Well, I had just finished my first 5k race back in March when the very next day, was the sign up for the Peachtree Road Race in Atlanta on July 4th. I was still on my "high" from running and finishing my first race that I thought - "sure, I can do this". So, I convinced one of my running buddies to sign up and make the trip with me. Melissa and I had no idea what we were getting ourselves into!
Fast forward 3 1/2 months...we made it to Atlanta on Saturday night (July 3rd) and Ryan and I met up with Paul, Melissa & Hailey at Hard Rock Cafe downtown. Melissa was a nervous wreck...bless her, I was too, just couldn't admit it because she said something about it every 5 seconds! haha
Race day arrived and Melissa and I met in the hotel lobby at 6:00 am. I was a bundle of nerves. You may ask "Why do you get so nervous?" well, it's just the pure excitement of it all. When you work so hard for something and you've trained so long, you just want to do your absolute best. You want that day to be your best run yet and you want to cross the finish line knowing you pushed yourself farther than you thought you'd be able to go!
We walked 2 blocks to the Marta station and caught the train to midtown. The train was full of runners - some looked really serious about the day and some seemed like they were just out to have a great time. We got off the train at our station and we got our first glimpse of how many people this race would include - shoulder to shoulder with hundreds of runners. We inched our way forward out of the station and out into the streets of midtown. When we finally got out into daylight, we saw it...Peachtree Street. Our greatest challenge yet, was right there before us!
Melissa and I stopped and took a potty break - that was our first of 3 within the next hour! You wouldn't believe the number of porta potties lined up in different areas. It was totally gross! :)
I wish I could have video taped the race. If you can imagine 6 lanes wide of people from start to finish that's what it looked like. After the first couple of miles it wasn't as crowded, but I was surprised at how thick the crowd was even until the finish line.
Melissa and I ran the first 3.5 miles with hardly any problems at all. We both kept saying how good we felt and we wanted to take it easy because we knew "Cardiac Hill" was coming up around the 4 mile marker. We made it to Cardiac Hill and we felt it - so we walked at this point for a few minutes - until we got to the top and then we started running again. We ended up walking 1 or 2 more times - I can't remember exactly - we probably walked for a combined distance of half a mile, maybe a little more.
All in all, we finished faster than we had anticipated and we ran for a greater distance than we had hoped! I am so proud of the both of us for sticking with each other and pressing on even when we were hot and worn out! It made the finish line that much sweeter! Oh, and don't let me fool you - I was a sobbing mess! I started crying before we even got to the finish line...but I don't think any tears came out of my eyes because I had sweated them all out!
I finished 25, 384 place out of 55, 000 runners. My time was 1:12:25.
My "Sole Sister" Melissa and I. (We missed you Shelley!)
My biggest fan! Thanks for the support babe!
My friend Linda from Athens. We had the same idea for outfits that day! Go Dawgs!
My college buddy Kathy. She lives in Atlanta and we met up after the race. So proud of her too!
A few more college friends - Damon, Kathy & Lee. Great job guys!
2 comments:
Absolutelt love the post. It was an amazing experience and I am so glad that I experienced with you. Thank you for everything. xoxox
SOOO proud of you both! You guys did awesome and I can't wait to do a 10k in the future with you!
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