Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon:

One for the History Books

There is no race in the world I love more than this one. Understand that this is a bold statement for me. I’m on pace to run around 70 races this year. For one to stand out that much, it must be something special. For me, Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon is indeed that special.

I’m not sure what it is about Chickmauga that appeals to me so much. I have run the race twice before and PRed both times – I’m sure that’s part of it. I love history, so running through a historic Civil War battlefield is obviously a plus. The race is the perfect combination of large enough to have good amenities and small enough to feel homey. It’s even not terribly far (180 miles or so) from home.

This year I was heading off to Chickamauga by myself for the first time. This race has been an excursion for my whole family the last few years, but class work and other duties were going to keep Janet and the boys busy at home. I knew I would miss them terribly, but realized I could focus my whole attention on running a good race. Having lost nearly 50 pounds since my last road marathon (not counting Make It By Midnight for obvious reasons) I was hoping for a record setting day.

I drove in late the night before the race, checked into my hotel just across the state line into Tennessee, and hurried back down to Fort Oglethorpe to try and get my packet before pick-up closed for the night. I made it in plenty of time. This year I found the 6th Cavalry Museum with no problem. Last year was a little harder. The museum is what looks to be a house with a full-sized helicopter mounted out front. It traces the entire history of the 6th Cavalry from its horseback days in the Civil War to its current existence as a helicopter unit. At least, that’s what I remember from last year. This year we used the back door of the museum and missed getting a chance to peek at the exhibits. Pick-up was easy – especially with as late as it was – and came with a clothing surprise. Last year the marathon gave runners an embroidered hat with their packet. This year we received gloves with the race logo printed on them. Very nice touch – and very different from anything else I’ve gotten at races before. I guess if you keep coming back to Chickamauga you will eventually get an entire outfit!

The one strange bit of packet pick-up was having to go to the school next door to pick up the technical shirt. I assume it was to encourage people to see whatever was at the small expo. By the time I got there however there was no expo in sight. I got the last large shirt. Strangely, my shirt size was in their records as medium. Several other people I talked to had their shirt sizes mysteriously reduced a size. I wondered if it was on purpose or if the organizers had done it to compensate for the shirts running slightly large. I still stuck with the large. The thought of anything medium fitting me is too much for me to comprehend at this point.

I headed to one of my favorite stops in Fort Oglethorpe – the Evergreen Chinese restaurant. My idea of carb loading is to find a wonderful Chinese buffet and dig in. Since I don’t get to visit restaurants much on my diet, I would rather enjoy my favorite food when I have the opportunity. I have eaten at Evergreen on every trip, so now it’s tradition too. After dinner I made a quick stop to buy a few breakfast foods to heat up in my room microwave and headed to bed.

I made it a point this year to get to the race very early. Last year I had to park so far away from the starting line that I got a nice frenzied warm-up just trying to make it to the start. This year I arrived more than 90 minutes early and got to park right by the refreshment tent. Good deal, I thought. After the race I won’t have far to crawl to get back to my truck.

I really like the set-up that has evolved at the Chickamauga start/finish area over the last few years. The marathon started on the south side of the battlefield previous to 2008 and was hosted at a church. Last year it moved to Barnard Circle in the historic district of Fort Oglethorpe. The race uses the old parade grounds of a long-gone military complex for the start. A beautiful gazebo marks the start and numerous tents are set up all around. Tons of port-o-potties are around, and the school next door is open for indoor restrooms too. The folks at Chickamauga have even solved the loudspeaker dilemma that most races struggle with. No struggle here – you could hear the race announcer in the next county, I think.

I spent a few moments visiting with the Macon Tracks who came up to run the marathon and the companion half-marathon. Talking with everyone really helped me. I tend to get a bit over-focused before important races. I think deep down races still scare me – like I’m an interloper, intruding in something for which I am unqualified. I compensate for this feeling by being focused and a bit introverted before races. Talking with the Tracks chilled me out and made me feel downright social. This would prove to be a very important development.

We finally started lining up for the start. The organizers had balloons with pace times on them for a simple seeding system. I wish more races would take the tiny bit of time and effort to do something like this. I set myself up at the 9:00 minute mile pace, hoping for my first sub-4 hour marathon. Having never even been faster than 4:30, this seemed like a crazy goal for me. My training paces and some online charts and graphs suggested otherwise. I figured I could always slow down if the 9-minute pace was too much.

For once I visited with the people around me at the start. A few Marathon Maniacs and I introduced ourselves and shared stories. I was wearing my Maniac gear, so many Maniacs sought me out during the day. I was asked by one runner if I carried nutrition for marathons. I said yes and showed her my RaceReady LD shorts with the numerous mesh pockets. She was fascinated having never seen them before. She was quite surprised when half the people around us, hearing our conversation, lifted their shirts enough to show her that RaceReady shorts were quite popular with marathoners indeed.

Now, I like to run alone. I train alone, race alone, and finish alone. I don’t feel lonely – I feel refreshed and focused. Something strange was happening to me today. I felt like running with people. I realized that I was in the middle of a pace team – the 4:00 hour. I had never really considered running with a pace team, but the people around were quite nice. The pace leaders seemed enthusiastic. Why not, I thought. Maybe a pace team could drag me across the line in 4 hours.

After too much talking, the race began. Some races begin with a bang or a whimper. This race begins with a colossal blast from a cannon. My goodness, there’s no chance of missing that starting signal! I was expecting it, but some of the runners around me were starting to run while recovering from minor heart attacks. We made a loop around Barnard Circle and headed onto the roads that led into the battlefield. I was struggling with running in a crowd as usual, but handled it with more good nature than normal. I was mentally ready to be with a group of people since I had committed to running with the pace team. The first mile marker came up quickly. Our time: 9:03. Perfectly on pace for a sub-4 marathon. Apparently the pace leaders knew what they were doing.

A few miles later I wasn’t so sure. Our mile times were getting faster and faster: 8:54, 8:46, 8:24. This was crazy. If I stayed with the pace team, I was going to get burned out in no time. Still, I was hesitant to leave the group. Maybe the pace leaders were just getting settled into a decent pace. I checked my Garmin and was astounded to see that we were currently running a 7:50 mile pace. No way, I thought. I will DIE at this pace. Heck, I’d only recently been running sub-8 miles consistently in 5Ks. The people around me were getting concerned about the pace too. I told them that I refused to run someone else’s race. I waved farewell to the pace team leaders (who were disappearing into the horizon anyway) and settled down to run alone at my own pace.

Before I could get into the running alone mindset, I heard a voice beside me. Kim, a runner I had met at the starting line, had dropped back too. She asked me if I was going to run the race in 4 hours. I told her I sure was going to try. She asked if she could run with me. Suddenly I was now a pacer. I laughed about trying to lead someone else to a time I had never run before, but we headed out together.

The day was absolutely perfect. The temperature started in the 40s and rose slowly throughout the race. The air was clear and clean. The fall leaves were absolutely beautiful. An entire family of deer ran across the road in front of us. Frogs sang from a marshy spot beside the road. Everyone remarked on how incredible the day was.

The miles were just flying by. I was feeling very strong. Kim and I were maintaining a very consistent pace. The conversation was good making both of us forget about the distance. Suddenly we were joined by Captain America – or a runner in a Captain America shirt anyway. He introduced himself as Tony and joined our little pace group. He was shooting for a 4-hour finish too. We pressed on together and had a wonderful time encouraging each other and talking about everything.

As we continued to keep a steady pace we passed numerous people who were in our original pace team. Many of them were walking, completely blown out by the ridiculous pace the leaders were putting down. We were quite glad to have slowed ourselves down before it was too late.

We came across the half marathon point – marked at this race by an official clock. I almost kissed the clock as we ran across the timing mats. We were on pace to finish several minutes under 4 hours. We waved goodbye to the half-marathoners and cheered them on as they turned off (the courses were slightly different) and headed back around for a second time.

I should mention that Chickamauga did a great job with everything on course. Water and Powerade were available at 2-mile intervals, some stations had fruit too. The race provided shuttles to bring spectators to a few viewing points along the course. These sections were always very lively. Traffic control was superb, all turns were well-marked, every mile was marked clearly.

I don’t find Chickamauga to be terribly hilly, but there is a section of hills in the late teens that can be challenging. I coached our little pace team up the hills. We were pretending they were roller coasters. I actually starting taunting the hills at one point, accusing them of being “wanna-be” hills. Amazingly we ran the hill section at a pace that was slightly faster than our goal. Wild.

As we headed to the short out-and-back section for the second time, I lost my pace team. Both were starting to feel the distance and needed to slow the pace slightly. Tony told me to keep on running my race and not to worry. I continued on, joined almost immediately by another runner who asked if he could tag along with me. The race volunteers who saw us kept saying how strong we looked. I sure felt strong. I could not believe that I still felt so good and that the pace was staying consistent. We actually picked up the pace slightly on a few miles in the early 20s.

Eventually my new running partner dropped back. I was finally running alone – and it felt strange. As I arrived at the 23rd mile I saw something familiar in the distance: the pace leaders that I had waved goodbye to 19 miles earlier. In no time, I caught up with them. The entire pace team was broken up – there might have been one runner still with them. As I passed the pace leaders I noticed that one of them was breathing pretty heavily. Apparently they had burned themselves out too. I had quite the feeling of satisfaction to run by them and leave them far off in the distance – while still running MY pace.

I focused on that pace and let my mind wander a little. I got to thinking about how this part of a marathon was much like an army captain trying to control his men in a battle. Every body part threatens mutiny at one time or another in a marathon. A good captain can calm them down and keep them marching inexorably into battle. So far my troops were in good order, but my quads were starting to be a little frisky.

We had turned onto a section of rough road (almost trail-like, but paved) that was jarring to the legs. My quads complained, but I kept them in line. Suddenly we were on the 26th mile, taking several quick turns to lead us back into the side of Barnard Circle. From there it was only a little over 2/10ths to the finish line. I picked up the speed, now going at a sub-7 minute mile. I knew I was going to have a massive PR. My glimpse at the clock in the distance confirmed this: a 3 was still prominently displayed in the hours place. I kicked for the finish, trying to outsprint another runner to the line. He was surprised by my kick, but found some extra energy to make it to the line before me. I was amused by his burst of speed and was grinning inwardly as I came across the line. I glanced at the clock and couldn’t believe it. 3:52. I had taken 42 minutes off my marathon PR.

I was so busy celebrating that I almost forgot to take my medal. That would have been a shame too, because the Chickamauga medals are something special. Each year the medal represents a monument in the park. This year it featured the South Carolina monument with a cannoneer gazing off into the distance as if watching his last shot. Nice.

I had my picture taken by Tommy and Mandie – it’s nice to have the official race photographers be friends from the Macon Tracks – and visited with several other friends. I quickly excused myself however to run back to the finishing line. I wanted to see if my new friends Kim and Tony would make it across the line. I was cheering them both loudly as they came across. Both finished just a hint over 4 hours but Tony took 9 minutes off his PR and Kim took a whopping 20 minutes off hers. Tony actually ran up to me before his finish to congratulate me on a PR.

Both Kim and Tony sought me out after the race. Tony thanked me for leading him to a PR – he said my pacing and encouragement made it possible. Kim was thankful too. I told them that they were just as responsible for my great time. I could not have done it without their conversation and company. This was the highlight of the race for me. Being able to share in the success of two runners, to have been part of their record-setting day as well as mine, was one of the greatest moments of my running life. Congratulations to both of them! They ran an amazing race.

The final stats showed what an incredible day it was. I ran the second half of the race 40 seconds faster than the first. I passed an incredible number of people in the last 13 miles. I averaged an 8:51 pace. My miles were very consistent.

I celebrated my PR with the wonderful food that is always part of Chickamauga. I had checked with the cooks before the race to make sure that my favorite soup – the Southwestern chicken – was going to be there. I told the servers that their soup was the reason I ran the race. I grabbed some of the homemade banana pudding, spinach alfredo pizza, and other goodies and settled into my truck to eat. My legs felt great. I could not believe that my fastest marathon had also been my easiest – and least painful. What a testament to the power of weight loss, good training, consistent pacing, and great running friends.