My 14th Peachtree Road Race

My 14th Peachtree Road Race.

After I ran the Snickers Marathon in March I worked on a 10K training program to increase my speed. I largely abandoned the program after I had to start training for Berlin (7 weeks ago) but even in the speed workouts I aimed to keep my 10K speed at a 7:15/mile pace.

This year I wasn't sure what I would do about the Peachtree Road Race, as it falls in the middle of my Berlin training and ever since I developed a stress fracture running in a half marathon before the 2016 Chicago Marathon, I've been wary of running in lots of races.

Still, the Peachtree is a pretty iconic race and I felt like I would be able to run it well if not smoothly going on 55 miles a week.

Race morning I didn't eat very much and had hoped to find water to eat a gel before the race started. But I didn't encounter any water and ended up taking a gel right after Mile 1 in the race. When the race started I didn't get any faster than about 7:30/mile, a little slower than I'd been training but it felt ok given the effort so I didn't worry about it. My splits for the first three miles went 7:30/7:31 and 7:23.

On Mile 4 up Cardiac Hill I was pretty amazed I didn't lose much time, running that mile in 7:48. Mile 5 was the same, 7:46. In previous years I would lose more time and the effort felt challenging but not like in previous years in which I hated being on those hills. In the last mile I gave myself a steady effort and ran it in 7:11.

After having run the last part of the course recently I knew that kicking at 10th Street and Piedmont would be too far away so I settled on a section known as "Yoshino Cherry" as there is a Pokemon GO Pokestop there. At that point I ran my final kick in three parts, each time going a little faster and wondering if anyone would pass me at that point. It didn't happen and I finished in 47:02, which is my second fastest course time in 14 tries.

All in all I felt pretty good about the race. I enjoyed wearing the Nike Epic React flyknit shoes -- I saw a lot of people wearing the Nike Zoom Vaporfly 4%s today and I was in a real dilemma as to whether I would burn the precious limited miles on one of my own five pairs of Vaporflys (my first one only lasted 229 miles as opposed to the traditional 500 miles I can get on most running shoes) and I'm glad I didn't.

I feel like the Epic Reacts are a better tactical shoe in shorter races than the Vaporflys, especially on hard hilly surfaces. I don't like the way the Vaporflys tend to squish in my feet on grades and the added bounce of the Epic Reacts on hills give me a psychological boost -- it feels like I am saving energy with each bounce up a hill. I also was glad that I didn't have to burn those miles wearing the Vaporflys walking about a mile from my drop off on Piedmont Avenue to the race and another mile home afterward.

Still, I could have benefited from hitting my 7:15/mile pace right out the gate with the Vaporflys and it will always be a tug of war in my mind.

Time: 7 a.m.
Temp: 72 degrees
Gear: Technical Tank (Pactimo/Nuun Hydration), shorts, Nike Epic React flyknit.