As you saw in my weekend highlights post, we met Aliphine before the start of the Publix Atlanta Half Marathon on Sunday! OMG!

I was walking to the race start with Xaarlin and L and rule-follower that I am, thought I had to walk a different way than them, because I was in a later corral and that’s what the course map told me to do. But it looked like people were being chill, so I decided to walk with them and I am so glad I did because we walked right by Aliphine OMG.

We’d been wearing her hats hoping we’d meet her all weekend (Aliphine took up crocheting when she was injured last year. She calls them beanies.). Of course, we didn’t have them on then, but I pulled up this photo of us wearing them and said “Aliphine!”

She turned and looked at me and I said “We’ve been wearing your hats all day Friday and Saturday hoping we’d meet you! This is as close as we got! We’ve been cheering you on!”

Chat with Bobbi from the day before

She loved the picture, and remembered the story with the hats – Xaarlin had ordered a green one and an orange one and Aliphine made a green one and a gold one. Xaarlin and I loved the hats, but later on down the road Aliphine’s boyfriend Tim said something to her about “that’s not orange!”

So Aliphine contacted Xaarlin to apologize for sending her the wrong color and insisted on sending her a new orange hat even though Xaarlin said we both loved them (we do!). And now I have a yellow hat and a gold hat to love!

On race morning, Aliphine said “Tim! This is the girl whose beanie I messed up!” (or something similar) and apologized to us again and we said “Don’t apologize, we love your hats!” She told us she’s super backed up with orders now, and had to put the shop on temporary hold to catch up. I told her how I told Steven that an OLYMPIAN crocheted my hat and that it has special powers. I also told her a friend of ours was really excited she was representing crocheters during the race.

We also talked about how much calmer the wind was on Sunday versus at her race, and how we cheered for her then raced to find a TV to watch her finish on, and were jumping up and down and hugging and crying when she finished. And we told her congratulations a bunch and that we can’t wait to cheer her on in Tokyo.

This whole time she was genuinely interested in talking to us, kind, and so fun to talk to. Meeting her made my day! She requested we take a photo, asked our names, then we said goodbye.

And my legs were shaking like crazy because I was so jazzed.

And then I saw the photo and realized I had my dumb throwaway jacket on, grr. Ha, that photo is still getting framed! (And I regret not telling her I went to Iowa State University as well (she did for a year), but next time we meet I will!)

About forty minutes after that I started my race! All the Olympic Trials qualifiers were there to see us off except Galen Rupp.

I knew the course was hilly, so I did hill repeats each week during training and hilly long runs. But this was a constant up or down – not many flats!

I was hoping to stay in the lower 11:00s and finish under 2:30, but that didn’t happen. I bonked at mile 10, which completely makes sense, since I didn’t run farther than that during training. It also may have to do with only having a CLIF bar for breakfast and only drinking water until the end (when I had some Powerade). Edited to add: I had a CLIF gel every 40 minutes (so I had three during the race).

I finished in 2:34:51 with an average pace of 11:49.

I’m happy with my time and experience. I wanted to see the city and I got to – we ran by museums, campuses, a presidential library, neighborhoods, and shopping districts. I loved my running tour and had a stupid grin on my face for most of it because I was thinking about Aliphine, and because I felt so happy I get to run.

We had a great weather day – 29°F to start and 41°F at the finish with full sun. I felt good in my tank and sleeves. I did lose my NYC Marathon headband, sad face. I dropped it in a spot that was unsafe to stop and pick it up because of how crowded it was.

I ran without music until halfway to soak it all in and listen to conversations and talk to people. Before mile 3, a resident was standing next to his car in the street yelling “Go run and your own neighborhood and get the hell out of mine!” Then he gave us the middle finger. I laughed. A runner shouted “we love you!” and he shouted back “I hate you!” Wonder if he was on his way to church.

Zenaida found me and we ran together for a few minutes and got to chat for a bit, which I enjoyed!

I had to stop for a bathroom break midway which took forever because of the situation in the porta potty and I feel like that messed up my groove but whatever.

I started with my music after that. During mile 9 I saw a lady with a 2019 Duluth training shirt on and decided to chat her up since I ran it in 2018. Turns out she lives in my hometown! We don’t know each other but had fun talking together for a mile and we’re Facebook friends now.

I told her to go ahead in the middle of mile 10 when I realized I was bonking. I did my best to rally but I think I was done. I had fat fingers and no go – I probably should have paid better attention to my salt intake!

But I still had a lot of fun and was so excited Steven came to the finish! And I love our race medal and that we finished where the trials participants did in Centennial Park.

The race was organized well and there was great support at aid stations. The spectators were kind of sparse but when they were out, they were enthusiastic. CLIF gave out a new flavor of gels – Boston Creme – that they’ll be replacing vanilla with at their races and I liked it! It’s not commercially available yet but they gave me one at the expo, and I took an extra one on course, shh.

I’m so grateful Steven got me this race entry for Christmas and I got to race in a new state! Oh! And I’m so grateful the race photos are free. Although, whoa, I’ve gained a lot of weight and the photos (and running slower) are encouraging me to get back to healthier eating!