It's hard to believe it's here already.

Swift, it sure sounds like you are ready for it!  Good luck.

I'm doing a race in N Carolina the same day and don't feel very prepared. I become such a slacker in Jan and Feb.  The weekend was great though with weather that makes me want to be out.

Rainmaker, how are you?  I read your race report last month and was  very impressed!  I actually wrote a response, but hit something on the rt side of the key board and it disappeared-no time to do ti again.  Thanks for the details on the Locomotive half.  I hadn't realized it was so hilly.  Love the trophy and am so impressed you got an overall award.  : )

How is it going with your car?

I did a very small local 5k yesterday.  It was new and fairly well organized, but we ran on the side of an open road, so the course isn't a draw.  The main advantage was that it was local and a fundraiser for a good cause.  I'm reasonably sure it was my worst 5k in 10 years. : )  The course was 3.34 miles, so that didn't help plus I have a cold, so I'm blaming those things. : ) My HR was high before we even started. I was very bummed, but it was motivating for me.

Do any of you know the coach at Marist-Coach Heintz?

Hi Everyone!

i, along with DH, was signed up for the Publix HM and started training for it last November.  Unfortunately, about 5 weeks ago after my 9 mile run I got injured and i have not been able to run more than 5-6 miles without limping home!

My mileage has totally went down because I've been taking days off while I limp and do the elliptical.

I don't know if it's my Achilles or my calf, but I have extreme pain in my left leg above my ankle and kind of near my calf.  It is so intense I limp for days after a run.  (I know, I know, if it hurts, don't run.). I've taken 3-5 days off at a time which helps but I've just got to try to keep my mileage up even though some weeks it's only been 6 miles.

So, LSS, I don't think I'm going to run it.  I only got up to 9 miles (with gas in the tank) but that was 5 weeks ago.

I was able to ride my bike for the first time this season this past weekend and that really seemed to help my calf.  I wish I had more time to cross train and work my legs this way-I think the bike riding could help my calf.

I wish you all the best and hope you all have a great race and run!  I hope the weather is better than last year (too warm).

Tina

So how were all the races?

My half, Tobacco Road in Cary, NC was a nice race-well organized. I did with my daughter because it's <1 hr away from her place in Chapel Hill.  It had 4000 people for the half and full combined. Bib pickup was easy and the expo was very small. We did find the cutest shirts-a daisy on the front with "I love running, I love it not" printed on the petals.  The race  had 10 min pace teams for the half and15 for the full. My goal was between the pace teams, natch. : )  The course is an out 'N back and started on a road for a couple miles to let the crowd thin out before turning on to the Tobacco Road rail to trail path.  The part on the road had rolling hills, but the rail to trail just had gradual inclines-pretty flat considering it's a NC race. The trail was packed dirt and had big trees on both sides-very nice.   I enjoy out and back courses so I can see the winners and other runners-makes the time fly.  The only issue was a little crowding when the pace teams came back-too many runners side by side.

The post race food was awesome-pizza, choc milk, Great Harvest Bread and beer for those who like it post race.    The awards were bottles of NC wine-unfortunately, the fast runners showed up and I didn't get one. : )

I wasn't in the greatest shape so used it as a  tempo/long run and that worked.  I enjoyed it and so did DD. If you ever "need" a NC race, this is a good option.

Very long RR: 2013 Publix Georgia Marathon

Woke up at 3:45, breakfast (4 am) was coffee (about 20 oz), oatmeal, banana and small white-bread roll. Also started drinking a last cup of Cytocarb. Finished all liquids by 5.

I ran into a couple acquaintances from a running group taking MARTA to the start, both of them running the half. We chatted on the way to Centennial Olympic Park. Got there about 6:25, a bit later than planned. When we got there, I split off to look for my people. I needed to drop my bag off at the LRS tent and find the BoMF table. Luckily those were near each other. By the time I got to the BoMF area, I realized I would definitely need to use the porta-potty. Exchanged greeting with them after a quick circle-up, I headed to get in the porta-potty line. I had meant to eat a few PowerBar chews before the start, but  since I was running late I just forgot. After the potty stop, it was already almost 6:45. I ran to the LRS tent to drop my bag. Talked to just a couple people quick, and headed to corral. Went the wrong way somehow and ended up having to go past some faster corrals to get to mine.

Got to the front of the corral and found the pacers, positioned myself right behind them. Then I remembered jojo (poster from another group on here). I wanted to look for her to say hi. I craned my neck around, looking for someone that fit the description she’d posted. Then I realized she was standing just behind me. I introduced myself and we chatted a bit. I told her the pacer was good, and we’d be fine.

For being in corral F, it didn't take long to get to the start, I started 2:37 after clock time. I started my watch just before crossing the line, then noticed almost immediately that it was showing only the elapsed time and no pace or distance info. Aargh! I hadn't hit the button to find the satellites. I hit the button and the watch did a pretty good job of finding them, even though we were already running, but I knew the first split would be off. It was pretty crowded at first and a little hard to stay with the pacers as they moved through the crowd. I didn't worry about the first few miles being a little slow, because I know it would thin out. I guess I did get tired of trying to thread my way through people to stay right next to them. One of the guys that was part of the pace team was running a bit ahead of the main pacer with the flag, and I decided to do that too. I had actually hoped to come in a couple minutes under 3:55, anyway. After a while I turned around a little to see where the pacers were behind me, but I couldn't see them. It was hard to turn and look for them while running, so I just kept running.

I set my watch to autolap at 1.01 miles, since that usually results in matching up pretty well with the mile markers. Except that it was way off from the beginning because of not having the satellites at first. So it was autolapping in the middle of miles, making it hard for me to follow my elevation profile based pace band very well. Several people running around me had 3:55 bibs on their backs, also running ahead of the pacer

In the early miles I was enjoying the neighborhood cheering sections and people that came out to watch. The pace felt very comfortable and the temp was still pretty cool. I high-fived kids and smiled at some of the people in costume. I was glad when the halfers split off at mile 7, since we'd have more room. I felt glad I’d trained on most of the course, as I was able to know ahead of time where the turns were and which side of the road to be on. The uphill sections, like the Candler Park hill which is short and steep, did not seem to give me much trouble. The long climb at mile 10-11 was okay too, though I did start to worry some that maybe I should be running these sections a little slower. It was hard to know exactly because of the watch being messed up. Because of this, later in the race, I mostly tracked elapsed time and compared with the mile markers.

The section through Decatur (mile 13) and Emory (mile 16) went along pretty uneventfully.  I occasionally exchanged a couple sentences with other runners. One guy asked if I was running 3:55 and I told him I was on pace to. He said he was pacing his buddy for a sub-4. Then he ran back to find his buddy.

It was in the Druid Hills neighborhood around mile 17-19 that it started not to feel easy anymore, just as the splits below show. There were quite a few people around me with 3:55 bibs on their backs like mine. One guy I remembered talking to early on in the race was looking pretty good and I tried to stay with him. Another guy who didn’t have a 3:55 bib on asked if I was ahead of the flag and I said I was pretty sure I was, hadn’t seen them pass me. He asked if I was going to negative split, and I told him I’d love to but not sure if I can. The hills in that section aren’t super bad, but it just seemed to drag on forever as the course winds through that neighborhood. By about 19-20 I was beginning to be unsure I would make my goal. Even the little hills around 20-21 seemed much bigger to me.

Things got a little better briefly as we entered Piedmont Park. I’d just downed a gel and some sport beans. A lot of people were cheering and I did some fist pumping. Somewhere right around this time the one guy from the pace crew that I kind of know called out my name and encouraged me, said we were still on track. I tried to stay with him. Right around mile 22 the main pacer and the other guy with him went past. I couldn’t tell if any regular runners were really running with the pacers. There is a little out and back section in the park past mile 22 and I got to see how far the pacer guy was ahead of me, which was not that far, but my legs felt like lead and my feet were cramping.

Leaving the park at almost mile 23, I had almost managed to catch up with the pace team, but then we hit the 12^th Street hill, and I was done. That hill just took so much out of me. I tried to think I could catch back up to the pacers, but it wasn’t happening. I could see the flag up ahead, but I couldn't get there. We ran through Georgia Tech where they had a great set-up with floats and music and enthusiastic young people who were doing their best to make it fun. Too bad it was all I could do to keep from collapsing. I kept looking at my watch trying to calculate if my goal time was still possible if I could get my early pace back, and I could see that technically it was. I thought of different race reports I’d read from forumites who’d pulled off great feats like that. .. I pulled open a pack of sport beans and tried to eat some, but that seemed to take too much energy. I screamed at myself inside to pull it together and just run faster. There were signs for half a mile left and quarter mile left and I still kept trying to calculate what time I’d need to pull it off.  Near the end I heard someone call out my name, I guess I thought they read it off my bib, found out later it was some people from the training  program at the LRS who'd run the half..

Here are my GPS splits from the race and the the per mile paces derived from them (first one is way off due to satellite issue and last one is way off since it took forever to stop my watch):

There is no final split because of the GPS problem and the way I have my autolap set, the 26 was actually for 0.98 mile. But that split has to be way wrong too, because I fumbled around with my watch forever before I got it stopped, so it must have been a fair bit faster (didn’t stop my watch until after 3:57). So I guess I was able to pick it up at the very end.

Official results: 3:56:14

Overall 417/1833, Gender 81/652, AG 11/81

Official splits 10K 54:32, half 1:55:39, 22 mi 3:15:57

Pic from after the race (this was a little while after at the LRS tent, not right after):

Thanks for reading! 

Hi, all. My race was disappointing. I came in at 3:22. I was hampered by leg cramps starting shortly before mile 20, had to walk and/or stop multiple times to stretch/massage the cramps, and I could never get back to a fast enough pace to help offset the lost time. Even though I've trained on hills, it was just too hilly of a course for me to consider a 3:10 on.  It didn't help that I let myself go out too fast (over a minute ahead of pace at the 10K mark) when the course was easiest. I was back on the correct pace by 13.1, but the damage was done, and that really undermined my efforts as the course became more challenging from mile 16 onward. With this course, I should have played it safer and paced no faster than probably 3:15 or so. Had I done that, maybe I could have salvaged at least a PR.

A couple of days removed, I have a slightly more positive perspective on things. Still not thrilled that many issues with my race could have been easily avoided with more careful planning, diligence, and execution on my part, but the race is run, and there will be other races. I know that Publix was a challenging choice for a marathon. I had considered more favorable courses for a late Winter/early Spring marathon, but in order to keep a promise to DW that I would only run races here in Atlanta this year, it had to be Publix. That's all good and fine, I just needed to temper my expectations a bit and plan accordingly.

Anyways, it's time to suck it up so I can get on with recovery and make the most of the next few weeks before I have to take a week off post-surgery. After that, it will be time to start a new training cycle to get ready for the Peachtree Road Race on July 4th. Having done two marathon cycles in a row, I think a cycle focused on a shorter goal race will be good for me. After the Peachtree, my plan for the next cycle was to focus on the Silver Comet Half in late-October to improve upon the sub-1:30 half I ran last month at the Locomotive Half. However, since I've already technically hit my sub-1:30 HM goal for the year, and for other obvious reasons, I've decided to run the full at the Silver Comet instead. It will be a much more favorable marathon course versus Publix (and compared to the Atlanta Marathon, which is the same weekend), and I should have a good shot at getting all the pieces to fall into place for a good race. I just need to be patient and persistent. That marathon will be my reward for putting in the work these next two cycles.

Congrats Swift on the great RR!  You did great!

Rainmaker, you ran it incredible!

That course, with all those hills is so hard!  Hopefully I'll be back for the HM next year.

i kind of determined that my running form seems to be the problem with my leg-we have lots of hills here in our neighborhood and when I'm running downhill I've been running on my forefoot-that has made my calves really sore.  I've started to slow down on the steeper downhills and try to heel strike on purpose.  That kind of made a big difference so far-though it's only been a week and a half!  :-).

Thanks for the RRs.

I'm going to try the Athens HM in the fall as my next goal.

Swift, thanks for the info on the sleeves.  I bought the regular elastic stockings at a drug store last year and wore them a few times after a long run.  I don't know if they helped, but they felt good. I forgot about them lately. I've been hesitant to get the sleeves because I generally like to be cool. Wetting them might work.

I didn't run Berry.  I stayed in NC/TN longer than I expected. DD is getting married Mem Day, so I was checking out the place,  hotels, etc.  Also, I honestly didn't know if my legs would handle 2 halfs and an interval session in 6 days, esp considering my slacker miles the last couple months. They felt a little beat up yesterday, so I just did an easy short run today and will do 18 easy tomorrow.

Pragmatic, hope your running form change helps.  Too many hills can cause issues. The first year I did the Equinox (with brutal hills), my calves hurt (killed me)  the whole summer as we trained on the course.  Our coach told me to do heel raises and drops. They are easy to do standing in lines, etc and the next year, they were much better.