A special stretch of street, at night

As I crossed Marietta Street, it dawned on me -- the conditions tonight were almost exactly what it's like to run in the Publix Georgia Marathon or Half Marathon.

Because you have to assemble at the starting line early, it's always dark out. And it is usually pretty cool outside. Tonight it was about 35 degrees. In years past, I've remembered standing for warmth in the lobby of the CNN Center right in the picture above.

Or a few times we wizened up and got a room at the Omni Hotel next door so we could just pop down to the starting line without having to get very cold.

On race day, of course, the street is filled with people in running corrals and so are the sidewalks, as there are always well-wishers seeing runners off and other runners trying to get to where they need to be.

But tonight, it was just me and this street, filled with memories of training for marathons (I still use this course for long runs) and having had to line up here five times (when I ran in the inaugural ING Georgia Half Marathon in 2007, the start was in a different location) in years past.