Peachtree - Down to the line

I take my Maserati to the limit/
Six seconds through traffic like Emmitt
-Lil' Wayne

So it's about 50 yards to go and who is trying to pass me but this 50-year-old gray-hair guy who's running like he's in a midlife crisis Corvette.

Only thing is, I'm driving the Maserati today.

I kick for the first time in the entire 10K race, weave through the runners and cross the Peachtree finish line with my back to him.

My first thought was, dude, this is the Peachtree, not a Peachtree qualifier. This is a fun run. Leave your suburban 'tude across the perimeter. He had been jockeying with me during the entire first mile, with fast spurts that seemed really big wastes of energy. I was just trying to get through the great crowds in the 45,000-person race. I thought he was trying to make it personal. I dropped him at Cardiac Hill.

I felt good the entire way and when I finished, I had lots left. The weather was cooler and breezier this year, so it didn't feel hot when section six started running at 8:15 a.m., 45 minutes after the race began.

I need to focus more on quality of hillwork, running hard hills hard, that is, instead of simply doing them. I felt like I was weak up the second half of Cardiac Hill and my slowest mile was the double set of hills that follow, from the Borders up to 14th Street.

This is the hardest part of the race, IMO, and I can't imagine how it's anything pleasant for nonrunners tackling it. I know that serious runners race the course, but I wonder how much of the pack gets discouraged each year after doing it. I know when I was sipping Powerade at the end of it I wasn't sure I wanted to do the Peachtree again next year. Don't really have to. Felt the same about the ING half-marathon's hilly course.