#4

Wow! #4. That was a killer. Not so much the hills - it reminded me of running around here, actually - but the heat combined with them. My skin is still burning and I look a little racoon-y. But, my official time was 4:32-something and I am pretty proud of that because it was a blood bath out there today. I think it was around 81 degrees when I finished. I was fine through about mile 17 and then the absolute lack of Gatorade left for the marathoners really started to take its toll. I was only able to find Gatorade THREE times on the whole course. They were so unprepared today, the race management was horrible and should all be taken out somewhere and drug behind a car on that course on a hot day. They literally had nothing left for the marathoners - at times I had to pour my own water!!!!! It was very demoralizing to run past thousands of squashed orange peels when you're burning alive and just WISH you could have had one. Thank goodness for the kind people of Atlanta whose neighborhoods we ran through though - they were out with garden hoses, bowls of ice, pretzels and the things race management SHOULD have had for us. There wasn't even a banana or orange left at the finish line when I got there - and I'm pretty mid pack. So I took a tray of Oreos, and if you finished after me and didn't have any Oreos left by then just email me and I'll send you a pack. Because I was hot and hungry and that's pretty much all they had besides 80-degree water and soda.

Full race report to come. We got back around 5:45 and the 4-hr ride home was so painful right after a marathon!!! We put our stuff down and literally collapsed on the bed and were dead to the world for 2 hours!!! Thanks for all the comments and for tracking me all day! My main goal in my head was to make it to the next timing mat and slam my size 7's down and send the stats back to everyone! Brent was awesome - he actually ran the half and then came out to mile 19 and the finish to snap some photos. We ran together through mile 4 when the half marathoners split off. ( The half marathoners come back on our course later - that's why nothing was left for us from mile 17 on. We run the same course but the full branched out early so the half runs the 2nd half of the full course. That is such a dumb idea.) Anyway, I've got some unpacking to do and then back to work tomorrow!

Congrats to David on an awesome time today!! Go send him love!