Running through the streets of Atlanta

Let me start by saying I had a blast in Atlanta. I did not see Lil' Jon (I did see a few look-a-likes), but otherwise it was a really good time. Amber and I packed a lot in to the weekend, including trips to IKEA, the High Museum of Art, two Atlanta Braves baseball games (which the Tigers won--both! BOO-YA Atlanta, your baseball team SUCKS), a trip to NikeTown in Atlanta, and a 4 mile run around the city.


My run was on Sunday morning, and it was supposed to be two 4-mile loops around my hotel. We stayed at the Atlanta Hilton, and I was surprised to find that it wasn't in the greatest part of town. I went out and ran my first 4 mile loop and decided that was enough for me. More than the lack of scenery, (I will say that running around the Georgia Dome and Phillips Arena was very cool) I didn't want to overwork my body after 2 solid days of walking all over Atlanta. I had forgot my Nike+ foot chip also, so I didn't even run with my Ipod. It was a nice change, to be honest and I'll make up those 4 miles on Thursday (running 8 miles instead of 4).

Last week, all 4 of my runs felt 'different'. I felt like I was dragging my legs behind me and really fighting to feel 'good' while I was running. Sounds like a case of dead shoes, right? So, while in Atlanta I made a trip to NikeTown. We got there at about 8:45 on a Saturday night (they close at 9), so I know that I was their favorite customer as soon as I walked in the door. I really didn't want to be 'that guy' and keep all the employees late on a Saturday, but on the other hand I didn't bring my running shoes to Atlanta with me, because they were dead and I knew that I needed to buy a new pair on the trip. I tried on the Nike+ Air Structure Triax 10 and the Nike Air Pegasus, and actually went with the Pegasus. It was lighter and just felt like an extension of my foot. I know its not a stability shoe, but it felt fine on my 4 miler on Sunday and I got it on sale. Buying shoes based on price is never a good idea, but in all honesty I think it's going to work for me.


As I mentioned earlier, Amber and I went to two baseball games in Atlanta. When I bought the tickets, I purposely bought tickets in two entirely different areas of the park, to try and give each game some uniqueness (Is that a word?) On Friday night, I got tickets three rows back in left field, basically where all the home runs go. We got to the game right when the gates opened and went right to our seats for batting practice. Amber had never been to a batting practice before and I know she really enjoyed the excitement of Home Runs always coming our way and seeing all the kids go crazy for any ball hit in the area. The whole experience of Friday was really cool. The Tigers won the game, 5-0.

On Saturday, I got tickets for the Lexus Pavilion. I had no idea what that was prior to showing up, it just sounded cool so I went with it. It turned out to be very cool and I recommend it to anyone going to Turner Field anytime soon. The Lexus pavilion is "anti-baseball purist" in every sense of the term. First of all, you have to pass an usher to even get into the area. (which is closed off with glass to the 'public'). It is air-conditioned, carpeted, clean, and connected to the suite level, so everything is top-notch.

We met some guys from New York who sat right next to us, and they were all really nice guys. There were six of them and they were hard-core Mets fans, which by proxy made them Tigers fans for the day. (Mets fans hate the Braves with a passion) They called themselves the Traveling DingleBerries, and are going to visit all 30 stadiums within the next few years. This trip they were hitting Atlanta, Tampa Bay and Miami (to see the Florida Marlins), and they shot video during the game and should be posting it to their site when they get home. They may have caught me saying that I would date Justin Verlander over Brandon Inge on tape. We'll see.

Food: When Amber and I go out of town, we have a rule that we really try to stick to: Only eat at places that you can't eat at in the town in which you live. So, there were two places that we found that were not in Knoxville. The first place we ate lunch at on Friday was Willy's. It was a burrito place that I think is franchised. It was excellent and very efficient. They have the production line process down to a science. The second place we found was Garden Sprout. They are a vegetarian chinese food restaurant that makes everything out of soy, seitan, and potatoes. They still call it beef, chicken, or shrimp, but it's made out of soy, seitan or potatoes. We both really liked Garden Sprout and will make it a point to go back next time we're in Atlanta.