ING Atlanta Marathon Race Report

What a day, what a journey.  I signed up for this marathon (took place yesterday, March 21st) on December 9th, not long after i completed my first half marathon on Turkey Day.  I was looking for a challenge, and specifically a challenge that I could share with my 69 year old father.  He signed up on December 10th and we began our training together, albeit virtually as he lives in FL in the winter and in NJ in the summer.  For me it was all about the journey, not just the post-op journey, but the training for this specific event.  Both of these paths have had ups and downs, setbacks and wow moments, and some injuries and mental low-points.  I truly believe that the mental toughness that you gain in training and in the post-op lifestyle are directly applicable to life and to events/races.

The day started early, we woke up in our hotel room at 4 AM, had breakfast and hydrated.  We tried to calm our nerves and then departed the room a little after 6 to check out the corrals and the atmosphere.  There were said to be around 18,000 runners participating the the half and marathon, which had simultaneous starts.  We were in corral I, which was right in the middle of the 16 or so corrals.  The weather was cooperating for the most part, it was low 50's with some sprinkles at the start.  The race started promptly @ 7 AM and it only took us about 5 minutes to make our way to the start line.  My father and I both were sporting our "Team McArthur" gear with the motto "Where Moderation is Checked at the Door".  We started our respective garmin's and were off.

I spent the first 4 miles or so reigning my father in as he was pushing the pace a bit too much.  I knew that the course was going to be hilly and i had a feeling we were in for a long day.  We weren't dissapointed with the hills, there were plenty of them.  According to my garmin afterwards, it showed a total elevation gain of 7,372 ft (taken with a grain of salt), but definitely hilly.  The half marathon and marathon course ran together until mile 7 where the half marathoners peeled off of to the left, it was pretty evident that the ratio was somewhere around 8 or 10 to 1 as we had much more room to run after the split.  The split also brought some rain, it wasn't too noticable as the hills were starting to grind.  By the half-way mark both of our legs were burning and aching, not a good sign.  I hadn't had this bad of a burn since a very hilly 70+ mile bike ride where my legs basically gave out on me, so i started to get nervous.  The hills wrecked my dad even more than me as i'm 30 years his junior.  We stopped for our only bathroom break around the half-way point, which was also the point where my poweraide zero i was carrying in my fuel belt was finally used up, this was by design.  We were eating gel packs every 5 miles which worked great for the race as neither one of u**** an energy wall.  My biggest issue was hydration, as it was really awkward to drink from the cups at the aid stations without stopping, so i don't think i was getting enough fluid on the 2nd half of the race.

Around mile 16.5 my fathers legs couldn't take the hills anymore and he had to start walking the hills, he sent me on my way and we parted ways for the rest of the day.  I felt really bad, almost selfish, to continue on without him, but he was pretty adament about me going forward.  I pushed ahead and found that the hills only got worse from that point on (or at least they felt worse, it could clearly be a pain thing at this point).  I pushed through some serious pain in my quads and hammys, they were burning and tightening up, but i wasn't stopping for **** it is my extremely stubborn streak talking at this point.  With around 5 miles to go my calves started to cramp a bit, but didn't cause any major issue, other than another thing to be concerned about.  I'm pretty sure the cramping was due to not enough hydration in the 2nd half, as i rarely cramp up.  The last 4 miles were a blur, and it was like a night of the living dead deathmarch for the majority of folks still on the course.  From this point on i would say only 10 to 25% of the runners were running up the hills, i was passing A LOT of people walking from here to the finish.  I think it was a furnction of the hills and the pace i was going.  Is this a normal thing for marathons?  Anyway, my stubborn streak was shining through and i had it in my head that i wasn't going to walk a step beyond a couple of steps at the aid stations to get some water in without going up my nose.  I gutted through the last 2 miles on will-power alone, the legs were gone.  But when i turned the corner and saw the finish, the pain was gone (at least for the next 10 minutes or so :) ).  I finished with an official time of 4:27 and change, and with the course, felt great about it.  My father finished just under 5 hours and placed 2nd in his age group!  (M 65-69).  We linked up and limped back to the hotel for showers, food, poweraide, and tylenol.

I choked up twice during the day, when i was approaching the start, and when i was approaching the finish.  In both cases it was like the entire journey (WLS and training) flashed before my eyes and the magnitude of doing this with my dad hit me like a ton of bricks.

Anyway, thanks for reading (if you've made it this far!), now it's on to training for my first half Ironman in a little less than 8 weeks.

Awesome Job!

Thanks for sharing the race report.  I'm glad you were able to share this experience with your dad.

Thats a great job on his part taking second in his age group.

http://ridewithgps.com/
check out this site, it's free and you can plot your race. It will give you all the info about altitude, steepest grad you ran up etc.  It will give you a topographical picture of the course as well.
You can compare it to the Garmin.
The Garmin watches don't do real great with elevation.  Their bike computers have altimeters in them so their reading is more accurate.

GPS provides Altitude information when it is able to communicate with 4 or more satellites. This is referred to as Three Dimensional (3D) signal. Latitude, Longitude and Altitude are the three dimensions. If you want to get technical then the fourth dimension would be time.

The big question most people ask is "Why do I need a barometric altimeter when I have GPS altitude?" A barometric altimeter uses the atmospheric pressure to determine your altitude above sea level. It turns out they are able to determine altitude within +/- 3 vertical meters or so. The altimeter will detect your change in altitude based on the change in the atmospheric pressure (the higher you go the less pressure).

The problem with a barometric altimeter is the requirement to calibrate it every time you start your activity. If you don't the altimeter will still work and relative measurements will be accurate, but absolute measurements will be off. This means that your cumulative elevation gain/loss will probably be correct, but all of the elevations along the way will be offset by the difference of the actual altitude and the altitude on the device.

GPS altitude doesn't need any calibration, but for complex reasons the GPS unit is not able to determine elevation as accurately as a barometric altimeter.

Combining both GPS and barometric altimeters, Garmin GPS units are able to provide the most accurate altitude readings of any handheld device. Absolute location is provided originally by the satellite to help auto-calibrate the barometric altimeter, then the barometric altimeter is used to provide a more stable elevation change. The GPS device will constantly calibrate the barometric altimeter throughout an activity because the pressure may change due to weather conditions. This is a great advantage during long days of hiking, biking or running.

Scott

Great job Bill! Super proud of you man. A new found respect for the Marathon distance I am sure, but you are the man, and how awesome it was that you could be there with your Dad. I can't imagine the sense of pride you felt when you were able to hug him and shed a few tears at the finish line together. That's good stuff my friend, that's what it's all about... In the end, the journey really isn't the race, the journe is the training and sacrifice. REST FOR ! WEEK DUDE!!!!

What a great story Bill!  It's amazing how the power of the mind can overcome the objections of the body.  With being able to share this race with your dad, I'm sure that this race will always hold a special place in your heart.  Congratulations again.

Cassie