The morning started off with a 5:30am alarm. I did another weather check because even the night before they weren't sure how hard or if it would rain at all. Well the rain had moved in and it was going to be heavy. I decided to skip the outfit I planned on and went with a backup "Christmas in July" outfit. I've learnt to travel to races with a backup outfit, large trash bags, and a throwaway poncho. For 60,000 runners it never felt crowded and the corrals moved smoothly. Right before 8am my corral started off. I decided to run with 30/30 intervals and that felt great. I was wet, but my shoes and socks stayed dry. One of my favorite parts of the race is when we pass The Cathedral of St. Philip and are blessed with holy water.
Mile 3 brought the hill I feared the most. Cardiac Hill. It's a pretty steep incline straight up to a hospital. I decided to walk it as water was just rolling down the hill and my lack of hill training. Once I reached the top I knew I could finish in a time I could be proud of. It wasn't going to be a PR, but I was feeling good and fell right back into my intervals.
Around the 4 mile mark they changed the course from yellow to red and I saw a couple cloud 2 cloud lightning strikes, but nothing that scared me as I was surrounded by tall buildings. I didn't see anymore as I continued to run through the city and then the turn off Peachtree and onto 10th Street. I was still feeling great, but ready to be done with the rain.
When I entered Piedmont Park they were trying to clear people out due to the lighting in the area. I trekked through the mud for a bit trying to find my way to Marta which wasn't well marked and it felt like it took forever to get there. I loved traveling home to run the first race I ran. I finished in 1:23 and set a new PR for a 5k!Now onto training for the Dumbo Double Dare,
<3 Ann
