July 4th you would have found me in corral H waiting for the starting gun at the Peachtree 10K.
The Peachtree is the largest foot race in the world. There were 60,000 runners on the 4th in Atlanta for this race. That’s a LOT of runners! Prior to this race, the largest foot race I’ve participated in was 45,000 runners and that was at the Chicago Marathon in 2014. 45,000 runners is a lot of people, too, but the number of runners in Atlanta was simply staggering.
As soon as I found out I had been accepted to run this race, I made hotel reservations. I learned the hard way to hop on overnight accommodations immediately. Lesson learned. I found a room for MFH (My Favorite Husband) and I at the Grand Hyatt Atlanta. *very nice place, btw*
MFH and I had a 4 hr drive from our house to Atlanta. It was uneventful. A pretty day for a drive! We had a nice time on the road. We had decided to hit the Expo before going to the hotel. With that many runners, I figured the Expo would be a zoo. There were a lot of people there, so I was right about that.
While at the Expo, I met a few running buddies! It was so nice to meet a couple of them for the first time IRL!!!
I also got to meet one of my best-est Mississippi running buddies, too! What a treat!
There were a few other people I had been wanting to meet but it just didn’t work out. We’ll get that done another race.
After checking in to the hotel, we met up with a few of these friends for dinner. We ended up eating at The Cheesecake Factory. I’d never been to one of these before so that was fun. After dinner, we were walking back to the hotel when we passed a Cupcake ATM. For real! A Cupcake ATM!!!
You swipe your card and then enter on the screen your selection of cupcake and toppings and then Ta-Dah~open the door on the right, and there’s your cupcake! Brilliant!
Race day morning arrived very early. MFH and I hadn’t realized that we had lost an hour due to being in a different time zone. We had stayed up a bit later than we should have. When that alarm went off? Not. Fun. Ugh.
I hopped out of bed and staggered into our bathroom and showered.
I HAVE to shower before a race. It wakes me up. If I don’t, I’m kind of in a fog for the whole race.
MFH walked me about half way to my corral and then he headed back to the hotel. I followed the signs and directions to my corral and found it without any trouble.
*I’ve got to say here that this was the best organized and supported race I have EVER run. This was top notch stuff! My kudos to the people who put on this event.
Everything went like clock work. 8:05 I crossed the starting line, just like the pre-race email said I would. I was impressed with the organization!
For a race of this size, I never did feel squished on the course. Yes, there were people everywhere, but it wasn’t claustrophobic out there.
The first aid station was a little past the first mile marker. It was warm. It was in the upper 70’s when the starting gun went off. They had the yellow flag flying…kind of a “Proceed with caution” flag. I’ve learned to respect the weather when running in the heat. By mile 5, the red flag was up. I thought, “Oh, No! I don’t want to run a black flagged race two times in a row!”
To be honest, until the gun went off, I still hadn’t figured out a race strategy. I knew about heart attack hill around mile 3 and I knew I’d have to dial it back in that area. I decided to gut it out and try to bank some time at the beginning (which generally is a big no-no) because I knew that hill would hurt me and I didn’t know what I’d have in the tank after that hill.
At mile 2, my most favorite part of the race happened. We passed a Catholic Church. Big deal? Well, yes!
See, in front of the church was the Priest. He had a huge metal mixing bowl full of Holy Water! He was sprinkling us with Holy Water and blessing us as we ran past. How awesome is that!?!
Now, I was raised Baptist and now am Presbyterian so my knowledge of most Catholic things is pretty much non-existent, but I thought that was the coolest thing ever! I’d never been blessed with Holy Water before! Afterwards, I was hoping that since I wasn’t Catholic I hadn’t offended anybody or that it wouldn’t sizzle on my skin? Hahaha!!! Seriously, I thought it was very, very awesome!
That hill DID slow me down. There wasn’t much in the way of shade on that hill. It was hard. I decided to power walk part of it to keep from overheating. I knew it was warmer than when we started and some people were having some heat related troubles.
*Whose tummy tattled that she ate a huge pasta dinner the night before the race? Good grief!*
Finally, the homestretch. My legs came to life and I trucked for that last 1.20 miles. Crossing the finish was different because I’m so used to running Marathons and Ultra’s, where you have absolutely nothing left in the tank. Here I was all done. Yes, I was tired and very, very hot but I could have gone quite a bit further. Strange, that.
I checked my weather app. on my phone. 87* It had warmed up a lot in the little over an hour that I had run!
Found MFH after the race and we started the walk to the Marta station and our ride back to the hotel. I did get my peach to prove I ran the Peachtree!
#1 Son ate it when we got home. He said it was good.
Now, because I am a total and complete numbers nerd, here are the stats for the race:
Overall: 23,403 of 56,956 finishers
Female: 8982 of 28,693
AG (50-54): 756 of 3,027
Top Quadrant AG makes me a happy girl. This wasn’t anything close to a PR but I’m pretty happy with how I placed. Trust you all had a Happy 4th of July!!! Happy Running, all!!!
#IRun4Aiden
#teamZensah
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#ChafeX