"Pain is temporary, quitting is forever"

Best sign spotted at the ING Georgia Marathon. I figure I should write something down about this race, since Nat and Steph did such a fine job talking about their experiences.
Despite the packet pickup ordeal, problems with the start (no corrals?), and water tables (out of water at mile 3?), I liked this race a lot.
I've basically run this entire course in sections since we moved here, so was looking forward to the familiarity.
Our friend Amanda stayed with us and ran her first marathon (4:40! Go Amanda!). We woke up after 5 a.m. Allison very gamely drove us over to the King Memorial MARTA station. The train showed up packed. I've never seen so many white people on the train. Usually it's just me.
It was pretty simple to follow the crowds. We met Shari, another full marathoner from Savannah at Five Points station and walked over to the UPS trucks (great job UPS!), where I lost both Amanda and Shari. I made my way to the start, skipped the potty lines, having taken care of that business at home, one reason it's nice to be so close by. There was a massive crowd. I pushed through to just in front of the five hour pace group. It was wall to wall people, and yet, soon someone poked me on the shoulder and said "you're Jason from Savannah." And I had managed to line up directly in front of John from the Savannah Triathlon Team (Best Team Ever!), who I used to race with. Weird. How does stuff like that happen?
So, chit chat, "good luck," etc. Eventually a couple of people took off their hats, hands on hearts, and somebody says "are they playing the anthem?" I heard a warble that might have been part of the song and took my visor off. Eventually the crowd started moving and I moved along with them.
I do wish they'd change the starts, or at least stagger start the half and full distances. The two old ladies who insisted on moving closer and closer to the front, then started walking, had to be only a small part of the inappropriately seeded people.
I didn't really have a time goal. I just wanted to jog it, enjoy the race, do the raised arms thing, and be a part of the whole experience. That was a total success.
It is a great course. Al, my parents, and nephew were on the sidewalk at our friends' house in Inman Park. That was cool. Evan was even holding a sign for me. I tried to give him the hand slap, but I don't think he's learned that yet. Quick smooch for Al and I was on my way.
Maybe they could change the Freedom Parkway section for next year's marathon, but lucky for me, and most of the other half-marathoners, the Freedom Parkway out and back was still nice and relatively cool when I was on it around 8 a.m.
The crowds were great, cheering all the way through. Other runners mostly kept it together, except for the guy raging about the water outage before little 5 points. It was pretty ridiculous, but screaming at volunteers isn't going to help.
Many thanks to the guy handing out orange slices somewhere in Va. Highlands (druid hills? I don't know). That was delishus.
I liked the leg through Piedmont Park, but that 10th street hill is ... challenging. Oh, then there's another hill, and I never realized that Peachtree heading up to the Fox is also uphill. I won't complain though. I passed people pretty steadily throughout. I guess I could have tried harder. Just call me Sandy, as in Sandbagger.
At mile 12 I realized that switching to the half was totally the right thing to do this year. My legs started to ache some, and I was very happy to nearly be done.
Big crowds at the end, cross the line, raise the arms and smile, start to shiver, get a space blanket, medal (nice medals!), have lady clip my chip, say thank you, get pretzels, water, more pretzels, banana, cookies, stop shivering, get change of clothes, towel off and change, call Al, meet folks and rest of family (my aunt, uncle, cousin and her two little girls were all there too), then go stand near the finish line and cheer for everybody else. What an awesome day. 2:01:39 finish. I should have tried harder, then would have broken two hours (PR of 1:42 at this distance, for the record). But I didn't start out with a time goal, just a fun goal, and I had that. Next year I look forward to doing the full marathon, and that will be a race. However, next year I probably will not go with Al, mom, and Evan to the zoo after lunch.
This morning the gym guy here at school asked "are you taking a week off now?" I said pfft. The St. Anthony's Triathlon is at the end of April so now I'm starting another training phase. Last night I rode my trainer for the first time in... a year maybe? This morning was swim practice, which will now be twice a week, and this weekend I'll ride on the road for the first time since we moved here (bike commuting doesn't totally count). I'll run sometime this week too, but 10K training is a different animal. Now I've picked out four more triathlons for the year, three olympic distances and a sprint, last one Sept. 15. I'll finish up with the tri's just in time to give me six weeks to concentrate and get the long runs in for NYC Marathon in November.
This year, NYC is mine.