Race Report

“To describe the agony of a marathon to somone who’s never run it is like trying to describe color to someone who was born blind.”

-jerome drayton - canadian marathon, won boston 1977

This was a very different experience for me in many, many ways. It was the first time for many things:
first time i ran a marathon in the city in which i live; first time i had a co-hort with me...planning, sharing excitement, going to the expo, going to the starting line together(SL ran the HALF); first time i forgot my timing chip; first time i ever walked during a race; first time i ever wanted to just STOP and not finish....

On prior race days, especially prior marathon days, when i awake, i can pretty much tell instinctively if i will have a “good” day. sunday, 3/25, was not one of those times. I was anxious, nervous, and very, very tight on my body and i never loosened up during the whole race. From the start, i could feel my legs, for whatever reason, just did not have it on this day. So. I kept on.

It was a beautiful morning in Atlanta...starting time with just a sliver of morning darkness remaining and 66 degree temps...much, much too warm, but that is just the way it goes.

It was an overly congested start with people WALKING smackin the middle of the road....um...hello??
This is one of the biggest things that irritate me! if you are going to walk, great, but go to the far right or start in the back. here i am, trying to manuever my way through the congestion and pick up a little pace and then, SMACK, HALT..walkers!! Not good race etiquette!!

Finally, we get to some wider roads and i can breathe and soon enough the half-marathoners split before mile 4 and the rest of us go on to a much more demanding course!


This was the ING inagural race for Atlanta and with every first timer, it had it’s problems...no water stops between miles 4-8. YIKES! We were all suffering with the hills in between and the rising temps. WOW! My hips and thighs were tight and hurting, but i was still moving at a good clip...on pace to finish in 4:15-4:20, which were my previous marathon times. I felt like i could sustain the pace. Until.

Coming out of the Emory University area to a short little downhill, we then entered my next door neighborhood of Druid Hills. I know these hills well. However, the planners threw in 2 I had not seen on the map and WHOA!! These were mile 16-17 and man, they got me. Also, let me mention, there had been only 1 Powerade stop along the way so far! And these were not the only hills so far, these were just the toughest, the steepest. Coming around to mile 18, was my corner....the corner that was just steps away from where i live and i thought, “i could just stop...” and then i saw my friend C. smiling, waving, cheering me on like crazy. I kept going. Slower. Much slower. The last 4 miles had taken a lot out of me and my perhaps 9:50 pace quickly turned into more like 11:00. YIKES. You know you are hurting when the DOWNHILLS hurt and that is what i encoumtered next. Soon enough, i am walking, stretching, trying to get my body do DO SOMETHING. GET BETTER. QUICK. I looked around and so more folks like me. We were all suffering. So many runners were taking walk breaks, streching their calfs, the quads. It was probably mid 70’s by this time. I had ingested 4 different gels by this time, but it was not nearly enough replenishment. I was famished. Physically battling this demanding course, i was also battling mentally. i had to “let go” of my desire to finish in 4:15-4:20. forget it. no way. And the pain was so deep...i thought, “i could just stop. not finish. go home. my house is sooo close.” Then, i looked around at “my fellow teammates” who were struggling too. How could i bail? “Angie, you will finish ths race. you WILL finish this race.”



And that was that. The last 6 miles were excruciating and then at some point, my body was just numb. My legs felt like they were just shuffling along. A far cry from my last marathon where i was sooo strong the entire way, especially the last 5 miles...and that was in san francisco!! The last 3 miles were gradually uphill on Peachtree Street, in the climbing temperaturesup to 80 degrees with lots of folks cheering us on. All our bib numbers had our names on them so people were cheering, “go Angie..you are almost there.”
And i was...i could see the finish banner and wanted to kick and sprint. but this was another first: i had not finishing kick. none whatsoever. my legs heavy like bricks...i was just satisfied to cross the damn finish line.

Time was the SLOWEST of all my other marathons.

4:53

What i know is that i DID IT. For the 5th time, I did it. It takes so much just to get there...the starting line. And i found that i can go much further even when in much pain.

This was the most challenging, most demanding, most humbling race i have ever done.

“if you want to win something, run 100 meters. if you want to experience something, run a marathon.”
-Emil Zatopek