The Peachtree Road Race has become an annual ritual for me by now. The running takes place on 4th of July every year, but that is only the second step of the annual ritual. The first step takes place way back in March, where runners would submit their registration. Those who register before the quota fills up get to receive a number and run.

The race starts at 7.30 am, but with the more than 50,000 participants, the event adopts a “wave start” approach. That is runners are divided into groups and each group has its own starting time, minutes apart from each other. The first digit of your race number tells you which time group you are in. This year I was in group 7, scheduled to start at 8.33 am.

In the past years, I would arrive in time for the official start and listen to people sing the Start-Spangled Banner. I would wait in my time group’s holding area and have my already warmed up body  cooled down from the wait before I could actually run. This year, I arrived way after Time Group 1 set off, but in time for the start of Time Group 7.

Running the course, like I said last year, need not be taken too seriously. I just ran, treated it as another training run, but soaking in the cheers from the spectators. Once a year, we all take part in these festivities of the City of Atlanta. Finish the 10k, and earn another t-shirt to add to the collection.

In several aspects, this year’s race gave me the impression that the organizers were trying to cut cost and manpower.

Before the race, there was not much content in the email updates leading up to race day. Race packet pick up instructions were sent to us only a couple of days before the expo.

On race day itself, there were visibly less volunteers. Gear check was two large tents where runners simply dropped off our bags in lots designated according to our race numbers, self-service style. This year, they did away the Champion chip system and used the D-Tag disposable RFID tag system. So, gone were the volunteers who would help runners detach their chip from their shoes at the finish area. For some reasons, they also left it to the runners the tear off our own Mylar heat blankets from the rolls of supplies left at the finish area.

These were details. The important thing is that the running experience was not compromised. Drink stations were well-stocked, all of them serving both Gatorade and water. There was plenty of food served after the race, courtesy of sponsor Publix Supermarkets. I found that I have become a post-race glutton, eating a lot after races. Today, I had numerous cookies, bagels, pretzels, and not to mention a mini-muffin, yogurt and the customary banana.

Food and fluid were necessary, as I ran hard today. Weather was similar to last year’s, with the temperature within a couple of degrees centigrade on either sides of 10.

With the race still fresh on my mind, I want to write this down to tell myself what I can improve on in my next half marathon.

I managed to run at a pace quicker than last year’s, and doing so pretty consistently except for the very end. Mile 9 onwards, I could feel that I was getting tired, but I would say that I was still going strong. After the mile-11 marker, as I ran round Georgia Tech, turning onto Tech Parkway from North Avenue, every stretch of the road started to feel like a hill to me.

The last mile was once again the most difficult mile. I ran out of steam today. It probably took me 1-2 minutes more to complete that mile alone than the rest. In the earlier miles, I looked at my pace and had a target finish time in mind and I managed to build up some margin for error in case I dropped my pace. I squandered almost all of that margin in the last mile. I tried hard to push myself forward, but the force simply did not translate into further motion.

I crossed the line just a few seconds under my target time. It was more than 3 minutes’ improvement over last year. This is a good result. To improve on my half marathon, I think before talking about improvement on pace, I should train myself to run consistently around today’s pace and sustain that over 13.1 miles. That would mean training for strength, stamina and endurance. That is something to keep in mind when I prepare for another race.

Oh, before I end this post, here is something that happened to me for the first time in a half marathon. This is the first time ever that I completed my race before the marathon leaders finished. They came in less than a minute behind me, while I was still catching my breath and waiting for my chance to tear off a sheet of Mylar heat blanket for myself.

Running the Atlanta Half Marathon has become an annual Thanksgiving affair for me. So has oversleeping the morning of this race. For two years in a row and for as many times as I have taken part in this race, I did not manage to wake up at my planned hour to get ready for the race.

Seems like I was not taking this race seriously. Maybe that is true. The Atlanta Half Marathon on Thanksgiving Day has never been my “Race of the Season”. Last year, it was a milestone along my training for the Disney World Marathon in January. This year, I completed Chicago only in October. I registered for this race “because it’s there” and having to maintain some fitness to run it, it helped me keep myself in shape before I take a break for the season.

The nice thing about this year’s race is that the Atlanta Track Club found The Weather Channel to be a major sponsor. They gave participants a pretty cool long-sleeved “technical” shirt sans logos of every single race sponsor, from some sports departmental store to the grocery store or certain stationery brand or even the local hospital. The shirt design was nice and clean – it just read “The Weather Channel Atlanta Marathon – Half Marathon – Thanksgiving Day” and has a “13.1″ printed as background. Ah, this year’s finishers’ medal is nicer than last year’s too.

For me, this year’s race went better than last year’s, despite my tardiness to arrive at the start line in both instances. When I got to the start area, I was still in time to join the crowd and start behind everyone. Participants were still trickling in even after I started running. It was chilly just past 7 in the morning and I was feeling stiff in the cold even though I was fully geared from head to toe – beanie, 3 layers of shirts (2 of them long-sleeved), gloves and long pants. The important thing was that it did not rain this year. I think it was the rain last year that made the race all the more so difficult. Certainly, my fitness level was down since Chicago. Still, I completed the race in a reasonable time.

I do not know yet if I will keep this Thanksgiving tradition going next year – running this race again and oversleeping that very morning. I have not set my running plans for next year. I have confirmed only my first race of the year, which is a Half Marathon in March and I am planning on running another Marathon during the second half of the year. For now, I will be taking a short break from training. I need to focus my attention on preparing for my vacation trip the end of the year!

Hey, are we not already at the end of the year? Vacation is less than two weeks away!