Peachtree Road Race 2008

How did I forget to blog about this???? Am I losing it?? (Don't answer that)
So I'm backdating this post a week..

On July 4th, My sister, brother, husband and I all did the 39th Annual Peachtree Road Race - aka "The World's Largest 10k". Chris and I kicked off the weekend by getting a hotel room with our friends (Swifty and Lynzee) on July 3rd so that we wouldn't have to drive to the race in the morning. Chris and I headed to the Peachtree Road Race Expo which has a lot of exhibitors of race stuff. It was a lot of fun. My favorite booths were (yep, gotta plug them cause I think it's important)

• Newton Running (www.newtonrunning.com) - more on this later
• Bondi Bands (www.bondiband.com) - you can see my bondi band in my pics! I'm getting a TON more because they are totally awesome!! I got the "performance" because it wicks away sweat. Mine had a pink crown on it, and I'm getting one that says "I run so I can eat". LOVE that one. I dont know what the rest will be.... hmmmm
• ING Marathon / Half Marathon (www.inggeorgiamarathon.com)- I registered to win a free race number and got a free wicking shirt... I love free stuff!
• I can't remember the booth name - but I got 2 shirts and a sports bra from them. LOVE the sports bra!!!!
• And Atlanta Foot and Ankle Center (www.atlantafootandankle.com) - they gave out this TOTALLY cool card thats the size of a credit card and has a chart of race times that breaks it down by minutes per mile. It's hard to explain but it's cool. They also gave out this great book on foot and ankle stuff and running.
  
• Oh and I have to plug my Jelly Belly booth (www.jellybelly.com) - love me some jelly belly jelly beans!! They gave out free sport beans. Gotta love that!

Ok - so while we were at the Expo - Chris and I tried on these TOTALLY AWESOME shoes by Newton Running. They have mastered the art of developing a shoe that is as close to barefoot running as possible. You know what?? Maybe I should make this a separate blog. In the meantime, check out www.newtonrunning.com. I got the Newton Motion shoes... and I swear they are the best shoes I've ever owned. But I'll report on them later.

Now back to the race... So we wake up race morning... Caron and Tim meet us down there (our hotel was right in front of the Marta station) and we headed to the start line. Chris and I were in Group 2, Swifty and Lynzee were in group 6 and Caron and Tim started in group 8.




Chris and I started right at 7:30 - and off we were! We jogged the whole way (saving up our energy for the end of the race, which was a new finish this year. Lots of hills at the end) Before we knew it, we were done!! We finished in 1:03:16 - and I know we could have made it in under an hour if we knew the finish wasn't as bad as we thought!! We were conserving the whole race! Next year we are going to try to get in a time group (we have to pre-qualify with a 10k time of under 50min)

We waited for Caron and Tim to finish then headed back to the hotel. We showered, sported our new Peachtree Road Race T-shirts, and went to Dantana's to eat (amazing food), and then napped before the fireworks at Lenox.

Overall it was a great 4th of July weekend!! If you have never done the Peachtree, I STRONGLY recommend it!! Even if you have to walk the whole way... I mean heck, I did last year!! They have people of ALL fitness levels - 55,000 people that is!! It is truly the most fun race ever!!
See ya next year at the start line!