The alarm went off at 5:45 AM and I immediately bolted out of bed. Despite having to get up at the early hour during a) my vacation and b) a federal holiday, I was excited to run this race. My parents ran the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race every summer we lived in Atlanta (1987-94) and it’s a city tradition. Just like any other race, I had carefully laid out my race clothes the night before. We had planned to leave at 6:15 AM, but we were actually out closer to 6:25 AM. Not too bad considering I was mentally aiming for a 6:30 AM departure time. My parents and an elementary school friend I met with on Sunday warned me that MARTA (Atlanta’s public transportation system) would be crazy. I would gauge that most people in the Atlanta metro area use their cars to get around and MARTA is simply an afterthought.
When we arrived at the College Park MARTA station, the parking lot was already full (a number of the MARTA stations are park and ride), but we found a nearby lot that others were using. I was skeptical, but our trip had been full of disagreements on directions and traffic and such so I decided to keep my mouth shut. I am so used to being in Chicago where they will tow your ass in a second, but this is Georgia and it was a church/school parking lot. I hoped that if anyone were at the facility they wouldn’t call the tow trucks because it’s a holiday so no one is at the school and the cars would only be in the parking lot a few hours. Once we got on the platform, I was underwhelmed by the amount of people waiting for the train. I had to remind myself that we were one stop removed from the end of the line. We got a seat on the train, and when you know it’s going to be busy, that’s all that really matters. Even as we got to Five Points (a major transfer point), the train still wasn’t very busy. It wasn’t until we got about 3 stops away from our destination that our train car really got packed. And even though the race hadn’t started yet, the people were a bit funky. I didn’t want to think about what the return trip would be like.
A nice thing about the Peachtree Road Race is that in your “official instructions” they give you a time when your wave will start. Not an approximate time, a real time. I was in corral J, so my start time was 8:09:30. Once we got to the corral starts, my mom went to her corral and my dad made his way to the finish line since he wasn’t running. I had just enough time to stand in line for the port-a-potty and use it before my corral made its way to the start line. As 8:09:30 hit, corral J made its way across the start line. From what my parents told me and what the race map said, I knew the first half was all down hill. Something key to keep in mind as running is very much a mental sport and I live in Chicago where it is flat as a pancake. I didn’t want to exert too much energy in the beginning knowing that it was literally going to be an uphill battle at the end. The temperature when we left the hotel was 74, but 79% humidity. I was not going for a PR today, just a nice 6.2 mile run that would kick off my half marathon training for the Chicago Rock ‘n Roll half marathon next month. I felt good at the beginning. Made sure to take two waters at every stop (one to drink and one to dump on my head) and went through the fire hydrant misters the city had turned on. This race had 60,000 people running, but it most definitely did not feel that way. I was amazed at all the people cheering on runners throughout the race. Lots of businesses along the route used this opportunity to promote themselves. A smoothie shop was handing out smoothies, a church offered a “Holy Water” mister, and a pizza place handed out samples of their pizza.
I most definitely slowed down at the halfway point of the race – cardiac hill. After going down hill most of the first half of the race, cardiac hill is a slow gradual climb for most of mile 3. I ran when I could and tried to keep my pace. We were told that there would be water stops every mile, but there definitely seemed to be a few more than that. It could have been because there was so much unofficial course support. After mile 5, the course turned downhill again. At mile 5.75, there were official race photographers. I put on a happy face for them. One last turn and a downhill slope, and the race was over. I finished about three and a half minutes slower than I wanted, but given the weather conditions, was ok with my results.
The ultimate prize for the Peachtree Race is the shirt. When the race began in the 1970s, race officials underestimated the amount of runners that would be participating in the race and didn’t order enough shirts. Unlike other races where you get your shirt in your swag bag at the expo, you don’t get your shirt for this race until after you cross the finish line. I collected my shirt, my post race water and food and met my dad at the family meet up spot. We waited a bit for my mom and then made our way out of the race. As we exited, there were a few extra goodies at the very end – PowerAde, Blue Bell ice cream sandwiches and Popsicle and best of all, ice cold towels.
I would say my one complaint about the race would be the trip back to the MARTA station. I’m not sure how far we walked (felt like close to two miles), but we had to climb a hill worse than cardiac hill to get back to the closest MARTA station. As we climbed the hill I felt my heart rate go higher than it had the whole race. The hill took its toll on others, too. We witnessed a person on the side of the road look like he was going into some sort of heat related illness. A female with the male runner screamed “STAY AWAKE, JOSH! STAY AWAKE!” It was a blood-chilling scream I’ve only heard on screen. The man’s eyes were glazed over and I said a prayer that he would be fine. There were 28 people taken to the hospital as a result of the race conditions, but luckily there have not been any race related deaths reported. I know this is he 42nd year the race has been run, but I would encourage race officials to look into some sort of post-race shuttle. I definitely would not mind having to pay a slightly higher registration form for this service.
The train was pretty empty on the return trip and thankfully our car was still in the lot when we returned!
Photo: Flickr
