I woke up on Sunday morning wondering what in the world I had gotten myself into. To be honest my training has been next to nothing for the past 6 months and I just wasn’t ready to run 13.1 miles.I put my running gear on and headed off to the start line which was pretty nice. In a typical City the size of Atlanta when there is a run with 15,000 people you would have to get up hours before the start time to get to the run, find a place to park and then walk a good distance to the start line. It pays to have friends in the city, I got up at 5:30 and Gary drove me right to the start line and I only had to stand around and wait for about 30 minutes.
To say the least I told my family and friends not to expect me in less than 3 hours and I expected the run to take me that long. With 15,000 people, the race started at 7:04am. It was about 7:15 when I made it to the start line because it takes a long time to get that many people through the gate. The first mile felt good. Mile 2 and 3 felt OK but I thought at mile 3, I ‘ll do good to finish this race. I started feeling pretty good around mile 5 and I ran every step of the first 10.1 miles, I couldn’t believe it myself. For the last 3 miles I would run and then walk through the water stops. My feet were hurting and I could feel a blister but by the end of the race the blister was gone. While I was finishing my last half mile, 5 of the 26.2 mile Marathon finishers came around me. I would love to be able to run 26.2 miles with just over a 5 minute pace but I will be happy with my 2 hour 16 minute finish for 13.1 miles.
This race has reminded me once again why I love to run. I love the people, the challenge and just being outside enjoying God’s beautiful creation.
It was a great race!
Ronnie