the annual turkey trek

my annual tradition of running the atlanta half marathon continued this year, with yet another goal: a sub-1:50 time. with everything going on lately, i knew i'd either kick some ass or get my ass kicked. thankfully things actually went my way for a change and with the help of my speedy friend jim (tnt coach from augusta), i snuck in around 1:49:20. the weather was fabulous for a change, a 50degree start and sunny skies ahead. the wind kept up, but not nearly as bad as last year. our first few miles were speedy and gave me some confidence. i don't have all the times here, but a few are: 7:50, 7:50, 7:55, 8something, then a wonderous 7:36 (who cares if it was downhill!). miles 9-11 were a bit rough, with my hamstrings tightening up some and me slowing a bit, but luckily we had enough time banked to relax slightly. it's sort of interesting to think of how well i might do if i actually trained on the road sometime :-)

update, thursday night:
looks like my unofficial time was 1:49:40 and it took us about 10 sec to get to the chip start...43rd out of 449 in my age group. while i felt good during my run, my IT bands are mighty sore tonight. i reallly hope this is temporary! my holiday weekend training plans may now be amended to include more rest (was really looking forward to checking out Pinhoti, a new-to-me section of singletrack in n.ga). right now, a long paddle is on the sched for tomorrow...