2003 Atlanta Half Marathon

I can't tell you how continually amazed I am by Heather. She rocks! Her
goal was a
sub-2hr half marathon. She did it today in 1:52:01!

Congratulations Heather!

Before the race we met Rusty at the finish line, piled into the Boxster (my fault) and
rode to the starting line (so we'd have a car at the finish and a ride to the start). We found
ourselves waiting in line for the
porta potty when the race began. We crossed the start line four minutes
behind official.

Heather set a great 7.1 - 7.6 mph pace for the first half of the race.
She struggled a little near the middle. I told her that "we need to
shave 20 seconds per mile." She did.

Rusty finished sub-2hr with a 1:59:00 time. Congratulations Rusty!

Great day of running. Heather had three years of training in today's
race. She's getting faster and faster!

The whole race I had been watching her pace... sometimes gently pushing her... sometimes backing off. I
read her breathing and watched her speed at all times. Heather is tough to motivate. She doesn't like
it when I set a pace. She doesn't like it when I egg her on. She doesn't like it when I play Mr.
Logical and count out race stats. She runs her own race.

I really wanted her to break 2 hours. The whole race I saw her on track but I didn't want her to let
up. When she saw the finish line she saw 1:55:42 and she looked at me and gave a big huge smile. That
was one of the greatest smiles I've ever seen. I was so happy for her. She worked hard and she met her
goal. That's an insipiring thing to do and I applaud her.

Go Terpa!