Wednesday, October 29, 2008

augusta half marathon

Ok here we go...my first half marathon - the inaugural Augusta Half Marathon.

First, I slept on an air mattress at my parents' house. Bad idea. It deflated in the middle of the night and I got pretty crappy sleep on the floor. Rise & shine at 5 am, out the door around 5:30. We got downtown, picked up my packet and timing chip. The chips were on a velcro ankle band. That thing really hurt me in the end, I have little cuts on my ankle where the velcro rubbed it raw :( I warmed up by running around a couple blocks, stretching etc.

Here I am with Dad stretching before the race:

It was very cold! My fan club had to bundle up:


And we're off! Ryan made sure the first song on my Shuffle was S.O.S from Mamma Mia. Perfect song to start with :)

The race started at the Augusta Common downtown, wound around through Downtown, then started up a long, gradual hill up Central Ave around mile 3 & 4. This hill was really not fun, but I trucked up the whole thing. It was a little sad too, to see this part of Augusta. I wondered what other runners were thinking while running this stretch. Run down buildings, burned down buildings, overgrown lawns...mostly at the bottom of the hill. By the time we got to the top, we were in the more prestigious Summerville area around Augusta State University.

It was around mile 4 or 5 that I heard faintly "purple shorts" - I was wearing purple shorts. Then a man comes up running next to me and I pause the music. His name is Ron and he says "I just wanted to say that you're an inspiration to me. I just keep trying to keep pace with you." Then I say "well we can be running buddies!" So we end up running the next 5 or 6 miles together, and they flew by!! It was an awesome, awesome time. He had some really great stories to tell about his past ultramarathon days, military time, what Augusta used to be like...I just thank God for him. I couldn't believe how fast & easy the race became after Ron started running with me, he was such an encouragement. Had I been by myself, I may have slowed my pace, but Ron challenged me to keep it up! I told him later that he was the real inspiration: 62 years old, with multiple surgeries and a hip replacement. Around mile 10 or 11, Ron had to walk, so we agreed to meet at the finish line. Here's a picture of Ron & I post-race with our medals:


After running through Summerville, the race took us around Lake Olmstead, which I really enjoyed. It was still early morning, and a mist was floating off of the lake. Looked so cool! Then after the lake, it was onto Calhoun Expressway. Ugh. A couple more small hills and the sun shining directly in my face. I closed my eyes a couple times because it was giving me a headache. Yikes. But I finally made it off the expressway, wound another mile or so through downtown and on to the finish line! At this point, there was a small group of us that were running together and encouraging one another. "you got this!" "you're an inspiration!" "keep going!" As I rounded the last corner, "We're All in This Together" came on my Shuffle, and I couldn't have been more energized. I sprinted to the finish line :)

I love this shot, if you could see my face, it would be pure joy:

Medal time!

All in all, it was a great race. Great weather, great fans (yay family!), great company, and really greatly organized, considering it was the first event. I ended up with a chip time of 2:19:22, which I couldn't be happier with. I don't know that I would do it again, but I would if Ron was! Hehe.

2 comments:

Meg said...

Yay! I want to cheer you on at a race! Anymore in Atlanta before the big one? And guess what - I'm done with my test! So we should hang out. You're probably planning on hanging out at the Republican HQ here but Kyle and I are thinking about hosting a small election-day party while we watch the results.

Let me know when you want to get together sometime soon!

kiwi said...

I have one more half marathon before Disney - it's on Thanksgiving morning here in Atlanta. So if you're in town, you should come out! I think the course goes near your neighborhood? It starts near the Chamblee Dunwoody marta station and goes down Peachtree St all the way to Turner Field.