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Nov 9, 2024

Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon Runner Comments

Back to Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon Information & Reviews

Course 4.6

Organization 4.4

Spectators 3.5

Number of comments: 205 [displaying comments 11 to 21]

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T. K. from Cincinnati, OH (11/14/2016) "A Runner's Inward Experience" (about: 2016) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 Top 10 Reasons for Running Chickamauga 10) This is a medium-sized marathon in a peaceful serene setting offering the runner an inward, reflective type of experience 9) You run the same loop twice which means you will be completely familiar with the course for its second half 8) Running the loop twice also means you will know where the mile markers are for those crucial last few miles of the race - somehow that seems to make it psychologically easier to reach them 7) Fall colors 6) Beautiful serene forests and fields 5) The history 4) Not a lot of spectators but the cheers of those that were there could be heard across the battle field much like the shouts of soldiers would have been heard 150 years ago 3) Herd of deer running next to us at mile 10 2) The finisher's medal 1) The boom of the Civil War cannon to start the race
p. e. from valatie , ny (2/8/2016) "Super rural marathon" (about: 2015) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 This is a race with spectacular setting or a race that keeps you honest. With a 700+ gain in elevation it constantly moves you up and down rolling hills. Nothing of great magnitude like Antietam battle field marathon but still lets your legs know its not flat. Well organized, great weather in 2016 and the course made for a memorable race. Nice medal and tech shirt.
B. W. from South Lyon, Michigan (12/15/2015) "Excellent midsize marathon with a touch of history" (about: 2015) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 Marathon morning dawned cold (temps not far above freezing). Large half marathon field and much smaller marathon field. Course was through Chickamauga Battlefield. Marathon did two loops while half did one loop. Footing was a bit rough getting from start area to roads in park. There were three places where the loops for the marathon and the half were different. They were well marked but you need to be alert. Marathon sometimes aligns with prime foliage, but not this year. Spectators were few. Volunteers were many. Tech shirt was a bit bland. Medals and post race food were well done. Plenty of parking near start and finish. Needed to go to Chattanooga for hotels - about 10 to 20 miles away. Overall Chattanooga Track Club did nice job organizing this marathon.
P. H. from Durham, NC (11/20/2015) "A beautiful, historic race site" (about: 2015) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 2 This is a beautiful, well-organized race. I urge runners to visit the museum first so you get a sense of the history you are running through. I found the whole experience very moving. The double-loop lets you see the many monuments as well as the occasional deer crossing the roads. They start the race with a canon. Imagine hearing hundreds of them and having them pointed your way! The medal changes every year and is based on the design of a state's memorial at the battlefield. One of my favorite marathons - great volunteers, and good, plentiful food at the end. Parking at the beginning is easy and well worth the $5 at the Catholic Church parking area (there is also a warm bathroom in the church entryway!). I would definitely consider running this race again.
R. A. from Howard Lake, MN (11/16/2015) "Really nice little race" (about: 2015) 50+ previous marathons \| 1 Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 5 This was my third marathon in three weekends and definitely my favorite of the three. I'm not usually a fan of double loop courses, but this one felt different. I really liked the fact that we didn't have to pass through the start/finish line to start the 2nd loop. I was a little concerned when I found out the course wouldn't be closed to traffic, but it wasn't an issue. I think I had a total of 4 or 5 cars go by on one small section of the road. The course itself was interesting and just challenging enough. There was one hill I had to walk both times around, but I was able to run all the other hills (on the first pass anyway). The course was well marked with people posted at any corner that could be confusing. Good support with water, poweraid and gels at some stations. There weren't large crowds, but that's not a problem for me. The chicken tortilla soup at the finish was awesome. I have a hard time eating solid foods at the end of a race (bagels, pizza) so I love soup or beans. Plus, there were oranges at the finish. Yay! Unfortunately, there was no chocolate milk. The weather was perfect. Low humidity, cool and sunny.
K. R. from Atlanta, GA (11/11/2014) "Beautiful rural marathon!" (about: 2014) 6-10 previous marathons \| 1 Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 It's Small Really small. According to the race results posted online, 420 people finished the marathon. There's a half marathon that is run concurrently, and about 800 people finished that. There is also a 5K, that starts a half hour later than the marathon, and a junior marathon for children that starts 4-1/2 hours after the marathon start. It's Friendly The Chattanooga Track Club put on a professional, well managed race for sure, but it still felt very homey and personable. It's Beautiful Yes, the weather can be cold this time of year, but the foliage is all autumnal and the scenery is wonderful and rural. It's Reasonable I registered early, for $70. That's a pretty cheap marathon. When I started to consider races as my stab at a BQ, I really didn't want to spend too much or travel too far. I had read that traffic on the road leading into the Battlefield really backs up on marathon morning, but we were too early for any of that. The field was covered in frost and it was cold out there when we grabbed a quick port-a-potty break. I hadn't thought to bring a flashlight, but it would have been handy. The sun wouldn't be up for another 45 minutes to an hour. The colors were presented, and the National Anthem was (beautifully) sung. The race was started by a replica Civil War cannon... the shock wave literally rattled me. The course starts by running a little loop around the start/finish staging area, then makes its way towards the Battlefield Park. Lots of spectators were through this entire section. After a mile and a half, the course changes from road to a (poorly) paved trail. On this portion, the footing isn't great - there are a lot of potholes and portions of the trail have been damaged by tree roots from below. It certainly isn't like a technical trail, but it's just enough to demand your concentration. And honestly it didn't bother me on the way out. That portion lasted for perhaps a mile, maybe less, and then we popped back onto the road and onto the meat of the course: the two big loops around the Battlefield. I went back and forth about how I thought I would feel about doing a double loop course, but I was happy with this. Doing two loops really helped me focus on staying relaxed and positive for the first half. Once I got through the first half, I felt confident and ready to tackle the second half, because I had already seen it! The first loop was sort of a blur: there were water stops very regularly every two miles or so. Each one was run a little differently and some were more organized than others. The stops weren't very crowded, but it was very helpful just to look someone right in the eye, even point at the cup that they were holding and say 'water?'. Only one stop was organized so that Powerade was on one side and water was on the other. The volunteers from that stop had made signs to say that, and the volunteers were yelling out: 'Powerade on the left, water on the right!'. That was super helpful. Crowd support was very light, but there were patches of lots of spectators at maybe three or four spots on the course. The highlight, though, was two women dressed in elaborate southern belle costumes, cheering their hearts out at around mile 5-1/2 and 17. God bless those women. They deserve a special award. I thought that the management of the marathon/half marathon would be pretty straight forward: the races started together, and I assumed that the half marathoners would be running exactly half of the marathon's course. Somewhere after mile 8, though, the half marathoners run down a road, do an out-and-back and then re-join the marathon course. It's not a problem, really, as long as you don't get caught up in trying to keep pace with people around you; the half marathoners that we joined up with were running a little faster than we were, because they were farther along in their race. It evens out after mile 9, when the marathoners go down a little out and back as the half marathoners continue on. All this means that the mile markers aren't the same for the marathoners and half marathoners. Add that to the fact that the marathon course is a double loop, and there were a lot of mile-markers on the course. It didn't bother me, though; it was just something to pay attention to as the miles clicked by. I'm terrible at accounting for scale of elevation profiles, so this race honestly intimidated me. It looked very hilly. According to the stats on my Garmin, however, I gained 514 feet over the entire race. My normal 6 mile easy route has about 300 feet of elevation gain, so this felt very rolling and manageable to me as an Atlanta area runner. The marathon route crosses over a timing mat at the half marathon point and the half marathoners are just past their 11 mile mark. They head for home, and the marathon course starts its second loop. When the second loop is finished, it is back again on the poorly paved trail. I'm pretty sure that we just re-traced the same steps, going the opposite direction as the first part of the course, but it seemed never-ending this second time. You know, sort of like you were at mile 24-1/2 of a marathon. I wasn't saying much at this point, but I know i said 'At LAST!' when I saw a normal street ahead. Then it was through those streets with lots of turns. Each turn had a friendly volunteer yelling directions 'This way, to the right!' and encouragement. 'Looking strong! All the way!' as well as the helpful '400 meters to the finish!', which is really nice when you can't see the finish line. All of the sudden, we were back on the road that we had looped in the first mile of the race, moving along a wonderful downhill towards the finish. There are people milling around in the giant field off to the side of the start/finish area and I could hear the announcer over the loudspeaker. They even announced my name as I came close the finish line. (I may have filled out something on the registration page that said it was okay to do that.) I crossed the finish line, had a medal put around my neck and was handed a sport bottle (with the lid already popped open) filled with ice cold water. I always have a ton of trouble opening lids on containers and bottles right after finishing a marathon, so that gesture was so wonderful. After walking a bit, I walked over to my car and put on my warm clothes. There was no need for my to check a bag, because my car was so close. Then I took advantage of the food tent, but was having trouble processing all the options. I just needed some food, so I grabbed THINGS: a slice of pizza, soup, a cup of pudding and a moon pie or two. The soup was the best choice. It was easy to get down, it was hot, and it hit the spot. The pudding was easier to stomach than the pizza (which I gave up on after a bite), but was so much like Gu that I wasn't excited about eating it. Had I known that I wouldn't be able to go back into the food tent again (oops), I would have taken two soups and maybe looked around for some pretzels or something. There was a band playing, the sun was shining, our children were there along with my mother in law and some friends. We were able to sit ( I even laid down) on the grass and just enjoyed the time. It would have been good to have stashed a blanket in the car along with my warm clothes so that we could have spread that on the ground for everyone to sit on. Just before noon, we lined the children up for the mile race and they were set off with a booming start as well. As each child finished, they were given a miniature version of the adult's finisher's medal and a water bottle. We walked over to the food tent so that the kid's could pick out a little snack, but there was a kerfuffle happening between a parent and the person in charge of checking wristbands. Apparently he was told to not let the children from the kid's race in; that the food tent was only for marathon and half-marathon finishers. That made perfect sense to me, so we just moved on; after all, if 150 children come in and even just take one piece of pizza, there wouldn't be much left for the marathon finishers who were still out on the course. The best parts: beautiful scenery, family friendly, budget-friendly, low-key and easy logistics. A good race to run with a buddy or a group if you don't want to be lonely on the course. The no-so-great: a little solitary, that bumpy paved trail. None of these things would be deal-breakers for me. I hope to be able to come back again and again. The race was fantastic for me personally. I PR'ed and BQ'ed.
D. R. from Cincinnati, OH (11/10/2014) "Run this marathon!" (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 4 I just ran this marathon and everything was awesome. Pros: 1) Convenient packet pickup at church (or before race start). 2) Convenient parking before race (right next to start/finish). 3) Nice shirt. 4) Nice medal. 5) Canon start! 6) Beautiful course. 7) Bus for spectators to take them to different locations during the race. 8) Soup and pizza at the finish. 9) Lots of aid stations with friendly volunteers. I loved this marathon - one of my favorites and I have done 48 marathons so lots to compare with.
M. M. from Alabama , USA (11/9/2014) "Beautiful course, but advertised poorly" (about: 2014) 4-5 previous marathons \| 1 Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 3 FANS: 2 I chose this race because of the comments that this was family friendly. It was my fourth marathon. I brought my two year old and my mom along for the run. They tried to ride the bus around the course to see me. Unfortunately, the bus driver was not helpful. They had to get off the bus and drive the course. The race advertised a food area and a kids zone with jumpies after the race. I planned for us to spend the afternoon together. There was no kids zone. I asked the race director herself about it and she said she never saw one so there probably wasn't one. My son was extremely disappointed. The food vendors was really one vendor in a truck with hot dogs and soft drinks. The volunteers for this race were not very helpful. Again not what advertised. Most importantly, I think the course was not measured right. My gps said 26.91 miles. Usually it is alittle over, buy never that much. Also, there were no gloves this year as they had in the past. So, bring your own just in case. All in all this was a beautiful course that had a number of interesting monuments on it. If you want to run this marathon do not bring small children because it is not kid friendly.
J. E. from Kentucky (11/8/2014) "Excellent smaller marathon" (about: 2014) 11-50 previous marathons COURSE: 4 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 Loved the swag and post-race food. 1st time marathoners got a framed certificate. There were plenty of port a johns at the start and there was also a race day packet pick-up in a heated tent. A cannon was the start of the race, perfect for the battlefield. I liked the course, really pretty. Very chilly the morning of so dress in layers. The two loop course through the battlefield was not the easiest; there were hills and it was a little confusing at times but the volunteers were great at directing. It was also a little annoying that cars/horse trailers would occasionally drive through the runners. Very well organized smaller race. The race provided shuttles to and from some hotels but the downside was that you would get back after late checkout. Driving to the race was easy though, parked in Save-a-lot's parking lot a block from start.
Ed Robins from Philadelphia, Pa (11/14/2013) "Near perfect race" (about: 2013) 11-50 previous marathons \| 1 Chickamauga Battlefield Marathon COURSE: 5 ORGANIZATION: 5 FANS: 3 What a great race! If you like smaller, well run smaller races that really capture a local feel then this race is for you! Small to mid-sized race (400 full; 800 half) that is run thru the Chickamauga Battlefield. It is organized by the Chattanooga Track Club. My experience is that races run by local running clubs really get it! Expo is a modest set up a local church where the pasta dinner is also held. I got in and out quickly. Runners could buy some gel or a few modest supplies but don't expect any serious shopping opportunities. Besides the long sleeve tech shirt runners could chose between a tech hat or running gloves both w/ the race logo (I chose the hat). I stayed in Chattanooga which was only 15 or so minutes away. My only real complaint is the traffic getting to the start line race morning. I arrived 85 minutes early and it still took almost 25 minutes to go the final 4 blocks. Once I was parked the logistics were easy. We were close enough to the start that most runners just kept warm in their cars. There was a gear check but I just left stuff in my car a few minutes before the gun. There were plenty of port a johns the start and there was also a race day packet pick-up in a heated tent. The starting gun was actually a cannon befitting the setting. I really liked the course. It is a two loop course thru the battlefield. It is very pretty and most of the time there are no cars at all. There are many small hills but I feel they are the kind that actually help because they work differant muscles not the steep long kind that kick your butt. I ran my fastest time in almost 3 years. There were plenty of water stops and all had a sports drink. I didn't see any gel but I did see fruit and candy. Each stop was set up differantly and that is a pet peeve of mine. Sometimes water was on one side of the road and sports drink the other. Sometimes both were together. Sometimes water was in a plain cup other times in a cup marked poweraid. Late in a race when fatigue is setting in I feel consistancy really helps. This complaint is not as big of a deal in a smaller race like this but I still feel it helps. There are not many fans on the course but the race shuttles fans out to a few stops along the way so runners get the occasional pocket of support which was fun. The post race is nice. Plenty of traditional post race food plus banna pudding. Never seen that before and I enjoyed it! The MC was great and they had a local band playing music. The race has a great perk for first time marathoners or half marathoners. These runners get a framed certificate acknowledging their accomplishment. I saw lots of first timers proudly getting their picture taken with their awards. Nice touch! The medal is nice but nothing special. It does change every year honoring differant armies that fought in this battle which was the second bloodiest of the Civil War.

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