Race 14 Chattahoochee Challenge 10K

It has been a while since my last road 10K, 10 years to be exact and that was way before I switched from running to walking.  I do not think that I am anti-10K, I just need a reason to do one.  Once I found out that the proceeds from the Chattahoochee Challenge 10K benefited the Chattahoochee Nature Center, I had my reason. 

The race was in Roswell, GA, two towns over, and it started at 8:00 AM.  As usual, I got there early and scoped things out.   They had a nice heated gym at the Nature Center and that meant nice heated bathrooms!  The first thing I noticed outside, they even had portalets (unlike the Callaway Gardens Half Marathon I just did two weeks earlier – funny how even a low key $27 entrance fee race can afford portalets).

I was able to walk around the Nature Center a bit. I saw two bald eagles!   Wow, this is a great place, must make plans to come back and spend some time here exploring, hiking, and take some of the classes on bird identification (I have multiple bird feeders in the back yard and really enjoy those birds – just wish I knew more about each species).

The temperature and wind where going to be a factor in this race as an artic front was making its way into Georgia.  However, the weather seemed okay just prior to the race.  There was virtually no wind blowing and the sun was peeking through the clouds, it was actually quite nice.  Since I’d only be out there for a bit more than an hour, I decided to shed my top layer.

An odd thing about this race that I really liked, we had to walk about ¾ of mile to get to the start.  This solves a huge problem that I think exists with a lot of races – most folks are not warmed up and loose for that start and they end up just starting the race that way.  Not this race – it was an excellent warm up just prior to the race!

Just prior to the start

We were very close to Chattahoochee River for the entire course – the road pretty much followed it.  One of the things I saw during this race that just made me feel good, I saw a policeman blocking, not allowing a car to get out of a subdivision onto the road we were on.  As I passed by, I noticed the driver of the car, out of his car, on his cell phone complaining to someone how he could not get out of his subdivision (right now).  Mr. Policeman and the Roswell, GA Police Department – Thank You!!!

Remember earlier when I told you I shed that top layer?  Well that was a wrong move : )  That artic blast started making its way in, quickly.  Before the race was over, we had a little rain, some sleet, a few snow flurries, and some gusting wind!  The wind was blowing so hard, there were white caps on the river! 

One other thing that I noticed while getting along on the course, they have rowing clubs here (I did not know that).  I will need to find out when they have regattas and come over and watch.

http://rowsteadystate.com/

All in all this was a good race, it supported the Chattahoochee Nature Center, and it was a pretty good workout.

Garmin Stats:

Time: 1:16

Average Heart Rate: 133, 81% of max for one hour and 16 minutes

Calories Spent:  655

Average Speed:  4.9 mph;  Pace: 12:15

Distance:  6.2 miles

Steps:  24,620

Race 13 Callaway Gardens Half Marathon

The Day Before

Since the Callaway Half was on Sunday, we decided to head down on Saturday to visit FDR’s Little White House in Warms Springs, Georgia.  It was only a few miles away from Callaway.  Not only did we see the museum, watch a film, walk the grounds, we also got to go inside the Little White House.  I learned a lot from this visit. 

This is the portrait that was being painted when FDR had his stroke. 

After leaving there we drove through FDR State Park.  It’s about 9,000 acres with more than 40 miles of trails – must come back and hike this someday!

Hotel Check In

Callaway Gardens is about 13,000 acres and they have multiple places to stay – and they are not close to each other.  I was naïve about being able to find our place once we arrived on the grounds.  It took 10-15 (and that was with directions) miles to finally get to our place.  In checking in I had to sign this document acknowledging rate, check out day,…  pretty standard stuff.  However, I notice this little blurb at the bottom:  Fees if you are late checking out:  15 minutes late - $75.00, 30 minutes late - $100.00…  What!?  So I ask for a late checkout, hoping to come back to the room and shower after the half.  The guy tells me he can’t do that because he does not know their schedule in the morning.  Um, okay, how do I go about requesting a late checkout?  Told me "call in the morning and they’ll be able to tell me".  I told him, “I’ll be up really early, like 4:30 AM”.  He said "no problem, just give them a call".  Hmmm, okay.

Also, although their website advertised that you can get the "Fitness Series" room rate, it was exactly the same rate that anyone could get online.  Hmmm...

Pasta Dinner

We were underwhelmed with the local dining options in Pine Mountain, so we just decided to have the pasta dinner on the grounds at Callaway.  I had received a one line email a few days earlier from them, it simply said:

Callaway Gardens will host a pasta dinner Saturday evening at the Mountain Creek Inn.  Pay at the door

Little did we know that we would enjoy this incredibly under-planned, no one seems to have a clue, what else could go wrong,… pasta dinner!  Honest, the comedy value of what we witnessed was great.  It almost like what a pasta bar might be if it was planned by the Three Stooges, George Costanza, and Kramer!   They could not do anything right.  I do not know if they just did not plan properly, if they did not schedule enough people, if they’ve never done this before,…  People were leaving left & right, they would have everything on the pasta bar except plates, someone would bring it to their attention, they’d smile and say, "they’re bringing plates out right now".  But they didn’t.  So folks who already had plates (prior servings) would come up to the line and get more pasta.  By the time the plates got put out, the pasta was gone for the people who were waiting for plates!  And it would be 15-20 minutes for more pasta to come out – and then something else, like sauce would be out.  This went on for an hour and a half!  We were beginning to think that this was for the TV show Punk’d or something like it.  Don’t get me wrong – the staff folks were great – polite, respectful – this was not their fault.  My wife and I both agreed watching this happen was funnier than anything we could have watched on the TV back in the room!

Morning of the Race

Woke up around 4:00 AM to a super clear sky and 33 degrees.  Made coffee in the room, ate my race day morning bagel and decided take advantage of the Pine Mountain (very little light pollution) clear sky.  The other day I posted about the Star Walk app – and I did have my iPad with me.  It was fantastic!  Located Mars and saw & identified all the stars in the Big Dipper.  Although at 33 degrees, did not stay outside too long doing this.  But it was a good clear sky. 

So it’s about 5:00 AM by this point, so instead of calling down to the front desk about that late checkout, I just decided to walk over.  The woman at the front desk tells me, “oh I can’t do that for you, I’m from the night shift, you have to wait to 7:00 when the morning shift comes in”.   I told her that the guy at check-in said this would be no problem at 4:30 AM for you to do this.  So now I’m thinking, after the Three Stooges, George Costanza, and Kramer designed the Pasta Bar, they must have moved on to develop the "Avoid giving the customer a late checkout" procedure!  

The Race

They had the start set up right next to this very large tent structure where we picked up our bib, ankle bracelet, shirt the day before.  It was warmer inside than the 33 degrees outside, so most folks made their way into the tent.  It was nice in there.  Some guy, probably the RD, started making some announcements inside the tent.  The one that got my attention – “Callaway does not allow portalets on the property”.  Their instructions went on to tells that we will be passing some buildings while going through  the 13,000 acres, and it is possible that they might have a bathroom in it.  They will not be marked .  So, pretty much we have to search around and/or look inside buildings to see if there might be a bathroom.  The absolute first thought that came into my head – after the Three Stooges, George Costanza, and Kramer designed the other two things mentioned earlier, they designed the porta-potty strategy for the races!!!

And we were off!  My guess, there were maybe 400-500 people doing the race.  So except for the very beginning, it was never crowded.   Oh yeah, I did find one of those bathrooms the guy mentioned, but when I got to the door, it had a note on it:

As far as the actual course, it was a magnificently beautiful!  For me, it had the perfect amount of rolling hills.  I am glad I had the opportunity to do this half marathon. 

The Medal

I was just looking at the medal we got after finishing the race.  I noticed that it was peeling a little bit, so I peeled it back a bit more.  These are recycled medals.  Wow – is it ever cheap!  I guess after the Three Stooges, George Costanza, and Kramer designed all of those other things, they worked on the race medals.  My medal had four round stick-on stickers on it: 

click to enlarge

1st layer:  Callaway Gardens 5K  3^rd Place   Age Group Winner
2nd layer:  Carrollton Triathlon  3^rd Place  Age Group Winner
3^rd layer:  Callaway Gardens Sprint Triathlon 3^rd Place Age Group Winner
4^th layer:  Callaway Gardens Half-Marathon  

Garmin Stats:

Average Heart Rate: 132, 80% of max for ~3 hours

Average Speed:  4.6 mph;  Pace: 13:07

Time: 2:52


Edit 2/7/2012:  For another perspective on this race, you can also read Drew's race report over on runningrecon.blogspot.com.