Peachtree Road Race

Participating in the Peachtree Road Race on the Fourth of July is quickly becoming one of my favorite yearly activities. This is the largest road race in the U.S.  Cassie, Quincy, and I entered the lottery this year, and we were excited to be chosen.  The plan was for me to go up to Atlanta early on the day before the race to pick up our race numbers.  Quincy had to work on the third, so she was going to come up later.  Although this plan sounded good when we made it, it didn't work out quite as we had hoped.  To begin with, my car started having issues about an hour before I had to leave.  I ended up having to rent the only car left at Enterprise (a Chevy Silverado extended cab) just so I could make it to Atlanta in time to pick up our packets.  Then, the forecast was showing that there would be heavy rain on the morning of the Fourth- meaning that the race could be cancelled or delayed.  Because of her late start in driving to Atlanta and the uncertainty of whether or not the race would take place, Quincy decided not to come.  This left Cassie and I as the only two racers this year.  We still had a great time.  We went to the expo and checked out all of the running merchandise.  I picked up several free samples of different items as well as a few brochures for upcoming running events.  I also purchased an armband for my iphone and 26.2 sticker for my car.  After leaving the expo, we went to eat at Pasta Vino.  We also needed to make a trip to Target to try and "rain-proof" ourselves.  We were planning to buy disposable rain ponchos, but they were sold out.  Apparently everyone else had the same idea that we had.  We ended up having to improvise.  Cassie decided to wear a raincoat.  I didn't bring one, so I created an outfit out of trash bags to wear over my clothes.  It was only sprinkling when we left Cassie's apartment, so I ended up just wearing my "trash-bag jacket"- which I discarded at the start line because it had stopped sprinkling by then.  The weather turned out to be better then expected.  It didn't rain, but it was overcast with 100% humidity.  I thought that I would do better than usual because it wasn't hot.  I was wrong.  I actually finished with the worst time I've ever had for this race- 59.12.  At least it was under an hour.  Even though the weather was iffy and the fan support was light this year (due to weather), it was still a great race.