Review: Atlanta Thanksgiving Day Marathon

I want to start by saying that I am blessed and thankful that I have the ability to run. It is one of my favorite things to do, it is good for my health and now it has helped to change the lives of some children in Sudan.

After signing up for the run I started to read reviews that concerned me. I read about how hilly the course is and that many people thought it was a very difficult course. I read how the temperature could be really cool because of the tall buildings and keep things shaded. I read how the Marathon is really small compared to 20,000 runners of which I have run and the small number of people made the race less desirable.

I understand how all of these things may be true for some but not for me. I have nothing but praise for the Atlanta Thanksgiving Day Marathon. I train on the border of Virginia and North Carolina so I am use to hills and hills that are much larger and steeper than anything that I ran in Atlanta. As a matter of fact I believe the constant up and down likely helped people, myself included not to have as many problems with cramping. The race start was on time, the people were the most friendly I have found in any Marathon that I have done and the water stops, sport bean, and bananas were done well and appreciated.

I have never been to a race where almost every volunteer was a cheerleader but they were in Atlanta. The police officers who directed traffic and worked to keep all of us safe even cheered us on. It was absolutely great and I hope that I get to do this race again, maybe even in 2010.

The medal was pretty nice, not the nicest I have received in a race but I have come to the point in my running that the medal is not worth so much to me. I still like them but I love the experience most of all. The Tech T-Shirts are great with agreat design also.

By the way, the Race Expo was well done also. I picked up a couple of things there for the race and received a better price than I would have in the store.

Atlanta Track Club: You did a great (Outstanding) job and gave a very small town, personal feel to a big city race, thank you.

On a personal note. This was my 8th Marathon and by far the best in many ways. I get excited when there are 20,000 runners and I missed that but small races have great advantages. The delays are minimal and in this race there were no delays. Many times in larger races you will have time delays because it is hard to get 20,000 runners out of the start area in an east and safe manner.

At this moment I have raised $1508.00 for the Children of Sudan. Hope for the children of Sudan is a mission work of the Holston Conference of The United Methodist Church and that is the cause I prayed about and decided to support through my run efforts. My inspiration came from a book called “Take Your Best Shot” by Austin Gutwein, you should get a copy of this book and devour it. I have now been able to do something that I really love and at the same time give to those in need. By the way giving is something that I like to do as well. The final total on gifts is still out as I know there are some who are sending checks this week.

I will include a few things here to let you see some of the highlights of my running, fundraising endeavor.

Ronnie

Here are my mile splits for the Marathon today.

Mile 1. 924
Mile 2. 915
Mile 3. 934
Mile 4. 929
Mile 5. 934
Mile 6. 919
Mile 7. 936
Mile 8. 1108
Mile 9. 905
Mile 10. 908
Mile 11. 1001
Mile 12. 951
Mile 13. 943
Mile 14. 936
Mile 15. 936
Mile 16. 901
Mile 17. 853
Mile 18. 919
Mile 19. 848
Mile 20. 848
Mile 21. 840
Mile 22. 1150
Mile 23. 1128
Mile 24. 1058
Mile 25. 1126
Mile 26. 837