I ended up running with one of my best friends, Patrick. When I mentioned I had signed up, he said he may be interested, so I signed him up, haha. Don't tell me about a race you have been considering running because there is a good chance I will sign you up to run it with me. I know that he isn't a huge fan of running anything more than 3 miles, so I decided to use this as the push to actually get him to do the race. I knew it wouldn't be hard for him since we would be going at my pace, which is much slower than his.
A few friends from college met up with us in ATL to hang out for the weekend. We found an apartment to rent out for the weekend that was really close to the finish area at Piedmont Park. We were a little farther from MARTA than I wanted to be but it was close enough that Mac could drop us off closer to the station. Patrick was staying somewhere else since work had him in ATL and they covered his hotel.
I woke up race day to a very unpleasant surprise. There was a HUGE storm headed straight for the course that stretched on for a while. I checked the race FB page and things were still a go but they were keeping an eye on the storm. Patrick drove over the morning of the race to catch a ride to the train with me. Mac wasn't able to get us as close as we thought to the the station we were planning to use because of the road closures but we followed a few other runners up to it.(We were actually right next to a station and didn't realize it. Oh well.) We were able to see the wheelchair racers as they turned onto 10th street towards the finish line. We got into the station just as a train was getting ready to leave. We could have hustled and made it on but we decided to wait for the next. We should have run for it. The next train was definitely a lot fuller. Because of the longer walk to the train and waiting for the next one, we were running a little late. Our Wave was set to start at 7:50. I felt a little better knowing we were on the train with lots of people that were supposed to start before us. If we got into our wave, great. If not, we would just jump in a later one.
We got off the train and headed towards the start corrals. As we got closer, I saw the sign for wave E go past. We made it to the start area just as D was preparing to leave. We hoped in to the front of E and made our way to the line. It wasn't raining yet but the sky didn't look good. We started right on time. We jogged for a while until we could make our way over to the right side. It started raining almost immediately after we started. With it being wet and crowded, I wanted to be safe, not sorry. We never followed any set intervals just went by feeling. Not long into the race, we found someone handing out beer and free hugs. I got a hug and Patrick got a beer. Then we grabbed a pixie stick. I was handed some 80s sunglasses and a full size bottle of water. Patrick made a pit stop and I laughed at the people going out of their way to run through a sprayer that was set up on the right side of the road. By this time, it was raining pretty steady and everyone was soaked. There was no need for the water. We headed on into mile 2 which is mostly down hill. We jogged the entire thing at an easy pace. As we ran, I noticed a tent for Sweet Water beer where they were handing out free cups. Since it is a local beer and not the cheap stuff he was handed earlier, I knew Patrick would want some but he didn't see it. I yelled, "Patrick, beer. Sweet Water!" He darted in front of me, hit a huge puddle, grabbed and light pole to pull a U turn and everyone cheered as he ran back for his beer. I was enjoying my blue freeze pop that I grabbed just before the beer tent from some teens with a cooler. It was the perfect slushy consistency. We enjoyed our treats as we continued town the hill. For about the last half of the downhill section, we could see the buildings of downtown ATL and straight ahead of us was the one everyone calls "the pencil" because that is what it looks like. Somewhere during that section is when everyone on that decline saw "the pencil" get struck by lightning. Up until that point, the course flags had been yellow, after that, they were switched to red. There really wasn't too much lightning except for that one strike. Everyone kept going but many joked about the taller runners around them. There was a collective gasp through the thousands of runners on that hill when it happened but no one stopped.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I had heard about the major hill on the course. That's why I started trying to run one of the big hills near us to prepare. When we reached the flat area at the bottom of the hill, we walked for a while to recover and prepare for the hill. I wanted to run as much of it as I could. I didn't want it to slow us down too much. We hit the bottom and started running. There was a red light with a flat area just beyond it. I decided that I wanted to run to the light, take a walk break and then attack the hill again. At the light, we walked a little. I was trying to prepare mentally for the rest of the hill. I knew from others that they brought out the patients from the Spine Center to watch the race and that soon after we would reach the top of the hill and Piedmont Hospital. I was trying to psych myself up for this big, long climb and realized I was seeing the patients out under tents watching us. The rain was still falling but they were out there cheering. I realized I could see the Piedmont hospital sign and we were closer to the top than I thought. I told Patrick I wanted to run it out and started nearly sprinting up the hill. It was no where near as tough as I was expecting. Between hearing what others said and preparing for it for a few weeks before, it really wasn't as bad as I expected. I was really proud of our time up the hill when we were done.
After that, it was an easy run/walk through downtown. I texted our spectators as we turned onto 10th St so they would know we were coming and so they could let me know where they were. Patrick and I joked about a 10K ending our 12 year friendship because I made him start running when he really needed to find a restroom thanks to the beers he had on the course. Because we took the race pretty easy due to the rain, he had no trouble with the distance(which I expected) but as I runner, I know how hard it is to run when you need to go and I had to give him a hard time about it. We made our way down 10th towards the finish feeling good but very wet. I saw Mac and our friends just before we made it to the finish line. I got a quick kiss from the hubby and headed to the line. I knew our time was crap, but I didn't really care. We had a great time.
The finisher chute area was a muddy disaster. We headed through the lines to grab our finishers' shirts and then get our food box. Patrick finally made his pit stop while I looked for our crew. We slid in to the charity runner area to grab some fruit and most importantly, for me, a couple PowerIce popsicles. They are basically all natural gatorade in a popsicle. The heat wasn't horrible thanks to the rain but it was still very refreshing after the race. After meeting up with the others, everyone headed back to our apartment. There was no real point in taking a shower because we were completely soaked. It started raining harder right after we finished so most of the sweat was rinsed off. The great thing about being in an apartment instead of a hotel was the fact that we had a dryer. everyone changed into dry clothes and tossed their wet stuff in the dryer. We hung out for the rest of the day and just enjoyed our time together. Our friends presented us with the medals I bought when I signed us up. Since Peachtree gives their shirts to finishers, they don't really do medals. Since so many runners now love their bling, they have started offering then for sale. Since I love my medals and I knew this was going to be Patrick's first(and possibly only) 10K, I got the medals for us both.
Peachtree really was a big party. I'm glad I did it, and if I get a chance, I may do it again. I was hoping I would have a decent finish time to possibly use for Wine and Dine but with the rain, that went out the window. It was a ton of fun running with an old friend and just having fun out on the course. We never took ourselves too seriously during the race and because of that we were free to just enjoy it. It was really nice having a nice race again, even if it wasn't the best finishing time.
