutely no one left behind me. (Looking at the results, there was a 15 second gap after me and the next finisher.)
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| The winner finished in 4:14. I was a minute behind the age group winner (results on right) but less than 20 seconds behind 2nd and 3rd place in my age group. |
With a small race, a large percentage of the speedsters end up winning something. Allison was the female master's winner, and Jordan Eison and Jacque Hartley won their age groups.
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| This is what a 4:14 miler looks like (Will Ponder, age 22) |
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| And a 5:18 miler (Jill Braley-Boyd, age 45) |
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| Allison Troxell female master's champion in 6:36 (age 52) |
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| Winner of my age group in 6:25 (Charles Potts, age 63) |
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