Atlanta Thanksgiving Half-Marathon

Race instead of turkey

"Guys, how are you going to celebrate Thanksgiving?"
"Are you going to celebrate somehow Thanksgiving?"
"Have you decided what you are going to do on Thanksgiving?"

It were "TOP3" questions our colleagues were asking last time. Two days before Thanksgiving, Dug, knowing about my attitude towards running, asked if I know about Atlanta Thanksgiving Half Marathon? "No", I said and opened Google. It was my answer on those  "TOP3" questions - I'm running!

And it begun...

• Registration in the last day...
• Expected time 1:35...
• Searching possibilities to get there in time without paying additional 30$...
• Morning discussion with drunk girl and her strange friend...
• Fail and salvation with clothes...
• Starting wave confusion...
• Start, GO GO GO.......

My first open water swim - Bosphorus 2014

Marathon, Bosporus, Half-Ironman. - This chain of events has to happen this summer, and it's all right so far. Second goal achieved, although with some mistakes, but more on this later.

Pre-history

Let's go back to the beginning. Summer 2013. Triathlon: Swimming, Cycling, Running - absolute zero experience in all those elements :). I was fully aware that it is impossible to get Ironman quickly. I thought that it would be nice to participate in several cycling, running, and swimming races. All of them had to take place next summer (2014) in order to have time for the preparation, and have enough time for recovery. Eventually, I had the marathon in June, Bosporus swim  - July and Half Ironman - August. Right, I know, there is no cycling in this list--I couldn’t fit everything in just three summer months --autumn was planned for another thing.

White Nights - my first marathon!

Marathon, Bosphorus, Half Iron Man - this is the chain of events I planned for the summer of 2014 at the end of the summer of 2013, when my ambitions prevailed over my laziness and I decided that it was time to change. Did I believe then that I could do it - NOT AT ALL, but as you know - If you can dream it, you can do it.

Marathon

Marathon is not something you can plan today for tomorrow. It takes time. In my case it was one year of continuous preparation. During this time I managed to run around 1000кm, preparing myself for this event.

Plan

I realized that it was not enough to just run every day in order to make it happen, I needed a Plan. There were several options to choose from: I could find a trainer, elaborate a plan by myself or use one of thousands existing in the Internet.

Bucharest Half Marathon - It worth doing!

10/06/2013 Bucharest Marathon day, and I was happy participant.

A bit of statistics:

• Marathon in Bucharest has been organizing since 2008
• There were more than 2.5k participants this year (2013):
• Marathon - 680.
• Half-marathon - 1617.
• Relay race - 364.

 

How it was.

Registration.

Each event starts from the registration. It's first part is online - basic information about yourself and payment (33 EUR). Second is the most interesting - Expo, getting your number, feeling this atmosphere.

My first race: 87 - 26:00

Hello!

Due to small push from my friends I got to my first running race. Yes, everything is serious. This is not simple morning workout - this is race, as serious race, as it in general can be in our small country. The organizers proudly announced that this is the last step before republic competitions on sprint distance which were going to be 19th October.

Event took place in one of Chisinau parks - Valea Trandafirilor (I've never been there before, beautiful place). There were a lot of people, more than I expected, I guess more than 100, and few different distances - 1k, 3k and 6k (runkeeper said that actually there were 5.3k). As future marathon runner, I was interested in the longest distance - 6k, and my first ever number is 87!