Plan called for 12/14 and coincided nicely with the Locomotive Half Marathon that was a 10minute drive away from home. The initial course was a nice downhill which they had to change in the last minute. The Thursday prediction for a bright sunny day had given way to thundershowers. So I was very much inclined to skip it.

But come race day, weather was much milder than expected. I was already awake and I headed out. The proximity to home meant that I could leave after all my restroom stops were done and I waited around in the cold only for 10-15minutes.

I hooked up with a girl who said she was going very slow too. Since I was treating this as a training run, I wasn’t planning to even give the slightest speed to my feet.
The course was a tad too many loops (2 around the mall and 2 around Chastain center), but the hills weren’t as bad as I thought they’d be. We maintained a steady conversation pace and talked most of the run. As is usual with me, I picked up the pace a bit when we hit 10-11 miles. And then again when I realized that I could just maybe squeeze in a PR (which I did by a few seconds, or a minute or something like that).

Course: 

• Not the fast downhill expected when I signed up, but that was noone’s fault but the DOT. 
• Plenty of water stops (10 in total!)
• Very friendly volunteers, even in the wind and rain.

Convenience

• Packet pickup the day before (and they had one on the day as well) was easy
• Parking at the mall was super easy
• 10minute drive (I left home at 7am for a 7:30am race start and still had 20minutes to kill). 

Amenities

• Free Pasta Dinner for the half participants (I didn’t attend though with the kidlets in tow)
• Plenty of post race food – slices of freshly baked bread (yummmm !!), muffins, cookies, protein bars and sandwiches !!
• Stretching/Massage Tent

 I’m glad I did this and wouldn’t mind doing it again if I can squeeze it in.