Olympic Challenge: City 20 done: Atlanta

When the decision was being made as to where to hold the 1996 summer Olympic Games it should have been clear. It was to be the centenary of the modern Olympic Games and in my opinion they should have been awarded to Athens where the Games begun. Athens had bid to host the Games in ’96 and living there at the time (albeit as a youngster) I still was very much in full support of the bid and used to often wear my bid support t-shirt.

Somehow my t-shirt attire seemed to evade the attention of the IOC and the Games were awarded to Atlanta. I was gutted.

Nonetheless I still supported the Games in Atlanta and watched them when they were on. The biggest memories of the Games include Michael Johnson and his odd looking running style, the bomb, Michelle the Irish swimmer who came out of nowhere and won lots of Gold (since taken back due to doping) and Gloria Estefan singing the official song Reach. What a tune.

So as I started to plan when I could do a run in Atlanta it dawned on me that 3 out of the 4 cities I had left to run in (Atlanta, St. Louis, Mexico City and Rio) were located in North America. What about doing one trip taking them all in rather than flying across the pond numerous times? Coincidentally I was nearing the my 10^th anniversary of working at Expedia Inc. and made the bullish move of asking my manager to give me one month off work to celebrate this fact. They agreed. In fact she commented saying that she thought I was going to ask for three to six months off. Oops. Nevermind, I still got the result I wanted. The planning began. I found a half marathon in St. Louis during the month I had off and snapped up my place quickly. For Atlanta and Mexico City I was going to have to be creative with the events I did as I couldn’t find any official ones that would fit in with the dates. No matter; I had done that before and could do it again. So here was the plan for the month. First, a road trip across the US:

Dallas

Austin

New Orleans

Memphis

Nashville

Pigeon Forge (Dollywood if I’m honest)

Atlanta

St. Louis

Then, a couple of weeks in sunny Mexico:

Cancun

Mexico City

Quite a trip. All of the cities did not disappoint and despite the initial shock of how much fried food there was on offer in the south of the US I manage to stay in shape with the help of hotel treadmills. Having said that a few days in to the trip my foot started to be a little sore. Was it the treadmill running? Was it the walking around cities sightseeing all day? I am not sure to be honest but the remedy would be a few days off training. Ask any runner and this is an unnatural state of affairs. No matter how much I know that rest is sometimes is required it still pains me (more than the sore foot) to take time out of my training schedule. However; I was very good and did so. The result; my foot was fine and would allow me to keep running in Atlanta.

For my run in Atlanta I had researched city running tours like the one I had done in Rome. Bingo. There was one available and the lady that ran them (pun intended) said I just needed to contact her shortly before travelling and we could do a 10km tour around the city together.

So three weeks before setting off on my trip I emailed her to see if the deal still stood. An immediate response confirmed she would have loved to but she was now heavily pregnant and therefore wasn’t doing any tours. Yikes. What to do? She kindly put in me touch with a local running specialist shop called Big Peach Running Tours and they did weekly runs that anybody could turn up to and join in for free. Excellent – I was back on track. After a short email conversation with them it turned out that the night I planned to arrive in Atlanta they were due to do a 6 mile run around the city and I was more than welcome to join.

I was confused by the running shop’s name but it transpires (after a quick Google) that the state of Georgia is known as the peach state due to the importance of the peach business to its economy. Who knew?

On arrival in Atlanta I had time for a quick shower, change and then it was off to find the shop for my evening run. Once I got there the man in charge (Dave) was super friendly and took me under his wing. He asked what pace I would like to run at and introduced me to an equally friendly chap called Nick who would be running at the same pace. Brilliant – I could stick with him and not worry about getting lost. Dave gave me a map and directions for the run but since I had only been in the city a couple of hours my navigation knowledge consisted of the hotel and the running shop which were on the same (albeit long) street so my confidence of leading the run was not high.

Dave then welcomed the group and introduced me to the others as Mike from London. Cardinal sin calling me Mike. Perhaps my face said it all as he quickly corrected himself and then introduced Michael from London. Cue a high five from the lady next to me. I love America.

So we set out into the city. The route took us through the suburbs and parks on the outskirts of Downtown where we had begun. The park and the houses that we passed were magnificent. We ran through the gay district where a couple of the pedestrian crossings had been painted in rainbow colours which I loved and even passed a few churches that were displaying the pride flag in aid of pride which was taking place in the city later in the month. Very welcoming of the churches to do so. As we looped back to return to the CBD the view was fantastic. As dusk was upon us the silhouettes of the skyscrapers lining the horizon was a brilliant sight to see and I wished I had got better photos of it. Nick (and another gentlemen called Larry) were going at a good pace (and leading the pack) but it did mean the photo opportunity stops were nonexistent. I managed to get a few of the city and also a very shaky one of the two of them just ahead of me as I thought I would be good to remember the view I had of them leading me through the city. What I didn’t count on was that at that moment of taking the photo I almost trod on a cat that had been the victim of a hit and run. Fortunately I didn’t have to take the role of the guy who trod on the dead cat when we got back to the store. Nobody wants to be him do they?

As we neared the last mile Nick and I were slightly ahead of Larry and I heard him say something but couldn’t make out what. A few seconds later Nick shouted “see you later Larry” as he had turned off to make his way straight home. I felt terrible as he probably thought I was incredibly rude not saying anything before he turned the corner but the moment (and he) was now gone. If you ever read this Larry thanks for leading me around the city and bye!

Atlanta had been quite hilly and the evening was quite humid whilst running so the water and refreshments at the shop when we got back there were welcome. Everyone hung out (as they Americans say) for a little while although I was too embarrassed to ask them to take a picture of me with my American flag for the blog and book. A selfie in their bathroom would have to do. I asked Nick where would be good to go for dinner and some drinks that evening. His response shocked me. “I’m not 21 yet so I can’t go into bars yet but I hear there are good ones on this street.” OMFG. That means he was only 1 when the Olympics took place in the city.

That aside his advice rung true and I found some very nice places to eat and drink (because I am firmly over the age of 21) that night to celebrate.

Atlanta had a nice park downtown to celebrate the Olympics; however there were a lot of Olympic artifacts in the World of Coca Cola museum. Coke have been a sponsor of the Olympics since 1928 (the Amsterdam Games) so there were a lot of pins, pictures in the museum which was a fun addition to my weekend in the city.

So it wasn’t a difficult or even timed run in Atlanta but it still counts as my Atlanta chapter I think.

Thanks Big Peach for ensuring I had a run to do and for not getting pregnant!

Ready to go in the hotel room: