CTS 1,085: The half-marathon course, well most of it anyway

Sort of mid-morning I embarked with the gf along the ING Georgia Half Marathon course.

I had in my mind to do the nine-mile route that I've done in the past (and once with her) but after running the entire length of it on Dec. 3, I decided there were definitely parts of it that I liked and parts that I didn't.

So when we arrived downtown, we continued on Marietta along the start of the race course and turned on Piedmont near the Georgia State campus.

At Highland-Baker, we turned and ran along the newly-refurbished first mile of the PATH Foundation's Atlanta to Stone Mountain route. We followed this over Freedom Parkway but then continued on to Auburn Ave., just like in the ING course.

The ING course is special. It passes by so many great things in the city -- the King Center (with the tombs of Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King), the historic shotgun houses and King's birthplace.

Then we turned and ran along Edgewood, cutting down Euclid and up into the hip Little Five Points neighborhood.

I cut down a road behind Moreland Ave. to preserve the spine of the hill and then we just returned along North Highland Ave., eliminating a few miles of unnecessary hills from the race course.

Still it was 10.72 miles and felt like a really decent and picturesque run.

Time: 10 a.m.
Temp: 35 degrees
Gear: windbreaker (quickly went around the waist during the run), CFLST (Atlanta Half '09), SST (Carolina-gray), shorts, Nike Air Pegasus/D5.