This morning I ran the US 10K Classic which starts at Cumberland Mall and then goes down 41 and finishes at White Water. The U.S. 10K Classic is known for its hilly course and being one of the toughest 10k races in Georgia. I had been looking forward to this race for months. I grew up right down the street from where this race is held and remember seeing all the posters and signs along the road. The main thing I remember is the hills. Everyone from Marietta knows that 41 is hilly! It's just one rolling hill after another. The course is definitely intimidating. When I started running again I knew that I wanted to run this race. I'd been waiting for Labor Day to get here just so that I could run it.
A few days before Labor Day weekend I started feeling sick. With all the hoopla about Swine Flu I figured I was done for. The thing about me and sickness is that whenever there is some new infection spreading around I almost always get it. I have no idea why this is. You'd think I'd have a relatively good immune system, but no. And when I get this "cold" or "flu" or whatever is being passed around it usually lasts for way too long and frequently turns worse than most people have to deal with. All that being said, I just knew when the news talked about swine flu that I'd get it. I also work at the most public place ever...the Courthouse. Yeah, so you see how I started to freak out when I felt the least bit of post-nasal drip. Anyway, I was feeling run down on Thursday morning at work. That afternoon my boss told me his son had swine flu and attorneys kept coming into the office talking about how their children were also infected. AHH!! I tried to ignore the fact that I wasn't feeling good as best I could, but by Friday I felt worse and decided to stay home from work.
The first thing I thought about was the race. I was going to have to start feeling a ton better if I wanted to run on Monday. Water and Rest. Water and Rest. Saturday morning I woke up still feeling bad. By this point I'd loaded up on lots of vitamins and had started taking sinus medication. Turns out my allergies get bad every time the seasons change, not just in the spring.
Saturday I couldn't stand it. I had to run. I hadn't run since Thursday. Bad idea. I went out for a run and at about 4 miles I started feeling awful. No energy. Dehydrated. Blah. Shouldn't have pushed myself. I came home almost in tears as I told David that I didn't think I'd be able to run on Monday. "Just take it easy" he told me. He wasn't happy that I tried to run. "If you'd told me beforehand I would have said that was a bad idea and talked you out of it." He said. Yeah, I knew that. That's why I hadn't told him. I spent the rest of the day resting and hydrating. I stayed off my feet.
Sunday I woke up feeling better, but still not a 100%. At least I actually made it out of the house and returned to life as normal person though. I ran errands and went to the grocery store. I was feeling much better. I did some more resting on Sunday night. At that point I knew I'd feel even better on Monday morning and that I could run this race. I'd been wanting to run it for so long!!
So I woke up this morning feel tons better! I was excited for the race. David and my mom were going to watch the start and then drive near the finish line to meet my step-dad, (also a David) and watch the finish. I knew exactly where they were going to be. Let me just say that I loved this race. Seriously. I thought it was so much better than the Peachtree. No time group starts with world class runners. No people stepping all over you. No obnoxiously loud "bands" every quarter mile. (I mean, I think bands are fun, but not every step along the way). No walkers on the left side. Plus, this race only had 13,000 people compared to the Peachtree at 55,000. The race also consisted of road bikers, skaters, and wheelchair racers (that all start before the runners). And like I already mentioned- this course is insane with all the hills.
Before the race started parachuters came soaring down out of the sky. As the national anthem was being sung, a parachuter with a giant American flag attached to his pack landed at the start line. Cool way to begin things. The start was all downhill which was fun. Only thing was that everyone was trying to do a mad-dash sprint for the first 400 meters which was just a waste of energy with that first huge hill staring right at us.
The first hill wasn't awful. It made the first mile go by pretty quickly. The next mile was almost all uphill - to Windy Hill. It's comprised of two hills actually. The first one wasn't so bad. It was the second hill that gets you to the top (where Windy Hill road crosses 41) that was the worst. It felt like a 90 degree angle. Relief came with another down hill. I watched as others ran past me on the downhills, but then slowed down on the up hills as I passed them. I figured I had a pretty decent pace going. I didn't know my time though since I'd forgotten to get a new battery for my watch.
I have no idea what I was doing during mile 2-3. I swear I don't remember seeing that memorial cemetery on the left or the target on the right. At one point around mile 4 I looked up and thought, "where am I? have I passed that target?" I'm pretty sure around that time I was focused on not peeing. I had to go so bad I thought at any moment I was going to have to stop and run behind a building or something. I told myself that if I saw a port-a-potty that I'd run in. I never saw one.
At the mile 4 marker they had a timer - it said, "33:20." UHH?? What? About an 8:20 mile. How was that possible with these hills? I didn't know how I was going that fast, but seeing that gave me the motivation to keep with my pace. At about 4.5 miles I saw one of the sheriff's deputies from the Courthouse who was working the race. "heyyyyy!!" i yelled and waved. "Hey - looking good-almost there" he said. That's when I realized I was at South Marietta Parkway (my exit when I go to work). I knew I was close now. There was the 5 mile marker. I was getting tired, but with only 1 mile left my adrenaline started pumping again. I knew I'd be seeing my family soon. One little hill left near the big chicken. Please. After all those ridiculous hills I'd just run I knew I could do it. After the last hill I could see the finish line in the distance. It seemed closer than it really was. I knew David and my parents would be close by. I started scanning the crowd and found them. I laughed because I waved to them for awhile before they saw me. I waved and gave a thumbs up- its my favorite part of the race when I see them. Makes me so happy.
I had about 400 meters left. Although it was down hill I felt like I was running so slow. I was pushing as hard as I could, but I just couldn't go any faster. I was getting passed. Then I could see the timer - 53:00 minutes. WHAT? I couldn't believe it - I was two minutes faster than my Peachtree time. I thought, "I've got to get in under 53:30. I pushed a little more and got that chill. Do you know what I'm talking about it? It's that feeling you get when you are pushing your body so hard that you think you might be sick to your stomach. eek. And this wave kinda comes over you...Hard to explain. Anyways, I pushed and before I knew it I was there in 53:28. I did it!
As I crossed the finish line this lady handed me some blue thing wrapped up in a plastic bag. What was this? This isn't water. As I made it through to the food and water stations I examined my bag. It was a medal! A medal!? I was so excited that I ripped it open and put it on. I knew it was dorky and probably kinda lame, but I couldn't help it. I was pumped. I'd read about these on the website and knew that it meant I'd finished in the top 1,000. Made my day.
Publix was a sponsor of the race and hooked us up at the finish with bananas, all kinds of muffins and bagels, pretzels, yogurt, apples, two-bite brownies, cookies, etc. It was amazing! Never seen a spread like that after a race! Thank you Publix!! I asked for a bag and loaded up on some goodies. The beverage stations also had gatorade, water and propel. Oh yeah, and also muscle milk - gross! I think the guys were loving that though.
After I got all my treats I headed to the get my shirt and to my surprise,a hat. All of these extras about the race (as well as the massive organization by all the volunteers) just made it such a great experience. It was definitely my favorite race thus far. Great Labor Day.
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