13.1 Marathon in Atlanta

I got up at 3:45 this morning, to  get ready this mornings run.  I had a small bowl of grits with blueberries and goji berries mixed in it, along with a banana, yogurt and a glass of water.  I had everything laid out last night so getting dressed and having everything in order was no issue.  I arrived at the MARTA station in Doraville around 5:20, which gave me plenty of time to just sit and relax until I got on the train, while listening to my prerun playlist.  I got to the Brookhaven/Oglethorpe station just after 6 am, and walked briskly up to Oglethorpe.  I had plenty of time to warm up and use the portapotty twice, as nerves were at work.  Checked my bag and made it to my start corral, where I kept moving a bit to stay warm, as it was very cool this morning.  The race started promptly at 7 AM.

The first few miles I was keeping a very good pace, over 8 mph, but couldn't keep it up and finished with a time of 1:38.52, which is about 7.95 mph or a 7:33 minute mile, finishing 147 of 2887 runners, not bad for my first half marathon.  The course was a bit rough, very hilly, so anyone who plans on running this, I really recommend doing A LOT of hill work, maybe even 2 times a week, and on your long runs doing no less than 15 miles.  Even with the work I had done, I was not 100% prepared for this race, some minor foot pain I had for a week or so, and a 2 week sinus infection didn't help me much.  I really started feeling it about mile 11, but kept up a very good pace, as I say the hills were brutal.  The course was well planned and went by some nice really nice places along the way.  There were plenty of water/gatorade stations, with a few portapotties near them, I did have to stop once along the route to use one.  Also having cheerleaders, and musicians along the route, also the workers at the water stations were very enthusiastic and encouraging to the runners, as well as the volunteers on the course, and having plenty of them and police in place.  The medal was a very nice one: 

There was plenty of water, bananas, and other food in the finish area, as well as a band performing.  There was a massage area, but I didn't take advantage of it, and having a tent you could go to for results was very nice, so you could have you time right away. 

Things I learned from this race number 1 is the importance of doing hill work.  I also need to work on my cardio conditioning, not like I am in really bad shape, but I need my cardio capacity to be a lot higher.  I can accomplish this by working on my breathing through my nose, also doing more intense cardio workouts.  Though I did some longer runs, I need to do them on a more regular basis, which will help my cardio capacity, and keep me going better.  I still need to work on my posture and other forms from ChiRunning, but this is always a work in progress.

I plan on doing this race again next year, and will do a lot better, as I have a feel for the course, and know how to train better for it.  The winning time was 1:15.03, so with the right training I could be right up there next year, no doubts in my mind.  As long as I keep things up with runs, and doing good longs runs weekly, and hill work as well, not to mention working on my Chi Running anything is possible, I would need to add about 2.5-3 mph to my speed, which is not impossible I feel.  Next up is the Atlanta Half Marathon on 11/25, time to start getting ready for it and train very hard.