Atlanta ING Mararthon

Ok, so the title is a little misleading, I only ran the half, but that is still 13.1 miles. I dont really know why people enjoy these things, they are fairly painful. Me, I much prefer cycling. You dont put your legs through the pounding, you can coast when you get tired, and you go much faster. But anyway, my girlfriend and her Dad were running it, so I couldnt let them show me up.

For the inaugural ING Marathon, it was done really well. The course was beautiful and I saw parts of Atlanta I wouldnt normally see for fear of getting shot. Fortunately, when you are with 15,000 people at 7:00 AM you dont have to worry about much. For the beginning of Spring, it was fairly warm. The temperature later rose to 80 degrees, but luckily we ran so fast that the convective cooling relieved us of the heat.

The week before the half marathon I was training with my girlfriend and I am fairly sure I suffered plantar fasciitis. Which feels like you have a bruise on the bottom of your foot and you are walking on it. Luckily the day it happened was the wonderul day of St. Patrick. So in order to dull the pain I medicated myself with Guinness. Nevertheless, in order to not look like a wuss I still had to run the half. I once read a story about the Tarahumara Indians of Mexico who run up to 50 miles a day and subsist on corn mash and a type of beer they brew from it. Since they dont have running shoes handed down from goddess Nike, the Tarahumara run in sandals fashioned from used rubber. Therefore, they have to run as if they are barefoot, or on the balls of their feet.

Since it works for these Mexicans, and I live close to a lot of Mexicans on Buford Highway, and I like beer and I am sure they do too, I decided that I would adopt their running style. Unlike them, I didnt have years of running like this to practice, I had a week. A week of no training because I didnt want to aggravate my foot. So I ran the half marathon on the balls of my feet, or at least for the most part until the 4 Ibuprofen kicked in and it didnt matter how I ran. Anyway, it is an interesting style of running and I recommend reading about the benefits of barefoot running, something I am going to start doing more of.

So before I start rambling (too late) I will just point out a few highlights/pointers:

A shot of ice cold PBR given by a wonderful bystander is actually extremely refreshing.

I got to run with the marathon winner for all of 5 seconds as he passed me hoping I would get on TV (Yes, that means he lapped me)

As my friend found out the hard way, prep your nipples so they dont get wore down by your shirt

Make sure you get a good playlist going on the MP3 player (Bruce Springstein, Coldplay, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Old School Michael Jackson, etc.) and DONT forget to recharge your batteries

If you are not doing the race, and trying to drive around during raceday make sure you dont have to cross the course, or else you will be stuck for a few hours while thousands of people jog past you

The uncomfortableness in my feet I felt around mile 2 went away as soon as I saw everyone jogging past and clapping for a person doing the marathon in a wheelchair. Who the hell am I to complain about a little foot pain?

Bottom line is it was a lot of fun, but doing something like this on a bike would be a lot more fun! All in all the Atlanta scenery was great and so was the weather. It makes me feel pity for the people who are too lazy to get out of their houses to enjoy this type of thing.