What to Expect at the ING Georgia Marathon
The first time that I ran the ING Georgia Marathon was in 2008.
Here are my experiences as I ran along the course so that when you decide to run you'll know what to expect.
The flights down to Georgia were uneventful, and it was quite hot when I got there.
I managed to get in 7 or 8 miles or so that Thursday afternoon and learned my way around the town that I was staying in.
Friday and Saturday I spent sitting on my butt in a classroom learning what I needed to know to pass the RRCA coaching certification test.
I would say that about 80% of what they taught were things that I had picked up on my own already, maybe a little more.
I really enjoyed the class, especially in the second day when we generated some workout plans for "Joe Runner.
" The class had a lot of experienced runners and coaches in it, though, and it was difficult to get to a consensus within the 6 and 7 person groups for how best to structure the workouts.
On Saturday, I ate some grapes in the class that I don't think had been washed, and I had an acidic taste in my throat from there on out.
Saturday night I changed hotel rooms, and the room I got was a bit dusty and caused me to start coughing a little.
It was really close to start and finish for the marathon, though, which was quite nice.
The temperature dropped and it began raining Saturday night, which left mostly ideal conditions on race day.
There was a lot of wind, but the temperatures were pretty steady in the mid-40s all morning.
The race did a pretty good job of setting up the course, although the start and finish were less than ideal.
Atlanta got some pretty serious tornadoes a few weeks before the race that forced them to change the course a little, although that should not be a problem anymore.
This was probably one of the more challenging marathons that I've run.
There were a lot of hills, and once the marathon and half marathon courses came back together there were a lot of walkers to dodge around.
The finish area involved five 90 degree turns and had a brick surface, so add that in to how narrow it was and having to get around the half marathon walkers and it was difficult to get to the final line.
I treated the race as a long tempo run.
When I laid out my training program, I thought that at this point I should be able to run and recover from a 3 hour marathon pretty easily.
My watch had me running about 26.
5 miles in 3:00:46, although my official time is about 3 minutes slower since I stopped multiple times along the way.
I felt very comfortable the entire time, and recovered pretty well.
Here are my experiences as I ran along the course so that when you decide to run you'll know what to expect.
The flights down to Georgia were uneventful, and it was quite hot when I got there.
I managed to get in 7 or 8 miles or so that Thursday afternoon and learned my way around the town that I was staying in.
Friday and Saturday I spent sitting on my butt in a classroom learning what I needed to know to pass the RRCA coaching certification test.
I would say that about 80% of what they taught were things that I had picked up on my own already, maybe a little more.
I really enjoyed the class, especially in the second day when we generated some workout plans for "Joe Runner.
" The class had a lot of experienced runners and coaches in it, though, and it was difficult to get to a consensus within the 6 and 7 person groups for how best to structure the workouts.
On Saturday, I ate some grapes in the class that I don't think had been washed, and I had an acidic taste in my throat from there on out.
Saturday night I changed hotel rooms, and the room I got was a bit dusty and caused me to start coughing a little.
It was really close to start and finish for the marathon, though, which was quite nice.
The temperature dropped and it began raining Saturday night, which left mostly ideal conditions on race day.
There was a lot of wind, but the temperatures were pretty steady in the mid-40s all morning.
The race did a pretty good job of setting up the course, although the start and finish were less than ideal.
Atlanta got some pretty serious tornadoes a few weeks before the race that forced them to change the course a little, although that should not be a problem anymore.
This was probably one of the more challenging marathons that I've run.
There were a lot of hills, and once the marathon and half marathon courses came back together there were a lot of walkers to dodge around.
The finish area involved five 90 degree turns and had a brick surface, so add that in to how narrow it was and having to get around the half marathon walkers and it was difficult to get to the final line.
I treated the race as a long tempo run.
When I laid out my training program, I thought that at this point I should be able to run and recover from a 3 hour marathon pretty easily.
My watch had me running about 26.
5 miles in 3:00:46, although my official time is about 3 minutes slower since I stopped multiple times along the way.
I felt very comfortable the entire time, and recovered pretty well.
