Atlanta Allstate 13.1 Series Half Marathon

Sunday, October 7:
Official chip time - 2:16:55
A new PR!

It's taken me almost a week to sit down and write a race recap, but here I sit. I worked last Saturday and was thankfully able to have the full day off on Sunday (race day). The day started at 4:15a when my first alarm went off. I finally got out of bed around 4:30 and went downstairs for coffee.

Coffee is very important for me on long runs. It gets things... ahem, moving... before I leave the house.

I had my coffee and enjoyed my typical long run breakfast - Vans wheat waffle with peanut butter. Yummo!

I woke the fam up at 5:30a and we all got into the car and went for a ride up to north Atlanta. It took us about 45ish minutes to get there. Traffic is a breeze at that time of morning. ;)

We had a cold front come through on Saturday night so the weather on Sunday was AMAZING. I wore a long sleeved Nike technical shirt over a short sleeved Brooks Run Happy Tee. I also wore my cute running skirt and some black knee high compression socks. I wore my Brooks Ghost 4's - they just matched my outfit better. ;)

It was in the high 50's at race start - 7a. I concentrated on taking my first few miles slower than I usually do so I could make sure I ran the whole time. I ran this course last year, and I forgot how insanely hilly it is. It's actually a bit out of control with the hills, but it was a great training run for me. I just don't get that amount of hills on my runs on the south side! I only had literally two hills (within the last 2 miles) where I had to walk for about 30 seconds up the hill. My legs were screaming profanities and I just had to walk. Other than that, I ran the whole time!


I know I've run several 13.1's - but I have always had to walk for part of the race - usually around a mile total. I know I've mentioned it before, but this is the first time that I have really put the effort into doing the long runs and really hammering out the miles before the race. It paid off! I'm glad that my baby has an opportunity to go to Mom's Day Out at our church so I can continue to put in my long runs and train appropriately!

So, not only was this super hilly course a new PR, I took a considerable amount of time off of my time from 2011. I finished last year's race in 2:23:47. That's like 7 whole minutes! Hot diggity!

I only felt my calf pulling a bit for the first couple of miles. I felt pretty good after the race. The hubs commented on how much more energy I had after this race than I used to have after finishing a half marathon. (I think he was saying thanks for not laying around on the couch like a wounded soldier all day.) The bottoms of my feet hurt pretty badly by bedtime that night, but they were fine the following morning. I was pretty sore in the quads and in my upper calf muscles for several days. The side of my calf (where my strain is), didn't start bothering me again until Thursday morning -- after I hadn't run on it in several days!! Someone explain THAT one to me, please?

I went to my favorite running store on Monday and bought one of those hand held muscle torturing batons to help with the soreness. I'm not sure how much of a difference it made, but it felt good for muscle massage. To celebrate, I also bought myself a new running outfit! I got a super cute long sleeved Brooks Tee and some long Moving Comfort pants (from the clearance rack, woohoo 50% off on running pants!) I usually buy some clothes at the race expos, so this was my way of making up for the fact that the hubs picked up my packet and I didn't get to go shopping at the expo!

As for the race itself, it is kind of a smaller race and there's only 3 corrals. I'm no where near fast enough to place in a corral, so I'm at the back of the pack with the rest of the slow losers runners. The race staff was nice and they invited FCA to do an opening prayer. The course has too much time on a boring, busy road in North Atlanta - I find this to be the hardest part of the course. AND, you double back on that same section of road so you have to look at it twice. There was no GU station along the way. I love a good GU station - it allows me to try some new flavors without having to actually pay for the experience. The medal was mediocre - but it ended up matching my shirt, so that was a bonus. The race shirt was actually available in a woman's size and it is pretty decent. I wore it on my run tonight, actually. I'll probably do the race again next year - after all, it is a local race and I don't have to take off a full weekend of work in order to go!

Ohhh... because I obviously run for the bling -- I am happy to report that I got a bonus medal for taking the Atlanta Challenge! I ran the Publix Georgia Half Marathon in March and ran this race in October - so I got another medal and another technical tee. I'll take a picture of both medals and post them later.

Things to work on:
Speed - I want to run a 2h half before I die. At this rate, I will have to run at least 16 more half marathons before I achieve this goal.
Fueling during the race - I always start with some hungry stomach noises around mile 8. This is going to be more important for my full marathon - so I need to figure this out.