SNELLVILLE, Ga. -- I'm used to this time in February being pretty cold for Atlanta. Despite that I decided in advance (on the last day of the early registration deadline) to run in the Run the Reagan Half Marathon.
At the time I thought it would be a tune-up race in advance of the March 20 Publix Georgia Half Marathon, since my last race was the Rock'n'Roll Las Vegas Half Marathon in December.
But the hilly course on the Ronald Reagan Parkway turned out to be a nice one. I ran my second-fastest half marathon, only 30 seconds off my PR that I set in the 1998 Vancouver Lake Half Marathon, when I was 27 years old.
Unlike that race, in which I hit the wall at mile 10 and still had a race time that I haven't beaten in 13 years, I felt pretty ready for it.
My plan was to take it easy, and I thought I was going to do that with an 8:40 first mile.
But I ended up with an 8:10 second mile and I really thought the hills would really hurt me at the end of the race, similar to how I felt like I wasn't adequately prepared for the Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day.
The weather was good enough for just a technical T-shirt and shorts but it really felt hot near the end of the race. I made sure I drank a lot of Powerade and at Mile 9 I ate the carbo-shot that they gave out a few miles earlier in the race.
Because of the direct sunlight, maybe next time I'd wear sunglasses.
Anyway, it was extremely nice to come out of the holiday season with a solid race, even if I didn't mean for it to happen that way.
Time: 9 a.m.
Temp: 51 degrees and climbing
Gear: Tech T, short (Rock'n'Roll Chicago Half Marathon), shorts, Nike Air Pegasus+ 27.
1 comment:
way to go! That's really awesome and impressive. It's nice when you accidentally go faster than you planned!
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