Planned on running the same 7/1 split I did at the 15K in September, with a goal of finishing in under three hours and enjoying the scenery. Speaking of which, this course blew Callaway Gardens away for a scenic venue. I absolutely loved running here. About a mile in, I fell in with a 2:45 pace group running a 4/1 split. They were pretty close to my pace anyway, so I figured I'd let them keep up with the clock. I made quick friends with Lynn and Beth, and we pulled ahead of the rest of the group by several hundred yards over the next couple of miles. Around mile 5, we quit trying to look back to see when to walk and began timing ourselves.

Around the seventh mile, Bonnie (the official pace setter) caught up with the three of us since the rest of the group had apparently fallen apart. The four of us stayed together until around mile ten when Lynn started falling back. Once she fell back, Bonnie, Beth and I picked up the pace about another 30 seconds/mile which proved to be a bad idea for me. Just short of the twelfth mile, Beth (fresh off her Chicago marathon) decided to skip the rest of the walk breaks and left Bonnie and me.

Somewhere in that twelfth mile, my lack of distance training and/or the increased pace caught up with me and I hit a wall. Up until that point, I hadn't really been looking for the next walk break. Suddenly, it couldn't come fast enough and seemed to be the fastest minute of the entire race. I made it through the next couple of four minute segments knowing we were almost done and crossed the finish line about 5 minutes off pace.

One of the race sponsors was Moon Pies. Good stuff. Also had a couple slices of spinach and cheese pizza. Hung around and cheered the marathoners as they came in.


Need to run more longer training runs. Since running a 15K in September, my longest run has been 5 miles, with most runs being just 3 or 4. It's time to get focused on nutrition and drop more of the weight I am carrying around the course.


This race was chosen by Runner's World as a must-do marathon a couple of years back and it lived up to my expectations. Great race on a beautiful course. I'd love to do this one again, but next year's race falls a week after IMFL so I doubt I'll be up for it. Maybe 2014.