Hello Fitness....We Meet Again...: Michelob 13.1 Atlanta race recap

I need to do some catching up on race recaps! I have really slacked off lately.

So the Michelob 13.1 was October 4th. In 2013 it was down in north Atlanta in a city called Brookhaven but for 2014 they moved it to a new location about 10 minutes from my house…score!

I drove the course the day before just to get a feel for it. There were some decent hills but I didn’t think it was horribly bad.

I picked up my bib Friday after work and, I must say, I absolutely LOVED the race shirt -

People made quite the huge fuss about the race location not being “in” Atlanta, so the description was perfect (OTP stands for “Outside the Perimeter”…and no, I did not wear the race shirt before the race – this was taken the week after…it’s just the only picture I have of the shirt)

The usual pre-race carb loading was done and the outfit was laid out.

Getting to the race was super easy as I knew right where I was going. I knew to get there early so I was able to park fairly close to the start/finish line. I met up with Brandi and Ramona and we huddled together as it was super windy that morning! I also saw a few other friends while we were waiting to line up in the corrals to start the race.

I had a goal in mind, but was going into the race not feeling too confident in myself. After a horrible race the month before at the Divas Half Marathon, I really didn’t have high hopes, but I wanted to see what I could do.

I remember sticking with my intervals pretty well throughout the race up until around mile 11. The course was on the back roads of Forsyth County so there was next to no crowd support, except for the awesome volunteers at the water stations and the course marshals. There were a couple of DJ’s but they were hanging out in their cars with just the music blasting for us to hear. Oh well!

I was on pace to hit my goal until mile 12…we had a DREADED uphill to go and it kicked my butt. I ended up walking a majority of it and was pretty bummed out – until I realized that even though I may not make my goal, I could still PR!

I kicked it into high gear (as much as I could) and crossed the finish line with a 5 minute PR – slowly chipping away to reach a new milestone. Ramona’s mom was on medal duty so I made a beeline for her to hang my new medal around my neck :)

I met up with Ramona and Brandi (who also PR’ed!) We all completed both the Publix half and the Michelob half, which entitled us to an extra medal, the ATL Challenge!

We chatted for a few and headed our separate ways. Normally we would do breakfast but Brandi and I had football games to get to :)

I rushed home, showered and we headed to Athens for the Georgia Bulldogs game! It was Homecoming and my brother played in the Alumni Band during the pre-game ceremonies.

It was COLD but the Dawgs finished with a nice victory, so it made it all worth it :)