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Athens To Atlanta - Marathon Report - Michael Garvin
Below is my personal race report for the 2006 Athens To Atlanta. You can find the accompanying photo gallery on our club website. There are also some other A2A reports out, Peter Doucet even put together an awesome video of the event. Does that guy sleep? Check out his report. If you look through Peter's photos you'll see me from the front coming into the finish behind Radhesh and Lincheng (The joy of skating shot). Dan Doutrisac also has an A2A report from 2003.
Athens 2 Atlanta
This past weekend from Friday afternoon to late Sunday night I participated in the Athens To Atlanta (A2A) marathon. The weekend included a social skate Friday night, a small expo and race kit pickup on Saturday and finally the big race on Sunday morning. I spent a lot of the weekend hanging out with fellow Canadians (from Montreal). It turns out that a lot of them had actually been to the same Eddy Matzger clinic that I attended in Montreal last year. I made some new friends along the way, and got to skate with some skaters I had packed up with in other races.
Canadians were well represented in the 87 mile (140Km) marathon this year, Aaron Arndt and Peter Doucet took the 2nd and 3rd places respectively, Eddy Matzger followed in 4th. Eddy by the way has won the 87 mile A2A marathon no less then 8 times! The best finish time this year was made by Mauro Guenci (Italy) who finished in 4 hours and 50 minutes with an average pace of 18 miles an hour (28.97 Kph). The longest time for the event was 11 hours and 8 minutes. For official results and photo galleries check out http://a2a.net/.
The age range of the participants was from 15 well into the 60s. In case you think being older is a disadvantage -- think again! I was in a pack that caught up with Bob Harwell (61), after we caught him, he sprinted to the front (up hill) and started setting the pace for the pack. He's a machine! Not only did he stay in front of us, but he grabbed the back of a pack that passed us.
There are actually three separate marathons, the 87 mile (140 Km), the 52 mile (83 Km) and the 38 mile (61 Km). The event is mainly known for the 87 mile course, but lots of people compete in the 52 mile and 38 mile courses to introduce themselves to the event or to go all out for a faster finishing time. All of the courses are held on the open roads between Athens and Atlanta. In previous years there was a section of really bad pavement called the Gathor Back section, however this year it was freshly paved. In fact the road conditions between cities were quite good, it was mainly Atlanta city pavement that was really bad. Needless to say the open road format brings with it some challenges; continuous rolling hills, many major traffic intersections, and lots of passing cars.
For navigating the course the organizers have painted 6 inch wide S marks near intersections on the side of the paved lane. The S has an arrow out the top, pointing straight or to the left/right depending on which way to turn at the upcoming intersection. Usually there is one right after the intersection to confirm you're on the right track. Mostly these markings are easy to see but sometimes they can be hidden by parked cars or dirt/clutter. Also when skating at speed they go by pretty fast. During my pulls I was able to see them ok, but I definitely felt the pressure of potentially missing one.
The course is well policed; at most of the major intersections police were present to give skaters the right of way. There were only a couple of intersections were skaters were on their own for getting through intersections. For an 87 mile course this is pretty good! Passing cars usually didn't present too much of a problem, some honking and engine revving. Basically we were in their way as they went to church, and then we were in their way again as they went home from church to watch the football game. That was another thing I noticed down there, the degree of pride in the college football teams is really amazing. You can't go anywhere without the seeing shirts, displays, promotional events all hyping up the Georgia Bulldogs.
The course is held on open roads which wind through the country side, but also pass through small villages and suburbs. For the most part the course is uphill, downhill...repeat. However, some of the down hills are quite spectacular. While there are several hills where 45-55 Kph speeds are quite attainable, Silver Hill offers the highest possible speeds at 45-48 miles per hour or just over 77 Kph. Silver hill is actually three down hills connected by two small (~200m plateaus). You can do some breaking on those flat parts before the next part of the hill, but you still carry a lot of speed forward. Some hills also have turns immediately at the bottom, and one hill even has a turn just before the bottom. Our pack actually missed it and had to go back. Yet another hill has rail way tracks at the bottom. Although, when going over the tracks at 40Kph, you likely won't notice them! Fortunately there is pavement between the rails, so you can just scissor and transfer your weight back to your heals and ride over the tracks.
This marathon is held rain or shine. This year it did actually rain just before the start but then it stopped. So coming out of Athens the roads where a little slippery. Other then that though, no major weather issues. By lunch time it was getting pretty hot, I think it was over 20C. Even taking the distance out of the equation, Georgian asphalt underneath and the hot sun above is a challenge.
By far though the biggest challenge of this event is the battle you will fight with your body and mind. All of the distances are more than a standard marathon, and no matter which one you choose, you will be asking more of your body then you ever have before. After hours of hill climbing, there will be moments where self doubt and desire to end the pain can easily get the better of you. Although some people race for a fast completion time, you don't have to be an elite skater to do this event, what it truly requires is a mental willingness to finish when it gets tough out there on the road, and make no mistake it will get tough.
For myself, I finished the 87 mile marathon with a time of 6:23 with an average pace of 13.6 miles per hour or about 21.8 Kph. This placed me 11th out of the 26 males in the 30-39 age group and 57th overall out of 162 finishers. I feel I could have been much closer to 6:00, and when doing A2A again I will be aiming to complete in less than 6 hours.
Before the marathon I was very fearful of what I was getting myself into, dealing with high speed downhill descents, railway tracks, traffic and more. Now that I've completed it though, I really feel that while those technical issues are present, they are not the biggest challenge. To me the biggest challenge is finding ways to keep yourself motivated when your legs are cramping up, you're bleeding, you've got massive blisters on your feet, you are out of electrolytes, and the sun is beating down on you without mercy. Skating in A2A really is about skating in a whole new level; it's not an easy thing to adjust to that.
All in all though, I'm really happy that I went and that I held in to complete the 87 mile marathon. I came away from it knowing I had just had the skate of my life. Its not often that you get to really push the true boundaries of your abilities or your willingness to push those boundaries, but this event is exactly that kind of opportunity. I've included below a few more details of my personal weekend. At the end I've provided some tips that I think will help others who try to do A2A for the first time. I encourage others to try it at least once. You'll meet new friends, push yourself through new barriers and elevate your skating to another level.
My Marathon
This was my first A2A so my focus was on learning the course, finding out what its like to skate this distance, grabbing some pictures while I was there, and if possible finishing with a good finish time. To my surprise the course itself wasn't that much of an issue, if it had rained during the marathon I think I would have been truely scared of the hills, but the rain happened before the start, and by the time we hit the big hills, the roads were dry. During the race I got to skate with some familiar faces, Edwin Leung who I skated with in the Cambridge marathon earlier this summer, Herb Gayle (aka the Herbalizer) from Toronto, and I finally had a chance to skate with Bob Harwell whom I've heard so much about from Jim and Dan. After the race I even had a chance to talk to Eddy Matzger, he promises to come back to Ottawa BTW. You'll see links to pictures I took here in my report, but the complete gallery is available on our club's photo gallery.
After arriving in Atlanta via Delta airlines, I caught a cab into town. Now that I know where the 10th street MARTA station is I can definitely say take the subway to/from the airport. Cabs will just get stuck in traffic. Its about a 20min walk from the MARTA station to the Skate Escape bike/skate shop. This is the rally point for the event. The social skate starts here and the finish line is in Piedmont park across the street.
When I arrived it was about 30 minutes before the start of the social skate so I got my baggage into the baggage van for safe keeping and got my gear on. While milling around I found some of the other Canadians, the guys from Montreal. Many of whom had taken the same Eddy Matzger clinic as I did last year in Montreal. Youri had a great race and placed 3rd in the 38 mile marathon, also first in his age division. Nicholas Ratthe (a freestyle skater from Sherbrook Quebec) was to attempt the course backwards. He finished in 9:34...backwards! Simply outstanding.
The social skate was fun, nothing beats having a police escort through downtown traffic. I'm sure we cheezed off lots of drivers, its ok though, cuz skaters rule! Its basically a big loop around downtown Atlanta (~14.5Km). Of course there are some hills, but nothing to major, certainly nothing compared to what can be found out on the marathon course. After the social skate we picked up burritos (you order them before the social skate) grabbed our baggage from the cargo van and hopped into the bus for Athens.
I setup my trip so that my hotel was in Athens, this makes it a little easier for booking hotels, and you don't have to take a 5AM bus ride from Atlanta since you are already in Athens. But, if you plan on staying for the awards ceremony and leaving on Monday, then having a hotel in Atlanta is nice since you can have a shower and relax after the race, instead of having to walk your gear over to the subway to get to the airport. The only issue I found with staying in Athens is that there is no local cab service, so unless you are at the Garden Hill across from the Classic center, you should plan on walking your baggage to the start line. If you have large luggage, make sure its got wheels! Packing lighter with a skate bag might be good, but I think you would have to be comfortable with your skates on the outside, personally I would rather have my skates inside my luggage case, less chance of them being lost in transit.
I booked fairly late so I had to go with the Travelodge which was a 20 minute walk away. Not ideal, but it wasn't so bad either, the room came with a fridge, microwave and all the Cartoon Network I could handle! I stayed up late both nights watching CN shows that we don't get here in Canada on Teletoon.
I slept in Saturday morning and then walked downtown just before lunch. I ran into the Montreal guys and did the lunch thing with them as well as hitting the expo at the Classic Center to pick up our race kits and buy some skate swag. I picked up some green Mundos and a Bont t-shirt. The green mundos are a little softer then the reds and my plan was to ease the vibrations from the long skate to come on Sunday. They did help, more importantly though, having new wheels really helped to reduce speed wobbles on the big hills. When new, the wheels are all the same height and more stable.
After lunch I did little bit of walking around with the Montreal guys and then went in search of a grocery store. It turns out that all the restaurants and shopping malls are about 2 Km away from the downtown area. So from my Travelodge I had to walk for about 25 minutes to get to the shopping mall, but it is there and the grocery store is well stocked, although strangely they didn't have much selection in sports drinks, I found practically nothing. I did get other stuff though like fruit and yogurt. If you have the optoin of doing your food shopping in Atlanta, you should do that. Sometimes the bus to Athens on friday night will stop at a shopping mall, take advantage of the stop to stock up.
After my food run, I headed back downtown for the 6PM "rant", where the organizers give last minute updates and general information about the course. Being the 25th anniversary, Eddy Metzger also presented a special award to the founder Henry Zuver. We also got cake afterwards! After that it was off to an Italian restaurant with the crew from Montreal for some carb loading. We almost got to eat with Eddy Matzger but he was eating a different restaurant.
After the meal we headed back to our hotels to make final preparations. I put my new wheels on, made sure all my bib numbering was correct and setup my food for the marathon. I had brought Triscuits and Beef Jerky for sodium, carbs and protein. I also had some Vector power bars and some Gummi bears for comfort food. I stayed up a little to catch some more Cartoon Network then hit the sack for my 5 AM wake up.
I left the Travelodge where I had been staying Sunday morning at about 5:30 AM, I expected to have to haul my luggage all the way to the classic center (20-25 minute walk), but I was spotted by one of the marathon organizers and he gave me a lift. I turned out I was the first skater to arrive at the Classic Center around 5:45 AM. It then started to rain! I was immediately filled with fear because I hadn't done any of the hills on this course before, much less in the rain with far less control. Fortunately though the rain sub-sided and we only had to deal with damp pavement for the first hour or so of the marathon.
As other skaters arrived I got my gear on, did some warm up and chatted with people I had met over the weekend. I saw Edwin and made sure I was near him at the start line so I could pack up with him. I skated with Edwin in Cambridge earlier this summer and wanted to skate with him again. Edwin did Deluth more recently and placed 3rd in his age category and 15th for males.
We rolled off the start line with a moderately fast start. It wasn't too crowed and maneuvering around other skaters wasn't an issue. Almost no wheel touching and stuff. Right away we were given a preview of things to come, we didn't get more than 3 blocks before we hit the first hill of the day. We rolled on for a few more blocks and then at an intersection where I was starting to make headway towards the lead group, somebody realized that the leaders had missed a turn! Everyone had to turn back and join the main group of skaters who had turned correctly.
When merging back into the main stream of skaters, I took the corner too fast and came up right behind another skater. I tried to veer to the side and in doing so lost my balance and went over. I heard some shout "skater down" and bounced back up, only to realize that my face was covered in blue liquid. I pulled off my camel back and sure enough, the fall had popped the lid on my Gatoraid. I looked around for the cap but couldn't find it so I abandoned the Gator aid and started skating again. No doubt leaving a little trail of blue drippings behind me. I was carrying my camera with me, and I thought maybe the fall had busted it, but fortunately it only received some scratches to the plastic casing. It took me about 15-20 minutes to catch up with Edwin Leung from TISC who had been skating with off the start line.
I didn't notice it at the time but the fall had actually given me some moderately serious road rash on my right knee. My right side leg was covered in blood, but it wasn't as bad as it looked, the road rash had clotted up nicely. It wasn't until later when other skaters pointed it out that I actually noticed. I think I spent a lot of the race running on adrenaline. You don't think about it at the time, but the intensity level is really high. Some things like leg cramps can't be ignored though.
Looking back, I suppose I should of drank whatever was left of the Gatoraid, at least it would have been in my blood stream. My next Gatoraid wouldn't be until checkpoint 6 about 10 miles from the finish line. The lack of electrolytes is something I really paid for during the race.
For the fist couple of hours I powered away, leap frogging from pack to pack, and catching people on hills. After that though, the lack of electrolytes really started to kick in. Just before the second check point I grabbed the back of Youri's pack who were racing for the 38 mile finish. I clung on to them for a while but started to fade and eventually got dropped a little way after the second check point. My hill climbing was still pretty good though and I picked up a guy who had been skating with Youri's pack but had fallen and couldn't get up in time to stay with the pack. We skated together for a while and he even got a couple shots of my skating with my camera for me.
We got caught by a couple of guys at the bottom of a hill with a turn out, and we skated with them for about 30 minutes. At the 3rd checkpoint though, I dropped off from them. I wasn't cramping up or anything yet, but I was just starting to feel the blisters and stopped to grab a banana and a couple of water bottles. By the 4th checkpoint I had hooked up with another pack and clung onto the back of them. I was now starting to feel the exhaustion and heat. It was now about four and half hours into the marathon and mid day heat was starting to come out. I loaded up on water and tried to eat a power bar, but its hard to eat and breath when you˘re trying to keep pace with a pack.
I kept hanging on to that pack and by now the leg cramping was kicking in. I tried to deal with it by massaging my legs while skating and also easing up on the push pressure, trying to keep my pushes just under the point where the cramps would hit, so that I could keep the muscle flushing out the lactic acid until the cramps subsided. I went through this for the rest of race unfortunately. Had I not lost my Gatoraid at the start of the race I think I could have avoided a lot of the cramping. We caught up with Bob Harwell, and he was in really good spirits. After resting for a couple of minutes he sprinted to the front and started setting the pace for the pack! The guy is a machine! I talked to him afterwards and he's a nice guy as well. I asked him about training through the year and he basically follows the 60% of the course length rule. So no real magic, just solid training before the event.
At that point I was pretty beat myself, I did do one or two small pulls for the pack but nothing major, it was taking everything I had just to hang on. Hill after hill, after a while you just get used the alternating down hill and up hill sequence. I don't think there was any section where there was more than five minutes of flat road.
After the 4th checkpoint the course gets more "fun" as well. This is really where all the action is, you start skating through suburbs, more heavy traffic intersections, over interstate highway bridges, down major hills and over rail way tracks. Even on the "small" hills you still easily reach 40+ Kph speeds in a pack and many of the down hill's are quite long. The static tuck only piles on more lactic burn on top of the cramping. I learned pretty quickly to use my hands connected with my knees to support my weight instead of using my leg muscles in the tuck. This is critical to saving your legs. Some of the hills lasted for two or more minutes.
One hill has a turn off before the bottom and our pack missed that and had to double back. It's a good thing we caught that though, things could have gone really badly if we had kept going. Not long after that we hit the hill with the rail way tracks at the bottom. We kept the speed fairly manageable, somewhere between 35 Kph and 40Kph and then just floated over the tracks. I could see that there was enough pavement to just scissor and put my weight back so I did that and at speed you only feel a momentary bump as you cross. If the tracks had more separation between the rails and the pavement though this could be a really nasty obstacle.
We had some big hills with big speed and I thought more than once, that must have been Silver Hill, but it was yet to come. When we did hit it, it was huge! Its actually three down hills connected by a couple of short plateaus (about 200m). You can do some breaking and speed managing but you will carry a lot of speed through to the next hill. No question, this is a fast hill. If you were to tuck through it, you would be will into the 70-77 Kph speed range. I'm guessing I was somewhere around 55-60Kph, I tried to keep my speed down until I could see the run out at the bottom. I never found speed wobbles to be an issue, I attribute this mostly to having new wheels which were all the same height.
After hitting checkpoint 5, I was hurtin' for certain. I felt drained physically and mentally, and I got dropped off the pack I was with. I pulled off to the side and chugged some water, waited for a pack and entertained thoughts of throwing in the towel. It wasn't long though before a couple guys came by, and I clung on to the back of them for a few kilometers. I then had to pull off to the side, my exhaustion level was getting the better of me. I grabbed my Triscuits and gobbled some of those in a bid to get some sodium back into me, I chased that with water and took a minute or so to just ground myself and try to go on. Herb Gayle then went by, and hooked up with him. I was still pretty close to my breaking point and was skating really slowly but I managed to stay focused on just making it to the 6th checkpoint (last one before the finish line).
At the last checkpoint I finally got a break, as my Gatoraid was there. I chugged my Gatoraid, pounded back my 4th or 5th banana of the day and then sat for 3-4 minutes just resting and refocusing. I then found my second wind, kind of, and chased down a couple of guys who had just caught up to me and left the checkpoint. I caught them a kilometer or so down the road and then skated with them through to the finish line. I did a couple of pulls but again I was only managing to cling on to the pack.
About 5 miles outside of Atlanta you could see the sky scrapers in the distance and even though the Atlanta city pavement was really crumby, mentally I had a big second wind. At this point I knew I was hurting but I also knew I was going to make it. The Gatoraid and rest had helped with the leg cramps and even though I was still in bad shape, I knew I would finish. The only hic up on the way into downtown Atlanta was on one hill with a intersection turn right at the bottom. I was carrying a little too much speed and started to drift into the oncoming traffic lain, I leaned in harder to make the turn, my inside wheel slipped, and I thought I was going to lose it, but somehow I managed to cling on to the turn and stay just inside our traffic lane, to coast under the overpass and the left on the intersection on the other side.
After that it was just a matter of making our way through the downtown core where the pavement got a lot better. We then came to the same last couple of miles that we had skated on the social skate, and at that point it really was clear that we would make it. At that point you're internal mental state really turns from, am I going to survive this, to I did it, I freakin' did it! It was pretty sweet crossing the finish line, but at the same time my level of exhaustion was pretty high and I was a little dazed. I stretched, rested and ate then got some medical attention for my knee. I had a chance to chat with Eddy Matzger and Bob Harwell, as well as the crew from Montreal to find out how they all did.
Aside from my knee my left foot developed a massive coffee cup sized blister/flap of skin. My left sock was pink instead of white after I pulled my boot off. I had accepted before the race though that this would happen. I've been dealing with the bad left boot all summer, I've tried everything that can be tried with it, and the left side just can't be molded to fit my left foot properly. My custom boots are on the way but they won't be ready until the 23rd of October. Sadly the blistering means I won't be skating for the next week or so, and now my goal of making 4,000 km in the mileage club will likely not happen. However I should still be able to get close to 3,800 or 3,900.
At the end of it all though, A2A is a test of your mental abilities rather than your physical prowess. Sure there are elite skaters in this event, but they don't all make it. You can be a recreational skater and still do better than a more advanced skater if you are just mentally tougher and more willing to work through the pain and exhaustion. You won't be alone though; every other skater is going through the same battle to keep going and many will encourage you and support you throughout. I found the skaters very supportive and the atmosphere was a very positive one. You know, there is a certain kind of fellowship in everyone gong for something this challenging.
I think I had a respectable first showing, I think it can definitely be improved upon though. With better food management (using Gels instead of Gatoraid), leaving more food at all the checkpoints instead of just the last one, and skating much more conservatively in the first half of the marathon, I'm sure I can avoid a lot of the leg cramping and avoid the highest exhaustion levels. Also, I really think that in preparation, more 60% course length skates need to be done on hills. This course is all up hill and down hill, even though we train in Gastineau park, we don't do 80-90 Km of hill skating. That is really the kind of distance of non-flat skating you need to build a solid base. Skating 100Km runs at P'tit train is good but it really doesn't offer the hill climbing that will be encountered on A2A.
Tips for A2A
The biggest thing is fuel. Gatoraid is great, but its heavy and if you lose it (as I did) then you're totally pooched. Next time I'm going to switch to gels like Gu, and place more food/Gatoraid at all the checkpoints instead of trying to carry all my food with me. The extra weight slows you down, and exhausts you more quickly. There is lots of water at the checkpoints, carry a camel back but use it for small frequent drinking, don't try to carry all of your water with you. Also, for food, bringing food with you isn't really practical, even if you can reach your food easily (which you can't even with a pocketed Jersey), you can't effectively eat solid food at speed trying to keep pace with a pack. I was able to slowly get through parts of one of my power bars by taking really small nibbles. Its just not practical enough though. Gels are more likely the way to go, smaller, lighter and easier to get into the body. Solid food is ok but bag it and let the organizers drop it off at the checkpoints.
When doing your down hill tuck, use one or both hands to connect you upper body with your knees. This transfers all your weight through bone instead of doing a static contraction in your quads to support your weight. There are so many down hills on this course that after a while you will just start cramping from all the static squatting, There is no reason to do that, get your hands on your knees and let your bone structure carry the weight.
For uphill climbing, be conservative, hills are supposed to slow you down, try to step lightly and keep a steady rhythm. Surges on a hill or flat ground will increase your exhaustion level. In the first half of the trace you will be temped to go all out on the hills, and you can pass a lot of people that way. It takes a lot of energy to do that though, energy that may not be coming back before the end of the race. Skate a little more conservatively and be ready to grab onto any faster packs that go by.
If you get dropped, don't panic, the S markings on the road are usually visible and intersections without an S marking default to going straight through. There are also many packs behind you so if you just slow down and recover you'll get reeled in and you can then let someone else drive for a while.
Control your speed on the down hills, this course has some absolutely huge down hills, but they can be managed if you control your speed from the top. Don't wait until you are doing 60Kph to start trying to control your speed, it simply won't work, at that point your committed to riding it out. Keep in mind many of the down hill sections have turns in the middle and right at the bottom, and you can't always see them ahead of time.
Try to get a hotel as close to the event as you can. Hauling your luggage around is no fun. At a minimum make sure any big bags, have working wheels. If you have the option, I would recommend packing as light as possible, preferrably with something you can put over your shoulder. I had considered using my Bont skate bag, but I don˘t like the idea of my skates being on the outside of the luggage as they go through the airport luggage system.
Before A2A you should make sure you are comfortable doing 60-80Km skates that involve a lot of hills. If you can do that before hand without any major difficulties then you will definitely have no problem with A2A. I did 5 100K skates over the season before A2A but they were all flat courses. The only thing that saved me was our club training in Gatineau park which is all hill training. The only way to truly get the conditioning you need though is longer hill based skates. For elite skaters that might not be necessary given their existing conditioning, but for the rest of us, more hill skating should be the order of the day.
I highly recommend having a new set of wheels. The even heights on the wheels will help keep the speed wobbles under control. I watched skaters in front of me develop wobbles and go down; it wasn't even Silver hill either. At the very least make sure you are comfortable doing fast down hills, with speeds in excess of 50Kph, on some hills you will be gong much faster than that up through the 75Kph. You can control your speed just by standing up, but you'll still be doing 40+Kph. I'm terrified of fast down hills but if you keep the speed manageable from the top you'll be ok.
Final Thoughts
Some people enter sports to stay fit, or lose weight. Others enter to compete and win, but either way sports offers many ways to challenge yourself, change your outlook and grow as a person. Even if you don't think of yourself as a completive person, reaching out for higher skill levels or larger goals in your sport can open new paths for growth as a person. Skating is no exception; there are an abundance of goals you can set for yourself. Don't hold back on more challenging goals, reach as high as you can. The goal isn't what really matters. Getting there, and who you become along the way is far more interesting and lasting. Today I am a different skater than I was Sunday morning at the start line. I think I like the new me :) .
