The Atlanta Track Club had the inaugural Spring has Sprung 8K and 15K races on April 9th in
Inman Park, an historic community near downtown Atlanta. I ran the 15K and Susan ran the 8K. Inman Park is 23 miles (35 minute drive time) from our home so we left the house at around 6:00AM. I had one cup of coffee and a PB&J sandwich for breakfast before we left. Susan had coffee and a piece of wheat bread and cheese. We both ate light.
After we arrived at the Stove Works at about 6:40AM we hit the facilities and then hurried to registration.
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| Susan and I |
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| The Stove Works |
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| The Entrance to the Stove Works |
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| Runners waiting for the race to start |
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| My 15K race bib |
The 15K course is basically two clockwise loops on the roads around the Carter Center. In addition to Inman Park; the Old Fourth Ward, Poncey Highlands, Candler Park, Little Five Points, and Reynoldstown communities are also included in the race. The 8K course is only one loop on the same roads as the first loop of the 15K. One detail that needs stating is that the hill on North Avenue, which the 15K'ers run up twice, is a pretty tough climb. It's located at the 1.5 and 6.5 mile points.
This is a low key ATC race with no t-shirt. As with all the ATC races, it was well organized, well supported, and like all their races that I've run, had D-Tag chip based timing with start and finish line mats.
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| Waiting for the 15K results |
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| The finish line |
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| The last turn |
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| A volunteer waiting for runners to pass |
I left the race thinking I had finished first in my age-group. I reviewed the results on the ATC website later in the evening only to find that I had actually finished second. My time was 1:06:52. I've still got a first place finisher's mug though!
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| Picking up my award (or someone elses) |
After the race we met my daughter Lana and her sons, Cody and Josh. We spent some time at Candler Park. The warm weather brought out the parents and the young ones.
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| Cody, Josh, Lana and Susan |
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| The playground |
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| Frisbee on the lawn |
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| Josh needs some help with the screw top on the water bottle |
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| Josh on his scooter |
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| Lots of bees under a park bench |
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| A view of the street along the golf course |
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| Some golfers |
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| Bumps from Josh's allergic reaction |
Josh is very allergic to dogs and somehow a big dog got into the back seat of our car.
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| Max during a previous car ride |
After the park we went to La Fonda Latina restaurant to eat.
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| La Fonda Latina restaurant on Ponce |
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| La Fonda Latina Restaurant |
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| Cody and Josh |
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| Cody, Josh and Lana |
After dropping off the kids, Susan and I stopped by the
Dekalb Farmers Market to get a few things.
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| The Dekalb Farmers Market sign |
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| The parking lot was packed! |
I don't get many weekends off from work so we try to take advantage of the opportunity.
Congrats to my training partners Chip and Richard for completing the
Tony Serrano Century bike ride today.
