Peachtree Road Race 10K (6.2 Miles)

The Peachtree Road Race was probably one of the best experiences I have ever had with Brandon. Although I didn't get to run the race with him, I still had a wonderful time. We took the Marta train to get to Atlanta/Buckhead. I said my "good luck" to him at the Lenox train station where the race began. I hopped back on the train to the Midtown station, which was towards the finish line. A friend of mine suggested that I party with him and all of his friends at the Furbus party. Well, I walked by the so-called party and saw some men dressed in Speedos and wigs. I immediately walked away from it and I didn't even look for my friend. It was way too wild for my taste.

As I was walking and looking for a spot to camp out, I saw the Kenyans/Ethiopians running the race. These are the Elite runners...the ones who has trained vigorously for this 10K race. At this point, I was at the half  mile marker towards the finish line, and they were sprinting like crazy towards the finish line. They had been sprinting like this since the beginning of the race. CRAZINESS! The women started off the race...and man alive, these women are like beasts. They are all so physically fit. Then I saw the Men's Elite runners....all of who were sprinting faster than the women to the finish line. The champion of the race, ran 6.2 miles in 27:36...making the 4th best record of all times. Gracious!! It was really fun to see the elite runners run.

Anyway, I was able to find a nice spot under a tree. There was a nice shade and it wasn't too crowded. I was probably around 0.25-0.30 miles away from the finish line. I brought my Nikon camera to take pictures of Brandon, in case I was able to see him running. The race was broken into letter groups of the alphabet. The first group to run after the Elite runners, was "Group A," of course. Most of these people in this group are true runners ...in which they took up all 4 lanes of the road. It was fascinating watching them run.

Brandon's group was the last group to run. He was in Group Y. While I was waiting for him, I took out my camera and started taking pictures of random strangers/runners. It was pretty fun to be a pretend photographer for the day. I was surprised that people actually posed for me. And when I wasn't snapping pictures, I had people say, "Hey!! Camera!! Camera!!" wanting me to take a picture of them. I, of course, was too slow to snap their picture in time before they ran past me. There were a lot of interesting things I saw: a little girl who was running and tried to spit...and when she did, the spit came right back in hit her right in the face. Gross! A guy blew his nose with his BARE hands. DOUBLE GROSS! There were little kids running the race. I mean...Elementary kids!! Who were running fast. Dang...I never ran like that as a kid. I was never made to be a runner.

Brandon's group started at 9am. I knew it was going to take Brandon at least an hour to run the race (he had been training for 3 months and timed himself around an hour). By 10am, I was ready for Brandon. I noticed that as the Alphabet got closer towards the end, there were two sides of runners on the road: the right lane were for walkers and the left lane were for runners. I am SOOO glad I camped out on the left lane where the runners ran. Shortly after 10:05, I saw my big Giant in his green shorts running. YAY!! I was able to snap a couple of photos of him. I was so glad that I was able to point him out of the thousands of people in the crowd . And seeing his handsome smile as he past me was PRICELESS! I immediately packed my stuff to find him inside the park. And when I found him, the first thing he said to me was, "I LOVE YOU!" and gave me a nice juicy kiss....that was PRICELESS! It's the simple things he does that melts my heart.

I am so proud of Brandon. He trained really hard for the race and did so great for his first race. He finished at 1:02:12. It's later than what he wanted. But I think he still did wonderful...considering it was his FIRST race and he started in the very last group with all the walkers. You don't realize how much you have to push to sprint/dodge the other runners/walkers. It takes up most of your energy. Here are his placements:

Overall Place: 15747 / 57754
Gender Place: 10781 / 29098
Division Place: 1128 / 2565
Age Grade: 43.2%

Overall, I had a great time and would love to do this again next year. Hopefully I'll get selected run the race next year. And even if I don't get selected again, I will have a great time pretending to be a photographer. :)

[sighs] Great memories that will last a life time....

Before the Race - he doesn't know what he's about to get into...

Dang, look at her freakin' quads.

A marine runner and another runner looking at their time. This was common within all the runners.

Kudos to all the 60+ runners!

Errrr....it had to be a dang Asian. Seriously?!

So cute...a father and daughter running.

Hello FRED. Wait, which one of you is Fred?

Proud to be an American running with the American Flag

This guy bounced this ball the entire race? Wow.

Another proud American

This little girl was giving out high-fives to the runners. So cute.

I saw a lot of people who painted their bodies. There were some who's paint job was nearly gone by the time they got to me, because they had sweat it all off.

A guy in a blonde wig, wearing a coconut bra...interesting.

People liked posing for the camera.

Again, another poser...

Peace, I love you?! I don't know what his sign meant.

Another poser for me. I was enjoying all the attention. =)

My favorite costume: Captain America.

There were guys in tutus...

Guys dressed as Uncle Sam in tutus.

Women in tutus...

People in Capes

So sweet...a father pushing his son in the race. I have another picture of the son smiling and looking at my camera, but it was blurry. Dang it.

Devil?!

This poor kid was hurting so bad. I didn't realize I took a picture of him. But he actually stopped on the sidewalk where I was at. He was in so much pain. His dad was encouraging him to get up. But poor kid barely had enough energy and apparently his dad had carried him some distance, because he told his son he couldn't cough another one up for him. Eventually he was able to get back up and finish the race.

So sweet...a couple holding hands. This could have been me and Brandon....only Brandon would he deserted me to the finish line. haha.

Two fire-fighters dressed in uniform for the race. Very impressive!!

The people didn't pose for me, but they did look in my camera. Hehe...

Great shot of this guy. Can I get a Praise Jesus, Hallelujah?!

Nice colors...

Waving that American flag proudly...

I think this guy in the black body suit did not want to get sun burned. Smart man....haha.

This guy actually smiled for my camera. Haha.

Again, Kudos to all the 60+ runners!!

I didn't a shot of this runner when he first came down. But I at least got him when he was leaving...Cool outfit.

That guy in the back looks like he's in pain. LOL.

It's Batman!!

A guy in a kilt?! Nice.... ;-)

The crowd was great!! Very loud and supportive.

FINALLY....MY FAVORITE RUNNER!!!!

YAY!!! I was so happy to see him!! =)

His smile melts me every time.

It was PACKED at Piedmont Park.

Can you spot Brandon in the crowd?

YAY!!! I found my giant!! The rag on his head was dipped in cold ice water before being placed on his head.

His After-shot. So proud of my handsome honeybee!!!!

A well deserved shirt.