Race Day

Location: Birmingham, AL
Temperature: 27 degrees

Pre-Race Breakfast: crappy hotel coffee, water, Chocolate Powerbar

Here I am at 6am in Birmingham, AL. A quick 2 hour drive from Atlanta. The streets are dark and empty as I look outside my hotel window. I eat and drink the same items before every long run. Only today, the coffee is a few notches below my snobby expectations. oh well. I am awake enough. I ran this same race last year and wanted to do it again. 13 miles is on my schedule to day anyway for my marathon training, so the timing was perfect.

It will be cold. It will be a hilly race. I am eager and ready for the challenge. My last race was back in Sept. 2006. Much to long....I am happy to get out there and line up with the rest of us fools. I guess we have nothing better to do on a cold, early, sunday morning!!! This will be a nice break in my training. Since I prefer to do most of my training alone, it will be especially nice to run long with a bunch of other folks. I am not too concerned with my finish time; i am more focused on having a solid run & paying attention to my body.

I will never forget last year as i stood at the starting line with the others who were running the half and some the FULL marathon...i looked around at all in their warm gear, with smiling, excited faces and thought...yep, this is where I belong.

see you at the finish line

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Well, I couldn't quite totally let go of not being too concerned with my finish time. I had a good pace from the get go and checked my watch at every mile. I was solid, steady, focused. I also had fun!! it was so great to race again!! the atmosphere is so unique and if you have been there, you know what i mean. Finish time: 2 hours, 3 minutes. (same as last year, amazingly enough) Faster than i needed to go or thought i would go. I was in a happy daze as i walked around the finish area. I was holding a thermal blanket, my t-shirt, a cool medal a volunteer placed around my neck, a banana, water, and powerade.

Thank you, again, Birmingham. Thank you.