Candler Park Fall Festival 5k, Atlanta Georgia – 5kin50States!

State #1 (and first 5k) – done!

For anyone that is under the impression that Atlanta is flat, let me assure you it isn’t. Not even close to flat. In fact, even though I trained on hills, it was nowhere near as brutal as the hills on this course. There were parts of the run that my chant in not so lady like language about the hills was louder that the music playing on my iphone.

Me before the 5k

But other than the hills, running the Candler Park 5k was AWESOME. Just awesome.

It was really well organized and the course was a mix of neighborhood streets(with hills) and Candler Park itself (all hills). See the route & elevation here. Speaking of hills, I am pretty sure I climbed 13 hills, and only got 2 downhills. You started the race with a huge hill, and ended the race with a huge hill (and a scary drill sargent like lady screaming you can do it – move those legs.) But enough about the hills.

Me at about the 4k mark

I met most of my goals for this first 5k. My first goal was to finish. And I did! I finished with a time of 45:29. I used Endomondo to track my time and according to it, my first mile was done in 13:52, my second in 15:25 and my third in 14:14. Not fast – but pretty steady and I am ok with that.

My second goal was to jog the entire route – and I did that. I am pretty sure at some points I could have walked faster than I jogged, but I was determined to jog all the way. People around me were doing intervals and to get through those hills, that probably would have been faster – but I liked my jog the whole way goal.

My third (unofficial) goal was to not finish last. I wasn’t last so yay!

My other slightly lower goal was to finish in 42 minutes. I was a few minutes off but with all those hills, I am still beyond happy with my time.

What I loved:

The energy of  500 people running on an incredibly beautiful fall day.

A free beer before noon after completing the race. Bagels & beer should really be the new breakfast food of champions.

The encouragement from a few of the faster runners as the paths crossed. They were a mile ahead at that point but it was cool to get a few shout outs to keep going.

The support of my awesome husband.

What I hated:

The overabundance of hills.

The need for an XL shirt still.

The only other thing that bugged me was a biker that was not part of the race that was in the park. As he was riding by, he actually yelled at the girl in front of me ‘Run  – this is a race’. Really? Since I was behind her most of the way I saw that she was struggling with the hills & was doing intervals. I just thought that was kind of an a$$hat comment that wasn’t necessary.

Overall, I enjoyed it so much, that I look forward to training. I need to work on my stride which should help my time. I need to work on my form, as the short video Keith shot makes me look like a 5 year kid struggling to run. Sadly funny as the residual image of me running didn’t match the recorded one.

Best. Free. Beer. Ever

But I am really glad I delayed my upcoming surgery to run the Candler 5k. I hope that the results come back quickly and with good news, so I can continue my quest to do 5k’s in every state!