Day 3,367: Publix Georgia Half Marathon (PR)

There have been a lot of changes in the Georgia Marathon/Half Marathon series in 10 years.

I can't tell you how many times I've rolled over exhausted, sweat pouring out of my body, after -- and during -- a FitStar workout. All the things I loved to hate -- burpees, mountain climbers, one legged pushups -- carried me today through a race that I had no designs on, especially making a PR.

I mean, I was fully ready for a letdown, especially on a course that I've run six previous times that had often bested me. My last long run was more than two months ago at the Red Nose Half Marathon in Columbus, Ga.

Yet today when I crossed the finish line at the 10th annual Publix Georgia Half Marathon, I beat the PR I set on Jan. 9 by more than two minutes, a time I really hadn't expected to challenge.

I wasn't planning on running in this race but registered at the last minute in December after the Atlanta Track Club purchased the race and offered it to members for $38.80. Even still, I didn't have much motivation for training for it since I'd already broken a nearly 17-year PR at the Red Nose race.

After reading what I did the last time I ran in this race in 2014, I left at 6:10 a.m., a little later than normal and planned to take advantage of free street parking, which was readily available two years ago. But in the last two years, everyone seemed to get the memo about the free parking -- when me and the wife drove up there was nothing around!

I was going to park in my old work parking deck but it was $10 cash only (I only had a credit card -- who wants to be handed sweaty money?). Luckily we turned near the Landmark Diner and there was a free space open! It only was a block or so more than where I parked two years ago.

This year the start was cold. The wife brought a mylar blanket and I neglected to do so, so we were just huddled together until the start in Wave B.

Unlike in previous years, the waves were held two minutes apart. We easily could have run with Wave A but eventually we were brought to the starting line and we were off!

I decided to just try to do what I've been doing the past few races and run at an 8-minute mile pace. It was a little congested at the start and I really couldn't see my watch very well in the dark but tried my best. Mile 1 (8:16).

In between Mile 1 and 2 I saw my friend Anna, who was doing the marathon. We ran together for a few blocks and then she said she wanted to stop at the water station. I thought she wanted to save her pace a little bit so I kept on going.

But before Mile 3, she ran by and said she was going to run ahead up Central Park. I could tell though that her marathon pace (8:18 at that point) wasn't going to be faster than my half marathon pace, so I nodded to her and moved to the other side of the road and kept going at my half marathon pace.

This was the first test because of the two hills here and it felt effortless. I took this as a good sign. On the Jackson Street bridge, I even brought a small geocaching container to replace one that had gone missing, jumped the sidewalk at the spot and placed the tiny magnet in mid-stride, without stopping! It was nice to kill two birds with one stone.

By this point I'd run two miles in under my 8 minute pace (7:48, 7:51) and was a little concerned but felt ok. After the March 6 Intown Ten, I knew from my heart rate data that my lactate threshold pace was 7:59/mile, so I felt ok with this slightly faster pace.

Before Mile 4, we ran up Auburn Avenue. I turned as I always do running here and paid my respects silently while passing the mausoleum of Martin Luther King, Jr. and his wife Coretta Scott King.

At Mile 5 I took my first of two GU gels that I normally take during half marathons. I'd continued to run at a 7:50 pace and just decided to go with it. At Mile 6 going up Freedom Parkway, I noticed one benefit of the separation of race waves was that this one lane stretch was not as congested as it was in previous races.

I continued with a pretty good pace up the North Avenue hill which I always think is pretty hard and ran Mile 7 in 7:43.

Turning onto North Highland, it's downhill from here and I decided to just go with the flow and pick it up a little bit. It was here something weird happened. This middle-aged guy with a dad bod came alongside of me to pass but turned into my running path.

I did what I normally do and just slowed down to let him go by and then I went around to the right around him to pass. This happened again but this time his arm bumped me lightly and I slowed and passed him.

When we were on Virginia Avenue, he caught up with me again and said, "It's like intervals, you keep speeding up." I told him it was because he kept bumping me when he passed and so he said, "Run faster then" and then sped up.

I let him go at his pace but did speed up to keep it close. I've run for a few decades and really thought it was not possible that he'd be able to keep this pace up the 10th Street and Juniper Avenue hills. So my Mile 8 and Mile 9 were faster than I would have normally run in this race (7:30, 7:10 respectively). I took my second GU gel at Mile 9.

Going up 10th Street I could tell this guy was trucking up the hill and I thought to myself, "This guy is going to give me a PR!" Especially since I felt like I could keep my pace for the next few miles and not blow up like I did in last November's Thanksgiving Half Marathon.

I went up Juniper past Mile 10 (7:51) and then turned onto 5th Street when I saw a woman in a Big Peach shirt that I thought about buying for my aunt in Hawaii yesterday at the expo. Then I recognized her, it was EB from Running on EB.

I'd never met her before and it was great to do so. We ran through Georgia Tech and Mile 11 (7:52) and it was a pretty good pace. I was glad to run into someone familiar, especially after the weird exchange with that guy earlier and this took my mind off of that.

Right before North Avenue, she mentioned I could run ahead and I told her, "This is fine, in fact I've been gambling a lot already" with my pace. But on the slight incline to North I moved ahead and continued up toward the last mile of the race.

On the turn to Marietta Street at Mile 12 I concentrated on finishing the race strong. I waited until the last half mile, there are four stoplights. I focused on those. Finally near the end, right after the Mile 13 sign, I started to run harder.

I could see as I approached the finish line that it was nearly 1:45 in the race. I thought that would be an excellent finish time. But as I crossed I realized that I started two minutes after the gun and when I looked down at my watch I saw I'd crossed in 1:42:43 (the official time was 1:42:40). I let out a huge yell, probably to the amusement of spectators but I didn't care.

This finish on this hilly course was something I could not have expected. My best time on the half here was 1:51 and change and I would have been satisfied doing what I did last year on similarly hilly local halfs -- 1:47 in the Hotlanta Half and the Jeff Galloway 13.1.

Since I hadn't really devoted long runs or speed work (although a trio of 10Ks and a 5K definitely helped toward this) I was really pleased with the result.

It's made me a continued fan of continuing with the FitStar workouts and possibly even training for a faster race ahead.

Time: 7:02 a.m.
Temp: 45 degrees
Gear: Technical T-shirt, short (Team BEEF), shorts, cep compression calf sleeves, cep compression socks, Brooks Pure Connect 3.