Peachtree City Classic – USATF Georgia 15k State Championship

This race was a last minute decision. I got an email from USATF Georgia about their Long Distance Running (LDP) Grand Prix a couple days before the Ft. Yargo XTERRA race and saw that the Peachtree City Classic was the 15k state championship and that there was cash on the line for placing in the grand prix overall. I originally thought there was a cash prize for the 15k, but that was wrong. Regardless, I’ve wanted to checkout Peachtree City and its extensive network of golf cart paths for a while, so Amanda and I decided to drive down and check this race out.

 

I ran well at Ft. Yargo, so I figured if I ran smart I would have a chance to place high and maybe get the win. Despite missing the first race of the series I still had a shot at the purse because no USATF members ran as open runners.  The worst I could do was tie for a place in the overall and still possibly win it. Since it was a game-time decision to go to this race, I really didn’t know much about the course, other than the fact that it was almost entirely on golf cart paths. I felt like that would be a good middle ground for me. Paved trails, I might like trails more but I’m probably better on pavement.

 

We got to the race a little later than I would have liked, which made parking a little bit of an issue, then it took forever to find the check-in table since I had to make sure to register my USATF number. Once I got that settled I only had about 15 minutes to get a light warm up in and hit the portos. I jogged around a little and did a few strides then made my way to the start. The weather was a perfect, a little wet and overcast, but the rain stopped pretty early on so it was perfect for racing. Before the gun, I mentally marked a couple of guys that I figured would be at the front, manly an ATC guy and a couple of the other masters’ runners. When I checked in the USATF people told me I was the only open runner, so I knew I had that win wrapped up but I still wanted to win the race if I could.

 

At the gun I got out towards the front of the lead group, but immediately backed off as I could sense it was a little on the fast side and from the looks of the group I thought I could pull it back once we got settled in. I had to fight the urge to run to the front a few times early on after the lead group of six runners started to open a gap of about 30 to 50 meters on me. I didn’t realize it until I saw the GPS data on Strava, but the first mile was a gradual downhill, so I probably could have run with the front group from the get go, but mentally I think it was a good decision to stay relaxed early on.

 

I ended up closing the gap on everyone and catching up to the two leaders just after the two mile mark and my first two splits were 5:26 and 5:40. My plan going in was to try and run 5:40’s so I was a little fast on the first mile, but not really since it was downhill, and right on with the second mile. I ran with the two leaders for about half mile before moving into the lead. I could tell that they didn’t want to set the pace after I caught up to them fairly easily. One guy actually asked me if I had decided to take the first two miles off. The first 2.5 miles were run on the main roads of Peachtree City, but after that we ran to the end of a cul-de-sac then hit the golf cart paths for the rest of the race.

 

Once we got onto the golf cart paths I put in a little bit of a surge and opened up a small gap on the second place runner and dropped the guy that was in third. I slowed down a little bit too much over the fourth mile, due to a long gradual climb. After an up and down first four miles I got back on track and started running in a really good rhythm and opened up a big gap on the guy in second. From mile five to the end of the race I ran pretty much exactly what I wanted to run.

 

My splits from miles 5 to 9 were:
5:42
5:45
5:40
5:42
5:49

 

I know that’s not blazing fast but it was right on pace for what I felt like I could run. It was nice to be able to get into a rhythm and roll like that. I haven’t run a road race that long in a while and it’s a lot different than racing on the trails. The course was really cool. The cart paths were all set back in the trees but they weaved behind houses and every time you had to cross a main road they had tunnels running underneath. It was pretty cool to see the spectators out in the golf carts all along the course.

 

I think I read that Peachtree City has something like 90 miles of golf cart/multi-use paved trails. I’m thinking about trying to convince my parents to retire down there. It’s a little bit of a hike for Amanda and I, but it would be a great place to run and bike every now and then.

 

The red is the 15k course, the green marks all the golf cart paths

The final stretch of the course rounded a lake then dropped us back out onto the main road that we started on. It was a cool feeling to come down the final stretch in front of a pretty good crowd despite the wet weather. I was pretty pumped when I crossed the finish line, as I picked up my first state championship.

 

Check out my sweet USATF Gold Medal

I also ended up winning the USATF Georgia Long Distance Running Grand Prix since no USATF members ran the Dalton Half Marathon the next week. As the great Dominic Torretto once said, it doesn’t matter if you win by an inch or a mile, winning is winning.

 

Strava data from the race.