12 days to Chickamauga

Say what?! Never heard of Chickamauga? Honestly neither had I. I found the race on Active.com as an Atlanta-area marathon and "10mile tot-trot" whose timing happened to correspond with my training goals (the 10miler, not the marathon).

This year's race is November 10th.

Chickamauga is a small town south of Chattanooga, TN, an hour-and-a-half from Atlanta. It is the site of a bloody Civil War battle and now a large National Park. The race is hosted by the Chattanooga Track Club and is in its 31st year. In 2006, the 10 mile had 246 runners and the marathon 323. The marathon course is a 1 mile feed to a large 12 mile loop which is doubled. The 10 miler is just an out-and-back of the first 5 miles. The CTC describes the marathon as "paved, rolling hills", the 10miler is described as "fast and flat".

Fast may be open to interpretation.

This will be the longest race I've done in 11 years, and my 2nd longest race ever. My neighbor and I are getting up at the crack of dawn to drive up there, get our race packets and game on. I guess I'm sort of shooting for a pace of aroun 9:10. I've been running in the high-9's lately for hily 10 miles. If this course really is "flat" and if I really give it my all I should be able to shave :30 off. Maybe...

To make things even funnier my wife (a social run-walker) registered us for a Multiple Myeloma 5K the following morning. Something tells me I may be run-walking with her!

Chattanooga Track Club
Race Course @ USATF