The Rest of Atlanta

While in Atlanta for the Publix's Georgia Marathon were able to hit a few attractions.

Our hotel was attached to the CNN Center and across the street from Atlanta's Centennial Olympic Park. This is where the bomb went off during the Atlanta Summer Olympics in 1996. It's a nice sized area with wide open spaces and plenty of Olympic-related sculptures and fountains.

Adjacent to the park is The World of Coca-Cola. It's a museum dedicated to Coca-Cola the product and the company. Boy was this place crowded. There were lots of fun displays highlighting changes in the brand and our culture over the past 100+ years. One of the best features was The Tasting Room where you can sample over 60 different soda flavors from around the world.

 

As mentioned in our race report we had a chance to see the Dr. Martin Luther King Memorial and National Site.

Our last stop before catching our flight out of town (ok second-to-last since we had time to catch a beer downtown) was the Margaret Mitchell House. This was the home of the author of Gone with the Wind. The house is part tribute to the author as well as part tribute to the film.

We were in Atlanta less than 48 hours and accomplished a lot: lunches, dinners, and drinks out with friends, two museums, one park, one historic site, a rotating bar, furry convention. Oh yeah, and Holly ran a marathon.

 

 

Georgia Marathon Race Report and Video

Here's Holly's race report from the Publix Georgia Marathon:

This was not my planned marathon for the state of Georgia. I remember talking to my friend Eddie McCoy, who lives in Atlanta, about what race I should do in Georgia. He said whatever you do don’t do the Georgia Marathon. It is the hilliest course ever, way worse than Knoxville (that almost killed me). I agreed that I wouldn’t be doing that nonsense. Fast forward to January and I am looking for a race about three weeks out from Big Sur to do as a training run. My good friend Eddie says he has the perfect race. The Georgia Marathon?!?!? I said what happened to not ever doing this one? He said it will be fine, good hill training for Big Sur and the hills aren’t that bad. I foolishly agree and get registered and THEN look at the elevation chart:

I must be freaking crazy. I got some other fools to agree to this adventure with me. Eddie would run with me and Joe was going to make a vacation out of it with his family. My good friend Jessica was going to run the full now instead of the half. I thought this wouldn’t be so bad. First, Jessica hurts her back and has to stop running altogether for a while. I’m very sad for her and hope she recovers quickly! I still have Eddie and Joe to keep me company. Then, Joe’s daughter places well in her school competition and they make it to the State Finals! So happy for them, but the finals are the same weekend. Now it is down to Eddie and me. Perfect, I can yell at him for getting me into this. Finally, he bails on me because he wants to use the race as a training run for Boston. I totally understand and am thinking it will be a good test for me to see how I can do by myself. It had been quite awhile. Well I didn’t know another friend would be running and he wanted to take it easy and run with me. It would be awesome to have company so Alex and I would be running partners for this hilly marathon.

We got into Atlanta late Friday and had a bit too much fun with the McCoys. The fun involved a brewery (Max Lager's), a rooftop lounge (Sun Dial), a furry convention and a statue that has very hard hands. Saturday we tried to take it easy and went to the Expo, lunch (Dantanna's) and then battled the crowds at World of Coke. We had the longest dinner ever with all of our friends. Good Company, good food, but bad service.

Sunday morning I met Alex in the lobby and we made our way to the corral right down the street from the hotel. The Omni was a great location for the race. The temperature was perfect, mid 50s. There was a 60% chance of rain and it sure looked like we were going to get wet. I was praying we wouldn’t. It was still dark when we started and it took about 15 minutes to cross the start line. Alex did a great job of keeping up with texts from Dave so we would know where he was on the course. We saw Dave right after the start and we were off and running. My plan was 2:1 intervals and 12:30 miles. The first mile was 11:35. Whoops. A little excited and it was down hill for part of it. I told Alex we had to slow down. Next mile 12:41. Perfect. We then kept that pace for pretty much the rest of the race. I was really nervous for this race. I felt this would tell me if I had prepared enough for the hills of Big Sur. Big Sur has a hard 6 hour time limit and I don’t want to be close to that. I have been doing a ton of hill work for the past three months and I was hoping it would pay off.

The elevation chart didn’t lie. If we weren’t going up hill we were going downhill. I was feeling great and going right up the hills. I was still worried that they would take it out of me and I would die at the end and have to walk more. The course itself was beautiful. It took you through all the beautiful neighborhoods of Atlanta and suburbs. There were beautiful homes to look at. We also ran through several colleges. We saw Dave several times. He was managing what looked like hellacious traffic like the Race Chase expert he is.

Alex was great. He kept the conversation going and the miles really kept on ticking off. I would get tired on some of the really steep hills and we would run to a certain point and stop and walk for a bit, but then pick up running again. I really felt great and I kept waiting to crash and burn. Alex would check in with me and ask how I was feeling and I kept saying fine. The rain held off too. We thought we were going to get soaked for sure when Alex pulled up the radar, but it somehow missed us. Very lucky!! We got to one of the last hills around Mile 23 and that was just a cruel hill. It was very steep. Thankfully they had oranges and I inducted Alex into the orange smile club. We saw Dave one more time here and I still felt great here and told him so. Right after that I did start to tire. But it was Mile 24 and I was almost home. I had a bit of a back issue here, but pushed through and soon we were making the final turn and Eddie and Dave were cheering us on. I gave the biggest smile ever and crossed the finish line.

I was unbelievably excited. My time was 5:35:29. Not a PR, but it felt like it. It was my fastest time since MCM in October 2012. I was thrilled with that time on that course. I am now super confident for Big Sur and am excited to relax and enjoy that course. Big thanks to Alex for running the race with me and keeping it fun and making it go by so fast. Big thanks to Eddie for talking me into it. I never once cursed you on the course. And of course the Biggest thanks goes to Dave for making it around the course. It’s always great to see your smiling face.

Dave's Comments:

I knew this was going to be a tough one.  The half marathon cuts directly through the inner loop of the marathon course.   Roads were listed as open and Eddie said it would be ok, so I followed an inside loop instead of an outside loop.  I had to move the car outside of the hotel garage since it was basically 100 feet from the start line.  Out the door at 5:30 to park it a few blocks away.  I walked back to the hotel, met up with everyone, and watched the start with our friend Brad.  Next, I parked in a shady Circle K lot around Mile 4 and had plenty of time to appreciate the fact that I was standing across from Dr. Martin Luther King's memorial and grave.  A few runners went slightly out of their way to pay their respects.  After that, I tried to get to The Carter Library, but Siri just wouldn't let me.  Apparently there's only one way in and the roads around it were closed.   This is when the panic stepped in.

I figured I'd catch them around Mile 7.   I found the course at Ponce de Leon and Highland with good supermarket parking.   I stood there for a while and saw their dot on my tracking app was approaching.  As I looked down the road I saw some runners going straight instead of turning the corner.  DANGIT!  I was 2 blocks north of the split for the 1/2 and full.    I hauled it down the street and had just missed them.  Some expert I am.   This put me in a bad mood, and to top it off, there was no way to cross the darn half course by car.   Eventually the stream of runners was a trickle and they let us through.  I got a drive-by sighting in and made stops at 10 and 13 with no issues.   I just made it to mile 15, missed 16 because of Siri and roadblocks.  Eventually made it to mile 16 while they past 17, so I hoofed it over to mile 19.   I made it back downtown with no issues to see them again at Mile 23 and the finish line.  I was able to squeeze in 9 viewing spots.

Snacks were great on the course. The areas I traveled were mostly urban/suburban so many gas stations, markets, Starbucks, Paneras, and the likes.

Here's the video:

#Goofyinaday: Michael and Eddie's Epic Adventure, Finale

Team Tizzel is proud to continue our series of guest posts by our friend Michael Miller chronicling his adventure with Eddie McCoy to tackle 39.3 miles of racing in one day; and in two different states. Today's post will cover Disney's Wine and Dine Half Marathon and close out the series.

Follow Michael and Eddie on Twitter

Earlier posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3

Part 4: Where We Take a Bus Ride and Eddie Shows Me His Tiny Buns

While I’ve been running in some capacity for over 30 years, it doesn’t necessarily define me as a person. It’s just a part of who I am, like my being left handed, or awesome, or being extremely humble. While Eddie has been running for under two years at this point, his running has redefined how others see him. Though I believe his weight loss and transition from a sedentary lifestyle reflect the strength of character he’s always had. With all of his hard work and effort, Eddie has had a lot of successes in his running and may one day win a competitive race outright, just like I have done, but my great humility prevents me from pointing this out. Yet despite our varied running backgrounds, I can safely say #GoofyInADay started out more as a sense of adventure than being about running. I can also say that our final run at Wine & Dine morphed into so much more than an adventure.

As I’ve written about for another post in the Team AllEars Blog, one of the oldest, most respected distance races in the world is the Comrades Marathon in South Africa. A 56-mile race, Comrades has a very strict 12 hours cut-off, which most people cannot even imagine making. That being said, one of the key things that have helped people complete this race was the creation of the concept of “The Bus.” To some, The Bus is a fancier term for a pace group, which has become more common in races of all distances; however The Bus is more than that. The Bus is a group of runners whom develop an identity over the life of the race, setting a pace and tone that gets the whole group across the finish line.

With our late arrival to the start at Disney’s Wide World of Sports we quickly dropped our gear off at bag check and found our teammates for what can only be called "A Second Obligatory Group Photo". I say second because the group already did one without the two of us since everyone wasn’t 100% sure we were going to make it on time. Due to my humility, I tried to squeeze in unnoticed at the front of the group, but I still think you can see me in the picture. I like to think of that first picture as the Directors Cut – the version everyone probably really wanted to have, but they had to accept Eddie and my presence and take the second one. After the photo, it was off to our corral, where 12 members of Team AllEars formed our Bus for the race. Our Bus Driver was Rich Gairing, a good friend and the man in the Viking hat in the photo at the beginning of these blogs. As the Bus Driver, Rich was responsible for getting the 12 of us to our final destination…..before the cut off, which means that besides having to run his own race he willingly becomes responsible for the races of others.

So from the sound of fireworks and the surge of runners until we crossed the finish line it was no longer about #GoofyInADay for Eddie and me. For 13.1 miles everything was about the group. How were people holding up? Were we still together? Who was going to take the next individual photo in front of a mile marker sign? Throughout it all, we stuck together, joked and swapped positions. For most of the race, Eddie and I bounced between people and ran with old friends and team members we had never run with before. The ease in which we ran belied the fact that we had already completed a full marathon a couple of hundred miles to the north, and my humility prevents me from even mentioning it. Not once during the entire run did the fact that with each step we were running further on that day than we had ever run in a 24 hour period ever register on Eddie's or my consciousness. And as we crossed the finish line in 3 waves of 4 people, our Bus made it’s destination having some of the most fun I’ve ever had in a race.

Since I recounted the actual run in our Team AllEars Blog, I am just going to hit some of the highlights of the race. For example, the floats from last year’s 20 Mile Spectacular actually look very cool at the half way point in a half marathon….though they still aren’t Spectacular. And the Osborne lights are amazing to run through, though Eddie did make us stop and sing a Christmas Carol to be used for a podcast….however due to an inability on our part to follow instructions, it is now relegated to the blooper reel.

One of the highlights for me was the Ugly Christmas Sweater wicking shirts that Eddie, Rich and I wore for the race. While it was a little warm running in long sleeve shirts in the Florida humidity, we got two of my favorite race photos. One of The Three Wise (Ass) Men sitting on a bench in the Osborne Lights section contemplating life and maybe why we were wearing long sleeve shirts. The other is a corresponding picture from Eddie’s Go Pro that shows the rest of the group standing there taking pictures of us. In my mind these two pictures taken together show the camaraderie we all felt that evening….while also filling Eddie's and my not so subtle need to be the center of attention.

With all of this, the best part of this race is the After Party. The unique aspect of Wine & Dine is it allows runners to hit EPCOT's World Showcase after hours to enjoy the Food & Wine Festival. After a long race, any picture you would see shows a group of tired runners torn between wanting to “after-party” and wanting to go to bed. It was here, in our Savannah Finisher Shirts and Medals, that Eddie and I concluded our #GoofyInADay.

Having never attended Food & Wine, Eddie made a point of directing me to one of his favorite after race snacks at the Germany Pavilion. Two Sausage Sandwiches, consisting of 8 inch long and narrow sausages on two short 4 inch rolls. And though they were tasty, I will leave you with the same uncomfortable feeling that Eddie gave me to wrap up our day’s events when he held them out to me and said with a smile on his face “Michael, take a look at my tiny buns".

WAR EAGLE

Here's Eddie's video from the Wine and Dine:

 

Team Tizzel would like to thank Michael for taking the time to chronicle their adventure and allow us to share this great content with everyone. You are welcome to write more posts for Team Tizzel anytime. Thanks also to Eddie for all the great photos and videos that showed us all how excellent and epic your weekend was.

 

#Goofyinaday: Michael and Eddie's Epic Adventure, Part 3

Team Tizzel is proud to continue our series of guest posts by our friend Michael Miller chronicling his adventure with Eddie McCoy to tackle 39.3 miles of racing in one day; and in two different states. Today's post will cover the Road trip from Savannah to Orlando.

Follow Michael and Eddie on Twitter
Earlier posts: Part 1, Part 2

Part 3: Where We Drive to Orlando, Eddie Learns That It's Better to Write the Blog and We Discover the True Meaning of War Eagle

With a 5 to 6 hour drive and another race ahead of us, obviously our number one priority after crossing the finish line was to immediately head to the Race Merchandise tent. Without this stop we wouldn't have RnR Savannah Finisher Shirts to wear to the Wine and Dine after party. Because let's face it, the only reason to run a marathon and half marathon in the same day is so you can "not so subtly" let everyone know that you did it. The hardest part is the nonchalant strut and conveying a false air of indifference of doing #goofyinaday as we walk around Epcot in our finisher shirts and marathon medals, but we had a long car ride to practice.

Now Eddie is a quasi-pseudo-celebrity in the marathoning community, which I am constantly reminded of whenever we run races together. Usually it entails someone coming up to us after a race as we are eating in a McDonalds or walking back to the hotel. Complete strangers come up to him in groupie mode and introduce themselves and talk of hearing him on The Marathon Show, seeing him on Facebook or some other forum. As the person with him, you either become invisible or get the luxury of taking pictures of the two of them. In this case I got to take Eddie's pick with Marathon Man, another quasi-pseudo-celebrity in the marathon world. While I've come to accept the role of invisible sidekick photographer when we run together, my heart goes out to Eddie's wife, who in my opinion should get to punch Eddie in the arm every time it happens....which I like to think would leave him with a constantly bruised shoulder.

Back at the hotel, Eddie quickly cleaned up so he could watch the Auburn game while I got ready. Now this wouldn't have bothered me except for the fact that just as I was about to relieve myself before getting in the shower Eddie started screaming "GO GO GO GO, YOU CAN DO IT YEAH WAR EAGLE." After ascertaining that I didn't leave the door open and his screams had nothing to do with me but something happening in the game, I was finally able to mentally relax enough to finally be able to go to the bathroom. Interesting fact, people screaming "GO" when you are about to pee makes it harder to do so.....go figure.

We got on the road relatively quickly after cleaning up. I drove so that Eddie could download his video and pictures from the race to make "A Fast Eddie Video" of our adventures. Eddie makes videos of all of his races and by doing this now, he could post it before we ran Wine and Dine. This would meet the dual purpose of reminding people who didn't realize from our constant tweets and Facebook posts that we were doing #goodyinaday, but also to help solidify his quasi-pseudo-celebrity status. In this case though, since I would be prominently displayed in the video, who knows, maybe someone would recognize me for a change.

One thing I learned during our drive is that Eddie shrieks like a girl. A pre-pubescent one at that. And unlike other character flaws, this could obviously not be overlooked. And when he's shrieking "oh my god we are out of gas," it really cannot be overlooked. To say that we were driving with the needle below E is not an understatement. In my defense, I couldn't see the lower half of the fuel gauge (or the brightly glowing empty light) due to the angle the steering wheel was set, but that didn't seem to mollify Sir-Shrieks-A-Lot in the passenger seat. Since we were about to pass an exit, and the sign indicated the next one being a dozen miles down the road, my priority was to cross two lanes quickly and safely. Eddie's priority was to try and take a picture of the fuel gauge to post to Facebook ASAP. We made the exit and took a right to find a gas station. We went right because it was down hill and we weren't 100% certain we would make it if we went up hill to the left. We did, but you wouldn't know it from the way Eddie kept verbally reliving the horrors of how bad it would have been if we ran out of gas. I am not saying it was non-stop, however I started to look for cars with Auburn decals in the hopes if getting him to yell WAR EAGLE out the window.

With the exception of Eddie's near death out of gas experience, overall the trip was uneventful. Lunch at Five Guys, a pic at the "Welcome to Florida" sign and heavy traffic as we closed in on Walt Disney World. After a quick check-in at Pop Century (a Disney hotel), we headed over to Boardwalk (another Disney hotel) to meet up with Eddie's wife Anna to get our gear before hopping on the bus to the race start. At this point two things occurred that was extremely annoying. First, we waited for over an hour to get on a bus due to what appeared to be poorly organized planning on Disney's part. For the first time we thought our #goofyinaday was at risk as we might not make the start due to the extremely long gaps in between buses. Second, while we were waiting, it happened. Someone yelled from the back of the line "hey Eddie, love what YOU are doing today, YOU are so inspirational." Forget Anna punching Eddie. Right then I wanted to....I mean seriously, there were two of us on this adventure and while I may not be a quasi-pseudo-celebrity this was getting a bit much.

Finally the bus came and we were away from Eddie's latest groupie and off to the second race of the day.



The True Meaning of War Eagle

Whenever I talk with Eddie and Anna about why they yell War Eagle, they always stumble through statements like "there are three versions," and "after the civil war there was a game," etc. etc. Like most legends, I figure there is a kernel of truth in what they've told me, however I tried to weed through the legend to come up with what I suspect is close to the truth.

Shortly after the Civil war, two good ole southern boys, Aubrey Burns and Clem "Sonny" Kladdilehopper were doing what good southern boys are known for...drinking shine. And as happens when men drink shine, they started to talk trash with each other. Who was smarter, who could create a University in their own name because they were so so smart...and eventually, who would have a better college football team. Because let's face it, drunk men talk sports. After much trash talk they both focused on how cool their mascot would be. Both chose a tiger, but could not agree as to whose tiger would be better. So they came up with a stupid dare to settle things. Because let's face it, drunk men talking sports come up with stupid dares.

Down the road was an ornery old Colonel from the War. The reason why he was so ornery was because he apparently had to ride a horse up and down the historic cobblestone streets of Savannah, but that's not important for this story. What was important was the fact that he had a collection of prized animals...mostly chickens, but also a Tiger Striped Tabby named Biscuit. Our two southern boys decided whoever could capture Biscuit would claim the title of best college mascot....or some such thing as they were too drunk by this time to remember why they were after that darn cat, but after it they were.

So as the two of them raced, or more accurately, stumbled through the Colonels farm for most of the night they both managed to grab ahold of the cat at the same time. A wrestling match ensued. And as Aubrey was about to wrest the cat free from Clem, Clem yelled at the top of his lungs the Colonel was coming, startling Aubrey who stumbled backwards and fell over in a puff of feathers. And in this chaos Clem dropped Biscuit and ran off.

Now here's where it gets interesting. The Colonel, Sanders was his name, arrived shotgun in hand and pointed at Aubrey who had by this point staggered back to his feet. Through the yells of the Colonel, and through his own shine induced haze, Aubrey realized two things. One, the cloud of feathers was caused by his crushing of the Colonels prized rooster. And two, unless he came up with a compelling story as to what happened to said rooster, he was going to end up meeting a similar fate, albeit at the end of Col. Sanders shotgun. It was at this point he yelled out WAR EAGLE...which caused the Colonel to yell out the same in shock.

So in this field, covered in feathers, Aubrey Burns concocted a wild tale of "a War Eagle attacking the Colonels chickens, which he interrupted before it killed them all....so you see, um, he sorta saved all of the other chickens, and really, um should be thanked, by maybe getting something to eat.....or even better, to drink." Because let's face it, drunk southern boys tired from doing stupid dares get hungry. Though this fanciful tale had more holes in it than a sieve, the Colonel chose to believe him. Maybe it was because he himself had partaken of the shine, or maybe it was because he admired Aubrey Burns moxie. Either way, he took that chicken, fried it up and they had a celebration of the heroic gallantry showed that day. And through drinks of shine and ever increasing shouts of War Eagle, two legends were born. One, was of a heroic deed marked by the clarion call of War Eagle. Something which Aubrey Burns eventually passed down to the vocational school that still carries his name. The second was when Colonel Sanders started to exaggerate his prolific use of seasoning. And when he eventually moved to Kentucky, he would tell people that the salt and pepper he used that day was really 57 herbs and spices in his "secret recipe."

So whenever you buy a bucket of chicken, drink some spirits, or see a fellow Auburn alum....feel free to add your own voice to the call of War Eagle.

Next Up Part 4: Where We Take a Bus Ride and Eddie Shows Me His Tiny Buns.

#Goofyinaday: Michael and Eddie's Epic Adventure, Part 2

Team Tizzel is proud to continue our series of guest posts by our friend Michael Miller chronicling his adventure with Eddie McCoy to tackle 39.3 miles of racing in one day; and in two different states. Today's post will cover the Rock and Roll Marathon - Savannah, GA.

Follow Michael and Eddie on Twitter

Earlier posts: Part 1

Part Two: Where We Freak Each Other Out While Running A Marathon

Eddie is fast. Boston qualifying fast. And like most character flaws that your friends may have, it's just something you just have to accept -- like a bad comb-over or people who pronounce ignorant as "ignernt." He means no harm by it. Yet when we walked into Corral 3 for the start of the race, Eddie's "I'm dropping back from Corral 1" to the lady checking bibs earned him some not-so-gentle ribbing from me. With a target time of 4:30 we should have been starting in Corral 11, however due to all of the day's events we used one of my better finish times to start our race as early as possible. So it was after a beautiful baritone rendition of the National Anthem and the quick release of Corrals 1 & 2, we headed up Bay Street: one of the many historic streets we would run today.

While Eddie and I had run 3 marathons together prior to Savannah, the pace in those races wasn't set by either of us. In those races we ran with a group of friends and we went with the general pace of the group. So going into this race, while I knew how fast Eddie could run, I was a bit of an unknown pacing quantity to him. All Eddie knew was our goal was to run 4:30 with a 30 minute contingency. What Eddie didn't know was how I planned to run those four and a half hours. My plan was to run the first half pretty hard, targeting under 2 hours, followed by an easing of the pace to run the second half in 2:30. Now admittedly, this isn't a very logical plan when embarking on a 39.3 daily goal, but I never claimed to be logical. As for Eddie, it would have been easier if I had shared this with him, and based upon his reaction for the next two hours it would have been easier on me as well.

Every marathon has what is termed "junk miles." These are miles, usually with lots of twists and turns, through less scenic portions of a city with the sole purpose of adding distance to add up to the 26.2 needed for a marathon. For Savannah, these miles are earlier in the race. While there wasn't much to look at, it would have been hard to really appreciate anything as Eddie was giving me constant updates of our pace. It started at the first mile marker where Eddie informed me with some nervousness we were running in the low 8 minutes per mile pace. Since Eddie was expecting a 9 to 10 minute pace based upon our goal, I am sure he had visions of my self destruction destroying our #GoofyInADay. So for the next few miles while I was receiving more frequent questions like if I "was comfortable," or "needed to adjust" pace, I finally told Eddie of my plan. While he may have accepted what I told him, it was very obvious for the rest of the race he wasn't 100% certain it would work, if I had any idea what I was doing...or if I was crazy.

 

As we returned to the historic downtown area from running our junk miles - WAR EAGLE - we got to see some of the best that Savannah had to offer. Beautiful parks, lots of spectators - WAR EAGLE - historic buildings and musical entertainment. Running through these areas was so much fun, I admit I didn't notice all of the uneven roads we were running on - WAR EAGLE. Now what I did notice, and you probably have as well at this point, was that Eddie had what I have dubbed "War Eagle Tourette's." Eddie is a huge Auburn fan, and our adventure was on Game Day, as Auburn was playing (if you want to know, you can Google it yourself, as I really don't care enough about who they were playing to do it myself). War Eagle Tourette's is a condition where when one Auburn fan sees another they immediately yell "War Eagle" which is then returned by a call of the same. Therefore, being as we were running in the south we were lucky enough to encounter at least a dozen Auburn fans, including one standing on an 8 foot step ladder holding an Auburn sign. This meant that for 26.2 miles I was treated to unannounced screams of War Eagle.....to the point I eventually felt like someone from an old World War II movie ready to hit he ground whenever someone would yell "incoming."

After the short stint in historic downtown we hit the interstate and headed out into the suburbs. This included - WAR EAGLE - runs through gentrified neighborhoods, parks and local stadiums. The highlight thought is the 3 or so miles we ran through Savannah State University. Here, we not only ran on the schools track and through it's well manicured grounds, we were treated with a multitude of student groups and associations out there cheering us on. From cheerleaders and the team mascot giving high-fives to the raucous marching band to academic and Greek groups, all were high energy and - WAR EAGLE - supportive. It was so much fun that there is even an unconfirmed rumor that one of us may have actually "twerked" with members of the band's dance corps. Since we were in the second half of the marathon at this point, we had slowed our pace, though it was still faster than our target 4:30 and Eddie was still suggesting things like, "hey, why don't we walk at every mile marker" in an attempt to keep me from potential self destruction. I would have found this cute if I weren't so focused on blocking Eddie's view of any Auburn fans along the course.

 

At Mile 23 as we headed back the interstate towards town, I got to admit I started to have some perverse fun with Eddie. As I indicated, Eddie is fast. At this point when we were on a path to a sub 4:10 finish I announced that I was starting to think about our evening run and was going to dial it back. While I can't swear to it, I believe his mouth actually fell open. So for the next few miles --WAR EAGLE - we stopped for even more pictures than we had been taking, and I would spontaneously announce let's walk. This was killing Eddie as our time started to creep up and whenever I said "hey, we are better than our goal" he would implore me with the fact that we could go well under that. Consider this the warped humor of slower runner torturing his faster counterpart. As we closed in on the finish line, Eddie started to - WAR EAGLE - run 5, then 10 feet ahead of me. When he got too far, I would announce a walk break or have him take a picture of me - including one where a police officer was handcuffing me after he made his Lieutenant turnaround so as not to be a witness. At this point Eddie "threatened" to leave me if I didn't sped up....which was met with my trump card. I told him that if he left me, I would tell everyone that despite my agreeing to doing #GoofyInADay with him, he left me on the course by myself just to get a faster time. Funny thing is, we really like each other, yet this is how we show it.

We finished in 4:16:47.

















Part 3: Where We Drive to Orlando, Eddie Learns That It's Better to Write the Blog and We Discover the True Meaning of War Eagle


Eddie's video from the race is posted below:

 

#Goofyinaday: Michael and Eddie's Epic Adventure, Part One

Team Tizzel is proud to present a series of guest posts by our friend Michael Miller chronicling his adventure with Eddie McCoy to tackle 39.3 miles of racing in one day; and in two different states. Today's post will give some background on the goal and cover the travel day to Savannah, GA.

Follow Michael and Eddie on Twitter

Part One: Where Mistakes Are Made and Miles Are Walked

We've all heard them, the humorous cautionary tales that begin with "it seemed like a good idea at the time." Heck, The Hangover movie franchise was built upon this idea. This isn't one of those stories. Our story is a combination of mistakes and stupidity. The mistake was Eddie's, who inadvertently signed up to run The Rock and Roll Savannah Marathon and Disney's Wine and Dine Half Marathon in the same day. My stupidity was to agree to keep him company when he asked me "as the only person I know who would agree to do this with me." And while I agreed to partake in this 39.3 mile adventure, I can honestly say, from the get-go -- it seemed like a BAD idea at the time.

Due to the high cost of flying directly to Savannah from DC, the plan was I would meet up with Eddie in his hometown of Atlanta on Friday where we'd pick up a rental car for the 3 hour drive between these cities. Since Eddie had run Savannah before, he'd navigate us through finding a hotel and hitting the expo, after which we'd call it an early night. Meanwhile, his wife Anna would fly to Disney to pick up all of our Race Packets for W&D. Then on Saturday we would begin our "#GoofyInADay" as Eddie dubbed it in honor or Disney's Goofy Race and a Half Challenge. However, unlike the Goofy Challenge which entails running 39.3 miles over two days, we were running a marathon at 7:00 am, followed by a 280 mile drive to Orlando to meet up with Anna to get our bibs, after which we had to catch Disney race transportation to be in our corrals in time for Wine & Dine's 10:00 pm start. Even as I type this...it still seems like a BAD idea.

Upon landing in Atlanta, I texted Eddie who was waiting for me in the main terminal I would be there shortly. For those familiar with Atlanta's Airport, it is a sequential series of terminals that are fairly spread out from one another. For those of us who were unfamiliar with the airport it is still a sequential series of terminals. Not knowing this, I decided to walk to bag check versus getting on the extremely packed transport train. At the first of what would be three more terminals I contemplated getting on the trains that kept passing by but I stubbornly trudged on. After 20 or so minutes not getting on the train at each successive terminal became a matter of warped pride as I was certain bag check and freedom from my trek was just ahead. Finally, as I started to contemplate how doing this much walking may not be the best prep for tomorrow's challenge, I hit the next to the last terminal. This was where a helpful employee told me I had to get on the train to go the final stop to bag check. As I trudged off the train, Eddie greater me with a "man, what took you so long."

Leaving the airport we hopped on another train to the rental car center where we headed to the Dollar counter. Things didn't look good as we walked the 50 or so feet to the counter because no one was manning the desk. Just as we arrived at the counter, a man with a scraggly pony tail and "stoner" vibe slowly rose from behind the counter. When I say slowly, think old vaudeville skit where someone pretends to rise up on an elevator for dramatic effect. At this point, it got really started to get weird. First there were questions about what we were doing, which were met with responses like "how long is your marathon, like 5 miles." My favorite exchange was when he asked us if it would take us an hour to run the marathon right after he said that he regularly ran 10 miles on the trails. Eddie's first thought was "how fast does this dude run 10 miles if he thinks 26.2 could be done in an hour. My first thought was the only way this guy ran 10 miles in the woods was to get away from DEA agents. Once the paperwork and psychedelic conversation was over we mistakenly took the man's directions on how to get to our car....which took us to the impassable four lane divided road right beneath the walkway that would have taken us to our car. But, hey, that was ok, as all we had to do was retrace the 10 minutes of walking it took us to find this out. At this point we didn't care as we were getting off our feet to begin our drive to Savannah.

The first change in our plans occurred a week prior to race day. As I mentioned earlier and much to the
chagrin of many of our "planning oriented" friends, we didn't book a room in advance. This was more of a sense of frugality than recklessness. As a Historical City hosting a large Marathon, Savannah hoteliers across the board established a 2 night minimum for the weekend. So our plan was to hit hotels the night before the race to find someone willing to take us for one night vs. having an empty room. Much to the relief of those "planning oriented" friends who were more concerned about our room situation than we were, Eddie made some calls and not only got us a room for 1 night, he also negotiated a late check out so we could shower before getting in the car for over 5 hours. So we were feeling pretty satisfied as we checked into the hotel and got ready for the expo.

Getting to the Savannah expo was a bit of a challenge. It entailed a long walk to the waterfront to stand in a line with marathoners taking the ferry to the convention center. While we did find out that unlike the prior year where people couldn't drive over to the expo we could have taken our car, overall the process went seamlessly. The expo itself was larger in size, well organized with a multitude of vendors and even included being able to test drive the latest line of Mazdas. At the expo, Eddie did decide to pick up some new compression socks and the new Garmin 620 to wear for the race. You know the saying "you shouldn't wear anything new for a race." Well apparently Eddie doesn't. The only wrinkle occurred when we hopped on one of the historic old town trolleys we had seen earlier near our hotel to take us back across the river. The ride itself would have been more enjoyable if it weren't for the fact that we were on a round trip loop to a remote parking lot for those that got the news that you could drive to this years expo. So after adding our impromptu 20 minute tour of the expo parking lots we headed back to the ferry.

After a quick ferry ride we walked to the far end of the historic water front for some pizza at Spanky's, a local pizzeria and bar. The food was good however the service was great as the waitresses loaned us a personal phone charger when they learned my phone had died. After dinner we took the long walk back past our hotel to find a store to get granola bars and sports drink. Follow this with another walk back to our hotel and we were putting in some serious mileage on the uneven cobblestone roads of Historic Savannah. Now one of the legends of Savannah is that in his march to the sea during the civil war, Sherman spared Savannah due to its beauty. I can tell you with certainty, it had more to do with not wanting to ride his horse on these uneven roads as it would have literally been a pain in his... you get the point. The bright side at least was knowing we were going to run some of these roads the next day.

So as we called it a night, we both went to bed with tired legs. Since it was a relatively early 9ish, this gave the added benefit of having more time to lay in bed and think about how tired our legs felt from racking up miles that didn't count towards our 39.3 mile total. And as with all BAD ideas, I am sure we both started to question what we had gotten ourselves into.

Part 2: Where We Freak Each Other Out While Running A Marathon