My first...!!

Happy fourth of July! 

Today was my first time celebrating the 4th outside of Hyannisport or Park City. And it was also my first time running a 10K race. I think the last point is more significant than the first. I ran the Peachtree 10k road race which is an annual event in Atlanta. It is a really big 4th of July tradition for people in the area. It is also the largest 10K race, with 55,000 people competing in it. I was lucky enough to get a number to participate in it. I also had a timing chip (only 1000 people get those, apparently someone didn't get the memo that I'm not a runner).

The day began with an early morning ride on Atlanta's public transportation, MARTA, where we got lots of funny looks for our racing attire. Nate, Adam and I were wearing bright orange Croc shirts, lime green and blue hats, blue shorts and most importantly bright blue Crocs. There were lots of other racers taking MARTA to the starting area so we got lots of questions about what we were wearing and if we were really going to run in our Crocs. We wandered through the starting area and were continuously asked if we were going to run in Crocs. It was great that we were getting attention since our goal was to make a short movie about the Peachtree road race and how we ran it in Crocs. (Once we put the movie together I'll post it so you can all see it.)

 

Other runners asking Nate if we were really running in Crocs

The flag flying over the starting line

The race started with the singing of the national anthem. It was a great way to start off the 4th of July. Then the gun went off and slowly our group began to move. It took a few minutes for all of the people in front to move enough so that we could start running too. Before the race started I was nervous about whether I would be able to run the 10K, but I did pretty well. I ran with Adam and Nate for the first two miles before I dropped back.

Going up "Cardiac Hill"

It was fun to listen to the comments from other runners around me when they noticed that I was running in Crocs. I got slightly embarrassed when spectators would yell "go crocs girl go" but it made me laugh too and was encouraging. The run itself was interesting, winding towards downtown Atlanta, there was lots to look at. Since I had never participated in a running race before today was also my first experience with water stations. The first one I came to I got a cup from a volunteer while I was still running and attempted to drink it. I learned that drinking from a paper cup while running is an acquired skill and better left to more advanced runners than myself. The last mile of the race was definitely the worst part, even the hills were better. It was the last mile that I mentally didn't want to go any farther. However Adam and Nate suddenly showed up and then I knew I had to finish. They had doubled back for me so that we could all finish together for a final shot for the movie. While I know they wanted the shot for the movie it was still really nice of them to do because they are both ultra competitive people. We ended up crossing the finish line with a time of 1:08, minus a few minutes for the time when we were standing waiting for the people in front of us to start running after the gun went off. After crossing the finishline we kept walking to get our timing chips cut off and pick up our race day t-shirts. Eventually we ended up a festival of sorts where we continued to talk to people about how we raced in our Crocs. I think I must be more approachable than the guys because I had so many more conversations with people than they did. 

The finish line! 

After I finished the race in my great outfit

My racing number

I did all of that before 10 am. I couldn't believe it. Normally I'd just be rolling out of bed to walk down to Sandy's house to ride in the Mad Hatter in the Hyannisport parade. I was really proud of myself for doing the 10k. Now I want to keep running and do more. I doubt a marathon is in my future but a half marathon could be a possibility down the road. 

The rest of the 4th of July was spent in a little bit more relaxed way. In the afternoon we went to the 'World of Coca-Cola'. It is one of the main tourist attractions of Atlanta. We got to see a 4-D movie where the chairs moved, we got sprayed with water and where 'stung' in the back by a dragonfly which actually was just a painful poke in the back by the electronic chair. We got to see lots of Coca-Cola paraphernalia, watch advertisements and see the bottling process. As you probably could have guessed we also drank quite a bit of coke products. We tasted different sodas and drinks from all over the world. They were categorized according to continent and then there were 8 sodas that you could try from each. The worst one was from Italy. 

The World of Coca-Cola

Me, Adam, Nate and Stephen 

From the World of Coca-Cola, we wandered to the CNN building. It had a food court in it which makes sense, but didn't fit my picture of CNN at all. 

The finale of the 4th of July was watching the fireworks from our hotel balcony. The fireworks were being shot off in Centennial Olympic Park, which was packed with thousands of people. I was so glad that we had a view from our hotel. The fireworks were shot off from 3 different locations, one on the ground, and two on the top of nearby roofs, which made for a really good show. It was a great end to the 4th of July.