2013 Peachtree Road Race 10k

July 4, 2013 7:30 AM
Atlanta, Georgia

	Time	Pace	Division	Division Place	Gender Place	Overall Place	Bib #
Michael	43:49	7:03	M1-14	15/1,013	979/28,032	1,138/55,714	1008
Owen	44:27	7:09	M35-39	127/3,155	1,087/28,032	1,274/55,714	2662

Written by Owen:

We did everything different for this race.  For starters, only Michael and I were traveling to Atlanta.  To save money, the rest of the family stayed home while Michael and I boarded the Greyhound for the 4 hour drive to Atlanta. We left on July 3rd, and came back July 4th, after the race.

I had never been on a long distance bus before and wanted the experience.  It went really well, no issues at all on the way down there.

On the bus to Atlanta

It was really nice being able to play games with Michael, sleep for a bit, and just relax.  The ticket was $90 total, round-trip.  That works out to $22.50 each, each way.  We would have spent more than that in gas if we had driven.  Plus, it was an express bus, which meant we had more leg room, power outlets, and never stopped.

We arrived a little later than scheduled, because the traffic was even worse than normal in Atlanta.  We hopped on the MARTA train that is adjacent to the Greyhound terminal.  We got off in the Buckhead area of Atlanta.  It was about a mile walk to the apartment we were staying at.  It was raining, and I was worried about my laptop on my back, so we walked pretty fast.

That was the other thing we were doing differently this time.  I had reserved a room on airbnb.com. It is a pretty cool website connecting travelers with people renting out rooms/apartments/houses/etc. I wanted a room within walking distance of the start of the race, which is a pretty expensive part of town. Hotel rooms in that area are at least $150.  I found this room for $50.  It is just a room in an apartment that this guy lives in, but rents out his room to make some money.  So we had to share his kitchen and bathroom, but it worked out really well, and was within walking distance to the start.

After we "checked in", we walked to eat some dinner. We were doing everything without a car, but we found a nice New York style pizza place and had a great meal.  I forgot to take any pictures there.

After dinner we walked back to the apartment and didn't know what we were going to do the rest of the night.  I found a "dine-in" theater in the Buckhead area, so we walked to it and watched "Now You See Me".

We had some cheesecake and popcorn, and enjoyed a great movie. We walked back to the apartment and got our stuff ready for an early morning.

We woke up on race morning, got ready and walked to the start.  Michael had qualified for the sub-corral, I was in the A corral, which meant he would start, then I would have to wait about 15 seconds.

I love the huge flag at the start

It rained non-stop the entire time we were in Atlanta, except for the actual race.  It rained right up until we started, stopped while we were running, then started after we had finished.  I wish it would have been the exact opposite, the rain would have been nice for the run, but put a damper on things before and after.

We each had a goal, not to PR, but to beat our Peachtree records.  By doing that, we'd each have finished three Peachtrees, each faster than the previous year.  That put our goal time at 44:44, which was one second faster than Michael's finish in 2012.

I never saw Michael after the start, so I didn't know how he was doing, but I was right on pace all the way through, and felt like I couldn't have gone any faster.  It was hot, humid, and the road was wet and slippery from the rain.

When I crossed the finish line at 44:27, I was pretty happy with my time.  I saw Michael waiting for me just after the finish line.  I was happy to see that he was OK and had beaten his time by even more than I did.  He finished in 43:49.

After we had finished, I found out that he had run with someone, similar to how he did in 2011. Charles ran with Michael for the first half, then turned him loose because he could no longer keep up.  Michael later told me he didn't think he could have run as fast as he did without Charles.  It's pretty amazing this same thing happened again.  In 2012 I was able to run with Michael, but the other two years he was in a different corral and somehow ended up with a stranger really helping him.

Me, Michael, and Charles after the race.

After the race we took MARTA back up to the stop by our apartment, got showered, then had breakfast at a nice Cafe.

Then we took MARTA back down to the Greyhound station and came back home.  It was a really fun trip, we already are looking forward to 2014.

My Peachtree times:
2011- 51:06
2012- 44:49
2013- 44:27

Michael's Peachtree times:
2011- 48:19
2012- 44:45
2013- 43:49

Yes, he's beat me every year!

My Garmin data for 2013: