Thanksgiving 2006

It started with a Wednesday evening fiasco. Yes, it was my fault too. See, if it's not been said here before or in my girlfriends blog, I'm frequently late. No, no, no. I'm most all the time late. It's likely my biggest fault. Time and I have a very casual relationship and it's not conducive with other relationships, like work or Amy.

So, back to the story. We, Amy and I, had planned on leaving Macon, Wednesday evening, after I finished working. 5:30pm was our original daparture time- though we hadn't counted on the millions of cars traveling in the same direction towards Atlanta. That is where you'd find the busiest airport in the United States and it happened to be one of the busiest travel days in the United States. 5:30 was not a sufficient time for us to be where we needed to be. So, when we left at closer to SIX pm, I was not looking like a knight in shinning armour.

We hit the first traffic jam about 40 minutes after we left the house. If we had nowhere to be at any particular time, it may have been fine, but.....we were running in the Thanksgiving Day Marathon and Half Marathon the next day and we HAD, just HAD to pick up our race packets by 8pm or.............we couldn't run. Well, not officially. We weren't going to run if it wasn't official either, because we're official runners. So, we had to get these packets.

Traffic jam after traffic jam kept pushing us further away from making that 8pm cutoff time and the car was filled with tension. Very very little was said as we drove towards Atlanta. You could almost hear the digital clock ticking off the seconds. A couple of times we saw the traffic lighten up and we'd approach speeds upwards of 55 mph. But then, screeeeech. Brake lights again.

fast forward.....

We made it to the hotel in downtown Atlanta at about 8:15. Amy jumped out of the car, ran across the road, jumped in front of a bus and shot through the front door of the Sheraton. She looked left, then right, then asked some obvious runners with packets where the packets were. They directed here and as the packets were being placed the boxes, she snagged both of ours. Not at the very last minute either. That had already passed. But, it was done and we were in.

It was time to carbo load. We were staying at a friends condo across the street from the Fox Theatre. It's pretty cool to look straight down from floor 16 and see the famous Fox theatre and all the lights of Atlanta. So, before heading up, we headed down the street to a little Italian place for some good food and lots of water. I had two big bowls of pasta and we both had dessert. We were both tired and still coming down from our tension high and now very full. We made it upstairs with all of our gear and got ready for bed. Both of us had been hydrating all day, so both of us had to get up several times during the night to purposely dehydrate ourselves. When 5am rolled around, we were ready to run.

A coffee brewer mishap, trying to decide what to wear and how to shed the excess clothes, where to meet after to run, etc. kept things a bit hectic, but soon Amy was off to the MARTA station to catch the train to the start of her run. I left a few minutes later with the car, in search of Turner Field, the start of my run. A couple of wrong turns and about 45 minutes later, I made it to my 10 minute away destination, but with plenty of time left to spare. Hey, I was early!!

We both had a great run. Amy posted her report here: http://30yofseeksmarathontorun.blogspot.com/

My run started well, but at about mile 8, I realized my double socked feet, were getting blisters from the rubbing of socks. I stopped and took off one pair of socks. At mile 11, the hills let me know they were not affected by the weather and didn't care that it was a holiday. They were on the job and doing what they are supposed to do- make us climb. I had wished more than once that I had opted to run the Half instead of the full 26.2. My first half was great. At 13.1, I was at 1:58. But, there were more hills ahead and I was not in shape to take on more hills at the same pace I'd just run the first half in. I thought incorporating some walking into my run would help, so I did. I think I incorporated about 8 miles of walking into 26.2 miles of running. My time sub four marathon disappeared fast. I could not get legs to keep running, though I did convince them to not stop moving. People I'd long ago passed, were passing me. Then, I'd pass them again, when I sarted running....again. This leapfrog type running method became a game in itself. It helped the miles pass, by concentrating on who I was passing that had passed me five minutes earlier.

fast forward agian....

Amy waited on me at mile 25. I saw a cop blocking traffic next to a hot spectator in the distance. The 25 mile marker was next to them and another freaking hill right behind them. As I got closer the attractive spectator announced it was the last big hill and before I passed her, I noticed it was my very own girlfriend. She was going to be my personal pacer. She ran with me and cheered me to the finish. I was glad she did and I was glad it was over. Those hills kicked my butt.

Really, it's still sore.