13.1 Marathon Atlanta
Finishers: 2,488
September 30, 2011
Between April 2011 and October 2011, a lot changed.
I ended my first year of grad school and dad got me a cool intern gig in Houston, TX working for Silver Eagle Distributors which is the nations largest Anhueser Busch distributor. I was doing logistics work and loved the company. While I was there I did my best to run as much as possible but most days I could barely make it down the block before dying from the Texas heat.
Once I got back to Auburn, I decided not to go back to my job at the bank and to focus more on life after graduation and the direction I wanted my career to go. With all of the free time, I was very committed to my running and training schedule. This last semester of school I was also living by myself so the temptations of constant baked goods and TV temptation were not around to keep me from my training.
My next race was set to be the 13.1 Atlanta race that took place in Brookhaven. The Friday before the race we had an MBA golf outing and then I packed up my car and headed up I-85 from Auburn. I stayed at Michael Layton that weekend and we went out and got dinner at Gordon Biersch and talked about the real world.
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| MBA Golf Outing with Adam Jones |
October 1, 2011
Saturday I picked up my packet at one of the local running stores and then Michael had our friends over to watch the Auburn game. I think the highlight of that day was Michael not owning a can opener and prying a can of chicken open with a hammer all so that I could make everyone buffalo chicken dip -- very resourceful.
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| Boys....and what they would do for buffalo dip |
October 2, 2011
The morning of the race I had to tip toe around the apartment in the dark because I didn't want to wake Michael up in the other room. I sort of just grabbed my stuff and some Cheerios and drove up to the race start....way too early. I'm pretty sure I took a nap in my car for a good hour before people even started to show up.
It was a cold morning and it was my first race I didn't have anyone there cheering me on but I felt very prepared. (Sidebar -- I think I am still bitter that Michael didn't wake up to watch me run). The race started and I remember not having a clue where I was because it was also still dark. After winding through some very hilly neighborhoods in Brookhaven I started to get into a groove. The hills were kicking everyones butt but thankfully I had been doing a lot of training on my own butt and lower body and it was just the sort of preparation I needed for this unnaturally hilly course.
At the time at Auburn, Michael Dyer was one of our popular running backs and I had always admired how talented he was at high knees and putting in that little bit of extra effort in order to break an extra tackle or gain an extra yard. Whenever I got to a hill on the course, I just made sure to think of Dyer, lift my knees, pump my arms, and power up the hill. Leave it to me to find a way to enjoy hills that most people had reverted to crawling.
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| The course was up in Brookhaven and all those hoods |
With the 2 hour mark in my head I continued to just stay calm and enjoy the cool day and the pretty houses and just run. The second neighborhood portion ended and I was back on the main road headed back to where the race started. Mile 11 passed and I will still feeling comfortable but not confident about the 2 hour goal. Mile 12 came and I started feeling like it wouldn't happen. The hard part about the clocks is that they are never your real time. My time starts when I cross the start line which depending on the race may be 5-10 minutes after the first person starts which is when the clock begins. A tenth of a mile into Mile 12 I was still feeling good. I knew I had that last kick but I couldn't figure out how to get it out. I passed the 20K mark (12.4 miles) and on my iPod all of a sudden came Lady Gaga "Edge of Glory". At the time she had a really cool commercial of her dancing/running on the Brooklyn Bridge and I LOVED the song. So once it came on, I literally took off. I wish someone had a clock on me from that point because I was really cruising. I could hear that someone was on my tail but I was too in the zone to turn and look back so I just let them tail me.
The song was coming to an end and I could see the last little turn that led to the finish line. It was an awkward slight downhill finish but I kicked in like my high school cross days and crossed the finish line with the race clock a couple minutes over 2 hours. I was exhausted but excited that I had done so well. A few minutes after crossing the line a man in yellow came up and told me he was trying to pace with me the last mile or so but at one point I just took off and he couldn't stick with my pace (#likeaboss). He asked what happened and I just said "Lady GaGa".
I wandered back to my car to check my phone and got an email:
Ashley Ahner at the Finish point in 1:59:39.
Pace: 9:08 min/Mile
I was sooooooo excited to make it under 2 hours by the skin of my teeth. I made a video right after I found which I will track down and add to this post at a later date.
That marked race #5 AND the beginning of the "counting on my fingers" -
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| OFFICIAL RACE PIC - 5 states down, 45 more to go! #DREAMBIG |
Race #5 Complete! I'm sure I asked some stranger to take this picture
Pretty cool medal - the 13.1 part of it spins!
Crossing the finish line - yes, this picture is sort of stolen from offline. But you can see the clock was over 2 hours and the man in yellow who was trying to keep up with me!
5 states down, 45 more to go!
#DREAMBIG
