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<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">This year the Atlanta half marathon on Thanksgiving Day ran on a mostly new course starting and ending at Turner Field as the Atlanta Track Club decided to move the marathon to another date due to low attendance. The half marathon has always had 10-12 thousand local runners registering with 9 to 10,000 finishing the course. So, the ATC added a 5k and 1k race along with the 1/2 marathon to be a little more family friendly. </span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">For the second year the half marathon had pace teams from 1:30 to 2:30. Along with another partner I paced the 2:30 group. All of the time groups run the race without walk breaks except the 2:30 group because we are the last time group and pick up a lot of people along the way as they start to falter. We did 2/1 (two minute run/one minute walk) the entire way after crossing the starting mat. The weather was excellent for the race with starting temps in the high 50's and in the 60's by race end. Most runners were comfortable in shorts and short sleeve shirts. I did hear a couple of runners speaking about being overdressed for the run.</span></span></span></p>
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<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">The race starts at 7:30 with staggered starts by corral. We were in Corral 4 which started at 7:39 and we crossed the starting mat a little past 7:40 at which time I started my Garmin to pace the group by. The way I always pace Atlanta running events is making sure that as I reach each mile marker I am within 30 seconds of each mile. All pacers are Atlanta based runners so we know the course as well as the hills. The pacer goal is to come within no more than 2 minutes of the time goal either way, and preferably within one minute. </span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">The course goes past Georgia State, down Marietta Street, to 17th (Ikea) and then continues on to Piedmont Park around mile 7. We will then go up 10th, across Juniper returning to Downtown Atlanta via Auburn Street and MLK Drive. The first seven miles are reasonably flat with just a couple of inclines. On the back half we encounter various hills including 10th and Juniper Streets as well as mile 12 which is a pretty decent hill that goes by the State Capitol before the final turn toward Turner Field and the finish line. But even after making that final turn there is a another hill to conquer before finally getting a little bit of a descent to the finish line after crossing the Olympic rings.</span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">I find it always interesting in doing run/walk in half marathons and marathons. We pass quite a few runners that have just pooped out as we get into the later miles who give a weary eye as we go by with out 2:30 wand, comments from people running with partners such as "we have not made a bit of time advantage running this all the way - they are still catching us". But the best was an army group of guys running in unison. We encountered them around mile 3 and one of our group suggested to them (jokingly) that since we seemed to running the same pace to join us in our 2/1 pace. Oh no, they would "run" the entire distance they assured us which was fine. They seemed to get irritated as we passed each other from time to time the first five miles. They they got maybe a couple hundred yards ahead of us as we entered Piedmont Park. But then the hills began. As we went by them shortly before mile 8 I heard one of the exclaim, "well sh_t! they're passing us again!" And we never saw them after that. I heard the race announcer as they hit the finish line congratulating them about 10 minutes after we came in. In all fairness they were wearing backpacks. Without the backpacks as well as having to run in unison I'm sure they would have had a much better finishing time. Nevertheless I still got a chuckle out of their attitude at being passed by run/walkers.</span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">As for our time: 2:29:32 and thus we finished 28 seconds within our goal. There is a competition between the pace groups as to which one comes closest to their time goal. I won't know until later in the week how we did against the other groups. However, almost all of them will be within the minute and usually one of the groups will have hit within 2 seconds or so. Last year I hit within six seconds and we still lost to another group that came in within 4 seconds. The winning team does not get anything except a congrats but the competition is fun.</span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.</span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">This year the Atlanta half marathon on Thanksgiving Day ran on a mostly new course starting and ending at Turner Field as the Atlanta Track Club decided to move the marathon to another date due to low attendance. The half marathon has always had 10-12 thousand local runners registering with 9 to 10,000 finishing the course. So, the ATC added a 5k and 1k race along with the 1/2 marathon to be a little more family friendly. </span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">For the second year the half marathon had pace teams from 1:30 to 2:30. Along with another partner I paced the 2:30 group. All of the time groups run the race without walk breaks except the 2:30 group because we are the last time group and pick up a lot of people along the way as they start to falter. We did 2/1 (two minute run/one minute walk) the entire way after crossing the starting mat. The weather was excellent for the race with starting temps in the high 50's and in the 60's by race end. Most runners were comfortable in shorts and short sleeve shirts. I did hear a couple of runners speaking about being overdressed for the run.</span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">The race starts at 7:30 with staggered starts by corral. We were in Corral 4 which started at 7:39 and we crossed the starting mat a little past 7:40 at which time I started my Garmin to pace the group by. The way I always pace Atlanta running events is making sure that as I reach each mile marker I am within 30 seconds of each mile. All pacers are Atlanta based runners so we know the course as well as the hills. The pacer goal is to come within no more than 2 minutes of the time goal either way, and preferably within one minute. </span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">The course goes past Georgia State, down Marietta Street, to 17th (Ikea) and then continues on to Piedmont Park around mile 7. We will then go up 10th, across Juniper returning to Downtown Atlanta via Auburn Street and MLK Drive. The first seven miles are reasonably flat with just a couple of inclines. On the back half we encounter various hills including 10th and Juniper Streets as well as mile 12 which is a pretty decent hill that goes by the State Capitol before the final turn toward Turner Field and the finish line. But even after making that final turn there is a another hill to conquer before finally getting a little bit of a descent to the finish line after crossing the Olympic rings.</span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">I find it always interesting in doing run/walk in half marathons and marathons. We pass quite a few runners that have just pooped out as we get into the later miles who give a weary eye as we go by with out 2:30 wand, comments from people running with partners such as "we have not made a bit of time advantage running this all the way - they are still catching us". But the best was an army group of guys running in unison. We encountered them around mile 3 and one of our group suggested to them (jokingly) that since we seemed to running the same pace to join us in our 2/1 pace. Oh no, they would "run" the entire distance they assured us which was fine. They seemed to get irritated as we passed each other from time to time the first five miles. They they got maybe a couple hundred yards ahead of us as we entered Piedmont Park. But then the hills began. As we went by them shortly before mile 8 I heard one of the exclaim, "well sh_t! they're passing us again!" And we never saw them after that. I heard the race announcer as they hit the finish line congratulating them about 10 minutes after we came in. In all fairness they were wearing backpacks. Without the backpacks as well as having to run in unison I'm sure they would have had a much better finishing time. Nevertheless I still got a chuckle out of their attitude at being passed by run/walkers.</span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">As for our time: 2:29:32 and thus we finished 28 seconds within our goal. There is a competition between the pace groups as to which one comes closest to their time goal. I won't know until later in the week how we did against the other groups. However, almost all of them will be within the minute and usually one of the groups will have hit within 2 seconds or so. Last year I hit within six seconds and we still lost to another group that came in within 4 seconds. The winning team does not get anything except a congrats but the competition is fun.</span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
<p><span style="font-family:arial, sans-serif;"><span style="color:#000000;"><span style="font-size:10pt;">Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.</span></span></span></p>
<p> </p>
