I slept incredibly well and woke up easily with my alarm. I set my alarm for 4:45, put in a wake up call for 5 and had no problem crashing soon after we got checked in. They also offered a marathon discount which seemed to be $25 or so off the published/Priceline/etc rate which was another bonus.
#CHICKAMAUGA BATTLEFIELD FREE#
Hampton Inn was one of the "host" hotels where the race would have free shuttle pick up in the morning which (among other reasons) made it especially attractive so Matt would not have to get up at the ass crack of dawn to drive me to the start. We stayed at the Hampton Inn in Ringgold, GA (which is basically the same town) which was actually a really nice Hampton Inn, IMO. There WERE however, rolls the size of my head, so I had more than my fair share of those and then tried to pick the least stomach-averse dish on the menu.Īfter dinner it was on to the hotel. Let's just say.TONS of fast food, plenty of Mexican, and about 3 sit down chains that we could identify (Applebees, O'Charley's and Logans) Each of the chains was equally packed so we finally settled on Logan's where there was not a pasta dish to be found. Yes, we were not far out of Chattanooga, but we did not feel like driving back that direction so we decided to see what was available in town. In addition to the l/s gender specific tech tee, there was a nice neoprene waist pack branded with the marathon info, key lanyard, mini-moon pie, muscle cooling stuff, and a couple of discount coupons ($10 off at Dick's? yes, please)Īfter the expo, we were on a mission to find dinner.
#CHICKAMAUGA BATTLEFIELD FULL#
Not that this is a bad thing, but it had a VERY small town feel to it and I was surprised to see more than a few vendors set up.including one with TONS of race day nutrition (Gu, honey stinger, etc) and another very creative booth that sold cowbells :) I have never seen/noticed a cowbell booth at an expo before and thought that was pretty cool.Ĭhecking through the swag bag, I was quite impressed given that is a small race (capped at 700 half and 700 full marathoners).
We headed to packet pick-up/expo which was being held at the local HS.nice and easy to navigate through. We got to Ft Oglethorpe no problem, they had a marquee at the entrance of town welcoming the marathoners which I thought was nice.
We actually "lost" an hour going from CST to EST which had me a tad concerned about the wake up call the next morning, but it turned out to be no biggie. Oglethorpe, GA, which is actually just outside of Chattanooga (the race is sponsored by the Chattanooga Track Club). I worked until about 2:30 and then we dropped off the dogs at the vet for the night and finally headed out of B'ham around 3:45 Friday afternoon for the 2.5-3 hour drive to Ft. Don't get me wrong, it was a BUSY week leading up to the race, but knowing that the expo was open until 9pm Friday and that packet pickup would also be available Saturday morning before the race, eased my mind tremendously. This was probably the *least* stressed I have been leading up to any longer race that I have done (13.1 and above). I do not think you would be disappointed. Sooo.if you are looking for a marathon in the fall.in the southeast (GA, for you 50-staters).skip the overcrowded RnR Savannah and get thee to Ft. A well-organized event, beautiful course, great volunteer support. Before I get into the nitty gritty I just wanted to say that this race deserves all of the kudos that it gets.