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Wow - Certainly a big change from all that I read about from last year's marathon.<br><br>
First impression arriving at the Hotel across from Centennial Olympic Park - Tornado damage to all the buildings south of our hotel. Amazing difference in just one block!<br><br>
Expo - Emergency move to Georgia Dome - set up well, lots of choices, excellent sponsor merchandise, nice technical tee shirts matched to either 26.2 or 13.1.<br><br>
The race itself had a few unannounced and unexplained changes. First was that there were corral numbers on all the bibs - supposedly matched to predicted finish times. It didn't make much sense since I predicted that<br>
I would do a 4 hour marathon but the 4:00 hour and 4:15 marathon pace group were set up for corral 5 but DW was signed up for a 4:15 and was in corral 7. She picked up a 4:15 pace group number so they would let her into corral 5 with me.<br><br>
Okay - they decided to have corrals but didn't tell anyone how it was supposed to work Between corral 3 and 4 was a turn to a side street. It was also one of the major exits from the Olympic park. So they blocked off that exit from the park and expected people would have it planned in advance (and in the dark) that they would know how to get around this blocked exit and get to the corrals that were along the side street. So like DW and I and hundreds of others, we ended up in the back of corral 3, unable to get farther back and happy to have jumped the barricade into corral 3.<br><br>
The next change we didn't even know about until after the first group started - they had a wave start! Corral 2 was held for 3 minutes and then corral 3 was held until 6 minutes. By that time they realized that things had fallen apart at corral 3 and that released all of the runners at that time.<br><br>
DW and I planned to run a 4:05 together. This was our first race that we planned to run together! It started out with a slight uphill and then started down after about a third of a mile. That's the way the whole marathon went; some up, some down. There was a fairly steep uphill around mile 8 and a fairly long uphill about mile 17 or 18 (my memory is foggy of the miles).<br><br>
Most of the course was either residential or downtown areas. One of the most inspirational areas was the Scoties campus in Decatur. That was almost as loud as the Wesley campus in the Boston Marathon!<br><br>
DW and I kept together most of the race. I am a Galloway runner with a walk break every mile and DW walks every two miles for a longer period. We managed to keep together for most of the race. I was a head of her for a period of time after she took a potty break and then she got ahead of me when I did the same. We usually got back together withing a couple of minutes. DW noticed the photographer well in advance in Piedmont park (About mile 21?) and we managed to get a semi-posed picture for our potential purchase.<br><br>
DW and I were together for 24+ miles. We hit a slight downhill stretch on concrete and I got a side stitch which slowed me to a long walk. DW was on a killer pace that kicked in at mile 24 and forged on. I struggled through the stitch and and got back to running for the last half mile. As I entered the park I heard them announce DW finishing! I was two minutes behind her at 4:02:09 She had her BQ for the year!<br><br>
With the tornado damage, they had to do some adjustments to the finish. They had to move from the street to a couple of turns in the park on a narrow track to get to the finish line. It was only about 8 feet wide and the walkers from the half marathon were finishing at the same time as the marathon runners. As I crossed the announcers mat, there were about 6 walkers spread out across the course. I was barely able to get by them. It didn't make a big difference in my finish, but it took away the possibility of my having my name announced, even though there was not another person around me when I got to the finish line! My DW was right there to greet me and we got our finishers medals together.<br><br>
Weather conditions - great for a marathon. It was about 48 degrees and a light breeze, no wind, overcast! It didn't warm up significantly during the day, maybe up to 52?<br><br>
Water stops - they made up for the shortfall last year. Water every mile. They didn't have Gatorade at every stop which threw things off for DW who wants the Gatorade every 2 miles. They did have Several Gu stops after mile 15 which worked out well for DW who was able to get an extra Gu beyond what she normally plans (offset the missing Gatorade). I carry my own water/Powerade and the water stops quickly understood my request to just "dump it in the bottle". The volunteers were great!<br><br>
Quick summary - Atlanta is hilly - what can I say? I liked the Atlanta marathon I did a few years back a little more than the ING Georgia, probably because it was smaller and didn't have the half mixed in for the first 6 miles. At least the crowd thinned out quickly at mile 6 or 7 where the half and full split. Since I'm focused on completing a marathon in each of the 50 states, it may be awhile before I come back to Georgia.
First impression arriving at the Hotel across from Centennial Olympic Park - Tornado damage to all the buildings south of our hotel. Amazing difference in just one block!<br><br>
Expo - Emergency move to Georgia Dome - set up well, lots of choices, excellent sponsor merchandise, nice technical tee shirts matched to either 26.2 or 13.1.<br><br>
The race itself had a few unannounced and unexplained changes. First was that there were corral numbers on all the bibs - supposedly matched to predicted finish times. It didn't make much sense since I predicted that<br>
I would do a 4 hour marathon but the 4:00 hour and 4:15 marathon pace group were set up for corral 5 but DW was signed up for a 4:15 and was in corral 7. She picked up a 4:15 pace group number so they would let her into corral 5 with me.<br><br>
Okay - they decided to have corrals but didn't tell anyone how it was supposed to work Between corral 3 and 4 was a turn to a side street. It was also one of the major exits from the Olympic park. So they blocked off that exit from the park and expected people would have it planned in advance (and in the dark) that they would know how to get around this blocked exit and get to the corrals that were along the side street. So like DW and I and hundreds of others, we ended up in the back of corral 3, unable to get farther back and happy to have jumped the barricade into corral 3.<br><br>
The next change we didn't even know about until after the first group started - they had a wave start! Corral 2 was held for 3 minutes and then corral 3 was held until 6 minutes. By that time they realized that things had fallen apart at corral 3 and that released all of the runners at that time.<br><br>
DW and I planned to run a 4:05 together. This was our first race that we planned to run together! It started out with a slight uphill and then started down after about a third of a mile. That's the way the whole marathon went; some up, some down. There was a fairly steep uphill around mile 8 and a fairly long uphill about mile 17 or 18 (my memory is foggy of the miles).<br><br>
Most of the course was either residential or downtown areas. One of the most inspirational areas was the Scoties campus in Decatur. That was almost as loud as the Wesley campus in the Boston Marathon!<br><br>
DW and I kept together most of the race. I am a Galloway runner with a walk break every mile and DW walks every two miles for a longer period. We managed to keep together for most of the race. I was a head of her for a period of time after she took a potty break and then she got ahead of me when I did the same. We usually got back together withing a couple of minutes. DW noticed the photographer well in advance in Piedmont park (About mile 21?) and we managed to get a semi-posed picture for our potential purchase.<br><br>
DW and I were together for 24+ miles. We hit a slight downhill stretch on concrete and I got a side stitch which slowed me to a long walk. DW was on a killer pace that kicked in at mile 24 and forged on. I struggled through the stitch and and got back to running for the last half mile. As I entered the park I heard them announce DW finishing! I was two minutes behind her at 4:02:09 She had her BQ for the year!<br><br>
With the tornado damage, they had to do some adjustments to the finish. They had to move from the street to a couple of turns in the park on a narrow track to get to the finish line. It was only about 8 feet wide and the walkers from the half marathon were finishing at the same time as the marathon runners. As I crossed the announcers mat, there were about 6 walkers spread out across the course. I was barely able to get by them. It didn't make a big difference in my finish, but it took away the possibility of my having my name announced, even though there was not another person around me when I got to the finish line! My DW was right there to greet me and we got our finishers medals together.<br><br>
Weather conditions - great for a marathon. It was about 48 degrees and a light breeze, no wind, overcast! It didn't warm up significantly during the day, maybe up to 52?<br><br>
Water stops - they made up for the shortfall last year. Water every mile. They didn't have Gatorade at every stop which threw things off for DW who wants the Gatorade every 2 miles. They did have Several Gu stops after mile 15 which worked out well for DW who was able to get an extra Gu beyond what she normally plans (offset the missing Gatorade). I carry my own water/Powerade and the water stops quickly understood my request to just "dump it in the bottle". The volunteers were great!<br><br>
Quick summary - Atlanta is hilly - what can I say? I liked the Atlanta marathon I did a few years back a little more than the ING Georgia, probably because it was smaller and didn't have the half mixed in for the first 6 miles. At least the crowd thinned out quickly at mile 6 or 7 where the half and full split. Since I'm focused on completing a marathon in each of the 50 states, it may be awhile before I come back to Georgia.
