Happy Labor Day!  All I can say is this is a beast of a course!  But it was a great deal of fun.

My partner Michael and I ran again.  His friend, Elizabeth has gotten into running and signed up as well and stayed with us the night before.  Even though the race didn’t start until 7:45, most of the major roads began closing at 6:45 to allow for the cyclists and inline skaters to start.  Consequently, it was still a rather early start for us.  We woke up at 5, had a light breakfast and got ready and were on our way.

Similar to the Peachtree Road Race, we had a lot of time to kill.  We arrive roughly an hour and fifteen minutes prior to the start of the race, plenty of time for gatorade, potty breaks, stretching, and socializing before the start of the race.  At around 7:30 we made our way to the starting line.  Although it was a little on the humid side, it was overcast the entire race (with heaven sent breezes that always seemed to come before a hill).  American Idol winner Jordan Sparks sang the National Anthem. 

At 7:45 we were on our way.  Now, I registered for this race after a previous race day high.  I knew we were going to be in town for the holiday and thought it would be great to do a race again over the long weekend.  After registering, I didn’t do a lot of research or plan out the route.  BIG MISTAKE!  The US 10K Classic is straight down Highway 41/Cobb Parkway--starting at Cumberland Mall and finishing at the White Water parking lot.  The starting line gives a rather accurate description of the entire race--slight downhill followed by a seemingly endless climb!  The only difference as the race progressed seemed to be that the small stretches going downhill flatten out.

Seeing the 1st big hill and not accepting walking as a possibility, I paced myself accordingly more slowly in the beginning.  For the first two miles, I was hurting pretty bad, averaging around 10 minute miles.  Luckily, I was able to get a second wind and increase my speed during the second half of the race.  In spite of the endless hills, I was able to finish around 58 minutes.  Not enough to qualify for a 1B seeding time for the Peachtree Road Race today, but I’m still extremely happy with my time considering the challenging nature of the course, running 20 miles 3 days before, and a virtual 10K for Nike+’s Human Race yesterday!  I’m sure I’ll get my sub 55 minute time on a flatter course where I’ve had more rest.

Michael and Elizabeth came in around 1:08--both great times.  I think Michael finally has been bitten by the running bug!  He was smiling a lot more today after finishing and has already registered to run the Atlanta Half Marathon.  I think it’s incredible we are having so much fun doing this together.

We walked around the post-race festivities for a little while.  Initially we had planned to stick around and enjoy White Water for a few hours.  But the weather was overcast and we were tired and hungry.  Instead of waiting around too long for the food spread, we fortuitously found an unmarked Cold Stone Creamery booth giving out ice cream and scarfed that down, along with some water and gatorade.  Afterwards, we went home, cleaned up, and headed to Fox Brothers BBQ for one of the most decadent meals that included tater tots with cheese :)  Hey, it’s a holiday and we woke up at 5 to run; I think we earned it.