Peg’s Posts: Garmin associate runs Athens Marathon

Last week, we heard from Garmin associate Sunita just two days before she was set to run the most historic of marathons. This photo shows her traveling party and support crew after she completed the Athens Marathon: Peter, design engineer from Garmin’s outdoor team; Sunita, design certification engineer in aviation; her twin sister Anita and their mom, Pratishtha. The medals around Peter, Anita and Pratishtha’s necks are proof they weren’t just there as fan support—they each completed the 10k.

Sunita’s Forerunner 310XT logged every minute and every mile and her finish time of 5:09:53 was nearly 30 minutes faster than her first marathon. I had no doubt Sunita was well-prepared this time around. She sat down with me back in April, about a week after I’d done Boston, and she was eager to hear about my experience and pick up some pointers. And did she ever have questions — a full page of them, neatly typed and categorized. We talked about everything from nutrition and training plans to hydration belts/bottles and cross-training. It was obvious that Sunita was dedicated and determined to make her Athens Marathon experience a memorable one. Now in London, doing a little sightseeing, she sent us a quick recap of race day:

“There were about 12,500 runners from 88 countries at the starting line in Marathon (about 21,500 total in the 5k, 10k and marathon). The crowd was really excited. We started at 9 a.m. and ran on a highway connecting Marathon to Athens. We had quite a few supporters at each of the towns, but there weren't too many people between towns. Everyone was yelling "Bravo!" Personally, I didn't think the hills looked anything like the altitude chart I had. It seemed like rolling hills rather than straight climbs. The temperature was probably high 50s when we started and quickly reached the 70s. I used my water belt between stations, and I'm really glad that I had it! Around mile 24, I was getting really hot, and at mile 25, I actually emptied my water bottle. That part was really miserable. The whole course was pretty bare as far as shade went. Even when we got to Athens, and there was a chance of tall buildings casting shadows, the shadows were all going the wrong way! Anyway, at that point, my mom and sister showed up at random points to cheer me on. Peter was at the stadium. Regardless, I made sure to finish strong in the Panathenaic Stadium and achieved a PR!”

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