10 [more] miles of uphill

I successfully completed this year's Atlanta 10 Miler, and once again I felt like it was 10 miles of all uphill.
And it was on one of those uphills, or maybe a short downhill, that my right running shoe decided to disintegrate. At least the heel. Not cool, running shoe!
Needless to say, it was an early start.

The finish line in pre-race darkness

However, I would say it was a fun race. I got to run nearly all of it with my friend Julie, who is coming off foot surgery after a bad stress fracture.

Me and Julie

For this selfie, I managed to keep my finger out of the photo. Ha!
Julie and I were well suited to run together, taking walk breaks at about the same time. It wasn't until about mile 7, at the start of Cardiac Hill, that one mile of straight uphill on Peachtree Road, that she needed a walk break and I still had something in the tank and went on ahead.

Hi from the chute to the finish

Headed toward the finish

Many thanks to my friend Angela, who was volunteering at the race as a course monitor at mile 2. I saw her at mile 2 and then she waited at the finish and caught me as I was coming in.

Finishers!

Me and Angela

New medal to add to the collection

I do like this race, however. I'm glad the Atlanta Track Club offers the 10 miler. It's a good challenge, and the introduction of the Cardiac Hill mile, where the 100 fastest runners to take Cardiac Hill can win prizes, is a great addition. Turns out, that mile of Cardiac Hill was my fastest split! I guess I was motivated to "get over it."

Ten miles of uphill

Oh, Atlanta. The city where once you finish running uphill and turn to go the other way, you are still going uphill.
That's pretty much how I felt for the Atlanta Track Club's 10 Miler on Oct. 26.
I ran the 10 Miler last year, but last year it was part of ATC's fall marathon, which the club discontinued this year. So instead of starting at mile 16 and finishing the course along the marathon route, this year was changed, to start and finish at Atlantic Station.
And I think the course director managed to put every hill in Atlanta long this route! I have called this the seemingly unending uphill race.
I ran this one with my friend Kellie. Here we are pre-race.

Up before daylight

The race route this year was also along part of the Peachtree Road Race 10K's route, and included the worst part of PRR -- Cardiac Hill. Thankfully, we had some great support along that hill.

Bagpipers!

I was very glad to be finished with the course, and pleasantly surprised to find I finished it two minutes faster. And this was a much more challenging course!

Finishers!

A little dark, but still a finisher

This year's finishers medal was really cool. I thought the Philadelphia half marathon's finisher's medal was going to be my favorite, but this one looks like a sun catcher and looks really cool.

Finisher's medal

Finisher's badge

I felt like this was a hard fought 10 miles, a lot of it uphill.