The Atlanta 10 Miler has become one of those yearly traditions for many Atlanta-area runners, much like Publix, Peachtree, and the Atlanta Half. It's well timed in the fall for typically good weather, and fall marathon/half marathon training runs. In fact, the Atlanta Half Marathon training program uses it as a 10 mile training run for their participants. For me, it was my last Saturday run before Marine Corps so the timing was perfect. The course is very hilly, even by Atlanta standards, but it makes for a good challenge to improve my time each year. Hills or not, everyone always seems to enjoy the race and the excellent course support and race management make it easy to see why.
Pre race:
- Packet pickup Friday and Saturday before the race. This year it was in a pop up shop at Atlantic Station near the start area. The pickup/shop was extremely well stocked with gear, ATC swag, and a Mizuno shoe trying station. The pickup process was very quick and well organized. Overall, it was like a mini-version of marathon major expo. Extremely well executed.
- Race morning: Atlantic station has plenty of parking in their giant underground parking deck, and the parking is free for the whole morning. I always get there early because I volunteer before the race so I never have trouble parking. However, it's highly recommended to get to Atlantic Station by 6 am since the roads into the parking deck and off the highway get backed up. Since parking is so close to the start area, you can just stay warm in your car until closer to race time.
-The course: hilly for sure so be prepared. However, there's some really fun elements. First, there's the race within a race called "Cardiac Hill Challenge" and it's a DOWNHILL 1 mile segment. The top 50 men and top 50 women down this segment get a really cool mug. What I noticed the most on this section were the awesome/hilarious signs of encouragement Atlanta Track Club had lining hill. I'm not sure if the signs were there in the past but they were awesome and very on point. In addition, Atlanta Track Club recruits local schools and organizations to man cheer stations along the course. The cheer stations plus the awesome volunteers at the water stops made for great course support. This race has the best course support, besides Peachtree Road Race. Water stops were approximately every 1.5 miles so I ran without my own water for once and it worked out well. Each stop was well organized with water first and powerade second. There was also a Cliff gel stop between miles 5 and 6.
- The finish: there was a downhill finish line this year, which was very much appreciated. The finish area had a ton of snacks including: water, powerade, bananas, cliff bars, cheezits, etc. There were also volunteers walking around the finish area handing out goodies such as massage balls and blinkies.