 |
| Mile 5 or so |
Race:
Peachtree Road Race
Location:
Atlanta, GA
Distance:
10K
Goal Time:
39:00
Actual Time:
41:29
Tuesday
morning, Urvi and I sat on the MARTA train heading back to the Airport. I watched the industrial areas south of Atlanta
whisk by. The occasional graffiti atop a
car parts warehouse interspersed small patches of urban jungle overgrown by
kudzu. I was thinking about my life and
where I’d come from and to where I was going…
***
As many of
you know, my reintroduction to road running was October 2009’s Maine Half Marathon. Since that time I have
achieved many things. I have run 10
marathons, from my first Bay State to my own holy grail – Boston Marathon – not
once, but twice. Through it I’ve made
fantastic friends that share a sense of competition and adventure. And, I’ve met my beautiful wife.
But my
original introduction to running was a generation before and 1180 miles
south. I lived in Midtown Atlanta and at
ten years old decided that I was going to run the Peachtree Road Race. I don’t know what my training was like but I
remember running with my mother. I ran
several of the little training races put on by the Atlanta Track Club in
Piedmont Park. (I also ran the InmanPark Festival’s 5k, where I won my first age-group award.) The Peachtree has always been integral to my my life and my running.
 |
| 1984 Peachtree Road Race |
The
Peachtree was not only important to me, it was integral to the Atlanta running
and non-running communities. The
Peachtree was (and still is) the gold standard of road races in Atlanta. Its history (starting in 1970) mirrors the history
of running and road racing in the US.
From 110 fast runners in 1970 to 60,000 elite, sub elite, recreationally
competitive, recreational and first timers in 2016. This year had 250,000
spectators also. As an Atlanta native, all
that I have done in running was incomplete until I returned to the Empire State of the South and ran the Peachtree.
***
I don’t know
what I ran the Peachtree in 1984 or in 1986. I know they were both around an
hour. 58 minutes? But I had bigger, faster goals for 2016.
But alas, goals are but broken skeletons laid waste by the 3-H club of the Peachtree Road Race – Heat, Humidity and Hills.
The day
before, the race organizers announced that the heat and humidity placed the
race under cautionary “Yellow” conditions.
They suggested running slower and modifying your goals for the heat (77
at the start) and humidity (75%).
Our hotel
was only three quarters of a mile from the start. I figured it was would be a nice warm
up. But as soon as I left the hotel, I
realized it would be rough. I was “warm”
pretty quickly. By the time I got to the
start line, my shirt was already soaked.
I was in the
seeded corral and we were going to start with the elite men right at 7:30. I had a game plan and decided not to deviate
from it despite the “yellow” conditions.
I ran the first mile right at 6:15 and then sprinted a bit to keep the
next two miles between 6:10 and 6:15.
The 5k mark was close to the apartment I lived in when I was in kindergarten
(the Benihana is still there 37 years later).
I hit the halfway point at 19:14.
I was right on target.
This is when the third H really comes into play. HILLS.
This is when the third H really comes into play. HILLS.
The next two
miles are basically uphill with some respites here and there. Cardiac Hill carries you up to 3.65 miles
(and the Piedmont Hospital). I started
losing pace as soon as Cardiac started.
But once we got to the top, I was comfortable going downhill again. I managed to do the mile and a half from 3 to
4.5 at 7:10; that was okay, but not what I wanted. I knew I’d have to get faster if I would
really get it.
Then it goes back uphill to the Peachtree/West Peachtree fork. By the time we reached the High Museum and mile 5, I looked at my watch – 32:45. I can still get a PR if I run the last 1.2 miles in less than 7:10. Oh wait…that’s under six minute/mile – I’m not doing that. I still tried to put in everything I had and try to get down to 6 minute miles.
But that wasn’t happening. It was a little more uphill to 10th Street.
Then it goes back uphill to the Peachtree/West Peachtree fork. By the time we reached the High Museum and mile 5, I looked at my watch – 32:45. I can still get a PR if I run the last 1.2 miles in less than 7:10. Oh wait…that’s under six minute/mile – I’m not doing that. I still tried to put in everything I had and try to get down to 6 minute miles.
But that wasn’t happening. It was a little more uphill to 10th Street.
We took the
left off Peachtree and onto 10th Street. I knew how far it was and how much I had left
in the tank; a lot of the former and very little of the latter.
Throughout
my run, the heat kept climbing. By 8:30 the
heat was so bad, the organizers changed the conditions from “Yellow” to “Red.” (“Black” would be the next step and stop the
race.) Urvi and Sonia each ran half of
their race under “Red.”
It never got to Red while I was running, but Yellow was bad enough. The run down 10th Street was one different for me. Usually, I’m passing people who are burnt out at the finish in the last quarter mile. Today, I was the burnt one.
Sonia still managed a Personal Best! Urvi had a personal worst. And, I had a personal moment.
As an Atlanta native, I can call myself a runner again. This second time around, I finished the Peachtree!
 |
| Sonia, me and Urvi in Piedmont Park after the Race |
***
I hadn’t
been back to Atlanta – other than my Grandmother’s death – since the early 90s.
Everything was familiar, yet alien.
Memories from the sights of the houses in Inman Park to the distinct
squeal/whine of the MARTA train ignited nerve cells for brief seconds. And I
was carried into hazy memories that were almost like a past life. Also I was brought into a new Atlanta I never
knew.
Throughout
the trip, I took Urvi around to experience my Atlanta and the new Atlanta. I took her to the Varsity in all its glory
and shame. We visited my old apartment building
(long since razed) in Midtown, and had a beer on the deck of Henry's Tavern that
now inhabits the building Charles Walker used to run his theater lighting
company from. We walked around Inman
Park and saw my two old apartments and visited the restaurant in Little Five Points, the Porter on the site that was Mellow Mushroom.
But we also
rode the new Atlanta Streetcar and sampled the new Atlanta beer scene. We stayed in the new New Buckhead (after the boom
of the Nineties and the bust of Aughts).
Urvi and I went to Treehouse in Peachtree Hills, and Sonia took us to
the hip Cypress Street in Midtown. And,
we saw Mauricio at a pub in Lenox.
 |
| Peachtree Center Station |
 |
| What'll ya have? What'll ya have? |
 |
| New Atlanta Streetcar |
 |
| Mauricio, Me and Urvi |
This was probably
my good bye to my native city. It’s not
sad but it is a deep sense of fleeting nostalgia. I’m happy to have returned and to have done
it with Urvi. I’m happy to have
experienced the Atlanta of the past 30 years that I never knew. I’m so happy to have said good bye by running with Urvi
and Sonia and 60,000 of my next closest friends. Good bye, Atlanta and thanks for one last trip down Peachtree.
 |
| King Center |
