So.........
What is your favorite thing to do on the 4th of July? It seems to me that most people who actually have that day off begin by sleeping in (assuming they are not traveling to the lake or something). Well I just so happened to wake up at 5:30am to get ready for the Peachtree Road Race, my favorite 10K every year. I had picked up my Marta passes the night before, so I had that covered, and I got into my tri gear (I just have assimilated to those outfits, rather than having running shorts, swimming speedos, and biking gear. Just get a tri suit, and you have all 3 in one. Found a pair of "sprint" sugoi pants (really small, light pad, might as well not even have padding), and a top. Was on MARTA early enough so that there were not too many runners on there.
Had a homemade smoothie for breakfast, I will post the recepie, it is the bomb. I have it down to where you can buy $15 worth of smoothie stuff and you can make $50-60 dollars worth of smoothies as if you were going to go to Planet Smoothie or Smoothie King. Other than that, I decided against race nutrition, since I would be out there for less than an hour. I got off the Buckhead exit, and headed North up Peachtree St, just in time to see the wheelchair racers begin. I felt real sorry for one guy, who seemed to have fallen into a drainage area, and got a flat, 100m from the start. He had to concede, since he could not go any futher on that wheel (it was a mess)!
Went to the bathroom in one of the porta-johns, and then went to my time group (time group 6). We did not get started until sometime around 8:15-8:20.
I started off at about 9:00/mile pace, as this was a training run for me, not an actual race. The first three Miles (through buckhead) were really not all that bad, as for it is mostly downhill. As I went through the bar district, various establishments were handing out "rehydrated water" to willing participants. Hell, why wait to replenish your carbs after the race, while you can do it during the race, and they are handing the stuff out for free. By the way, Michelob Ultra was one of the major sponsors of the event.
When I got to the bottom of "cardiac hill", which was just past mile 3, I was around 26-27 min, so I decided to actually kick it in gear. For those of you who don't know (which is probably all of you, none of my lazy ass friends actually read my tri blog, since they get worn out just reading it), Cardiac Hill is a bitch. The worst of it is located just outside Piedmont Hospital and it is a two part hill that lasts almost a mile in length. It goes up moderate, then flattens out for about a hundred yards, and then goes up even more steep the second time, and teases you at then end. This area by far is where you see the most walkers. For a moment you might think that it is a walk-a-thon, but then you remember you are currently attempting to tackle this bitch!
I saw a few of the restaurant owners and their spouses who do business with our bank, and waived hello! Nice to see someone I actually know in a town of almost 5 millon people. One would think that I might see more than that.
When I finished, my calves were a bit sore, but overall I felt pretty good. I pushed myself, but I did not push so hard as to injure myself, being about 6 weeks out of another triathlon race, a sprint distance one at that. My final time was 51min and 48 sec. T-shirt looks good, but it is kind of a pea green, so I do not know what to think of that.
I will be updating my blog seriously this weekend, so incorporate more links, and add some bloggers that have similar tri websites so that I can be part of a group that you can just click through and see what all us tri geeks are up to.
Signing off,
Murtha...
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