Peachtree Road Race

Today I ran the Peachtree Road Race, the world's largest 10K, with about 60,000 participants.  This race starts in the Buckhead area of Atlanta (uptown) and follows Peachtree Road south all the way to Piedmont Park in Midtown.

My friend Rita and I headed to the race expo on Wednesday to pick up my number, look for cool stuff, and meet Meb Keflezighi!  Meb is a long distance runner from San Diego that won the Boston Marathon this year.  He was the first American to win Boston since 1983.  He is in Atlanta to run the Peachtree to raise money for the Atlanta Track Club's Kilometer Kids.  He plans to start the race 10 minutes after the last group and  pass as many people he can in 6.2 miles.  He was in the Atlanta Track Club booth on Wednesday signing his book, Run to Overcome, and taking photos with fans.  I decided to buy his book for him to sign, and of course for me to read, and get a picture.  He was so nice and gracious with those of us that came to see him.

Meb (I just love saying his name)

I am just happy to finish

Luckily this was before the race

The morning of the race it was only 65 degrees!!!!!  My coworker, Alex, got to my house around 6 am so we could head to Marta, the Atlanta subway/train system.  Riding Marta the morning of Peachtree is an experience in itself.  Nothing like you and 60,000 of your closest friends crammed into public transit!  Last year I was sandwiched between a bunch of people with nothing to hold on to so it was like a bumper car ride for me.  This year we were able to get into the middle of the train where it wasn't as bad, but the people at the doors were still packed in.  At one of the stops I saw a woman wearing a Team Paws Chicago singlet!  She got on the other end of the train so I couldn't talk to her.

We made it to Lenox Station in plenty of time to hit the porta potty and check out the scene before the race started at 7:30.  At about 7:10 Alex and I parted ways and I headed to corral C which was supposed to start at 7:31.

Peachtree Road Race start line

About to start!

We started promptly at 7:30 and I was feeling pretty crappy in the first few miles, despite the fact that the course was downhill and the temperature was low (for Atlanta in the summer).  I had an ache in my side and I just didn't feel good.  One thing I had to look forward to was seeing my friends Rita and Mike at mile 2!  After stopping for a minute to say hi to them, I saw the woman who was running for Team Paws ahead of me and so I kicked into high gear and caught up to her and said hi.

Mike and Rita

Dallas from Team Paws!

After the happiness of seeing friends and fellow Team Paws person I started feeling much better.  I looked at my watch and my pace was actually not too bad so I was feeling pretty happy.  There were really great (and sometimes crazy) crowds along the course, especially in the last mile.  People were yelling "Go Team Paws" at me, which was great!  Somewhere between mile 4.5 and 5 I noticed some guys giving out blood mary shots and they turned out to be Zing Zang mix so I had to have one.  People were giving out flags, water, beer, pizza, donuts, and all kinds of things along the way.

Running with American flag

Zing Zang!

Soon I was at mile 5 and counting down to 10th street where we turned left and headed to Piedmont Park.  I was feeling really hot and sweaty, despite the cooler temps, but the end was getting close.  I was very happy to finish in 1:01:33, a much better time than I was expecting to get.  I met up with Alex at the Atlanta Track Club member booth and then we made the  journey from Piedmont Park to the Midtown Marta station via 8th Street.  It was all up hill and seemed to take forever.  One unexpected bonus was some people from Three Tavern Brewery giving out free (good) beer somewhere around Juniper or Piedmont.

Finisher shirt!

Alex was really happy about his free beer

We headed back to my house for some celebratory beverages and breakfast.  When we walked in the door the house smelled of bacon thanks to Nick already starting to cook.  Overall it was a great race and a nice break from the longer weekend runs.

In the end Meb Keflezighi finished the race in 37:56 and passed 22,780 people in his quest to raise money for Kilometer Kids.  He ran passed my friend Rita around mile 2 and gave a little kid a high five.  Such a nice guy!