Kasha and Kiwi Run The Georgia Marathon

Hi there. Kiwi and I survived the Georgia Marathon this past weekend and came out with very differing views on the experience. So we're going to write back and forth to let you know what we both thought. Remember, I (Kasha) type plainly. Kiwi gets the jazzed up italics.

On Saturday, we left my parents' house at 8:45 am. Clearly not early enough. A quick stop at Starbucks and a stop outside of Macon for lunch were our only detours. Turning onto I-75, 40 miles outside of Atlanta, traffic STOPPED. Stopped! I was so upset! Packet pick up ended at 6pm, and I wasn't sure I was going to make it! Traffic eventually began to crawl toward Atlanta and around 3pm I was downtown. But guess what? Atlanta has a St Patrick's Day parade, too. It begins at noon. So I hit the crowds, blocked off streets, and overworked cops as I tried to get to the Georgia Congress Center, which is about as downtown as you can get. Also, the directions provided BY THE RACE ORGANIZERS did not account for the closed off streets. So unless you just happened to know Atlanta, and I don't, you were lost. Oh, you also got to pay to pick up your packet. $8 after the $2 discount.

Hi. 'Is Kiwi. Is not Kasha's fault Atlanta traffic is outside Atlanta. She left soooooo early! I was still sleepy! And her two breaks were good! She needed to stretch her legs! I do not think it was nice to pay for packet pick up parking when races already cost a lot. And she was in tears with the parade mess. It was already a bad day. :(

So I navigated packet pick up and headed to Mel & Rob's house. With the one-way street, I circled the building 3 times before I figured out how to get in. Visitor parking? They have it, but if it is full, you just have to go to a pay lot. It made more sense to me to wait and see if anyone left. Sure enough, someone did and I was able to take my things inside, already late for our 5pm dinner. We walked to Tin Lizzie's and waited about 20 minutes. The food was great, and I LOVED hearing what Mel & Rob have been up to. I haven't seen them since their wedding last year. A walk back home and early to bed (9ish) for me!

I'm glad she found visitor parking because walking down the street with all her stuff would have been bad for her legs. And Tin Lizzie's thought we would wait much longer with the crowd. That was good that we didn't. There was loud music, and that drained Kasha, but she had fun. Thank goodness she got to see her friends this weekend! They walked a lot because in Atlanta, you walk! That added up to not good for race day.

Sunday morning, around 4am, I could hear the mile 23 water station begin set up. It was right below the condo! I lay in bed until 5:30 then got ready to go. .75 miles to MARTA, and it took 2 machines before I figured out how to buy a pass! I got the pass and headed down to the train. Then to the start line, another .75 miles away, where it took a full 20 minutes to get to my corral. I found the pace group and settled in. My plan was to run the first half with the 5 hour pace group, then speed up for a negative split. The leaders said they "would run a steady pace." To me, that meant 11:25 miles. Easy, especially if someone else is measuring it. ...but that's not what they meant. They were Gallowalkers. Jeff Galloway is a coach who teaches run-walk-run. That gets a lot of people across the finish line. But if you haven't trained for it, run-walk-run ruins your stamina. Their "steady" was run three minutes, walk one minutes. I tried to do that. But pushing hard up hills and walking down hills was a waste of my energy and it destroyed my race mentally and physically. By mile 4, I was in bad shape.

Yeah. Sounds about right. Walking to MARTA and to the race were bad because she was using up her running energy! The start line was at Centennial Park. It was huge and she felt lost and hated it. Steady pace? No way. Kasha ALWAYS runs the first hour of a half marathon and the first 2 hours of a full marathon and this walk run walk was awful. She tried, because sticking with the pace group was her strategy, but it was wrong for her and bad for her race. At the mile 4 water station, she went off on her own. At mile 7.5 the 9,000 half marathoners split off from the 1,832 full marathoners and Kasha could think. She did not have music, because she planned to be with the group. So she ran. She walked when she hurt. And she ran a lot more. At the half point, she was at a 2:38. This wasn't terrible and she kept going.

But then my feet hurt. Like, really hurt. Not marathon hurt. Hurt injured hurt. So I walked. And I calculated. 7 hour time limit. ....can I finish if I walk? I divided the miles by the time. I would finish with a 6:50. So the new game became "how much under 7 hours can I finish."

Didja talk about the blood?

No.

I will!!

Kasha was sick. Just sinuses, but that meant lots of running noses. And runners blow snot out all the time. But being sick, it was so thick, it just clung to her. Her arms, her shirt and shorts, and her legs. It was bloody. So she had blood on her sleeves and shorts. The temperature was warm, but the high buildings made lots of shade. She never warmed up and had goosebumps most of the race. It was bad.

More miles, more pain, more blood, no tears. The tears were yesterday at packet pick up. Wait! Not quite! When people screamed, I cried. It hurt my ears and I didn't have anything to block them out with. It's not cute to yell "Almost there!" at mile 3 and it's not cute to scream at the top of your lungs to people in physical pain.

She hurt. She could have quit and it would have been reasonable. But she stress fractured her brain and kept going. We saw pretty stuff. But the weekend was sucking the fun out of marathons for Kasha. 

Past Georgia Tech, toward the finish line. This is Atlanta, there's no such thing as "one more hill." There is always another hill. I was pretty sure both feet were injured. Through the finish line, the medical tent was placed before medal. NO! NO NO NO! I. WANT. MY. MEDAL. AND I WANT IT NOWWWWWW!

She wanted her medal, and she wanted it now. 

I walked past medical, figuring I could ice my foot with my medal and that if I took my shoes off I might not get them back on. Medal, food tent, toward MARTA. Some nice local pointed me toward a hidden elevator that went directly down to MARTA where the sweet, sweet citizens of Atlanta moved to give me a seat by the door.

She's kinda on a roll, but I know we crossed the finish line at 6:07:02. Worst finish time ever. And she forgot to tell you she saw Rob & Mel at the mile 23 station. That helped her be happy.

I hobbled back to Mel & Rob's and took a shower. I lay down for a few minutes before driving home. Both feet were swollen. I expected stress fractures in both. I stopped at Cracker Barrel-

CRACKER BARREL!!!!!!

Yeah. Kiwi hadn't been. He clearly liked it. But we stopped there, where I looked VERY hung over getting to the door. But chicken and dumplings were enough to keep me going. Home to Savannah, sleep, work, sleep, repeat. Sunday night, I couldn't walk. I'm not exaggerating. I crawled. My feet couldn't hold my weight. Monday, the left one was fine. By Wednesday, the right one was fine. But then I had to deal with the brain stress fracture.



....as you can see, there are two views on this race. I thought it was horrible. I hated it. Kiwi thinks I did the best I could and adjusted as I had to. So then we started talking about the year of marathons. It is harder to find races in the summer months because of the heat. Sure, I can fly somewhere and pay a lot of money. That would keep up the Race A Month deal.

But. That's. Not. Fun. What is Rule #1?

....if you aren't having fun, you're doing it wrong.

So you gotta only run happy fun races. 

But I only need to fill May, June, and July!

Why fill them if they are icky? Run the June race you found the other day THAT LOOKS LIKE FUN, and don't worry about May and July.

But that's not a race a month! That's how we set this up! A race a month for a year!

Are you gonna quit running after The Year?

No.

Who wrote the rules?

Me.

Unwrite them.

Unwrite them?

May is gonna be 7th inning stretch! 

Can we do that?

I'm a talking fone. 

....can do anything I feel like. Is your year. Can do anything you feel like.

Show them the picture of icing your foot with the medal, and let them offer ideas.

Ok. Here you go:

So readers, what do you think?? Should we hold the original course as Kasha says and keep at a race a month, or should we Kiwi the plan and see what happens? Let us know! 

Kasha AND KIWI.