Atlanta Marathon

Background

Whether it’s video games or endurance sports, there’s a part of me that’s a completionist. If there’s a progress bar to complete, I want to finish it!

The Atlanta Track Club has something called Ultimate Peach. If you complete the Peachtree Road Race, the ATL 10 Miler, the Thanksgiving Half Marathon, and the ATL Marathon consecutively, there’s a second medal waiting for you at the finish line of the marathon.

I’ve done the first three races a number of times before. But never the Atlanta Marathon. Coming off of Ironman Chattanooga last fall, I hadn’t really been training for another marathon. But I really wanted that Ultimate Peach medal, though.

Unfortunately, during the weeks leading into this race, I had been battling some lateral foot pain during long runs in my left foot.  I’d have no issues for the first 10 miles, but then things would get painful. It’s been frustrating!

The week before the race, I had Chase look at things. He poked around, but we couldn’t recreate that pain, even a little bit. Which on some level is good, right? But it’s also frustrating because I don’t know what’s wrong or how to fix it.

Pre-Race

Remember what I said about being a completionist? The Atlanta Track Club brands this as “Atlanta’s Marathon Weekend.” In addition to the marathon on Sunday, they had several events on Saturday, including a 5k.

I wanted to do roughly a 5k shakeout run the day before, and what better place than on the actual course? I inevitably signed up for the Saturday 5k.

Number pickup was in the Georgia Aquarium where I haven’t been in about a decade. I tend to be in and out quickly at the race expos. However, this number pickup was different.

I ended up just standing around and watching the fish for about 30 minutes. I’d just driven straight from Nashville to the Aquarium, so I enjoyed the time out of the car!

One big plus of doing the 5K is that it would give me a dry run for the marathon – what time to wake up, where to park, etc. It’s been a long time since I’ve been to Centennial Olympic Park, so this was as valuable as the shakeout run to stay loose.

Spoiler alert: describing the 5K as a “dry run” ended up being accurate in more ways than one. On Saturday morning, the weather was perfect: a few clouds, a light breeze, and temperatures in the 40s.

The 5K was uneventful, but the finish line was VERY EVENTFUL. Kudos to Publix for BBQ, mac & cheese, a sausage, and a roll after only running 3 miles. It’s better food than every race or triathlon I’ve ever completed. Publix is the best.

A sentence I never thought I’d write: I ate my BBQ in front of the same fountains where I got engaged to Katy about eleven years earlier.

I went back to my Mom's, relaxed, ate a tasty dinner, and got ready for the marathon. It’s always unnerving how fast it is to prepare for runs compared to triathlon. I always feel like I forget something.

I also made an important decision about my 2022 season.

Race Morning

I woke up at about 4:15 a.m. I’d planned to get up at 5, but I guess my subconscious wanted to check the radar.

Ugh.

Not only was rain coming, but the temperature would be falling during the race! I figured it was futile with this much rain coming, but I put a poncho over my race gear and waited to start. A few people had ponchos, some people had more durable rain gear, and some people were just in trash bags.

At this point, it was just misting. But that would soon change.

The Race

I had a hard time deciding how to approach this race. I didn’t want to go too hard and impact triathlon training. Gulf Coast 70.3 is only nine weeks away! I decided to aim for 11-minute miles.

The first miles felt slow and tedious at this pace. Unlike in Chattanooga, I hadn’t just biked 116 miles! I felt fresh and wanted to go quicker, especially with just a drizzle falling so far. 

I had two goals with this race: finish in under five hours and, more importantly, stay injury-free. If I stuck with that pace, I’d clock in around 4:45.

Around mile 3, the heavens opened, and the deluge didn’t stop for four straight hours.

By mile 6, as we approached Piedmont Park, everyone was drenched head to toe. I didn’t just have damp shoes at this point; I had completely waterlogged shoes. The rain wasn’t just streaming down in the gutters; it was rushing down the road on every hill along the course.

Besides my water galoshes, I physically felt great! There was no pain to be found anywhere in my foot.

10 miles down, 16 to go. Meanwhile, the rain. Just. Wouldn’t. Stop.

I’ve done a lot of Atlanta Track Club races over the years. I’ve never seen these signs at aid stations.

I don’t know if I’d call the weather potentially dangerous, but it did make for an adventure of a race day.

When the day began, I felt prepared for anything that might happen. Band-aids for possible blisters? Body glide for potential chafing? A couple of Tylenol wrapped in a small piece of shrink wrap just in case? Check, check, and check.

I’m not being dramatic or embellishing when I say the rain literally destroyed all these things. The band-aids in just a paper wrapping stood no chance. The disposable container of body glide? It was made of cardboard and became a mushy mess that leaked on everything. The Tylenol? They were liquified! All I found was a wet piece of shrink wrap.

The Gu gels I brought were the only things the rain didn’t destroy. I ate one around mile 11. That’s when I discovered what had happened to everything else in my back pockets!

Around mile 12, my bib started falling off. The holes to attach it had torn. I stopped, poked some new holes, and kept going. Those lasted for about five minutes before tearing apart again. Not only that, the ink had started coming off as well. I wanted to try to protect the timing chip from getting lost if the bib fell apart entirely. So I pulled the chip off and put it in my pocket. This weather! LOL

Over the first 13 miles, the course felt a bit crowded. However, when I got to the half-marathon/marathon split, whoa. About 90% of the runners were veering left to turn into Centennial Olympic Park to finish the race. Only a few of us were turning right towards Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

While I ran across the bridge at MBS, I realized I had quite the chafing and blister situation developing. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much I could do about it. Everything I brought to treat it was gone. In hindsight, I’m surprised it took 14 miles to become a problem. I had been soaking wet for ~10 miles now.

The worst part had to be that my wet, heavy shoes were rubbing my ankles with each step. The backs of both ankles were already a bit bloody, and I still had 12 miles to go. At least the rain was washing the blood away!

It never crossed my mind that any of this would preclude me from finishing, but I kept having to stop briefly. First, it was my bib falling apart. Then, I kept needing to pull my socks up to cover the backs of my ankles. Also, I kept adjusting my shorts to keep the blister/chafing situation at bay as best I could. With all these stops, finishing in under five hours was slipping away.

But! That’s okay!

During miles 15-20, I think I went through a Stockholm syndrome experience with the rain. I started wanting it to rain harder. 😆 Even if I crushed my goal time, that wouldn’t be what I told friends about or wrote in this race report. It would be all about the rain.

I always try to do it anyway, but I made sure to thank every ATC volunteer and every Atlanta cop out on the route. What’s worse than running in the rain? Handing out Powerade in the rain. Or directing traffic in the rain.

It’s a bit skewed when I look at my pace from here until around mile 24. Strava doesn’t know how to account for fifteen-second stops to adjust your clothing. Minus the chafing and blisters, I felt pretty good physically. It was just a battle against the conditions.

The final 2 miles take you from Turner Field to Oakland Cemetary and then back to Centennial Olympic Park. As I ran up Capital Avenue, something magical happened. THE RAIN STOPPED!

I realize this is a strange statement about this point of a marathon, but the final 2 miles were honestly a genuinely wonderful experience. I felt so happy. I ditched the poncho that I’d been wearing the whole race. I thought back to where things were just a year ago. Vaccines were hard to come by. Racing hadn’t returned yet. I wasn’t in marathon shape either. A year later, I’m vaxxed, boosted, healthy, and about to complete a marathon!

I remained happy despite glancing at my watch and seeing I wouldn’t be close to my goal time. There will be other marathons to get that (or an even better time and hopefully without a monsoon!) But I like to think I’ll never run one in conditions worse than this.

The finish line is so cool. You finish in front of the Olympic fountains on the bricks. The shirt I wore was a Falcons training camp shirt that says “RISE UP” in giant red letters. As I finished, the race announcer yelled out something about a Falcons fan rising up in spite of the weather.

Post-Race

The same fantastic post-race food by Publix awaited me again today. I grabbed my BBQ, my marathon medal, and then my Ultimate Peach medal.

I’m not usually into staged race photos, but I had one in mind for this race.

I like to believe in better conditions that I would have finished sub-5 with no issues. In hindsight, I also approached the day far more conservatively than I was capable of. During the final 2 miles, I thought of Susie, who always tells me I have more in the tank than I realize. On the flip side, the primary goal was to stay injury-free, and I achieved that! (Unless you count all the blisters, and chafing in places that I didn’t even realize could chaf.)

But all that aside, I will remember this race quite fondly. Even in the South, it’s uncommon to get that kind of relentless rain so early in the morning. It’s unlikely I’ll ever race in worse conditions. As much as I love the photo of my medals with my brick, the one that sums up the day best is the state of my race bib after hours of rain.

It was a fantastic day.

Next Steps

I’m officially into triathlon season now, with Ironman 70.3 Gulf Coast only nine weeks away!

Leading into the race, I remember thinking this would probably be my only standalone marathon. I’d like to do another full Ironman sometime, which obviously will include a marathon. But I didn’t have any other marathons on my mind.

However, I have a little bit of unfinished business. A sub-5 hour marathon (or better) is something I’d like to get to. I don’t know if I’ll run Atlanta again, but as I walked to my car, I started pondering the Nashville or Chattanooga marathons in 2023.

After a shower and some dry clothes, there was only one thing left to do with the weekend: beers at Taco Mac!