Ok, it was actually only about 58,000 people, and it was mostly overcast until about mile 4 (although I have no idea what time that is on a normal clock). Still, it was an interesting way to spend the 4th of July. I've never participated in a race that big, and it was an Experience.
I didn't really want to get out of bed at 5:30 on my day off and wasn't really in the mood for running (oh also, I haven't gone running once since my last race, the ten-miler. Oops. Not good training. Again). Getting ready, etc, blah blah blah... It took a lot longer to get to the start line than we expected, so I didn't start with my assigned wave (D) but with wave G. Which I was actually good with, because I was nervous about starting with such a fast wave. There were something like 25 waves, and several thousand people in each wave. So crazy.
I entertained myself for the first four miles by waving at people and watching the crowds of runners. I liked to try to get people to cheer for me specifically. It was nice and hot, but luckily for everyone, it had rained nicely the night before and cooled the city down. By mile five, I was just going into running zone mode. And trying to keep my pace up enough that I would finish under an hour. The sixth mile seemed very long, but that's mostly because they didn't have the mile marked, and it just went straight to the finish line. It got very hot once we finished at Piedmont Park. Lots of sweaty people and no air movement.
Overall, I am very pleased with both the experience and my performance. I met my sub-hour goal with a time of 58:01. I bet I would do better if I actually trained though.
1 comment:
Wow. That's a lot of people! Great job!
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